Just as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was yet to release the results of the candidates who penultimate week sat for the underage screening examination into tertiary institutions in the country nationwide, came the rude shock that the Federal Government had decided to change the current admission process into tertiary institutions in the country by allowing the institutions to decide their choice of students themselves. In effect, JAMB would have lost its essence. To put it more bluntly, the board would naturally cease to exist once that happens because, under the extant arrangement, JAMB is central to the admission process.
I would return to that shortly because this piece actually set out to comment on the underage screening that took place in Abuja, Lagos and Owerri between October 8 and 9. One hundred and seventy-six candidates in all sat for the examination, out of which 84 were adjudged to have finally scaled the hurdle to proceed to the universities of their choice for the 2025/26 academic session, having met the set criteria. This means they have scaled the four-stage screening set for them, having scored at least 320 in the UTME; at least 80 per cent in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE); 80 per cent in the university’s internal screening exercise; and another 80 per cent in the final screening conducted by a JAMB-appointed panel comprising vice-chancellors, civil society representatives, education experts, and other distinguished professionals.
These included Prof. Adamu Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, chairperson of the Lagos centre; Prof Taoheed Adedoja, chairperson of the Abuja centre while Prof. Paulinus Okwelle, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), chaired the Owerri centre.
Prof. Boniface Nworgu, a renowned psychometrician, who chaired the panel in Lagos on October 9, as Prof. Ahmed had to leave after the first day for other engagements; Dr Rafiu Soyele, Provost Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Prof. Lawrence Ezeminye, Vice-Chancellor, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, and Mrs. Mary Millicent Nnawuogo, Principal, Federal Government Academy, Suleja, among others.
A candidate becomes eligible for the next stage only after successfully meeting the requirements of the preceding one. This, indeed, was the issue with one Miss Kareem Kaamilah Omolarami, who scored 371 in the UTME and indeed successfully scaled the first two hurdles but was not invited for the final screening because Nile University of Nigeria to which she had applied wrote to JAMB that she was absent at the university’s internal screening. She therefore automatically became ineligible to continue the process, having missed one stage.
It was interesting how the oral interview session went in Lagos, with Professors Ahmed and Nworgu in charge. The conviviality of the atmosphere was such that could have normalised the blood pressure of the most nervous candidates. It took place largely on a father to son/daughter basis and not as some professors up there looking condescendingly at some kids trying to do what they did several decades ago.
At times, the candidate’s name was an object of joke. While some knew what their names meant (as we usually give people names in this part of the world for different reasons), I remember one of them who said his surname was ‘Arowosaye’ and he was asked the meaning, which he translated as ”one who has money to enjoy life”!
How about welcoming the candidate to the oral interview with ”how are you doing, my son/daughter”? Sometimes, Prof. Nwogu would, during break, chat up the candidates. ‘Are you enjoying your coffee”? Sometimes he cracked jokes with them, drawing laughter. It was such an enjoyable time that I knew some of the candidates would wish never ended. Virtually everyone that JAMB selected for the exercise was a parent indeed; born teachers, too. They had all it takes for such exercise: the patience, stamina, knowledge and what have you.
And JAMB more than spoilt the candidates with food, snacks and drinks.
I observed the process at the Lagos centre which held at the Senate Chamber of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos. Trust Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar and chief executive of JAMB, he would never allow any opportunity pass deserving of a joke without seizing it. The Senate Chamber also happens to be the seat of the highest decision-making authority in the university. In case the candidates did not know, Oloyede made them understand that and how indeed lucky they were to be sitting in such a place when they have not even become ‘JAMBITES’ (students newly admitted into the university). He was right. The candidates were lucky indeed. For those of us who left the university decades ago, the Senate Chamber was a place we looked at with awe from outside. We could only be imagining what the hell was happening in there!
Then, the candidates’ food. There was no doubt that some of them were amazed at what they were served, as they openly confessed that the pieces of meat and fish they were served were adult size. But that was not all. They equally had tea break during which they had snacks and coffee on the two days, all very rich qualitatively, and something to write home about, quantitatively, all paid for by JAMB!
