Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Tuesday spoke against the low cut-off marks in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) required for admission into northern universities saying it made northerners lazy.
He lamented that northerners have refused to take advantage of the ‘educational benefits’ given to them by the Nigerian government.
El-Rufai spoke during a plenary session on “Rethinking Sub-National Competitiveness” at the ongoing Nigerian Economic Summit.
He posited that “The northerners are at advantage. The low JAMB cut-off mark is making northern youth lazy rather than encouraging them. Despite the advantage of the education in Nigeria, we have the highest number of children out of school.
“For example, Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, (JAMB), gives different cut-off mark for different states and you say you are building a nation, no you are dividing it.
“I am from the north but we have suffered educational disadvantage and the JAMB has given us lower cut-off mark to catch up, have we caught up?
“It is making people lazy.”
In the same vein, the governor also condemned the practice of selecting leaders based on their ‘origin’ noting that such will not move any nation forward.
“This has become a big problem for Nigeria. Zoning in political parties cannot solve the economic problems we are facing,” he said. “Selecting the best person to get the job done will benefit everyone.”
“The best we can do is to give everyone equal opportunity,” El-Rufai opined.
He equally condemned the current judicial ans Police system operated in the country, saying they need to be reformed to improve their effectiveness.
“Implement state policing. Some governors have more influence on the police than others; state governors cannot control security actions except there is an order from the IGP. This makes state governors handicapped in serious matters.
“Same is applied to the judiciary system. We are the only country in the world that is running a federal judiciary system. This has exposed the sector to inefficiency. There are decisions for states to take for example, land issues, traditional issues,” hebuilding
READ ALSO: South-South Leaders Engage FG, Demand Restructuring, True Federalism
