₦airaland Forum

MsTom:
Jamb was supposed to be abolished a long time ago. It is not a true test of knowledge rather, it is a waste of time

Feraz:
Exactly! They are going to be much. Do u think this idea of combining the exams together make sense?

MsTom:
If people fail that much over a very long period of time, then, the JAMB itself should be questioned. Personally, I feel Jamb is not a true test of knowledge. People who read hard for it fail or pass by a little over 200 and those who pass even to over 300 have been proved to know nothing when they get to universities. Have you ever wondered how someone who passed WAEC with good grades fail JAMB and yet, they pass SAT, TOEFL, A-LEVELS (ok, that was going overboard) ? My sugestion is scrap JAMB. OR, let it be proctered and handled by prometrics for example. OR better yet, let the universities set a form of entrance exams for the students. Some universities( not sure of now) do not even trust the Jamb results themselves.

deco2come:
@poster
I'm tired of hearing those statements. If your own generation are all law abiding citizens, why does the country still in a ruin. Or is it also manage by kids?

Dis Guy:
_{I personally thought they failed so many people in the last exams so they have less numbers to deal with}

THE Registrar/Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde, has said the 2010 admission into tertiary institutions will be worst in the history of the country, as he revealed that the board currently had over 6.4 million candidates out of which only 500,000 would be offered admission.

Speaking in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Sunday, Professor Ojerinde said the high rate of admission into the universities was now survival of the fittest, adding that the development had led to examination malpractices.

He said quality education was not obtainable in universities alone, adding the polytechnics or colleges of education also had good education.

Meanwhile, the JAMB boss has urged coordinators of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to defend the image and integrity of the board by ensuring that they conducted credible examinations devoid of malpractices.

Professor Ojerinde made the call in Gombe, at the weekend, during the UTME coordinators meeting for the northern states, held at the multipurpose hall of the Gombe State University.

He said the meeting was an opportunity for the board to train the coordinators who would, in turn, train supervisors and invigilators on the guidelines for the smooth conduct of the examination, while warning that supervisors who failed to attend the briefing session would not be allowed to participate in the conduct of the examination.

Professor Ojerinde enumerated the achievements of the board to include the quick processing of results with the release of the 2009 Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) 10 days after its conduct and the Monotechnics, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (MPCE) examination five days after it was written.

He said the UME and MPCE had been combined to form UTME, adding that all candidates who wished to be admitted to universities, monotechnics/polytechnics and colleges of education would write the same matriculation examination.

willis2k9:
many student are nt ready 2 read,they believe in fake ruins.i posted UTME seminar some weeks ago they were asking rubish cos they've paid 4 fake ruins

Beaf:
So you actually think Shell hosts its domain names with jokers like http://joker.com/ ? . . .I am baffled! I even posted the registrant details earlier, you just ain't smart! Some fool has simply dreamt up a new way to trivialise the thousands of lives lost to shell in the Niger Delta and has you folk hooked.

Kobojunkie:
BULLCRAP!!!

If his specialization is spewing POLITICALLY divisive prophesies, then he ought to be willing to be told to put up or shut up. If you consult the Bible, you would learn that the prophets who got themselves predicting POLITICAL events ALSO stood up for their nation in one way or another. You have examples in Moses, Jeremiah, Nehemiah etc Moses not only prophesied, he LEAD HIS PEOPLE to the promised land( or many all the way to the door) from the oppressors. Nehemiah took charge of rebuilding his nation. Ezra in much the same. What is your Prophet Joshua doing?

Tell your prophet to look those up. And Also, tell him to stop making silly prophecies and claiming God did it. Any sane Nigerian can easily tell the same and claim it a prophecy.

What do you advise Dr Goodluck Jonathan to consider in appointing members of his new cabinet?

He needs God to do what you are talking about. It takes God to do what you are talking about. So, what he is going to do, he needs God. I don’t see what you are talking about being done without God.

