THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has bowed to pressure and suspended the use of National Identity Number (NIN) issued by National Identity Management Commission as a prerequisite for candidates’ registration for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede announced the suspension on Saturday in Abuja following public outcry over difficulties intending UTME applicants were having in trying to enroll and obtain the requisite NIN from NIMC.
The limited centres of NIMC had been overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of Nigerians seeking enrollment in the last few weeks ahead of the commencement of UTME registration exercise.
Apart from the chaotic situations in some of the enrollment centres, there are allegations of demand for bribe against NIMC personnel in order to facilitate enrollment.
Oloyede, however, explained that even though the exercise was statutory, the use of NIN for registration has to be suspended to the next year 2021, because of observable lapses and logistics challenges on the part of the Commission to cope with an upsurge of those wanting to enroll for the NIN.
He advised the candidates to simply send their names to 55019 to commence registration for 2020 UTME as it was done in the previous year.
The JAMB Registrar speaking further at the news conference jointly addressed with the Director- General of NIMC, Mr Aliyu Aziz, said he was sad to announce the suspension in view of the fact the original intention was to eliminate examination fraud perpetrated by fraudsters through multiple registrations.
He, however, warned candidates that nobody would go scot-free if found to register twice, saying the Board was aware of a deliberate campaign against NIMC by “professional examination takers” (fraudsters), to discredit the enrollment exercise “because the Commission was about to break the backbone of their corrupt practices”.
He said the collaboration with the Commission has increased the capacity of the Board in identity management, stressing that many persons were prosecuted last year and that JAMB is even more empowered now to identify all forms of identity fraud and multiple registrations by examination fraudsters.
He said UTME registration would commence on 13th January, 2020, and going by the technical challenges faced by NIMC, there was no way it could capture all intending applicants for UTME and Direct Entry.
JAMB had announced the compulsory use of NIN for UTME registration in October last year as part of the initiative to curb identity fraud and multiple registrations by candidates as a way to cheat in examination.
He said: “You will recall that in compliance with statutory provisions, we commenced making NIN prerequisite for registration for 2020 UTME. This decision was based on law, on directive but more importantly, is the fact that this is the right way to go.
“All nations of the world go that way and we have no option because we cannot be an island on our own. It has been very productive but we got to a point yesterday (Friday) that knowing fully well the registration for 2020 UTME and Direct Entry will start on Monday 13 January to 17th of February, which is five weeks to complete the registration process.
“Everything in the educational sector is programmed. UTME examination must be written before 4th of April, because WAEC starts the 6th of April and immediately after WAEC, NABTEB and after NABTEB, NECO.
“So, every minute count in the education sector. When people are making a suggestion to us to shift the registration forward, they did not know what we know.
“On the basis of this, we came to a very sad position yesterday (Friday) that for 2020 we are not going to use NIN as a prerequisite for UTME registration.
“We are therefore suspending this till the subsequent year 2021, when all candidates would have been given what appears like a one year notice that they would have the opportunity to enroll for the NIN.
“This does not affect our staff. All our staff, permanent and ad hoc who are going to participate in this year exercise would be required to submit their NIN for verification,” he said.
Oloyede disclosed that about 11,000, comprising permanent and ad hoc staff would be participating in 2020 UTME exercise.
He commended NIMC for the efforts so far put in the enrollment exercise, noting, however, that after going around the country in the last one week, it became obvious that the desire to use NIN for registration by candidates was not attainable.
The Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz in his remark, admitted that the Commission lacked the capacity to cope with the upsurge for enrollment in the last few weeks, saying the NIMC has only 1,000 centres nationwide while over 4,000 enrollment centres were required for the exercise.
He corroborated Oloyede’s position that the purpose of the collaboration was to eliminate fraud and examination malpractices related to identity.
Aziz emphasised that it was the role of the government to provide proof of legal identity in the form of unique digital identity for citizens to enable them access to services, rights and protection.
He said: “The upsurge and demand for NIN within the limited centres and facilities have caused us to review and rethink, for us to consider a shift in the commencement date for the use of NIN as a prerequisite for JAMB examination registration.
“This is to give more to time to intending applicants to obtain NIN, roll out more registration centres and equipment nationwide under the digital identity Ecosystem and provide identity authentication and verification services anytime anywhere,” he said.
“Though we have about two million JAMB registers but when they come to our centres, they come with their parents and siblings to say that let’s do this thing once. We calculated and it results to like 10 million people coming to our centres within a short period of time.
“We have only 1,000 centres and based on the standard, we are supposed to have at least 4,000 centres. In the coming year, with the Ecosystem in place, we believe that we will have more than 10,000 centres across the country to eliminate all the rush,” he said.
The DG noted that from JAMB’s data, over 15 per cent of applicants is in Lagos while the other states have less than 5 per cent, adding that the crowd in Lagos was like four times the other states.
He appealed to the public to register to obtain the NIN within the timeline to avoid any future enforcement drive.
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