But that is Oloyede for you. As a matter of fact, when the parent of one of the candidates asked him whether the board made any arrangement for lunch for the candidates, the question did not go down well with him as he wondered whether it was possible for any reasonable person to assemble such children without making provision for feeding for them. But then, both the parent and Oloyede were right. It is just because the JAMB registrar cares. Some other organisations would organise such things from morning till evening as JAMB did and the children would have to be catered for by their parents. All they would give them is lunch break; and the candidates, forget their impressionable ages, would have to fend for themselves.
This brings me yet to another aspect of the Oloyede phenomenon: resource management. When I considered the money spent to conduct these examinations in three centres, the calibre of experts that were engaged to ensure that things went well, the facilities used, etc., I keep wondering where the JAMB registrar gets the billions that he returns to the government’s coffers despite all these unforeseen expenses. Considering that this underage screening is novel in the JAMB processes, it means it was probably not budgeted for. Yet, candidates were not asked to pay a dime for its organisation. And I doubt if this would in any way stop the board from returning billions to the government’s coffers at the end of the day, given our experiences in the last few years that Oloyede assumed the front seat in the board.
May be someday, the man would tell Nigerians the magic. I do not want to dwell on this aspect of JAMB’s operations since the coming of Oloyede because it has become a familiar thing. As a matter of fact, the news from JAMB is; if the board cannot remit the billions as it used to do, not otherwise.
If JAMB’S past is anything to go by, then Oloyede is going to leave oversized pair of shoes for his successor when his second term ends. Alternatively, he may have to induct him or her into the secret of the machine that is spinning the billions that he has been handing over to the Federal Government annually in the last eight years. Or better still, show him or her the way to the shrine from where the gods cough up the remittances! What I am saying is that Oloyede’s successor must be ready to continue to ‘su dundun’ as we say in Yoruba land. That is he or she must be ready to excrete something pleasant or sweet! That is one of the lessons and legacies of the Oloyede years in JAMB. Anything short of that is unacceptable.
Be that as it may, let me seek your indulgence to return to the satanic rumour about the Federal Government scrapping JAMB, or making it impotent by stripping it of its role in the admission processes into tertiary institutions in the country. I did not take the rumour with a pinch of salt right from the time it ‘broke’. Mind you, rumours too break, not only stories! I knew it must have been something from the pit of hell. Apparently, some of the people benefitting from the rot in the JAMB of old must have had a dream of such happening. And, just like the Lagbaja episode, ”Omo, anything for me”, and the response: ”Lagbaja, nothing for you”!
Mercifully, the Federal Ministry of Education did not waste time to turn the fraudsters’ dream into a nightmare by issuing a rejoinder signed by the director of press and public relations of the ministry, Boriowo Folasade, on behalf of the minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa. The statement said: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, JAMB remains the statutory and legally empowered body responsible for conducting entrance examinations and coordinating admissions into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.’ It added: ‘The established admission processes through JAMB remain fully operational, and any contrary information should be disregarded in its entirety.’ Thus ended the antics of the satanic dreamers.
All said, that the screening of the underage candidates went without serious hitches in the three centres was due mainly to the fact that it was well organised. Yes, there were minor hitches, especially with some of the parents who accompanied their children; these were generally sorted out without incidents. The fact that many parents indeed came with their children, at least to the Lagos centre, was one proof they were really underage; as in below the minimum 16 years required for admission. In my time, no one followed me because I was old enough to know my left from my right before seeking university admission. That was one of the things two years of Higher School Certificate (HSC) did for us back then.
It was indeed thoughtful of Prof Oloyede who insisted that the examinations should be held on university campuses instead of centres in town. This restricted movement and also made many of the parents to comport themselves. Otherwise, the exercise might not have been as successful as it was. In fairness to the candidates, they were generally calm and law-abiding. But, because babies would always be babies, some of them forgot the original of some of their documents in their answer sheets, particularly the National Identification Number (NIN) slips. Mercifully, they were not too many; therefore retrieving the documents did not pose a serious problem.
I congratulate the 84 candidates who successfully scaled the hurdles. In terms of brilliance, many of them cannot be denied the accolades. From reports globally, Nigeria has got talents. Many of our children, including the very ones we are talking about have all it takes when the matter is academic studies. What has been the central concern of many is whether these children have the mental and physical capacities to withstand the rigours of the environments in our tertiary institutions, with cultism and all.