Ok, let me put it this way, what is not well done is not done at all before God. Do you understand what I am saying now? It is a parable. Jonathan will face peoples’ challenges. I see people challenging him. He is getting close to where he will be challenged. Let me repeat it. He is walking towards the direction where he will be challenged. He is getting close to where they will ask him questions like ‘by what authority are you doing this?’

What is the nature of this challenge that you are talking about?
I saw two football teams playing and a referee is holding the whistle but he refused to blow the whistle and this attitude will create some difficult challenges, but let us keep our fingers crossed between now and August. If you keep your fingers crossed, do you have to do anything? No, you only watch as things unfold.

2011: Senate approves independent candidacy •Frees INEC from president •Empowers electoral body to make own rules



Written by Taiwo Adisa and Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja

THE Senate, on Wednesday, approved the participation of  independent candidates  in the 2011 elections. Senators approved the amendment to Section 65 of the Constitution to pave the way for the emergence of independent candidates in subsequent elections in Nigeria.
During the clause by clause consideration of the electoral reform bill on Wednesday, the senators, for the first time in 11 years, demonstrated the use of electronic voting to ensure a faster passage of bills.

The Senate President, Mr. David Mark, who presided over the sitting, said that the electronic voting pattern was adopted to hasten the process of passage of the bill.

On Wednesday, 96 senators were on the floor, with 85 voting for the approval of Section 65 to pave the way for independent candidates.

Eight senators voted against the amendment while two abstained.

The approved amendment to Section 65 reads: Section 65(2): “A person shall be qualified for election under subsection 1 of this section if:

(A) he has been educated up to tertiary institution level of its equivalent

(B)  and he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party or he is an independent candidate.”

The bill also provides that  a person standing for election as an independent candidate shall be qualified for election having been nominated by no fewer than 10 registered voters in each of at least two thirds of the wards in the senatorial district in the case of a senator.

After approving the clauses of the bill, the senators then discovered that section 109 of the constitution equally proposed for amendment as part of the bill was missing and that there were clerical errors in  section 107.

The omitted part is section 109 of the 1999 Constitution, which is the state equivalent of section 68 of the 1999 Constitution. Section 68 (g) is the part that prohibits federal legislators from dumping the political party on whose ticket they were elected unless there is a division in that party.

Ninety-seven  senators  amended 36 clauses in the 1999 Constitution which saw wide-ranging alterations, including freeing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the control of the president of the federation.

However, in amending section 160 of the constitution, the Senate has empowered INEC that it has the “powers to make its own rules or otherwise regulate its own procedure (which) shall not be subject to the approval or control of the president.”

Furthermore, the composition of judges for Election Petition Tribunals has been reduced from five to three, made up of a chairman and two  members.

Quorum is now set at two judges, as amended in section 285 (4). The new membership was reduced because “it would help in creating more tribunals for the quick determination of election petition.”

Section 285 (5) (a) (b) (c) was also amended to allow an Election Petition Tribunal dispense with any case and “deliver its judgment in writing within 180 days from the date of the filing of the petition.”

The Senate also  removed the appointment of state Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from the president.

ayodele123:
The educational system is in shambles.
What do we expect of a system whereby students spend the greater part of the day and night in cybercafes surfing the net?
what do we expect of a system where by admission to the university is on sale irrespective of level of pass in Waec/Jamb?
what do we expect of a system that allows teachers to go on strike while the authorities look the other way?
what do you expect of a system where by invigilators are part of a syndicate that smuggles in answers to exam questions during Jamb examinations?
what do we expect of a system that allows a parent to challenge a teacher for disciplining a child in school?
what do we expect of a system that allows graduates to roam the streets in search of elusive jobs?
There are many more questions without answers.
Now, the 2% that passed should be analysed to know the schools they came from, whether government or private?
i wonder how the candidates of the high flying private schools failed despite the high school fees paid by parents.

