6 things that will happen in this year's JAMB that have never happened before

The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made some major changes in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for 2017.

6 things that will happen in this year's JAMB that have never happened before

1. No awaiting result

JAMB has announced that candidates who have not received their O’level results will not be able to apply or secure admission in higher institutions.

In a statement released on Tuesday, February 28, the examination body said it was part of its restructuring plan for 2017.

2. Fourth Choice

JAMB has also introduced a fourth choice of school option for candidates but would only be able to select only one government school while filling out their forms online.

3. No choosing of public university

The following was also announced: The new registration platform will now be first choice, second choice, third choice and fourth choice and not most preferred, preferred etc as it was.

Candidates’ first choice can be a College, University, Innovative Enterprises Institutions or Polytechnic/Monotechnic. However, if a candidate makes a Public University his first choice, he will not have any public University to choose for 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice.

He will have on the remaining three choices, a College, a Polytechnic, Private University and IEI’S. However, candidates for the 2017 UTME can now select NCE (College) or ND (Polytechnic/ Monotechnic) as their 1st choice up to 3rd choice and the 4th IEI.

They can select the IEI (Innovative Enterprise Institution, ND) as their 1st choice up to the 4th choice, but can only pick a public university once.

READ ALSO: JAMB introduces fourth choice of school, new policies

4. JAMB form sold late

The organizers of the major examinations in the country, including JAMB met to avoid a clash in schedules and in order to have a harmonized timetable.

An agreement was reached at the national headquarters of the Board in Abuja on Tuesday, January 24, after a meeting with National Examination Council (NECO), West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Business and Technical Examination (NABTEB) to harmonize the timetable.

This is one reason the registration is yet to begin.

READ ALSO: 3 reasons we have not started selling forms - JAMB registrar

5. Mock UTME

While speaking the body also announced that plans were in place for a mock UTME and this might explain the delay in beginning the sales of the examination forms. So if you are preparing, start your preparations now, so you can do well in both the mock and the real deal.

6. No scratch card

Speaking on the issue of scratch card, the registrar explained that one reason for the delay was due to issues the board had with sale of scratch cards.

He said that whereas candidates used to buy scratch cards to access the forms online previously, they planned to cancel that since it had been abused thoroughly.

According to Daily Trust, he said: “What we want to do is for students to pay directly to government coffers and we are working out the process of doing so to avoid the type of abuse that it has been subjected to.

“So, we want to sell directly and to make sure that candidates pay into TSA account. We have cases of students saying their scratch cards got burnt, others saying their scratch cards were swallowed by snakes or lost in an accident.

"read more

Survey: What should Nigerian Government use funds recovered from alleged corrupt politicians for?

Over the last few months, the Nigerian government claims it has recovered huge sums of money running into tens of billions of Naira from alleged corrupt for met public officials.

The funds are said to be part of the embezzled funds recovered in its anti- corruption fight, some with the aid of its whistle blower policy.

Government has not specifically said how the recovered funds will be put to use, but what do you think they should be channeled into, given that they were not provided for in the 2017 budget.

Corrupt Nigerians burying stolen funds in caskets

Corrupt Nigerians burying stolen funds in caskets –Senate alleges

The Senate has said corrupt Nigerians are hiding stolen money in caskets and uncompleted buildings in remote villages in some parts of the country.

The Senate made the claim during the consideration of a motion, moved by Senator Dino Melaye on Wednesday. The motion tagged ‘Discrepancies in subsidy payment and non-remittance of funds by the NNPC to the federation account.’

Senator Melaye who made the claim, did not provide any substantial proof to support his claims. “Monies are not accounted for and that might be the reason why we now see petro-dollars buried in caskets and uncompleted buildings in remote villages in some parts of the country,” he claimed.

Senator Melaye, had in a point of order on Tuesday, drawn the attention of the Senate to the refusal of the Federal Government to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which he said got 51 out of 100 per cent share of companies sanctioned to import petroleum products into the country.

Melaye had said all the oil marketers currently facing trial over alleged subsidy fraud, only constitute 49 per cent of imported refined products.

He had said: “Surprisingly you (Saraki) are one of those who raised the issue of subsidy in the 7th Senate. The Federal Government is prosecuting marketers and these marketers only constitute 49 per cent of imported refined products. The NNPC is responsible for the importation of 51 per cent.

Read also: Drama, as Senate screens 82yr old nominee

“While we are prosecuting the independent marketers whose proceed from subsidy is about N3.83 trillion, NNPC collected a total of N5.1 trillion on subsidy and this has never been investigated.

“This has never been looked at and we are busy chasing independent marketers. The time to look at the books of NNPC as regards petroleum subsidy is now.

“We have taken the lead in the fight against corruption in this chamber and I want to say we must do everything within our powers to investigate and bring whoever is found wanting to book.”

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, had given a nod to Melaye’s plea to sponsor a motion on Tuesday. “Thank you Senator Melaye for that radical performance.

“Senator Melaye, we expect this motion on Wednesday (yesterday) and its a very serious issue. It goes to the core of the fight against corruption and also the issue of NNPC which is a great source of revenue for all of us. We will wait for that motion today,” Saraki had noted.

After a brief debate on the issue , the Senate mandated its committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to exhaustively review and investigate the NNPC over its accounts relating to fuel subsidy and the abuse of product marketing and distribution between 2006 and 2016