‘Our set took Hausa paper in 1961’

A former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice
Umar Abdulahi, has again debunked insinuations
that Hausa language was not offered as a subject
in the Cambridge/West Africa School Certificate
Examination in 1961.
This came even as the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate, now known as
Cambridge Assessment, confirmed on Friday that it
offered Hausa along with some other African
languages in the 1961 WASC examination.
A statement on the Cambridge Assessment’s
website on Friday had read in part, “According to
the Regulations for 1961, African Language papers,
including those for Hausa, were set for the West
African School Certificate.”
The allegation that Hausa was not offered by
Cambridge/WASC in 1961 became a talking point
after the All Progressives Congress presidential
candidate in the February election, Maj.-Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), obtained and released
a copy of the master list of results of his 1961 set
at the Provincial Secondary School, Katsina (now
Government College, Katsina).
Abdulahi, who earlier confirmed that himself and
some other prominent Nigerians wrote the final
WASC examinations at the Provincial Secondary
School, in Katsina, also confirmed to our
correspondent on Sunday that his set wrote Hausa
paper.
“There were a lot of options. There was Hausa,
there was Arabic language in 1961,” he said.