The West African Examination Council (WAEC), has offered the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, free chance to resit her secondary school mathematics examinations after her gaffe during budget defence at the National Assembly last week.
Adeosun had alleged in her presentation to the Senate that one of the exams body in the country made N16 billion from sale of forms and other services, and got additional N6billion from the federal government bringing the total to ‘N24billion’ yet remitted only N2million to the federation account.
Reacting to the minister’s gaffe, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, registrar of WAEC, not only faulted the minister on the allegation, but also offered her chance to have another go in secondary school mathematics given hre poor summation of the figures.
Uwadiae said: “It’s not enough to go to the Senate and reel out figures. The minister should know, that what Nigerian students pay to sit for WAEC examinations is simply an operational/management cost, that covers registration, data keeping and management, printing of examination papers, logistics, marking of scripts and production of certificates. And all these cost about N16 billion Naira.
“WAEC examination is not designed as a revenue generating source for the Federal Government. In fact governments in the past subsidized the examination fees, just to encourage education. The N6 billion she talked about is for payment of salaries and overheads for staff of the council.
“However, we do not know the mathematical formula the Honourable Minister used, when she said the summation of N16 billion Naira and N6 billion Naira was N24 billion Naira.
“I think somebody needs to resit her WAEC mathematics examination. And we in WAEC have offered to give her a free WAEC form in this respect.”
Adeosun has come under heavy criticism for poor performance since her appointment as Minster of Finance with some calling for her resignation following the 2016 budget fiasco and the crash of the Naira.