- The Omorieves, and other parents, are no longer moral guides for their children
Recent reports that a man and his wife were apprehended in the act of writing papers for two of their children in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) are sad reminders of the moral quagmire Nigeria finds itself in.
The cheating couple, Frederick and Evelyn Omorieve, were arrested while writing papers in a so-called “miracle centre” in Delta State. Their decision to embark on this adventure in mercenary parenting apparently came from the repeated failures of the children in previous examinations; and the fact that several friends and neighbours had gotten away with similar strategies in the past.
This is the epitome of dysfunctional parenting: the Omorieves were not only unable to keep their children on the right path, they actively steered them down the highway of moral turpitude — and eventual damnation.
In this regard, they are similar to parents who pay others to write examinations for their children and those who bribe invigilators to look the other way while their offspring engage in atrocious acts of blatant cheating.
In addition to exemplifying depraved parenting, the Omorieves have also committed a crime, for which they must be punished. Apart from examination malpractice, they should be charged with conspiracy, impersonation and fraud, at the very least, and must answer for these offences.
The police must ensure that they get their day in court; perhaps if these crimes are treated with the seriousness that they deserve, Nigerians will be less inclined to dismiss them as “minor” issues, in comparison to kidnapping and armed robbery.
It is difficult to overestimate the extent to which this case reveals the ethical desert that Nigeria has become. This is now a country where a 66-year old retired federal civil servant and his wife feel no shame in perpetrating examination malpractices on behalf of their children, and in fact consider it a worthy act of selflessness on their part.
If what the Omorieves did was morally reprehensible, more troubling is the fact that existing social attitudes and institutions conspired to make it easier for them to commit their crimes. They were not the first to do it: others had also written examinations for relations with resounding success.
The country is riddled with a profusion of miracle centres, compromised supervisors and corruptible invigliators who routinely allow the grossest abuses of the examination process to go ahead in return for money. There are the widespread amoral social attitudes which contend that nothing is really bad or unethical if it results in financial and other benefits.
Fortunately, there are signs that Nigeria has begun to understand the danger of the situation it finds itself in. The most prominent of these signs is the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as president. Campaigning on an anti-corruption platform and bolstered by unimpeachable personal integrity, Buhari has brought more positive perspectives to the way the country is run. In less than four months, he has shown the citizenry that unethical behaviour will no longer be permitted in public office.
This promising start must be built upon by the Nigerian people. It must be no longer considered acceptable to adopt morally flexible attitudes simply because there is some benefit or advantage to be gained. Ethnic, religious and other primordial interests should no longer determine responses to patently criminal acts.
It is also time that existing legal sanctions against examination malpractices are properly enforced. Even though there is the Examination Malpractices Act of 1999, as well as the amended WAEC Act, culprits rarely go to jail; few are even put on trial.
If these laws are fully utilised, cheating in examinations will be seen as a criminal offence that it is, as opposed to an act of parental love that many misguided citizens consider it to be.
‘If what the Omorieves did was morally reprehensible, more troubling is the fact that existing social attitudes and institutions conspired to make it easier for them to commit their crimes’
