By Gabriel Dike
NO fewer than 25 former candidates who sat for either the school or privates
examinations conducted by the West
African Examinations Council (WAEC)
and are born again Christians have
returned their certificate claiming it was
acquired through fraudulent means.
Sunday Sun learnt that the affected born
again former candidates in obeying the
Christian doctrine of seeking for
restitution, approached WAEC, through
letters and personal visits to the council,
seeking for restitution after they had confessed how they acquired their
certificates when they wrote the
examinations at various periods.
A senior staff of WAEC disclosed that the
council wrote to the candidates
explaining what they were ex-
pected to do which is to return the
certificates in accordance with the rules
and regulations guiding the conduct of
the examinations.
Investigations revealed that those who
complied with the directive returned
their certificates to various WAEC offices
nationa wide, and the council took their
cases to the Nigeria Examinations
Committee (NEC), which met recently in Lagos and cancelled the returned 25
certificates.
The one-page WAEC document revealed
that the returned certificates by the born
again Christians are for both the May/
June (school exam) and November/
December
(private candidates) West African Senior
School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Breakdown of the year
the examinations were taken revealed
that the oldest certificates dates back to
June 1980 with certificates dated 1986
for Nov/Dec with certificates nos
NGPO497232 and NGO 442267 and
three obtained in 1989,
all for school examinations with
certificates nos NGPO 1004584, NGPO
823128 and NGO 1002145.
In the1993 Nov/Dec exam, two
candidates sought restitution and
returned their certificates, while 1994,
1997,1999, 2000, 2006, 2008,and
2009, one person each returned their
certificates. In 2001, three did so, in 2003 (two), 2004 (three) and in the
May/June school examinations, two
candidates returned their certificates
Seventeen of former WAEC candidates
that returned their certificates wrote the
May/June West African Senior School
Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and
eight sat for the Nov/Dec WASSCE.
A former principal and now proprietor
of Royal Academy International, Oshodi,
Mr. Olatunji Ogunmode, commended the
candidates for seeking restitution after
many years of acquiring the certificates,
and urged several others to obey the Biblical command. Ogunmode warned
other candidates in future
WAEC exams to stay clear of
examination malpractices, noting that if
they were not caught in the classroom
for
exam fraud, nemesis would certainly
catch up with them, no matter how long
it takes.
Pastor Miracle Wisdom said the 25
former WAEC candidates by returning
the certificates they acquired wrongly
are obeying the Christian doctrine by
seeking for restitution, and that no
matter how long it took them
to come forward, their past sins are
forgiven.
Wisdom was however silent on what
happens to higher certificates the 25
candidates used the WAEC certificates to
acquire, nothing “the most important
thing is that they came forward to
admit how they passed their exams. It is
a welcome development, it would make
others
not to engage in exam fraud.’’
The pastor said there are several verses
in the Bible to support restitution which
conform to what the 25 born
again Christians did by confessing their
sins and seeking for restitution from
WAEC. John 1:9 says ‘’If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
[our] sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness’’.
While Number 5:6-7 says ’’When a man
or woman commits any of the sins that
people commit by breaking
faith with the Lord, and that person
realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin
that he has committed.[a] And he
shall make full restitution for his wrong
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