Tahir Mamman goofed.

Until last week, very few knew who Tahir Mamman was. It was fitting therefore that he announced himself in a way symptomatic of this government.

The minister announced during his interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Sunday Politics that students under the age of 18 will not be allowed to sit the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examinations Council (NECO), and the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams.

According to the Minister,

This policy is not new. It is inbuilt in the 6 – 3 – 3 – 4 or the modified 9 – 3 – 4 system of education that started in 1983.
Students not yet 18 will not be allowed to write the three major exams in tertiary education – WAEC, NECO, and JAMB.
Third, that students will not be able to write these exams if they have not adhered to the 6 – 3 – 3 – 4 structure.

The objective of the directive is simple. The minister, and by extension, the government, seeks to prevent immature students gaining admissions into Nigerian universities. However, by simply saying the implementation will commence next year does not solve the problem.

Indeed, it is symptomatic of the way and manner serious policy issues have been handled under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

There are many examples, including the fuel subsidy removal, the levy of US $10,000 on the companies with foreign directors, the change of the national anthem, the policy on 5 Percent digital levy, the ongoing 70% on banks windfall profit on exchange rate transactions, and the recent change in the CBN Act.

Back to the minister’s announcement, it is possible for a student to have gone through the entire system and not be 18 years old.

So, to fix the problem requires going back to the foundation. But that requires hard work and diligence that our policy makers are not known for.
The policy affects everyone and applies to everyone from Primary 1 to Senior Secondary School (SSS) three if they are not at the required age to reach 18 when they write the exams.

Since last week, I have checked the Ministry’s website, waited to see if a detailed policy document, or guidelines, will be released, and I have not seen one.

I suppose the Minister thinks since he has announced it, that is the end.

I am not the only one to think in this direction. Dr. Mike Ene, the Secretary General of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) thinks the same, as interviewed in the Tribune and Punch.

If schools and parents only require a year to prepare for this directive, does the minister know how many students will be affected next year?

Does the minister have a plan for those students that will be affected, or they don’t matter?

Is the minister aware that significant number of students in private schools write other forms of exams and this further alienates them.

Is the minister aware that we have near complete polarized education where majority of the private school students are trained with British and US curriculum and the students are prepared for universities abroad.

In conclusion, some have argued that underage children in universities is one of the problems. I agree.

But the manner you judge a serious policy maker is how he or she focuses on what everyone believes are the top three problems.

In Nigeria today, poor quality education is number one problem. And by extension, poor skills.

Second, there are over 20 million children our of school. Third, there are extensive poor teaching and learning resources across the country.

While the Honorable minister was pursuing the small trophy of ensuring our universities only admit students above 18 years old, I do not know of any credible plan for the over 20 million that are out of school.

In conclusion, I do not believe anyone less than 18 years should be in university, except in special circumstances, but this will not work. It will not work because it is rash, ill thought and ill prepared.

Policies for and that affect over 200 million people should be thorough, rigorous, and comprehensive. If we are to solve problems, and not just symptoms, our policy makers should not be lazy, distracted, and pedestrian to think of and show how a policy works in practice.