Jamb Issue: Ijaw Youth Leader Owoupele Defends Amnesty Office On Latest Decision, Gives Reasons

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By Binebai Princewill

Former Spokesman of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Barr. Jeremiah Owoupele has defended the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) on its latest decision to ensure that students in the programme must acquire a convincing Jamb results or other educational test as the office may deem fit before going to study in any of the higher institutions.

The revered Ijaw Youth Leader shared his thoughts on the lingering issue via an opinionated articulate carefully drafted, signed and circulated to newsmen in Yenagoa earlier today, a copy of which was sent to The Liberator Newspapers Worldwide. 

The statement reads in full below:

THE QUEST FOR DIRECT DEPLOYMENT TO SCHOOLS WITHOUT THE STATUTORY ENABLING EXAMS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAM.

MY THOUGHTS.

In the last few weeks I have been called by many stakeholders, delegates and beneficiaries of the aforementioned program . Their worry is that the office demands that all students must write jamb or pass through a test to be deployed to higher institutions of learning. 

HISTORY 

When the program started the managers of the program in the office were very careful to note that our school system is infested with a pandemic called strike . This unhealthy occurrence makes it sometimes impossible or frustrating for students to graduate within the time allocated for each course . 

The result is that some undergraduates end up spending many years beyond their course duration in school. 

Now , given the nature of the program where time is of essence and used in budgetary provisions there was need to get it absolutely right.

This  development made the office to resolve in sending  delegates only to private institutions. This in their considered opinion  would enable them graduate within the specified duration of the particular courses and align with budgetary provisions .

However given the fact that these students will be embarking on a serious academic exercise there was the need to understand and evaluate their academic competence and capabilities  .

Premised on the foregoing the office had to look beyond their statutory qualification for graduate studies that allows them to gain admission to any institution but to also put them to test in achieving the above mentioned .

 Consequently   educational consultancies were engaged to give them aptitude test . 

Benchmarks were set and upon fulfilling this conditions they are certified and sent to various private institutions to study. 

As time goes on the office had to accommodate delegates into public government owned institutions upon pressures from others who out of their volition opted to write jamb and gain admission . The office simply verifies the status of the student and take over sponsorship. This was how the public schools came into the program.

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

However am told that long after Kingsley kuku tenure some unscrupulous elements within the office connived with certain institutions and deployed students without any of the above mentioned preconditions. A development that is not only unsavory but inimical to their future as well as the ethical standard of the office . 

My deep research shows that a number of these students finds it very difficult to cope with the rigors of  academics of their various institutions of learning .

This practice is unethical as it does not encourage hard work and competition . These students must know that they represent the very soul of our future hence their academic success is paramount and must subscribe to the needed stages of evaluation.

TODAY POLICY 

The new interim administrator a retired colonel  and a product of such many test and examinations believes and holds the firm view that the protocol must be strictly followed . 

In this regard, students who must be deployed must meet the basic requirements  of such governing agencies  like Jamb and other qualification examinations . 

This of course is necessary to self development and general evaluation of the delegates . 

The protagonist of the school of thought that PAP delegates be deployed without the requisite examinatons is not only being unreasonable but a disservice to the students themselves . 

The high rate of carry over courses from some of the private schools as witnessed in some institutions as well as the high rate of marks  buying  has become too fashionable and must be totally discouraged. Our system must breed the best and not the contrary .

Recall that not too long ago some of our students made the news when they came out with first class in their various institutions in the United Kingdom .

 Some includes Owoupele Jerry Moses and Sameria Victor  who both bagged a first class in law from the universities of Huddersfied and Birmingham in the United Kingdom respectively. Others who made first class includes 

Azibanagein Godswil Lucky and Omoun Peres jnr among others who also made second class upper divisions . 

These students all went through the rigorous selection process,  they embraced it and diligently prepared for it and ended up with a first class in top ranking universities in United Kingdom . 

THE JUSTIFICATION 

All over the world education is a priceless  commodity . It is an academic process that needs men and women with the necessary ingredients to be able to undertake such venture. It is this necessity that allows for processes like aptitude test and entrance examinations to determine those who are mentally and physiologically prepared  . 

Clearly there is therefore an overriding necessity to ensure that such a process must be guided with clear rules and regulations  . 

Therefore one must commend and encourage the new Interim Administrator,  Col Dixon Dikio for his unflinching  readiness to ensure that things are done properly and rightly too. We must ensure that we get the best so that they can not only be successful in life but be able to compete with their counterparts from other parts of the globe .

The move by some students and stakeholders to circumvent and persuade the office to jettison this necessary process is not only ineligible but unethical as its portends great danger to our collective future and should be rejected at all cost . 

Any delegate who is not ready to subject himself or herself to qualifying examinations has no business in the academic world. 

We cannot pay for failures because that is one of the multiplier effects of abiding by this practice .

Our people must rise up and quell this ill wind that threatens our collective dream and vision of a secured future for our people . The idea  is evil unproductive and at best an attempt to create a clog in our collective wheel of intellectual progress .

I respectfully call on all men of good conscience to stand with the interim Administrator and ensure that such bad policies whether mistakenly implemented in the office be jettisoned quickly  . We must move with the age and ensure that we get things done correctly and be proud of such processes . 

We cannot be an exception to this time tested procedure . 

I am JP Owoupele and I believe in due process that will facilitate excellence and bring the best out in us as a people as exemplified by those that made us proud in United Kingdom and beyond.

I AM JP OWOUPELE

WRITTING FROM THE ANCESTRAL FOREST OF GBANRAUN IN BAYELSA STATE.

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