That Enemy in WAEC Office

An Enemy in WAEC Office

By Akpoveta Valentine

HE held his result sheet in his tightly gripped fists. It looked like he was about to cry. His lips were quivering and his jaws were clenching and unclenching, continuously.

I felt I should offer some condolence. But what do you tell someone who has written General Certificate of Education (GCE) so many times. I think West African Examination Council (WAEC) office should begin sending him Christmas cards, Easter cards, Valentine cards… you know.

At least, something to show that they acknowledge their faithful customers.

What do you tell someone whom you think should get the next examination form as a complimentary invitation from the director of WAEC himself (and may be NECO, too) with their personal autographs attached?

Well, before my brain could work out a solution to this tricky problem, I was saved the effort. But, by Jove, the next words I heard knocked the winds out of me.

He sniffled: “This WAEC people is very wicked. They know that is English am looking for and they are now wickeding me. How many times I have write WAEC and they don’t want to pass me English.”

You should understand the sudden quandary in which I found myself when he uttered those historic words. It began as a laugh but when I considered Balthazar Grecian’s advice never to contend with a man who has nothing to lose, I converted my laugh to a coughing fit. I had already been mentally bruised by his exceptional technique at murdering the queen’s language. I did not need physical bruises as well.

But anyone would agree that it is quite obvious why that young man failed abysmally his English Language papers. How anyone can ‘look for English’ is quite beyond me. And how did the Examination Body acquire the super human ability to know what each of their registered candidates is ‘looking for’? But I have a very active imagination. Immediately, I conjured up the image of a hooded official in the WEAC head office, covered torch-light in hand, sneaking through the corridors and painstakingly searching for this young man’s English Language answer script and ‘wickedingly’ failing him. Preposterous!

But you can bet I did not tell him that.

However funny this may seem, I think it tragic as well. That boy was convinced from the bottom of his English-murdering heart that he was not to blame for his failure. He was fairly certain that he was not to be held responsible at all for his dismal performance in the examination. He was convinced that the problem was NOT him but ‘the WAEC people’. It is hard enough to help someone in deep trouble. Yet it is harder still if that person is deeply convinced that they are perfectly okay and that they have no problem.

That is the state of the minds of an alarming number of students right now. Some leading statesmen have taken it upon themselves to call it unacceptable that such a large percentage, as has been seen in recent reports, should fail their O’Level examinations.

Unfortunately, I have seen little matching fervor from the affected teens and youths who are convinced that the system is unjust and that the right thing they should concentrate on is finding a dishonest way to beat the system. But to them it is not dishonest. They are just being sharp- -doing ‘smart’ work rather than hard work.

They are much too busy pinging, ‘face booking’, seeking premature relationships that would more likely mar than make them, ‘twittering’ and generally seeking to outdo each other in the most mundane things while leaving the important things to take care of themselves.

But we should know that the important things in life do not just ‘take care of themselves’. If we want them, we have got to show that we deserve them. If we will get them, it is because we took the necessary steps to acquire them.

Life as it is does not cater to our wants and desires as a basis for us getting what we request. We must be willing to put in the Sweat Equity. But are these affected people doing that?

I have noticed something else about the affected teens and their general attitude to the rules as it applies to examination. The only rule they obey is the quiet, unspoken Eleventh Commandment- Thou Shall NOT Get Caught. If they happen to be caught while engaging in malpractice, they show remorse. The remorse is not for the fact that they did the wrong thing but for the fact that they were caught.

A lady writing the last UTME looked at me as though I had suddenly sprouted another head when I asked her if she could not depend on her brain to write an examination. She looked seriously shocked as though the thought was suicidal in itself and had never occurred to her innocent mind.

To many of her ilk, examinations are really a Cat and Mouse, Tom and Jerry game. Either you outsmart the spoilsports or you get caught.

I do not see the mass failure in the light that so many see it. The mass failure is just a symptom of a much larger festering disease in the system. The root is a more deep-lying problem. It is in the thoroughly misplaced priority of our teens and youth which is reinforced by the reality TV shows with which they are daily bombarded, which places obscene emphasis on ‘the good life’ and having unrestrained fun.

It is reinforced by the faulty respect gauge of society which gives deference to you based on the size of your purse and/or bank account, on what car you drive; on what house you live in.

It is reinforced by the glamourised Models and Mentors that serve as ambassadors and faces that endorse top products, people who are largely anything but ‘models’ in the true sense of the word.

It is reinforced by their own very parents and/or parent-figures.

I state the obvious when I ask, ‘How can a society that consistently celebrates vices complain of the lack of virtues?’                                       I auditioned for THE DEBATER’S once. The number of people I saw gathered there were comparatively few, I tell you. And from their utterances I could tell that with these young men and women the future was secure, especially for Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

And then I saw the audition for MTN Project Fame and I nearly lost hope. The crowd of wannabe’s, hangers-on, ‘toasters’, the star-stricken, mere on-lookers, the misguided and even thieves and pick-pockets drawn by that event nearly broke my heart.

I do not have anything against the entertainment world as a whole but I begin to wonder, if we truly wish to compete favourably in the Global Competitive Index as a people or rank high amongst the comity of nations as a country, then whence the unhealthy addiction of our youth to entertainment. Do we, as Nero, play the fiddle when our Rome burns?

The mass failure is only a symptom indicative of some hidden cause. That Nigerian youths have excelled in other fields is proof enough that we are resourceful and exceptionally gifted. That underlying cause is the unhealthy paradigms that place undue spotlight on less-than-honourable activities just as long as it brings in loads of cash.

If we can consistently celebrate nation-builders, reward academic pursuits; if our national awards go to people who have considerably contributed to the industrial growth of our nation; if companies and products made their brand ambassadors only those who have been proven to have enviable Values-system… we can be rest assured that in the nearest future we would have the cultural renaissance we so crave.

As behaviorism psychologist Edward Thorndike stated, behaviours immediately rewarded increase in frequency, behaviours immediately punished decrease in frequency.

Akpoveta, Valentine. T, is an Author and Public Speaker, he resides in Lagos.