Adoyi M. Aba
As the abduction of the female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, today enters the 40th day, fresh facts have emerged that certain information put at the public domain by both the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the Nigeria Police Force were at variance with what really transpired between the agencies and the Borno state government during the conduct of the May/June 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
According to some correspondences at the disposal of our reporter, the trios of police, WAEC as well as the state government never anticipated the need for a special security arrangement for Chibok where the over 200 students were abducted.
Nevertheless, it was gathered from the communication of the two agencies with the state government that the latter provided some logistic support for WAEC upon request.
Both the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Lawal Tanko, and the Nigerian Head of WAEC, Mr Charles Eguridu, at an open meeting convened by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, on May 2, 2014, with some women stakeholders in attendance, made some submissions indicting the state government. The meeting was covered by both the NTA and Channels Television while the newspapers widely reported it.
In his submission, for instance, Eguridu told the meeting the governor was advised by the Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, to, among others, move the girls from the school but that the state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, guaranteed their safety. Also Tanko openly declared on air that the state command of the police was only asked to provide security for the school in the day time whereas the incident took place at night.
However, according to a letter written by the WAEC, with reference number MD/ZO/OA/10/203, dated March 19, 2014, and signed by F.M. Gaiya, Zonal Coordinator of the examination body, WAEC did not single out Chibok as unsafe while the body actually made preparations alongside the state government to conduct examinations in all centers.
It was, however, true that WAEC raised issues of security which it did by requesting the state government to provide security in all the centres without any emphasis on Chibok as Eguridu, other federal officials and politicians, including the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, claimed.
The correspondence also showed that Governor Shettima was in the United States of America alongside some northern governors for a summit on security, hence the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha, was presiding over affairs of the state as at the time the WAEC wrote to the state government.
In the letter, titled: “Urgent Intervention Towards the Conduct of the May/June 2014 WASSCE in Borno State”, the zonal coordinator, whose letter was clearly directed to the deputy governor, said, “Your Excellency (Deputy Governor), following my visit to your office with the Honourable Commissioner for Education in the presence of the Director, ERC on ways of conducting a hitch-free 2014 WASSCE in the State, I wish to passionately make the following request for the duration of the examination (copy of time-table attached); provision of three (3) pick-up vehicles to convey security (sensitive exam) materials on three routes from Maiduguri-Biu (daily); Maiduguri-Auno (daily) and Maiduguri to Askira-Lassa-Chibok (twice weekly); armed escorts for each route; adequate security for the examination centres in Maiduguri, Biu, Askira, Lassa and Chibok.
“In addition, I am pleading for the provision of two houses for the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator and his assistant who have been hobbling from hotel to hotel as a result of the prevailing security situation in the state. Thanking you for your anticipated approval.”
Similarly, the examination body also wrote the state government asking for logistic support, with the state government granting over 95 percent of WAEC’s request.
In a letter by WAEC with reference number MD/ZO/OA/10/204, dated May 10, 2014, titled “May/June 2014 WASSCE Logistics for Conduct of Examinations” and signed by Gaiya, the body asked the state to release N1.668 million out of which the government released N1,500,000 which the zonal coordinator received.
Also in another correspondence, dated March 20, 2014, with reference number
SEC/282/GH/T.I/109, signed by M.M Gana, the Chief Admin Officer, Special Services (Security) at the Government House in Maiduguri, it was revealed that the state government promptly wrote to the state police commissioner, requesting for security to be provided to all examination centres in Borno, including Chibok, throughout the duration of the May/June 2014 WASSCE examinations.
This ran contrary to the police’s claim at the meeting that they were only requested to provide at GSS, Chibok during the day time. The police’s position was played up by the First Lady who instantly absolved the police of any blame, saying that the police carried out the job as demanded of it by the Borno government.
Gana’s letter to the CP on behalf of the deputy governor was titled: “Urgent Intervention Towards the Conduct of the May/June 2014 WASSCE in Borno State” and read: “Report reaching this office from the office of the zonal coordinator of WASSCE with reference No: MD/ZO/OA/10/203 dated March 19, 2014, on the above subject matter requesting the intervention of the state government for the smooth conduct of the 2014 WASSCE in the state (photocopy attached). It could be recalled that last year’s WASSCE in the state suffered a setback due to the activities of Boko Haram insurgency.
“In some centres, students missed examinations, some wrote the examinations in haste and fear while others were unable to even sit for some of the examinations. In the light of the above, I am directed to make the following requests for the duration of the examinations.
“Attached is a copy of the examination time-table for guidance:
“Provision of three police pick-up vehicles to convey security men on three routes from Maiduguri-Biu (daily); Maiduguri-Auno (daily) and Maiduguri to Askira-Lassa-Chibok (twice weekly), provision of armed escorts for each route.
“Adequate security for the examination centres in Maiduguri, Biu, Askira, Lassa, Chibok and Auno. I am further directed to add that government would arrange three official vehicles for the conveyance of the security/examination materials one to each of the routes while police would contribute three police patrol vehicles and escort to each route. Thank you for the usual cooperation”.
In a similar letter sent from the office of the education minister, which the supervising minister claimed he used in warning the Borno state government against conducting the WASSCE in Chibok, the letter focused entirely on Unity Schools, as he requested the state government to move final year students from all federal colleges in the state and collapse them in Maiduguri for the final year examination. This, it is believed, is because of their limited number compared to the state-controlled schools.
By the letter, the minister, it was further gathered, only keyed into the model adopted by the state government, which collapsed students in fewer examination centres as against over 100 located in over 80 public secondary schools and private schools across the state.
“Since the minister has no controlling or advisory power over schools owned by Borno state government, he couldn’t have directed it not to conduct examinations in Chibok,” a source added.
