By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA
Eighteen-year-old Emmanuel is determined to study Law at the university. But his dream of pursuing the five-year course is hanging in the balance after two consecutive attempts to obtain a credit pass in English Language.
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The Akwa Ibom indigene also has a deficiency in Government, another subject required for his proposed course of study. He sat for the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, examination in 2023 and the National Examinations Council, NECO, examination in 2024, but failed to obtain the required grades to pursue his ambition.
Ahead of the forthcoming WAEC External examination, Emmanuel says he is leaving nothing to chance. In addition to enrolling for extra-mural classes, he has begun making arrangements to register with what he described as a “miracle centre” where, he believes, he is guaranteed to pass all his deficient subjects in one sitting.
Emmanuel is not alone. Across Nigeria, thousands of young people desperate to secure admission into universities and other tertiary institutions are increasingly being drawn towards examination centres where operators allegedly promise candidates guaranteed results.
Emeka, a 22-year-old native of Anambra State who lives with his parents in Nyanya, Abuja, gave a similar account while speaking with Vanguard at an extra-mural centre in the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday.
“I would do anything to get my papers this time because I have written WAEC two times before. I couldn’t register for NECO because I believed I would pass at credit level once. But I was disappointed, not just once, but twice. I can’t go through that again,” he said, adding that he would register at a centre where he believed he could secure all the required grades.
For 19-year-old Aliyu, a student of one of the public schools in Zone 4, Abuja, the stakes are even higher. Aliyu told Vanguard that he wants to study Medicine and Surgery but is worried about his poor results. He said he plans to rewrite his deficient subjects and is considering a “miracle centre” in the hope of obtaining the grades required to pursue his dream course.
The desperation among young Nigerians to secure admission into their preferred courses through examination centres that allegedly guarantee good WAEC and NECO results is becoming a major concern across the country.
Huge industry
From the North-West to the South-South, North-Central to South-West and South-East to the North-East, the story is increasingly the same: candidates struggling with difficult subjects are being lured by operators promising quick and guaranteed solutions.
Despite sustained efforts by government and examination bodies to curb the menace, examination malpractice remains a persistent threat to the credibility of Nigeria’s education system.
What was once largely regarded as isolated cheating by individual candidates has developed into a sophisticated ecosystem involving candidates, parents, teachers, school proprietors, tutorial centre operators and, in some cases, corrupt examination officials.
When candidates who have not acquired the required knowledge obtain certificates through malpractice, the integrity of those certificates is compromised. Genuine students are placed at a disadvantage, while universities, employers and professional institutions are left with the difficult task of determining whether qualifications presented to them genuinely reflect candidates’ abilities.
At the centre of the crisis is the intense pressure to secure admission. For many Nigerian youths, failure to obtain the required grades in WAEC, NECO or other qualifying examinations is perceived as a major setback, particularly when their desired university course requires specific credits.
The pressure can become unbearable when candidates have written examinations repeatedly without success. This desperation provides a ready market for operators of illegal examination centres.
But behind that promise may be a network of organised examination malpractice involving impersonation, collusion, unauthorised electronic devices, leakage of examination materials and other fraudulent practices.
The situation becomes even more troubling when parents knowingly or unknowingly finance the process because they are more interested in seeing their children obtain certificates than in ensuring that they genuinely acquire the knowledge those certificates are supposed to represent.
How “miracle centres” can be eliminated in Nigeria
Parents must stop financing fraud
One of the first battles Nigeria must fight is at the family level. Parents must stop treating examination failure as a catastrophe capable of destroying a child’s future.
The pressure placed on young people to produce outstanding grades at all costs can push vulnerable candidates into the hands of miracle centre operators.
Instead of financing examination malpractice, parents should invest in genuine academic preparation, including extra lessons, textbooks, digital learning resources and conducive study environments.
More importantly, parents must understand that failure in one examination does not mean failure in life. A candidate can rewrite an examination, change a course of study, acquire vocational skills or pursue alternative educational pathways. What should not become an option is cheating.
Schools must teach, not manufacture results
The school system also has a major role to play. Schools that place excessive emphasis on examination results rather than actual learning can inadvertently create an environment in which malpractice thrives.
In an increasingly competitive education market, impressive examination results can be used by schools as advertisements to attract parents and new students.
This can create pressure on teachers and students to produce results by any means. Government must therefore strengthen inspection and monitoring of schools, particularly institutions with suspiciously high pass rates or repeated cases of examination malpractice.
Schools should be evaluated not merely by the number of distinctions recorded but by the quality of teaching, students’ ability to demonstrate understanding, critical-thinking skills, attendance, infrastructure and compliance with examination regulations.
Continuous assessment needs strengthening
Nigeria must also examine its overdependence on high-stakes final examinations. Where a candidate’s future appears to depend almost entirely on one examination, the temptation to cheat becomes stronger.