FORMER ministers, who are angling to return to the federal cabinet, are set to face fresh hurdles in the Senate, as some of them may be rejected on the basis of their failure to work for the activation of Section 144 of the constitution to pave the way for the wholesale investigation of the true state of health of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Sources in the National Assembly told the Nigerian Tribune that senators who met under the aegis of the National Interest Group (NIG) with members of the House of Representatives under the aegis of Nigeria First (NF) have resolved to collaborate on the need to drop any ministerial nominee who is seen to have worked against the interests of the people in recent times.

Sources said that the NIG had remained intact since it successfully won the battle for the inauguration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as acting president on February 9, 2010.

It was gathered that the groups at their meeting on Wednesday last week resolved to continue to give support to the emerging administration of Dr. Jonathan and to play a key role in ensuring “a credible cabinet” this time.

Although it was learnt that the group decided to leave the acting president to come up with the best names of those he believed could do good jobs in the emerging administration, the lawmakers were said to have resolved to ensure that any of the nominees with negative perception among the people would not be cleared.

A source told the Nigerian Tribune that the lawmakers had also been studying the proposal of some loyalists of ailing President  Yar’Adua on the demand for seven key ministerial seats. Some NIG members said on Sunday that the proposal would be resisted by the group on the floor of the Senate.

It was also learnt that the group would insist on questioning all ministerial nominees on their roles in the political logjam that nearly consumed the nation’s democracy.

“We will insist that they answer questions on issues bordering on Section 144 and what their roles were in the heat of the argument. Of course, our members will not support any nominee who fails to convince us that he played a statesmanly role in the avoided logjam,” a source in the NIG said.

But it was equally learnt that  some of the ministerial hopefuls who have got hints of their likely return to the cabinet had been making overtures to the leadership of the Senate to prevail on the senators to shelve damaging questions during the screening.

It was also gathered that the Presidency was interested in ensuring a safe ride for its nominees as sources  said that the office of the acting president immediately set machinery in motion to pacify the aggrieved senators upon hearing of their plan to stop the clearance of some nominees.

A source said that the office of the acting president had actually sent words to the lawmakers to help ensure a smooth passage for the ministerial nominees and not to complicate issues during the screening exercise.

It was gathered that the acting president’s men pleaded that the senators should refrain from asking questions that could heat up the polity during the screening.

The President of the Senate, Mr David Mark, will get the list of the  first batch of the ministerial nominees this (Monday) evening, sources told the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday.

Sources said that the Senate president, who is due to attend a PDP programme in Zamfara State, will get the document after returning to Abuja.

Apart from the ministerial list, sources said that Jonathan would continue to structure the new administration with further changes this week.

It was, however, gathered that the acting president was still keeping the nature of the expected changes close to his chest .

Movement was totally restricted as motorist and pedestrians were prevented from moving. Residents and motorist between Uselu and the University of Benin axis where at a standstill as the dare devil militants took over major junction from Uwasota, Federal Girls college road and Adolo junction. The militants armed with various dangerous weapons like Rods, Planks, and Bottles. One of the militant took time to enlighten the frustrated onlookers that the protest was not against them but the federal government whom they accused of reneging on the Amnesty deal . He boasted that he and his colleagues are not paid after they have dropped their weapon to embrace the Amnesty of the Yar’Adua lead governments deal that put a stop to the restive region late last year. He lambasted the government whom he accused of abandoning them after they gave up violence to embrace peace. Promises that they are battle ready to go back to the creeks if the government don’t attend to their legitimate claim immediately.

Heavily armed Anti-Riot Policemen in squadrons took defensive positions to curb any escalation as the militants refused all entreaties to go back to their temporary camp on Federal road. The Police lead by an assistant Commissioner of Police called for reinforcement but watch helplessly as motorist and pedestrians watched helplessly as the militants held sway. The state Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomole’s convoy was forced to come and held for more than 30minutes before he got passage and they move towards the Ex-militant’s camp along the federal Girls college road. The incident has held the ancient city of Benin hostage for over six hours with the civil authorities unable to clear the rampaging ex-militants.

