By Bashir Adefaka
“If not that he represented the Ummah well as noted by His Eminence the Sultan, who would have known that JAMB, which regularly had and still has its budget allocation from Federal Government annually, was actually a credit worthy (I didn’t say money making) institution until the Secretary General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Oloyede, started returning what was and is left unspent in the range of N5 billion, N7 billion etc to the coffers of government? On that note, I rest my case.”
When in the post-2019 election I canvassed for greater position such as Minister of Education for Professor Is-haq Oloyede in appreciation of his unprecedented performance in the Office of Registrar/Chief Executive of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), not many saw what made the Abeokuta, Ogun State-born professor deserve such image laundering from the ink of my pen.
I just continued to believe that I was not wrong and not asking for too much. However, unlike me, I was quick to rescind the campaign when I discovered some of the rots in the university system and saw with Oloyede how the solution can come through rejig and reforms of JAMB.
To my surprise, the rots in university system are so enormous that, much as the former Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin tried to bring higher education to the reach of every Nigeria through a deliberately created link point between the highly brilliant and not too brilliant, so that there will be no reason for anybody to suffer illiteracy, some of the universities still found a way to making sure it did not come to the feel of targeted class.
It is so bad that those who are brilliant don’t even get admission on a platat of gold as it has always, mostly, been on “who you know”. Some of the universities have expanse of space and resources to build multipurpose halls, markets, international schools that are mostly owned by staff and allow space for social activities but which cultists on campus use as meeting point, but they cannot afford to build as many lecture halls as possible for the expansion of admission number so that Nigeria can have once and for for all an experience whereby all students that pass JAMB get admitted.
But no, to them university education is not for all. Whereas the academic teachers have their own way to the frustrations, the managements too don’t give a damn. And so we continue with the regular but unfortunate norm of “Nigeria where things don’t work”.
Professor Is-haq Oloyede is the very milestone that, ever in history, has changed that narrative and insisted on a paradigm shift for the system to work. With his shining example in JAMB, we now have a “Nigeria where things have worked” and can be made to continue to work with the right people in place. To build on that, I believe, informed the new demand for a bigger role for Oloyede by Abass Adetunji, a Nigerian in Diaspora America.
The figure-happy journalist and scientist said: “With what the likes of academics such as Professor Ojerinde perpetrate in office, we cannot but think of a bigger role for the likes of Professor Oloyede in 2023, we should always insist no matter what that only our very best, both in learning and character, should taste public office!”
Well, the Sultan of Sokoto, Dr Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, was right when in Aiyede Ekiti, on November 18, 2018 he noted that Professor Oloyede had represented the Muslim Ummah well in government by doing what was right without jeopardizing the rights of others.
If not that he represented the Ummah well as noted by His Eminence the Sultan, who would have known that JAMB, which regularly had and still has its budget allocation from Federal Government annually, was actually a credit worthy (I didn’t say money making) institution until the Secretary General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Oloyede, started returning what was and is left unspent in the range of N5 billion, N7 billion etc to the coffers of government? On that note, I rest my case.
*WAKE UP is column article of Lagos based Journalist and media and publicity consultant, Prince Bashir Adefaka. Reach him via thedefenderngr@gmail.com or call him to 08163323906.
