Government policies are programmes meant for the good of the public. Policies are supposedly well thought out before announcement and implementation. Government policies are not supposed to be pronounced by government functionaries based on their whims and caprices.
Explanations of how and why public policies are formulated should be discerning to the public. Sadly, what we have seen over the years in Nigeria is that some people in public offices, sometimes, to divert public attention from current issues or to hoodwink the public and steal from public treasuries, enunciate policies not in tandem with public interests.
How else can we explain that, out of the blues, the Federal Ministry of Education, through its minister, Tahir Mamman, has declared that with effect from 2025, anyone sitting for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, (JAMB) examinations must not be less than 18 years old.
According to the minister, this decision to ban under-18 pupils from sitting for the above examinations is not a new policy but has not been implemented.
Why was the policy not implemented before and why now? What purpose does it intend to serve? In the pursuit of global best practices by the Federal Government, does the new policy on education resonate with those in saner climes? The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is supposedly composed of West African countries. Does this Nigeria’s policy align with other countries in the subregion? If not, is the Federal Government saying children below 18 years in West African countries can write WAEC while those in Nigeria can’t? One of the explanations for this policy is that some of the students who graduate before they are 22 years old in Nigeria add to burgeoning graduate unemployment.
This excuse holds no water but begs the question of why can’t the government create the enabling environment for Nigerian youths to be self employed, since it cannot give jobs to all unemployed youths? Let the Federal Government juxtapose its excuse for this obnoxious policy with the possible consequences of the idleness of children, with their infantile brains, who ought to be active in preparing to gain admission in tertiary institutions but cannot because they are less than 18 years.
For some of the males, they are susceptible to joining the internet fraud, otherwise known as Hustle Kingdom (HK), to keep busy and provide ‘jobs’ for themselves or join cult gangs, while for some of the females, they become victims of teenage pregnancies. With this policy, the Federal Government has wittingly or unwittingly admitted it has no serious plans to create jobs or institute the enabling environment for its millions of youths to be employed now or in the future.
However, when there is a will, there is a way, and there are many ways to kill a rat. As a father of a child below 18 years old that I consider brilliant enough to write and pass the examinations, can’t I falsify his/her age to write the examinations, especially if I am incapable of sending the child overseas?
Elbert Hubbard said: “Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced”. I foresee cases of litigation on this matter. Why does Nigeria and its officials waste time to chase shadows at the expense of substance? For how long will Nigerian masses continue to suffer and lack because government officials are inept in discharging their duties? Nigerians provide their security because they cannot always rely on security agencies to do their jobs. Nigerians provide their borehole for water because government waterboards are largely not functional. Nigerians provide their own electric power simply because power-holding companies are unreliable. The stories of government failure in virtually all ramifications, except in stealing, go on and on. This decision placing an age limit for children to write post-secondary school examinations is one of the numerous inconsistencies of the government in policy implementations.
However, my hunch tells me that this policy will not stand the test of time. When parents and guardians start consulting their God and gods in the form of ‘ogun oba’, ‘amadioha’ and ‘kpekpe’, against this irrational decision, Prof Mamman and the Federal Government will rescind the policy.
Public policies should be taken seriously in Nigeria. Less than four months ago, precisely on May 23, in the speed of light, the National Assembly passed a bill to change our National Anthem from ‘Arise O, Compatriots’ to ‘Nigeria, We hail Thee’. President Bola Tinubu wasted no time in signing it on May 29. It was not a people-centric bill or a policy to improve the lot of the hoi polloi. The urgency at which they passed the bill still beats my imagination. I am yet to be convinced how the wordings of this ‘new’ national anthem will better resonate with the spirit of patriotism among Nigerians than the ‘old’ national anthem.
I am curious how the ‘new’ national anthem will act as a deodorant to the stench of corruption among Nigeria’s ruling class. Someone should please tell me how the ‘new’ national anthem will sound as the song of nationalism in the ears of criminal herdsmen, bandits, terrorists, among others, to stop their macabre dance and crimes against the Nigerian State and its people.
How will this ‘new’ national anthem galvanise security officials to be patriotic in protecting Nigerians and Nigeria’s territorial integrity and how it will act as incentives to the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct credible, free and fair elections. How the ‘new national anthem will prick the consciences of Nigeria’s political officeholders to reduce their corruption and over-bloated salaries and allowances to save a haemorrhaging country, called Nigeria, I do not know.
I need explanations on how the ‘new’ national anthem will reduce the prices of goods and services and return us to the pre-Tinubu era. The explanation by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio on why the national anthem composed by some Nigerians was replaced by another from a foreigner was not convincing.
According to him, “our return to the old anthem represents a commitment to unity, despite our diverse background. The anthem embodies our collective strength and resolve to stand together transcending our differences”. He went on to say that the anthem’s message of unity – ‘though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand’ are the bulwarks needed for nation building.
I remember Alexander Pope, who, when confronted with the challenge of which was the ideal type of government, declared: ‘for forms of government let fools contend. What is best administered is best’. The wordings of the ‘old” or ‘new’ national anthems are mere theoretical concepts. What will bring the practical eldorado that Nigerians crave for are good governance and justice.
Uwadia, a columnist and administrator, writes from Benin City
