Exam Fraud: Schools and ECOMOG Operations, by Ujogi Egbujo

2026-03-07 - 05:57

In the past, schools were centers of discipline. Parents sometimes reported erring children to teachers, trusting those firmer, dispassionate hands to deliver the correction needed. Teachers stood as community pillars, disciplining without fear of backlash. Principals were revered as standard-bearers of societal values. These days, doting parents storm schools to assault teachers for merely scolding their spoiled children. Children have become deities, and schools their indulgent shrines. Private schools, now the norm rather than the exception, operate as glorified customer-service outfits—catering to the appetites and whims of entitled students like hotel waiters, forever bending to the fussy demands of overprotective mothers. Public schools? They are mere shadows of their former authoritative selves. Their teachers, poorly paid, demoralized, chasing after increasingly indignant and feral students in an environment redolent with decay. The exceptions remain a handful of mission schools and those reformed by dedicated alumni. Across the board, schools now pay far less attention to moral reformation than they once did. The relentless pressure to showcase outstanding academic results—without the rigour of hard work—has birthed a dangerous phenomenon. Parents incessantly indulge their children and overlook moral flabbiness. Schools chase enrollment and balance sheets. The point of intersection is expediency. Genuine discipline yields tough results, but shiny results can be manufactured. In the past, the infamous ‘special centers’ were few and far between. In some states, they didn’t exist at all. Rotten elements in examination bodies and school systems arranged them to sell exams outright. Students paid fees to be posted there, where corrupt invigilators turned a blind eye (or lent a hand) to every manner of cheating. Like smuggling in ECOMOG materials or mercenaries, Commonwealth copying or post-exams substitution of scripts. Children who had failed repeatedly walking away with spectacular results they never earned. Sadly, exam malpractice has been normalized. Even highly reputable schools now safeguard their prestige and meet parental expectations by “fixing” exams for their students. In elite private schools charging millions in school fees, parents often remain blissfully unaware of the palliative undertaking . They aren’t asked to fund the ECOMOG operations directly. They are simply invited to celebrate the “outstanding” results after the school orchestrates the fraud. Many struggling students view this assistance as a privilege, not a crime. For some of the teachers and proprietors, it’s leveling the playing field because their rivals also assist their students . The international reputation of Nigerian certificates hangs in jeopardy. A few weeks ago, I had cause to pay WAEC fees for a student. The school demanded ¦ 80,000 for an exam the board charged about ¦ 27,000. When I questioned the excess, they called it “logistics.” Assuming it covered transport for question papers to a remote village school, I probed further. Were the students for a helicopter ride? The principal confessed that ¦ 30,000 was for WAEC officials arranged to help the students. She said her pupils lacked the capacity to pass unaided, and she couldn’t sit and watch her goats go into labour tethered. When I refused to pay, the student—who had begged for my help—rudely declared he would not sit the exam without the “logistics fee.” His entitlement made me question the morality of my principled stand, since all his mates would receive the help. The rot spares no one—not village schools, not performance-obsessed private ones courting prospects with glossy results. Even the military school I attended, once ruthless in discipline, succumbed. After decades of exemplary academic and moral standards, societal decay crept in. Standards didn’t merely slip; they were pulled down like an expired flag. A school that once invigilated its own exams, tolerating nothing—not even improper dressing—became a veteran ECOMOG operator, all in pursuit of shiny results. A place that had expelled students for the slightest internal cheating now orchestrated fraud in external exams. The Military Academy noticed. Intakes came with stellar results but with time their incongruous academic underbellies were exposed. The Military Academy complained, and fortunately, that disease has been cured. The era of a reputable military school producing students whose certificates flattered their true abilities is hopefully over. Hopefully. The lesson is clear. Even the most rigorous systems are not immune. WAEC’s shift from paper-and-pencil to Computer-Based Testing (CBT) promises to curb cheating and restore integrity. The digital format blocks leaks from printing, while question randomization and customized papers make mass copying and answer circulation tedious. Cameras, biometrics, and reduced post-exam tampering should prove formidable barriers. Yet when reputable schools become ECOMOG centers, teachers and alumni turn mercenaries, and invigilators collude, CBT could still be undermined. Technology curbs mechanics, but the ultimate bulwark is a culture of honesty. Schools must reclaim moral formation alongside academics, rejecting manufactured results. Parents must prize integrity over grades and cease enabling fraud. Society must reward merit proportionately and punish offences decisively. A culture of honesty, inculcated in schools, must also govern the polity. In a country where election rigging paves the surest path to high office, youngsters will feel entitled to cheat at school exams. As children with bogus certificates rig their way to the political and spiritual pulpits, the nation’s decay deepens in a vicious cycle. Without breaking this cycle, where undeserving certificate-holders ascend and perpetuate rot, reforms remain superficial. They will yield nothing.The fight is not just technical. It is moral and systemic. Attention: Immigration I went to renew my international passport. This is for the 10th or more time. Shockingly, I was asked to produce a state of origin certificate They also asked me to present my birth certificate. So what data does the immigration actually store? This is laughable. The immigration has issued me over ten passports in the past. But suddenly they no longer know my date of birth. And they no longer know my state of origin. But assuming the immigration have lost all their data all these years. Isn’t the passport linked to the NIN? And the NIN to the BVN? So why ask me to present a state of origin certificate more than 45 years since you started issuing me passports? Why are we so incompetent? How can Nigerian Immigration be asking me for my birth certificate in 2026? I can understand asking for state of origin certificate or whatever for a new issue. But how can the immigration be asking me for a state of origin certificate on a 15th renewal? NIN is the base data now. If the immigration thinks it’s unreliable for date of birth and state of origin, then heads must roll. Then the government should accept responsibility. I don’t like our institutions sounding this stupid