“We are in Nigeria!” You can do whatever you can to survive” – a teenager said as he described how they cheat the system to pass the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination, WASSCE. “There is no need to be different, do what others do to pass. Even invigilators collect money from us to look away. Our parents pay for it. So why should I struggle to read for the exam?” he continued as he interrogated the opinion of an older person whom he thought held rather “retrogressive and high moral” views about examination malpractice.
This interaction between a secondary school leaver and an older person about examination malpractice opens the eyes to the waste bin where the society has thrown doing the right thing. The teenager was so confident, albeit in a public space, while the discussion lasted to detail how the deed is done to get the “As” and “Bs”. As the young man described why it was impossible to take exams in Nigeria without full participation in examination malpractice, his sister who is a candidate in the ongoing WASSCE took over and narrated how they paid ten thousand naira each to get answers to exam questions even before getting into the hall. According to her, the answers were sent to them on their WhatsApp group by members of the National Youth Service Corps who teach in their school while their invigilators will send any teacher who objected to the practice outside the hall. These are despite the fact that the authorities at the West African Examination Council, WAEC installed CCTV cameras to monitor examination malpractice at exams centres.
Examination malpractice and the way parents, school managements, and teachers aid them today are just one out of the many examples of how we have murdered and sacrificed our value system in search of money and wealth.
Today, people with questionable sources of income, character and well known fraudsters are given all manner of titles in churches, communities and by organizations. Awards and recognitions are practically given on transactional bases. There are instances where people clap and justify criminal activities because they favour them. Corrupt politicians are as corrupt as the extent it benefits the critic. Parents fund their children’s expedition into cyber fraud while every attempt to enforce criminal laws by law enforcement agencies are thwarted by giving them ethnic or other sentimental colourations.
Engaging in what society considered as morally depraving is now measured by what some people term “relative conditionalism”. In simple terms: “It depends on who is involved and how it benefits me”. There is no longer a standard where “no matter whose ox is gored” is the measurement. How do we create a safer society if there are no bases for moral rectitude? If everyone is left to determine what he or she considers good or bad based on circumstances, how then can we demand accountability as a society? Are we sure the way we are laying our bed today, will be comfortable for us to lie on tomorrow?
These sad ways of life that we are turning to a culture today will soon consume us. The thinking that “This is Nigeria where anything goes” is only setting us up for a future we would not be proud of. We will succeed in creating an anarchical society.
The responsibility of doing the right thing at all times falls on every one of us. Parents should not just teach morals, they should live by it. The Church should not just preach against corruption and then decorate a politician who lives without his means. A teacher should not ask a child to avoid bullying and theft and then force them to buy yam seedlings as an assignment for ten marks only to later use the yam seedlings in his or her private farm. Practically living out the words of our mouth will make such lessons to make sense to the younger ones. They are taking note.
We are at cross roads but there could still be remedy if we take conscious and conscientious steps. This is the time for us begin the steps to rescue and strengthen our core values as a society. A stitch in time saves nine.
Written by DAVID OKPOKWASILI
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