NBAIS not religious but educational, says official

• Seeks wider acceptance of certificates

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

An official of the National Board of Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) has clarified that the organisation is not a religious outfit while stressing the need for greater awareness to ensure wider acceptance of its certificates.

The Special Assistant to the registrar of the board, Ustaz Abdul-Lateef Adekilekun, who made this known in Osogbo, said that NBAIS is an examination body like the West Africa Certificate Examination (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO).

Ustaz Adekilekun noted that due to a lack of adequate awareness about the activities of NBAIS, people often misconstrue it as a religious body and its certification as inferior to WAEC and NECO.

Adekilekun said that the NBAIS certificate was in no way inferior to WAEC and NECO certificates and that the guidelines for its establishment were in line with those used for other tertiary institutions in the country.

He said that in spite of the long history of the board and its recognition by the Federal Government, most tertiary institutions in the southern parts of the country were not accepting the use of its certificate for admission due to lack of adequate orientation.

Adekilekun, however, said that since the establishment of NBAIS in 1960 by the then Premier of the Northern Region, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the board has gained international recognition and that the certificate has acceptance in London, Paris, Cairo and other countries through the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Education.

He called on the NBAIS headquarters in Kaduna to organise an all-encompassing stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting, involving the vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, and provosts of colleges of education, among others, on the activities of the board.

He commended the Emir of Kazaure, Alhaji Najib Adamu, who is the NBAIS coordinator in the North, for his commitment to the development of the board, and the board’s registrar, Prof. Yahuza Imam, for the prompt payment of staff salaries and the timely release of students’ certificates.

Adekilekun, who noted that the board was out to blend Arabic education with Western education, said that 26 states in Nigeria were writing the NBAIS examination with 1,750 affiliated schools spread across the country.