Sir,  As you return to Maiduguri today,  I wish to draw your attention to some vital burning issues of which directly affect the students that graduated from the state own high school. I hope my letter will reach you in good health.

I tagged it as “Before it will be too late” because I believe what I will discussed below may somehow sound as a contemporary contradiction to other people who as usual felt our actions contradict theirs but posterity is always there to judge us at the end of the tunnel.

Your Excellency, the inability of the Borno State government to settle the 2017 WEAC/NECO had already started causing damages to the future of our dear innocent students, because many of them will surely loose entry into any institution in the country.

Sir,

1. I must commend and acknowledge your outstanding efforts towards focusing on the revival of the state educational system.

On May 29th 2015 which marks the first day you re-turned as the Executive Governor of Borno state, you declare a free and compulsory Education on Borno State Primary and Secondary education system.

It is indeed a great pleasure and I must refer that gesture as an outstanding achievements in the History of Modern Borno, but the crux of the matter now is the implementation.

2. I decided to write this letter, Your Excellency because prosperity will always remember us with our deeds and judge us according to our actions.

3. My main focus precisely is on the settlement of the 2017 WEAC/NECO debt for our students

4. Your Excellency Sir, on 3rd February 2015 the former ‘Commissioner for Education, Barrister Isa Buratai said and I quote

“In order to reduce the hardship being

experienced by parents of the students, who are mainly farmers and traders that lost their means of livelihood to the ongoing insurgency, the state government will be settling the registration fees of the students”

The Commissioner, who spoke during a courtesy visit paid on him at his office by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Borno state chapter, said parents may however be asked to pay 25% of the total cost of the registration fees’

But until date, the payment have not been done for the year 2017, the students are still roaming round the clock to enable them continue with their educational career, while your lieutenant at the State ministry refused to update the parents  of this students and we as their Union leaders.

5. Your Excellency, the brilliants hard-working students have the confidence that they passed their Examinations.

But the inability to access their result have deprived them the right of gaining admission to further their studies.

6. Sir, history has always teaches us that Borno State Students are law abiding citizens who always stood frankly to deliver the long awaited change and continuity.

It is on the above basis Your Excellency, I urge you to:

– Set a committee to review the debt settlement process.

– Make urgent approval of the funds so that the students who applied for tertiary institutions can catch up.

7. As a student leader and having promised the Nigerian students who I effectively represent, I am glad to have brought this to your notice and solicit your support in assuaging the problem. As a father and a leader with listening ears, I am confident that you will come to our aid.

8. Your Excellency, I am certain that you are aware of the current predicament that we have found ourselves as students. We live our life in constant fear of losing access to gain admission as time other students are applying for post utme,  instead of the normal “back to school” excitement that should follow.  You may not know that palpable fear for losing our studentship was tense among Borno State Students as the news of resumption for a new session stared us in the face, instead of the thrill and excitement that normally accompany resumption. It may interest you to know that non of the public school students got their WEAC/NECO results.

9. It is in this direction that I want to express how discontented we are with the actions and inaction of the Borno State Ministry of Education.

10. Your Excellency, lastly as i await your positive respond, I pray for the total restoration of peace and stability in our dear state, Borno.

Signed:

Comrade Shettima Umar

Vice President, National Affairs

National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS)

08066229463