“On behalf of JOEG (JAMB Equal Opportunity Group), I extend our heartfelt solidarity and unwavering support to the Registrar, the entire JAMB leadership and all candidates affected by the recent developments. We commend the Registrar’s integrity and accountability in addressing the matter.” With these soothing words, former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and current Chair of JOEG, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, spoke the minds of many compatriots as the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, weathers the raging storm unwittingly thrown at his board in the aftermath of the recently conducted Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Not done yet, Okebukola said in a statement he personally inked in Abuja that Oloyede demonstrated “candour, courage and transparency” in responding to public concerns and in detailing the technical errors that affected some examinations centres.
Okebukola was not alone in expressing solidarity with Oloyede, as the Rector of the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, Dr. Adedotun Abdul, said, “Professor Oloyede’s heartfelt apology and assumption of full responsibility demonstrates commendable leadership and integrity. His commitment to transparency and prompt corrective measures, including the rescheduling of examinations for affected candidates underscores his dedication to upholding the credibility of our educational assessments.”
Many other Nigerians have continued to commend Oloyede for his gentlemanly behaviour by taking the full blames for the outcomes of the examinations.
JAMB, as it usually does yearly, had recently organised and conducted the UTME nationwide. But, when the candidates started receiving their results, not a few of them were disappointed and unnerved with what they got. Their hopes of gaining admission into various higher institutions of their choice seemed to have been dashed. Sadly, one of them, 19-year-old Faith Timileyin Opesusi, traumatised beyond redemption by the 146 she reportedly scored out of a total of 400, regrettably committed suicide in Lagos.
Of course, many Nigerians were puzzled by the mass failure in the examinations, which the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, justified by saying all the anti-malpractice measures put in place by his ministry for all public examinations had started yielding fruits. But, the candidates and many others whose expectations were not met by the outcomes of the UTME refused to be pacified by the minister’s justification. To them, a situation where about 75 per cent of the 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the examinations could not score up to 200 called for investigation and a general review.
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The hue and cry over the poor results led to the revelation by Oloyede on May 14 that some glitches had been discovered to have affected the conduct of the UTME mostly in the South-East and Lagos.
Teary-eyed and apologetic, the registrar told a press conference in Abuja that of the 882 centres nationwide, 157 centres, with 65 in Lagos Zone and 92 in Owerri Zone, comprising all the five states in the South-East, were impacted by the glitches caused by one of the JAMB’s service providers.
A total of 379,997 candidates in Lagos Zone (206,610) and Owerri Zone (173,387) were affected. They have since started retaking the examinations. This is a right step in the right direction.
What happened with the examinations is a confirmation that only Almighty God is infallible, that the best of technology can disappoint us when we least expect, that humans can manipulate any technology to satisfy their whims and caprices and that no system is totally fool-proof. When any of these happens, the way out is to look for a practical and workable solution that will assuage the feelings of those affected, which JAMB has humbly done.
Watching the 70-year-old Oloyede shedding tears on national television, while apologising to Nigerians for the embarrassment caused him and JAMB by some negligent individuals, was quite pathetic.
By accepting responsibility for the errors, Oloyede, a former technology-savvy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), has demonstrated what many Nigerians in public offices hardly do: apologise when they err. A large number of them in similar situation like him will stubbornly refuse to acknowledge any glitch, no matter how glaring, and will never apologise and do not care whose ox is gored, making the distressed candidates to continue licking their wounds amidst missed admission opportunities.
Each drop of tears from Oloyede’s eyes is a confirmation that he was pained to the bone marrow that after all the efforts put in by his board to seamlessly organise this year’s UTME, the identified glitches have thrown spanners to them.
Since taking over the mantle of leadership of JAMB on August 9, 2016, Oloyede has changed the way Nigerians hitherto viewed the board. He has consistently demonstrated that the board should be self-sufficient and even contribute its quota to government purse. He has also shown that with modern technology, which he introduced in the conduct of UTME and other operations of JAMB, the organisation could be more effective. All this and many more have earned him the respect and admiration of many Nigerians. This is the more reason why he should not be scapegoated over these glitches.
It takes men with steel minds to take full responsibility and apologise for their mistakes the way the septuagenarian has done.
Those of us who have had encounters with Oloyede one time or the other know that he is a man of his words who deserves all the support and commendations from Nigerians from all walks of life. I can say without fear or favour that he is consistent in honesty. As a man of unquestionably high integrity, those who are vilifying him and have, as usual with Nigerians, reduced the identified glitches to a tribal issue, in an attempt to scapegoat him do not really know who Oloyede is. They are either trying to be deliberately mischievous, or do not understand the nitty-gritty of conducting examinations for a country as wide as Nigeria.
What the professor has done is the way people of integrity behave. It takes real guts to identify your mistakes, accept responsibility, apologise for them and take corrective measures.
Meanwhile, JAMB must do everything humanly and legally possible to avoid a repeat of this kind of ugly incident in future examinations.
*Omolale, a seasoned journalist, sent in this piece from Lagos.
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