ON October 10, JAMB’s CEO, Professor Is-haq Oloyede clocked 70. Six days later, he announced what would seem an extraordinary birthday gifting to under-16 university admission seekers, in a dramatic but uncharacteristic shift from his earlier hardline posture on the minimum entry age into universities in Nigeria. If he was a vote-begging, attention-seeking average Nigerian politician or administrator, adept at converting {the word is a bit scary now with this CNG bubble, burst and blast everywhere} every opportunity to a necessity for self-promotion and aggrandizement, the unexpected “amnesty” would have coincided with the birthday anniversary or the 2025 deadline, deliberately lined to fall on October 10, then feign ignorance of the ‘coincidence” if asked. It is a form of deification, while pretending to not want the god status. Even those who are tarnishing the tomorrow of the youths still want immortality and now that they are certain they have lost the hearts of the people, they seek the inscription of their names on every available non-living structure. Haven’t they heard that to live in the hearts of others is not to die? Whatever is named after someone unworthily today can be abolished tomorrow. But the good of man lives after him.
Professor Oloyede is my namesake, though the closest I have come to him, was a flight from Lagos to Ilorin, years back. All by himself and barely engaging, he was business-like, talking animatedly into his phone the moment we disembarked, his visage wearing all the seriousness it could muster. Because I had a prior opinion of him from his UniIlorin days, his demeanor on the said day just fitted perfectly into the construct already etched.
Though my egbon, Mr Bola Bolawole is undoubtedly a huge fan of the tough-looking, tough-talking, fire-eating Mallam and I must confess that most of my positive take on Prof, were from BB’s writings, I still could barely shake off the feeling of “here we go again” and the deja vu of Prof about happening to many young Nigerians when the admission age raged.
Then the acclaimed-unyielding administrator weaved a surprise, playing the understanding grandpa by granting amnesty {my coinage} to thousands of qualified candidates who would have missed admission into universities of their choice this year, simply because either their parents didn’t start the process of having them earlier than when they did or because God, the Ultimate Decider, chose to send them to this world when He did even if their parents were trying hard to have them earlier than they did. None of them is their fault.
I know Prof is a pious Muslim. Infact, it was in Mr. Bolawole’s page I read about his little mosque experiment to end some grifters’ adventure with offerings in the house of God. BB has also alluded to his sense of humour, despite the oft-deadpan public appearances. God can be humourous too.
Or how do you explain Abraham and Sarah having their promised child, Isaac at grave age. Imagine if Isaac had to be restrained by some official policies of the time from making life progress, none of his parents would have tasted what Yoruba would celebrate as “ounje omo’ {fruit of labour}. For parents who started late like Abraham and Sarah, and due to no fault of theirs, can one really blame them if they want to put everything into levelling up, using what they believe they can control; which is seeing their children fast through schooling including university education by pouring time and resources into achieving it, as a way of mitigating what they couldn’t control; which is God answering them when He did.
Life is a mystery and the little of it we understand can still be confounding. Or how does one explain a mentally-challenged woman carrying a triplet and a billionaire not having one for decades? Imagine a man of money having his first child at 55. If the Nigerian policy would strictly apply, and the child is aiming a six-year course like Medicine, it means he would be celebrating the graduation of his first child at 79! So the next time someone wants to bash “rich people” who have been accused of populating campuses with underage undergraduates, he or she should remember Yoruba’s saying for restraint, “ohun to koju si lagbaja, eyin lo ko si lakasegbe” [different strokes for different folks}.
There is still another on restrain for a man on a roll; “eni koko {cocoa} e ba ye lo mo lo {a great result doesn’t suggest mastery or expertise} This is Yoruba preaching grace and the utmost need not to judge the less fortunate.
In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus was very clear about the consequences of being quick to knock others because they are in not-too-demulcent situations. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” the Saviour says
For being a listening grandpa to thousands of admission seekers rescued by his “amnesty”, Oloyede has written his name in the hearts of the un-entitled ones amongst them, because he could stick to his guns, shoot many destines down and still walk away the hero of those pushing to “punish” the children and their “wealthy” parents. I commend my namesake. May his wealth continue to expand in Jesus Name.
Certainly the concept of amnesty dictates that it cant be infinite and open-ended, which makes it a correct call for Prof and his team to arrive at the deadline, because most new session begins in September, though the changing landscape has altered a lot of academic calendars, with some public and private universities yet to be definite about resumption dates, almost a month after their contemporaries have opened classes. Considering this and the mercy that Mallam has decided to extend to the affected teenagers, I am minded to call for an extension of the Amnesty to either October 1, to commemorate Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary, or October 10, 2025 as a mark of honour to the administrator @71.
However, if I have the leverage of Abraham with God before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah {Genesis 18: 22-33}, December 31, 2025 would be my mark, so that every applicant who isn’t 16 now can be covered. Amnesty is usually indulging in nature and these children had no say in when God pushed them out. Imagine, someone being cut off for being born on September 1, 2009!, Prof, should please consider this plea.
In researching into Prof for this piece, I ran into a story published by Premium Times on the very first day of 2017 with the screaming headline, “I have never collected bribe”. He was just four months into his role as JAMB’s numero uno and ASUU had come for him with a petition to EFCC, alleging N2 billion fraud of alleged pension scam, unremitted deductions, extortion of students, contract inflation, kick-backs and unlawful payments to ex-principal officers of UniIlorin.
Hear Oloyede’s defence, “I am extremely selective in accepting gifts from even personal friends. My needs are limited and my legitimate income is sufficient to spend on my volunteer work. I have never in my life collected bribe, inflated contracts, extorted anyone nor accepted gifts beyond “Thank You greeting cards” from any contractor, dead or alive.”
He also said that his response to the allegations was necessary because there was need to “thwart the satanic objective of distracting me from the national assignment which they protested against but failed.”
The last eight years of his headship of JAMB must have settled public opinion about his sense of accountability to God and the handling of public trust bestowed on him as a leader. That is why he doesn’t need any roforofo in the less than two years to his final term, though I suspect if he wants, a ministerial offer may not be far away.
At 70, I celebrate God’s faithfulness to His servant. Being a septuagenarian in today’s Nigeria is a big deal. Prof doesn’t need any big hit to score with the Nigerian public again. God helped him to settle that with the Amnesty of October 16, 2024. Just like many of his generation owe the Sage, Obafemi Awolowo the education they have today, in years to come, many young people of today, would testify concerning the Ogun-born administrator. I wish him well.
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