Nwajiuba said this during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja.

The minister, however, expressed optimism that the date for resumption was around the corner, adding, that “we are not going to be brandishing dates.”

He disclosed that he and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, met some stakeholders in tertiary education earlier in the day on the issue.

Nwajiuba said about 78 privately-owned universities were insisting that they were ready for resumption while the response from government-owned universities was still “50-50.”

He said that after aggregating opinions, he would return to the PTF to review the situation and then go ahead to make a pronouncement.

The minister urged students of tertiary institutions protesting the continued closure of their schools to be a little more patient with the government.

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Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, disclosed this while hosting State Commissioners of Education on Monday in Abuja.

Oloyede also said the registrations for its mock examinations would hold between Jan. 13 and Feb. 1, 2020 while the mock examinations would hold on Feb. 18, 2020.

He explained that the registration for the 2020 UTME and Direct Entry would also run simultaneously between Jan. 13 and Feb. 17, 2020.

According to him, the board is bringing in the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as directed by the National Assembly and Federal Executive Council, to conduct the 2020 UTME.

He, therefore, urged prospective candidates to approach any NIMC enrollment centre to obtain the NIN to enable them register for the examinations.

“Everybody must rise up and support NIMC. We are also bringing in Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) to help in monitoring the Computer Based Centres (CBT).

“We also have the advantage of the Galaxy Backbone. Each of the CBT centres has been mapped with NIMC enrollment centres.

“Meanwhile, over 40 per cent of the candidates have already obtained their NIN.

“This will ease our job because those who have not been able to register can now be transported to NIMC centres at the point of registration,’’ the Jamb boss said.

The registrar also said the importance of a candidate registering with NIN was to eliminate multiple registration which was a problem during the 2019 registrations.

“Our experience last year showed that some candidates registered multiple times so as to perpetrate impersonation. We are aware that examination malpractices start at the point of registration.

“JAMB needs full collaborations of states education commissioners to help sensitise candidates in their various states on the need and importance of the NIN for 2020 registration.

“We have called you to inform you about our preparedness towards the conduct of the 2020 UTME and to pay attention to public examinations in your states and be conscious of proliferation of examination centres to perpetrate malpractices,’’ Oloyede said.

He explained that the board had put in place a Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) designed to prevent institutions from unilaterally changing or proposing a candidate for admission into the programme or courses other than his/her chosen course.

He explained that some institutions had devised a method of offering admission to candidates outside CAPS on their designated portals, saying any institution doing this was putting the future of such candidates into jeopardy.

He, therefore, said JAMB had mandated institutions to give preference to the candidates’ chosen courses.

On the news reverberated on social media of how one Miss Goodness Thomas who scored 302 was denied admission by the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Oloyede said she did not meet the merit score for admission for the chosen course.

Recall that the Thomas had applied to study Medicine but was instead given Human Anatomy by the university.

Oloyede said: “The university did well by offering her Human Anatomy. She came third from Niger and the university picked the first two candidates from her state so she did not meet the merit score for ABU’’.

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Senate’s spokesperson, Sen. Sa’abi Abdullahi, said this while addressing newsmen in Abuja.

He said: “The budget process is on and I can’t tell you this is the specific date it is going to end.

“We are working very hard on it and we want to assure Nigerians that at the end of the day, we will have a budget that will serve the purpose of Nigerians.”

On the upper chamber’s resolution to lift embargo on confirmation of presidential nominees, the lawmaker said “there was an existing impasse between the Executive and the Legislature with respect to confirmation hearing of appointees of the Executive.

“We had a resolution that since the executive is claiming we don’t have the powers to make those confirmations we are not going to consider the nominees they are forwarding to us. This happened since last year”.

It was reported that the Senate, after a Point of Order by Sen. Rafiu Ibrahim (APC-Kwara), lifted the embargo.

According to Abdullahi, the Senate made the resolution “not that they have any iron to grind with anybody.

“But because we believe we must defend the sanctity of democracy and ensure the institutions of democracy, for which the Senate is the apex, must be respected and we believe in doing so, it is in the overall interest of the people”.

He further explained that the upper chamber resolved that it would consider the confirmation of members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

“We will also consider the nomination of the two deputy governors of Central Bank (CBN) who are also members of the MPC so that the Nigerian economy will receive the necessary technical input to ensure that we sustain the growth of our economy.

”And to also ensure we support the executive in walking the economy out of recession.

“We are definitely going to do the confirmation to enable those confirmed to attend the next MPC meeting,” Abdullahi said.

It was reported that the MPC meeting is scheduled to hold on March 19 and 20.

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