Oloyede’s sprezzatura

Please forgive me for using the strange, unpronounceable Italian word in the above headline. It is because it fits perfectly into my thoughts on a man called Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the outgoing Registrar of JAMB. Sprezzatura means the art of making the difficult look easy. As Oloyede clears his desk in readiness to hand over the baton to Professor Segun Aina, I consider it a duty to say “thank you” to Oloyede for a gold standard performance at that difficult office he held for 10 years. I had said in one of my columns a few years ago that there are two offices in Nigeria that we always need to sympathise with those who step into them as incumbents. They are Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Registrar of JAMB. The reason for saying so is that what happens in the two organisations can be seriously distorted by those who have interest in making them fail so that they can succeed. Some of our politicians want to win elections by fair or foul means so they are ready and willing to rig elections and give INEC a bad name. Some parents and their children want to get into the university by hook or crook so they are ready and willing to corrupt the JAMB system to achieve their nefarious goal. These renegades therefore make the two jobs difficult, if not impossible, for the incumbents. When Oloyede was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016, JAMB had established a solid reputation for corruption and recklessness. The institution had become a bottomless apology and many people were wondering whether Oloyede had the capacity and integrity to perform the magic of bringing sanity into JAMB. Many people, like me, who did not know him chose to adopt a wait-and-see approach to his appointment. Ten years later, Oloyede is receiving a storm of applause because he was able to make the trains of that difficult organisation to run in time. Most people are happy to give him a full cup of adulation as he leaves the hot seat. This is why.

At the time Oloyede stepped into the Registrar’s chair, JAMB was perceived as reckless, incompetent and corrupt, very corrupt. Some people may have wondered why a brilliant man who got a first class degree, who got a Ph.D at 41 and who became a Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin at 51 chose to accept a job that was likely to ruin his reputation. However, those who knew him said that he was a doer, a performer, and a man of unimpeachable integrity. At that time there was this apocryphal story that snakes and reptiles had swallowed JAMB’s money that was kept in the offices. It was Oloyede’s duty to charm the snakes and get the money out of the stomachs of the snakes and into the wallet of JAMB. He did it almost effortlessly. Since then the snakes seem to have been detained only in their zoos and they no longer have the hunger that only money could kill. That was Oloyede’s doing.

JAMB was set up in 1973 as an examination body for tertiary education. Before this time each university handled the admission of students mainly through Higher School Certificate or Advanced Level GCE and diploma programmes. It was thought that a central admission body would clean up the system where one brilliant student could get admitted into three universities while others got no admission at all. At that time, and even now, there are more students who want to get into the university than available vacancies. The authorities must find a way of ensuring that our young people do not choose to sell pure water and gala on the streets simply because there is a shortage of space for them in our tertiary institutions. Other countries fill such gaps with remedial programmes. Why can’t we? But that is a story for another day.

JAMB was not set up as a money making machine but as an organisation that was to utilize available funds for the achievement of its goal, the goal of admission administration. However, between 2010 and 2016 JAMB managed to remit N50.7 million naira to the Federal Government. Many of us may have clapped for them because we did not expect it to perform as a cash cow. But Oloyede opened our eyes to the possibilities at JAMB. In 2017, his first year in office, Oloyede remitted N5 billion naira to the Federal Government. Yes, N5 billion naira in one year. Then the scales fell from our eyes. And Oloyede did more. He reduced the UTME application fee from N5,000 to N3,500 per applicant in 2017. And even with that reduction in the application fee he still remitted N28 billion naira between 2016 and 2020 to the Government. For the first 38 years of its existence JAMB was able to remit to the coffers of the Federal Government about 50 million naira only. But in the last nine years or so Oloyede has remitted to the Government about 55 billion naira; thus making JAMB a consummate cash cow. That is evidence of Oloyede’s magnificent management of public money.

But Oloyede’s success was not only in the realm of money management. Through a blizzard of innovative proposals he reformed JAMB and made it an orgainsation that works for the public good. Today, JAMB has turmed a page. It is Oloyede who introduced the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), a transparent, online and merit-based platform that allows candidates to monitor their admission status. This has eliminated the corrupt, manual, admission process used hitherto. He also phased out paper-based examination and replaced it with computer-based test (CBT) system. This helped to eliminate the corrupt special centres that operated in various states, centres that were notorious for examination malpractices. Oloyede also established the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG) to ensure that visually impaired and other physically challenged candidates are given equal and fair opportunities to get tertiary education. This is extremely important in a country where such persons are usually, generally, treated with disdain and condescension. This is a philosophy of inclusiveness, a way of saying that no one, not even the handicapped, should be left behind in the task of acquiring the golden fleece. I call this a big tent approach to the management of education.

What fascinates me most about Oloyede is his doctrine of transparency. He publishes the revenue and expenditure of JAMB regularly. That is a way of saying to Nigerians “search me, my hands are clean.” He also holds a regular meeting with education stakeholders, journalists, civil society personnel and better country activists. He stands in front of them and makes elaborate presentations on important issues of the day at JAMB. After that he meticulously answers their questions until they are exhausted. That is the very spelling of accountability. That is the very meaning of transparency. That is the other meaning of integrity. He was always willing to submit his tenure to close scrutiny by allowing himself to be peppered with questions, fair or foul, sensible or stupid. He was always ready to answer them without any display of tantrums. He was always evenhanded as a decent gentleman because he knew that the cooperation that he received from stakeholders evidently contributed to his success. That is the unvarnished truth.

Oloyede has taken JAMB from the ruins of the past to the happy shores of success because of his belief in transparency, accountability and institutional integrity. He evidently brought top drawer quality to JAMB. He succeeded in the art of making the difficult look easy. That is why his tenure is ending in a haze of champagne. Sir, take a bow.