The Nigerian House of Representatives, on Wednesday, rejected a motion urging members to adopt at least one public school in their localities for the purpose of paying registration fees for students sitting the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination; the West African Senior School Certificate Examination; and the National Examination Council.

Trouble started when the member representing Etsako Federal Constituency, Edo State, Anamero Dekeri, moved a motion on the “Need to compel JAMB, WAEC, and NECO examination bodies to register students for free in the 2023-2024 examination exercise.”

Dekeri premised his motion on the need to assist poor parents in the face of the harsh economic realities in the country.

“The House notes that one of the major challenges of the low-income-earning parents is the education of their wards, particularly in payment of examination fees,” Dekeri said and urged his colleagues to prevail on the “Ministry of Education to declare 2023 and 2024 WAEC, NECO and JAMB registration free to enable common man have a direct benefit of fuel subsidy removal palliatives.”

He further called on the House to urge “the Minister of Finance, Budget, Economic and Financial Planning to come up with a robust framework that will give the poor masses a sense of belonging in Nigeria.”

Backing the motion, the House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, prayed members of the House to take it upon themselves to adopt at least one public school secondary school, particularly the one they attended, and pay off students’ examination fees. This, he noted would count as a corporate social responsibility on their part.

But the lawmaker representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency, Kano State, Hassan Doguwa, remarked that called on the House to be careful not to compel lawmakers to sign up to paying examination fees.

Doguwa said, “The motion is very good but some of us are already doing this. Let us be careful. We can intervene in any way we can but let this not come in the body of the motion because there is going to be a problem.”

On his part, the lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo Nkoro of Rivers State, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, expressed worry with the use of the word “compel” in the title of the motion, warning that the House lacks constitutional powers to compel the examination bodies to register students for free.

“Let’s say, I picked a school I attended to pay their examination fees, what about the other public schools in that constituency? Does that portray me in a good light before those other schools?” he asked.

When the motion was out to vote, the majority of the lawmakers present at Wednesday’s plenary voted for it to be stepped down and the Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen hit the gavel as the “nays” had their way.

This motion is coming at a time when Nigerians are still condemning the action of lawmakers to spend billions on their official vehicles. It was met with stiff opposition from members of the House.