By 14:35pm, the situation was still charged movement in and out of the city was impossible. The police however did the seemingly impossible by clearing the road without any violence and with only two teargas canisters fired. They surprised onlookers who know them for incompetence, corruption, and constant harassment of the civil populace with some level of decorum and professionalism. They engaged the militants in dialogues and persuasion to clear out the roads after a show of power and even presence of the State’s commissioner of police and the highly respected formal national labour president now Governor of the ancient city Comrade Adams Oshiomole failed to disperse the restive youths.

Normalcy of movement in and out of Benin is now unhindered after over six and a half-hour hold-up.





Aderemi Phillips

Writes from the Faculty of Arts, University of Benin,

Benin City

The Guardian editorial of Tuesday, March 2, 2010 stated that the proposed House of Representative bill on indigeneship may not be necessary because the issues it seeks to address are already taken care of by the Nigerian constitution. It therefore challenges us to institute policies and actions that will support the provisions of inalienable rights in the constitution. The crux of the argument of that editorial was that the Nigerian constitution does not recognise state citizenship so it is illegal. I beg to differ. Contrary to the position of that editorial, the Nigerian (1999) Constitution recognises state citizenship or indigeneship when, in defining the requirements for appointment to the office of a Minister, it specifies in Section 147(3) that "the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an INDIGENE (caps mine) of such State." And it does this without defining who an indigene of a state is or how a Nigerian becomes one. But we practise it when, as written in the Guardian editorial, "a person must prove beyond reasonable doubt that he or she is an indigene of a place by, for instance, getting a letter of identification from the traditional ruler or councillor before a local government council or state could issue a certificate of indigeneship (not citizenship)".

So, who is an indigene? The word does not exist in the dictionary but a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report of April 2005, aptly titled "They do not own this place", defines an indigene of a place as somebody "who can trace their ethnic and genealogical roots back to the community of people who originally settled there". If that is the definition, can all Nigerians be indigenes? Or to put it differently, do all Nigerians derive their citizenship through ethnic and genealogical roots?

The answer is no. The Nigerian constitution specifies three ways of obtaining Nigerian citizenship; by birth, registration and naturalisation. While the birth option derives from genealogy, registration and naturalisation citizenships are obtained through marriage and domiciliation. Since indigeneship is only obtained through genealogy, how is a naturalised citizen to become a Minister? Are we to have citizens who cannot be Ministers, people who are foreigners in their country? I think not. I think there is an implicit assumption that every Nigerian citizen must be an indigene of a Nigerian state else the Constitution will be basically denying some citizens the right of being a Minister.

Clearly, there are germane reasons for practising some level of discrimination at state level. In our current economic realities, every state government cannot afford to treat every visitor or passerby the same as long-term or permanent residents for whom available resources are barely sufficient. Apart from federal institutions, facilities and services which should be available to all, there must be some way to gear state resources to those for whom the state is responsible. And that is what indigeneship does. Although not called the same name, it is a practise that happens elsewhere because the 14th Amendment to the Unites States Constitution specifies "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." And in fact, in K.Tashiro v. Jordan (1927), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that "United States citizenship does not entitle citizen to privileges and immunities of citizen of state since privileges and immunities of one are not the same as the other".

The aspect that complicates this issue is the prevailing view of indigeneship as being the same as belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. People therefore wonder whether it is possible for courts to, for instance, order the Ogonis to accept an Ijaw man as one of their culture. I do not see any basis for these scenarios because I have never heard of any situation where people of a particular culture or ethnicity have begged or aspired to be assimilated into another. Wherever assimilation has taken place, and it does happen, it has happened naturally. The reality is that most Nigerians are loyal enough to their culture to want to export and maintain it wherever they go, rather than trade it for another. The reason this complication crops up is because traditional rulers, who are cultural figures, are often needed to initiate the certificates of indigeneship and they will usually only support issuance to people of their culture or ethnicity. If another approach is prescribed and accepted, this issue will disappear.
As stated earlier, the core issue has been the economic benefits that accrue to indigeneship and the attendant denial of those benefits to non-indigenes and the existing situation exploits this. We need to therefore address the issue of indigeneship in a manner that tackles the economic implications while maintaining our social and cultural arrangements as they currently are. And that is where Hon. Gozie's bill comes in.

