From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano State government on Saturday insisted that the state topped the overall performance chart in the Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE Internal) results released by the National Examinations Council (NECO).
A statement by the State Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Waiya, faulted the performance ranking by Premium Times, which ranked Abia State in the first position and placed Kano State in the 29th position, ahead of only eight Northern States.
In the statement, the government said the online publication was “not only misleading, malicious but also a calculated attempt to distort the facts presented by the National Examinations Council (NECO)”.
The statement recalled that during the official release of the results, the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, had clearly announced Kano State as having produced the highest number of successful candidates, with five credits including Mathematics and English Language.
“This is the most credible and universally accepted yardstick for determining overall performance in national examinations,” the statement said.
“Contrary to the so-called selective data interpretation being peddled, the NECO Registrar’s statement remains the most authoritative and credible declaration of the examination performance ranking by states for any sensible, reasonable person or organisation to rely upon,” they stressed.
“The claim that some other state topped the performance table is therefore a gross misrepresentation of the facts and a calculated attempt at manipulating public perception and the positive image the state government enjoys owing to the stellar performance of the Kano State’s students at the 2025 NECO exams,” they argued.
“We wish to make it abundantly clear that no amount of scripted propaganda or politically motivated conspiracy can rewrite the truth. Kano State remains the most successful state in the 2025 NECO SSCE, and history has already recorded this milestone,” the statement held.
Sunday Sun recalls that a performance report by Premium Times on candidates’ performance in the just-released NECO Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE Internal) ranked Abia State (83.31 per cent) as the topmost performing state. The report said that Abia State was followed by Imo State (83.9 per cent), Ebonyi State (80.60 per cent) and Anambra State (76.80 per cent) and Bayelsa State (73.88 per cent).
The report ranked Kano in the 29th position adding that the state was able to out-perform Yobe State (48.13 per cent), Adamawa State (47.99 per cent), Plateau (46.46 per cent), Borno State (44.72 per cent), Jigawa State (43.81 per cent), Katsina State (42.89 per cent), Zamfara State (42.12 per cent) and Sokoto State (35 per cent).
The report held that what Kano State government had touted as ‘top-performance’ was actually population of candidates.
“What Kano led with was population as it housed more than 10 per cent of the candidates who sat for this year’s examination and just five per cent of candidates who secured at least five credits, including English and Mathematics,” said the report.
The report stressed that of the total number of candidates presented by Kano State for the 2025 NECO (SSCE internal) examination, only 48.84 per cent secured five credits, including English and Mathematics.
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