Letters & Viewpoints
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Letters & Viewpoints |
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| Mike Chinedu Anekwe | Tuesday, March 11, 2003 |
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mykeanekwe@ziplip.com Lagos, Nigeria 
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THE 2002 JAMB RESULTS:
NDI’GBO DID IT AGAIN
had earlier written an article on Nigeriaworld.com website titled “Nd’igbo and School Enrollment (Friday, August 30, 2002), which was also published by Nigerdeltacongress.com (September 2002). Hallmark National Newspaper equally published it under the title “The Media and Academic Excellence” (November 6, 2002). I received a lot of mails commending me on the article. Equally, there were also some few mails that were antagonistic and full of bile. Though, none was able to disprove the facts I presented. I took it in my stride as one of the “fringe benefits” of being a commentator on national discourse.
I intend to do a further expose on Ndigbo as it concerns school enrollment in Nigeria and confront the lies peddled over the years with facts and we will see how they will crumble like a pack of cards. This article is to further elucidate the facts presented by Marcel Okeke in his article: “Ndi’gbo and the 2002 JAMB results” (The Guardian, Tuesday, December 3, 2002).
Marcel Okeke had stated thus:
“Save the Federal prisons said to have been pointed out by President Olusegun Obasanjo during a state visit to one of the South-Eastern states (as evidence of Federal presence), it is only in the area of educational institutions that the region may rank equal to the others. Today, apart from four Federal universities (including one of agriculture and one of technology) and a few other tertiary institutions, each of the five states in the zone owns a university and several higher institutions. Even at the lower levels (primary and secondary), the number of schools and enrolment keep growing in leaps and bounds despite the palpable neglect of the system by the politicians at the helm of affairs in the various States.
But, if the region has lost everything, politically and economically, as it seems for now, the 2001/2002 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination results just released, provides another eloquent proof that the education "industry" in the South-East is still indeed, a viable one. Obviously, the number of qualified persons seeking admission (and those eventually taken) from each state or zone of the country is a key index of the population and quality of students produced by the zone.”
Okeke went further to state:
“However, the 2001/2002 JAMB results remain not only a sign of hope and source of pride for the Igbo, but also another affirmation of their resilience and hegemony in the nation's education sector. This trend is rooted in the history of the people which culminated in the setting up of the first indigenous university by the South-Eastern Nigeria Government in the First Republic (1960, specifically), namely the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Subsequently, during the Second Republic, each of the two States that made up the region (Anambra and Imo) founded a university in addition to setting up several other tertiary institutions and secondary schools. Today, these universities are the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) and the Abia State University, Uturu.
Still, in spite of the ravages of military intervention and rulership, each of the five Igbo States today owns at least a university and several tertiary institutions. Even the states (including Anambra) where teachers are said to be owed backlog of several months' salaries, the governments' have managed to build more schools. And in these schools, although invasion by cultism and other social vices is a cause for concern, the performance of the students in public competitive examinations such as JAMB (as the current results show) speak volumes in favour of the standards. In this regard, too, the outcome of the Bournvita Teachers Awards the other day, amply affirm the relatively good quality of teaching/learning that still obtains in Igboland. As is already well known, the overall winner (secondary schools category) of the award was a teacher from one of the secondary schools in Owerri, Imo State.”
Okeke’s averment cannot be disputed. In fact, despite the fact that Anambra State public schools were on strike for a full academic session, the state still came second in the May/June 2002 West African Examinations Council (WAEC) overall results. Pupils in the state still went and enrolled for private extramural lessons and through their sheer doggedness, despite the state government’s insensitivity, were still able to achieve success.
My readers may be wandering whether I am obsessed with this idea of Igbo supremacy (or dominance) in school enrollment in Nigeria. Call it obsession if you like. Falsehood, if left unchallenged has the capacity to violently dethrone truth. Also, a lie repeated too often may assume the position of truth. I will continue to shout from the rooftop with such gusto which the dispellers of this falsehood have been going about their business until the awareness reaches a feverish pitch.
I will proceed to give just three examples of such untruths peddled in the Nigerian media:
1. Onome Osifo-Whiskey (Managing Editor, TELL Magazine): “In the spare parts mentality of his people, Nzeribe…”
Osifo-Whiskey made this insulting remark in the pages of TELL magazine in year 2000 after Senator Arthur Nzeribe moved a motion for the impeachment of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Meaning? Most Igbos do not go to school and are only good in “buying and selling”, especially “spare parts”.