In my opinion, that bill urgently needs to define indigeneship (or state citizenship) and expand its meaning to include people who are either born in a place or are resident in a place for a reasonable number of years. There already is a residency requirement for registered or naturalised citizens, in the Nigerian constitution so using it in this bill will only be extending and closing the loop. The bill can maintain the normal process for obtaining certificates of indigeneship with a slight proviso that requires or allows "settlers", in particular, to initiate their indigeneship process via Councillors or Local Government Chairmen. Where these government officials are not satisfied with the existing informal ways of proving indigeneship, they should demand some proof of residency and this proof needs to be specified in the bill. The bill should stipulate penalties for government officials, be it Chairmen or Councillors who are convicted of flouting its provisions.

Except where they have their own recognised traditional institution, the structure for settlers should be kept away from the traditional institution because that is one area where economic and political considerations conflict with cultural issues. And there is no danger of undermining the powers of traditional rulers because the traditional rulers do not have any power, in the first place to determine where Nigerian citizens should dwell. Such freedoms are already granted in the Nigerian Constitution.
One concern well-meaning people will have with this development is whether some will take advantage of the bill to claim indigeneship in more economically viable states or even local governments. I have no doubt that such practices currently exist so people who want to claim indigeneship under false pretences will be successful to the extent that they are able to forge birth certificates and proofs of residency which are acceptable by the traditional ruler or councillor. The additional suggestion I can make here is for the bill to make it criminal for any Nigerian to have indigeneship of two states or LGAs at the same time. In addition, if the honourables find it necessary, they may choose to insist that the proof of residency aspect (except in the case of a naturalised citizen) take effect in the future e.g. 5 years time. That time will allow government set up structures to verify such claims while giving people notice on how to prove such claims as well.

I believe the process I have laid out here, is workable and simple and I see no reason why it should not be implemented speedily. At the crux of this issue of indigeneship is the subconscious belief in our people, that to survive economically you have to "own" a place. This bill is needed to establish in Nigerian minds that all you need is to be a Nigerian. If some Nigerians will not be convinced to expand their understanding of the word "indigene" to include people who are born or reside in a place, we can leave the word to them and call it a "state citizenship" bill. We will still achieve the same aims.

This problem is not new. The HRW report I cited earlier, mentions that a Residency Bill was canvassed in the Senate in 2004. If it had been acted upon, we may not have witnessed the Jos carnage of recent years. We need to act now. We need to ensure that the sacrifices of Nigerian lives all over Plateau state will count for something. Let those sacrifices, through the Bill on indigeneship, bring peace and hope to all our "foreigner" citizens. In order to offer Hon Gozie Agbakoba every support he needs to see this bill through, I hereby call on newspaper houses with Internet portals and Nigerians in online forums, to discuss this issue and summarise views. These views can be combined with results of online votes, can be submitted to the House of Representatives before the end of this month.
Obomanu is a Business Analyst in the United Kingdom.

Xavier.:
Did someone say Yoruba leaders? Sorry they re too busy stealing and assassinating each other. As for the farmers, let them stay calm, otherwise the fed govt is going to unleash jobless soldiers on them.Nigeria and all its abundant resources plus armed forces is solely for d use of the Hausa/Fulani majority. The rest of the country are 2nd class citizens.

netotse:
everyone posting on this thread has made a fundamental mistake: assuming it was 'students' that constituted the majority of candidates in the said NECO exams(rem. it's the nov/dec exam we're talking about here). Anyone with a reasonable amount of exposure would know that secondary school students cant be the majority, nov/dec neco is mostly taken by external candidates i.e. ppl that didn't pass through a secondary school but still need ssce certification

heck where i served, a 30something year-old driver's qualification was NECO 2003

@jarus and ujujoan
they also dashed me an 'A' grade in literature in english in 2002 o. . .lol