Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has failed a simple arithmetic after saying that 16 + 6 = 24. While addressing a press briefing recently, the finance minister goofed while doing simple arithmetic and said that the addition of 16 billion and 6 billion would amount to N24billion. Her speech was made during an address as she exposed some anomalies in WAEC examination body where a declaration of N3million is being made out of N16 billion generated.
West African Examination Council (WAEC), Registrar, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, replied the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on comment which accuse the council of fraudulent act.
His response goes thus:
- “It’s not enough to go to the Senate and reel out figures. The minister should know, that what Nigerian students pay to sit for WAEC examinations is simply an operational/management cost, that covers registration, data keeping and management, printing of examination papers, logistics, marking of scripts and production of certificates. And all these cost about N16 billion Naira.
- “WAEC examination is not designed as a revenue generating source for the Federal Government. In fact governments in the past subsidized the examination fees, just to encourage education. The N6 billion she talked about is for payment of salaries and overheads for staff of the council.
- “However, we do not know the mathematical formula the Honourable Minister used, when she said the summation of N16 billion Naira and N6 billion Naira was N24 billion Naira.
“I think somebody needs to resit her WAEC mathematics examination. And we in WAEC have offered to give her a free WAEC form in this respect.”
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