A credible and properly monitored continuous-assessment system can reduce the pressure associated with a single final examination. However, continuous assessment must be protected against manipulation.
It should not become another mechanism through which schools manufacture grades for students.
Technology versus examination fraud
Technology provides another important weapon. WAEC, NECO, JAMB and other examination bodies must continue to strengthen biometric verification, candidate identification, computer-based examinations, secure question delivery, electronic surveillance and other technology-driven measures.
Artificial Intelligence-assisted monitoring could also help identify suspicious behaviour and patterns during examinations.
But technology alone cannot solve the problem. It must be supported by reliable electricity, internet connectivity, trained personnel, cybersecurity systems and strict enforcement.
As examination fraud becomes increasingly sophisticated, examination bodies must stay ahead of the criminals developing new methods of compromising examinations.
Go after the masterminds
Perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses in Nigeria’s response to examination malpractice is the disproportionate focus on students.
A candidate caught with a prohibited device may have his or her result cancelled, but the individual or organisation that supplied the device or coordinated the cheating operation may escape serious consequences. This must change.
Law enforcement agencies and examination bodies should investigate the networks behind miracle centres and identify the people making money from organised examination fraud.
Operators, who deliberately establish businesses around examination malpractice, should face prosecution, closure of their centres and other lawful sanctions.
Teachers, school proprietors and examination officials who compromise the integrity of examinations must equally be held accountable.
The message should be clear: examination malpractice is not a harmless shortcut; it is a criminal enterprise capable of destroying the credibility of the entire education system.
Tighter accreditation of examination centres
The accreditation and monitoring of examination centres must also be strengthened. Centres repeatedly linked to malpractice should not continue operating without serious scrutiny.
Authorities should develop a reliable database documenting malpractice incidents associated with examination centres. Such a system would make it easier to identify repeat offenders and deploy targeted monitoring.
Private schools, tutorial centres and other facilities involved in examination preparation should also be subjected to appropriate regulatory oversight.
Students need a new orientation
The battle cannot be won through arrests and surveillance alone. Students must be taught that education is about knowledge, competence, discipline and character, not merely the acquisition of certificates.
Academic integrity should form part of school-based moral and civic education.
Students struggling with particular subjects should be encouraged to seek academic support early instead of waiting until examinations are imminent before searching for fraudulent alternatives.
They must also understand that an examination result obtained through malpractice may open one door temporarily but leave them unprepared for the challenges beyond it.
Nigeria must reduce its certificate obsession:
The wider Nigerian society must also confront its obsession with certificates. A young person who fails an examination should not be branded a failure.
Nigeria needs to expand legitimate alternatives through technical and vocational education, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, professional training and other skills-based pathways.
If young Nigerians have multiple credible routes to build successful careers, the desperation surrounding a single examination may reduce significantly.
Government must therefore invest more aggressively in technical and vocational education and create stronger links between training, industry and employment.
WAEC, NECO, JAMB must share intelligence
The country’s examination bodies cannot afford to operate in isolation. JAMB, WAEC, NECO, the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, state ministries of education and security agencies need stronger intelligence-sharing mechanisms.
A candidate or examination centre repeatedly implicated in malpractice should not be able to exploit gaps between institutions. Information sharing can help authorities identify repeat offenders, impersonation networks, suspicious examination centres and unusual patterns in examination results.
Expose the scale of the problem:
Government and examination bodies should also publish credible periodic reports on examination malpractice.
Such reports should provide information on the number of affected candidates, cancelled results, sanctioned centres, prosecutions and emerging forms of malpractice.
Transparency would strengthen public confidence and demonstrate that the authorities are actively protecting examination integrity. However, enforcement must remain based on credible evidence and due process.
The real solution
Ultimately, Nigeria cannot arrest its way out of examination malpractice. The country must attack both the demand and supply sides of the problem.
Parents must stop financing fraudulent success. Students must reject shortcuts. Schools must return to genuine teaching. Examination bodies must strengthen technology and supervision. Government must prosecute organisers and corrupt officials. Security agencies must dismantle the networks making money from examination fraud.
Most importantly, Nigeria must restore the value of genuine education. The battle against miracle centres is not simply about preventing a candidate from carrying answers into an examination hall. It is about protecting the meaning of a Nigerian certificate.
If a certificate can be purchased through a miracle centre, the damage goes far beyond one candidate. It undermines universities, employers, professional bodies and the credibility of Nigeria’s entire education system.
The country must therefore begin treating examination malpractice as a national integrity crisis, rather than merely as student misconduct. Until the lucrative business model behind miracle centres is dismantled and genuine academic achievement is rewarded, the operators will continue to reinvent themselves, and desperate candidates like Emmanuel will continue to see them as a possible escape route to their dreams.
Vanguard News
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