2. Modupe Adelaja (Minister of Solid Minerals): “ It is a bad stigma that you are a traitor, that you left your country to fight on the other side. You can be doing your buying and selling…”
- December 10, 2001 at the ministerial press briefing to herald the year 2002 Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
Meaning? The Igbo should remain content with their “buying and selling” business and not bother to compete for public offices in Nigeria. In other words, Igbos in Nigeria are synonymous with trading and should leave political (and even economic) leadership to indigenes of other regions.
3. Olusegun Adeniyi (Editor, THISDAY, The Sunday Newspaper): "...a region (South East) where most young people are driven by the urge to make money with little or no value attached to mental self improvement"
I had argued earlier that all these are consistent with Igbo stereotyping. I will still quote Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s stand on this: "I found that there is an orchestrated attempt at intimidating the Igbo with their own shortcomings. And these are shortcomings that are rampant across the entire country”. ( Newswatch Magazine of April 8, 2002, p. 29)
I will now proceed to reproduce some of the data of candidate’s registration for 2001/2002 JAMB examination in terms of state of origin and the best three (four actually) performing candidates.
FIRST SIX
STATES TOTAL NO OF APPLICANTS PERCENTAGE
1. Imo 95,984 9.84
2. Delta 80,448 8.25
3. Anambra 64,296 6.59
4. Edo 61,897 6.37
5. Ogun 54,272 5.60
6. Ondo 46,592 4.70
LAST SIX
STATES TOTAL NO OF APPLICANTS PERCENTAGE
1. Borno 4,358 0.43
2. Taraba 2,934 0.29
3. Katsina 2,530 0.25
4. Kebbi 2,438 0.24
5. Zamfara 2,169 0.22
6. Yobe 1,178 0.12
I will now proceed to provide some data on the number of successful candidates from the Southeast, as well as the last three states. As shown by the JAMB results, there were ninety-five thousand (95,000) successful candidates.
FIRST SIX STATES (PLUS EBONYI
STATE)
STATE OF ORIGIN NO. OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES PERCENTAGE
1. Imo 11,264 12.00
2. Anambra 9,320 10.00
3. Enugu 5,917 6.22
4.Delta
5. Rivers
6. Abia 5,088 5.34
* Ebonyi 1,793 1.88
LAST THREE
STATE OF ORIGIN NO. OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES PERCENTAGE
1. Taraba 358 0.38
2. Borno 220 0.23
3. Yobe 160 0.17
It should be noted that Edo, Ogun and Ondo States which were among the first six states in terms of number of applicants (by states of origin) gave way to Enugu, Rivers and Abia States in terms of successful candidates (by states of origin). Is it not a wonder that the “buyers and sellers” from the South_East got 35.44 percent of the overall successful candidates? Such falsehoods as peddled in some Nigeria news media flies in the face of the facts. I make bold to say that Igbos would have performed better than they did if there is free secondary education in the South East, as obtains in some parts of the country.
I equally wish to remind my readers that about a third of the population of Delta State are Igbos (I had erroneously stated ¼ in my last treatise). How did I arrive at this assertion? The Deltans of Igbo origin constitutes one of the three senatorial zones of Delta State. The Delta Igbos, commonly known as the Aniomas comprises the Aniochas, the Oshimillis, the Ikas and the Ndokwas. Infact, out of the 25 Local Government Areas in Delta State, the Aniomas have 9. Aniomas also have one senatorial zone, out of the three in Delta State. So, if one should make an off-handed estimation, one may hazard a guess that about about 1/3 of the Delta state successful candidates are Igbos. It is equally pertinent to state here that there is a substantial number of Igbos in Rivers State. Infact, after the Biafra/Nigeria civil war, many communities in the present Imo and Abia States were ceded to Rivers State (Ndoni/Egbema area and parts of Ndoki South of the Imo River). The state governments of these two states have severally called on the National Boundary Commission (NBC) to see that this injustice is redressed.
In this essay, I have gone a step further to trace what the trend was, in the last five years, in terms of number of applicants (by state of origin) and the number of successful candidates (by state of origin), for JAMB/UME examinations.
APPLICATION STATISTICS (JAMB/UME)
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/application/ume/ume2001
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/application/ume/ume2000
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/application/ume/ume1999
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/application/ume/ume1998
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/application/ume/ume1997
ADMISSION STATISTICS (JAMB/UME) (BY STATES)
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/admission/ume/ume2001/states/
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/admission/ume/ume2000/states/
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/admission/ume/ume1999/states/
http://www.jambng.com/statistics/admission/ume/ume1997/states/
The facts speak for themselves. Facts are sacred but opinions are free. As you can see, the above tables are self-explanatory.
In conclusion therefore, I wish to admonish my readers, no matter which side of the divide you belong, to digest this write-up with an open mind. Forgive me of my “exuberance” and “over-zealousness”. Examine the message, not the messenger.
