2023: Kogi Gov, Bello bans payment of WAEC fees for candidates by donors

The government of Kogi State says that private people can no longer pay students’ WAEC fees or give them any other kind of help.

The occurrence occurred in the context of Natasha Akpoti-Uduanghan, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Kogi Central Senatorial district, who promised to cover the WAEC costs for children enrolled in Central district schools.

The decision was made, according to Cecilia E. Cook, Executive Chairman of the Kogi Level Science, Technical Education, and Teaching Service Commission, because of the nation’s current state of insecurity.

The state administration told all secondary school administrators that if they didn’t follow the order, they would be fired.

According to the letter, all public and grant-aided school principals must request approval from the commission for any internal or external initiative.

Because of the security situation in our country, all STETSCOM Zonal Directors are required to remind all zone principals that participation in Zonal programs outside of schools and in external programs outside of the state is subject to STETSCOM administration approval.

The Zonal Directors should firmly inform the principals in their zone that if any principal disobeys this order, he or she will unquestionably be shown the door. Please strictly abide by this directive, as the letter requests.

Recall that on December 11, 2022, Natasha H. Akpoti-Uduaghan pledged to contribute five million naira to help Kogi Central parents ease the strain of paying the WAEC fees for their children in the five local government areas of the senatorial district.

The students in Kogi Central who would have benefited from the PDP senatorial candidate’s generosity are the ones who will be most negatively impacted by this state government edict.

The Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan Campaign Organization, on the other hand, said that the Kogi State government’s decision to stop paying WAEC fees because of security concerns was unfair and an attempt to punish even more the students whose parents had not been paid and were unable to pay their WAEC fees.