West African Examinations Council has said that shifting
the date of the Mathematics examination in the September
10 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for the
governorship election, which is scheduled to hold on the
same day, could lead to leakages.
The council added that a relocation of the candidates, who
would be sitting for the examination, to neighbouring states
would also result in logistic challenges.
The Public Relations Officer, WAEC, Mr. Demianus Ojijeogu,
said this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on
Thursday.
Ojijeogu, who was in Benin, Edo State for a stakeholders’
meeting on a possible resolution of the development,
however, said that shifting the date of the examination
would lead to a leakage as candidates in four other African
countries were expected to sit for the examination.
He said, “Mathematics is a core subject and we cannot shift
the date of the examination. Candidates in Gambia, Ghana,
Sierra Leone and Liberia will also write the same
examination. If we shift the date in Nigeria, you and I know
that there will be a leakage.
“Other stakeholders at the meeting also suggested that we
should relocate the candidates to neighbouring states but,
again, that will be problematic. We did not quite agree with
them. Many of these candidates still live with their parents.
There will be challenges in the areas of accommodation and
feeding, if we decide to relocate the candidates.
“But we are looking to resolve the matter. There is still room
for discussion and we are looking at a situation where all the
stakeholders will shift ground. The local consultative
committee has already met and the national committee will
meet on Tuesday,” he said.
Present at the Benin meeting were the Deputy Inspector
General of Police, Operations, Habila Joshak; Assistant
Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Adeyinka
Shodipo; Head, Text Development Division, WAEC, Mr.
Kafaru Ola; and the Edo State Resident Electoral
Commissioner, among others.