The West African Examination Council has honoured an 18-year-old Nigerian, Chinasa Isabella Nweze, who emerged as the West Africa overall best candidate in the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) with distinctions in eight subjects.
She won the first prize in the International Excellence Award Winners for the WASSCE for School candidates, 2022 category and National Distinction/Merit Award Winners for 2022 WASSCE category, while another Nigerian, Godswill Izuchukwu Edeani, emerged 3rd best candidate in West Africa.
The second prize was clinched by Brako Kwame Asante from Ghana.
President Muhammadu Buhari who was excited by the excellent performance of the two candidates from Nigeria, coming top in West Africa in 2022 WASSCE, presented the awards to them during the opening ceremony of the WAEC 70th Annual Council meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.
Buhari who was represented by the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, insisted that the war on examination malpractices must not only be stepped up, it must also be won.
He congratulated WAEC for its principled stand against examination malpractice, saying this agrees totally with the government’s anti-corruption policy.
“Examination cheats will end up as charlatans in whatever field or profession they find themselves. In hospitals, they will be butchers instead of surgeons and in academia, they will plagiarise and bully their students into accepting whatever they offer, thus stifling enquiry and initiative by inquisitive students.
“As builders, they will build bridges that will cave in before the project is commissioned and storey buildings which will collapse on their occupants. Let me, therefore, charge you to spare no effort in your fight against examination malpractice.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria has played its part by enacting a law, the draft to which you contributed as a major stakeholder, on examination malpractice. The examination malpractices decree no. 33 of May 1999 (now Examinations Malpractice Act of 1999) spells out the offences and penalties.
“The war on examination cheats must be not only be stepped up, it must also be won. I expect you to be courageous, to take hurtful decisions when necessary and remain impartial in your judgments and be more prompt in your delivery,” the President said.
Buhari while charging WAEC to embrace technology in the conduct of its examination, particularly urged the Council to look at the possibility of migrating from offline to online mode of examination.
He said: “WAEC deserves commendation, for being the only sub-regional organization established in the Colonial era in Anglophone West Africa, which has not only survived the pull of centrifugal forces of the post-independence era, as a result of often-times misguided nationalism but which has continued to wax stronger.
“I am happy to note, Mr Chairman, that WAEC was able to conduct the 2020 West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE), in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and mark and release the results. I must, therefore, congratulate WAEC on the giant strides it has made over the past 70 years of unwavering selfless service to the Nigerian, nay West African Child.
“Since inception, WAEC has not only become a household name but has come a long way and has become much stronger and a giant of no mean status.
“I congratulate WAEC for its resilience and for its meritorious service to the people of the West African Sub-Region, in spite of all the challenges in the education sector.
“Indeed, to its credit, more than 90 per cent of educated adults in the English – Speaking West African countries are products of WAEC one way or the other,” he said.
He assured the Council of the total support of the Nigerian Government and assistance always because WAEC examinations and certificates count in all spheres of human endeavour.
Minister of State for Education, Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, in his opening address expressed the commitment of the Federal Government to make education the bedrock of development in Nigeria.
Registrar to the Council, Mr Pateh Bah who joined the programme, thanked the Nigerian Government for remaining supportive to the Council and fulfilling its financial obligations promptly.
