BY SEYIFUNMI LUMEKO
Legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has described the decision to postpone the 2020 West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) as ill-conceived.
According to him, cancellation or postponement may promote criminality in society.
Babalola added that it could pose a dangerous threat to the lives of the country’s future leaders.
”The destinies of 1.5 million students, who registered for the external examination was hanging in the balance with the withdrawal of Nigeria from the external examination,’
He said it was wrong for the Federal Government to have taken such unilateral decision, due to the fear of COVID-19, when other participating nations have not withdrawn their students from sitting for the external examination.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, had last week announced the Federal government’s intention to withdraw Nigeria’s candidates from the examination due to the hazard posed by the spread of COVID-19.
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In a statement personally signed in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, the legal icon said the Federal Government should allow the WASSCE to hold in the empty spaces in tertiary institutions which can accommodate 1.5 million registered students without defying COVID-19 protocols.
Speaking on the withdrawal, which he said was not well thought -out, the legal luminary said: “It is my firm belief that the future of these 1.5 million young Nigerians who have registered for WAEC should not be put in jeopardy. It is a well-known fact that all schools, colleges and tertiary institutions in the country are currently shut down.
