Should the underage best JAMB candidate be given a waiver? – TheNigerialawyer

Azuka Onwuka

Nigeria knows how to make simple things difficult by creating
crises where there should be none. Let me buttress this with two
personal experiences.

Years back, I attended an event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
I checked into a hotel that evening because my appointment was in
the morning of the next day. I had arrived a day earlier to avoid
any unforeseen delays from Lagos. The next day, I left early for
the event. Unfortunately, it lasted more than I expected. I
returned to the hotel around 2pm to check out. The hotel staff said
I had overshot the check-out time of noon, and would therefore pay
for another full day. It sounded unfair to me. We discussed it a
bit and I paid and left, feeling that I had been ripped off.

Not long after that, I attended a conference in London, United
Kingdom. I paid for one day because I was not sure if that was the
hotel I would lodge in after that day. The next morning, I left for
the conference. When I returned in the evening, I slotted my card
in the door but the door did not open. I thought something was
wrong and tried a couple of times, but the red light was showing
that the door did not recognise my card.

I went to the lounge to complain to the receptionist. He checked
and told me that my payment expired at noon that day and my things
were moved out of the room. He showed me where my personal effects
had been kept. I checked them to confirm that nothing was missing.
Everything – as far as I could recall – was there. I paid for more
nights and got another room.

I had learnt my lesson. Technology was put to good use to avoid
arguments. Even if a person did not pay for a new day but was
inside the room after midday, most likely the card would cease to
work to open the door. The person would most likely be informed
that the payment had elapsed. If the person refused to renew it or
check out immediately, the police would be invited.

Compare that to my Nigerian experience. I was allowed to
overstay my time and then told that I had to pay for it. I had to
argue it with human beings who could use their discretion to let me
go without paying or insist on payment.

That is the same with the case of the boy who got the highest
score in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Franklin Ekele scored 347 over 400 but may not be admitted by the
University of Lagos, which he applied to. According to the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board which organised the examination,
the boy is 15 years and does not meet the minimum age benchmark of
16 years.

There has been an outpouring of outrage over this attempt to
deny such an exceptionally brilliant boy admission because of age
restriction. The argument has been that his performance above older
candidates shows that the age restriction is baseless. Denying such
a candidate admission, it is argued, amounts to killing the
aspirations of exceptionally gifted children.

If JAMB had acted like a modern organisation, this argument
would not have arisen at all. If at the point of registering for
the exam, any candidate who was less than 16 years was not allowed
to complete the registration process, this brouhaha would not have
arisen, since JAMB is basking in the euphoria of online
registration and online examination.

Any candidate who chooses a false birthday from the one in the
candidate’s documents can then be prosecuted for perjury and
forgery, if the candidate later starts complaining of being denied
admission due to age. It will be clear that the candidate
intentionally used an older age to become legible to register for
the examination.

But beyond the issue of JAMB exploiting the vantages of
technology to curb this annual dirge, there is also the issue of
playing by the rules by candidates. Every society or system that
wants order and progress operates with laws that are clearly spelt
out. Even companies and brands add “terms and conditions” to their
offers to customers. The essence of the laws is to ensure that
nobody is discriminated against based on the person’s relationship
with the managers of the system, who are human beings with human
whims and prejudices.

There are age restrictions for people who vote and are voted
for. There are age restrictions on jobs at different levels. There
are employment restrictions based on academic qualifications. There
are restrictions based on height for those seeking recruitment in
the army, police and other para-military organisations. Serious
organisations do not twist these conditions for individuals,
because doing so is injustice to others who had been turned down in
the past based on similar restrictions. For example, the University
of Nigeria, Nsukka has a condition that every candidate must have a
minimum of a credit in one science subject to be eligible to be
offered admission into any course in the university. If one has the
highest UTME score in Nigeria but does not obtain a credit in a
science subject, that candidate cannot be offered admission. Those
who falsified their result to add a science subject to their
certificate, even if found out in the final year, are
rusticated.

Similarly, a Nigerian lad who represents the nation at the
Under-16 World Cup may score all the winning goals, but he is not
qualified to vote in Nigeria’s elections until he becomes 18 years
old. If he cuts corners and falsifies his age to enable him to
vote, he is breaching the law and may be punished if found out.

Nigeria faced a test case in 1999 when a bright and amiable
legislator named Alhaji Salisu Buhari became the Speaker of the
House of Representatives. He was doing very well as the Speaker
until The News magazine blew his cover: He was one year younger
than the required minimum age of 30 years for members of the House
of Representatives. So he falsified his age and also forged a
certificate claiming to be a graduate of Toronto University. He
eventually resigned with ignominy and faced the music.

The best way to challenge a rule or policy is not to ask for the
rule to be bent for the sake of an individual. The noble way is to
take the matter to court and hope for repeal. But is 15 years (or
even 17 years) ripe enough for a child to be in the university?
What is the hurry for? If the voting age is 18 years, and a
Nigerian is called a minor who cannot be sent to prison for any
crime until 18 years, what is the compelling reason for a Nigerian
to be admitted into the university before 18 years?

The academic feat of Franklin is a challenge to other young
people. He is an exceptionally brilliant boy. But insisting that
the rule be bent to offer him university admission in a public
university is encouraging corruption. This hot brain should not be
drawn into that dirt. He should wait and take the exam next year
when he will be 16 years old. He may even score higher than he did
this year. My nephew, Kenechukwu, scored 308 last year but was not
offered admission by the University of Nigeria to study medicine.
He was disappointed. But this year, he took the exam again and
scored 321.

An intelligent child is an intelligent child. Restrictions
cannot stop that person from shining. Franklin has just shown the
world a slice of the stuff he is made of. By next year, he will
unfold his intelligence more than he did this year and gain
admission through the front door rather than through the back door
which some people are campaigning for.

Twitter @BrandAzuka

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