…Says, JAMB registrar ‘uncommon person’
Amid the controversy arising from the glitches in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Yusuf Ali, a professor and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) from Ilorin, Kwara State, has stoutly defended the integrity of Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, a professor, registrar and chief executive of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), over allegation of wrongdoing in connection with the incident.
In a letter he personally signed a copy of which was sent to BusinessDay, Ali said: “Let me make a confession that Prof. has been a personal friend of about 50 years. I need to make this disclosure, so that no one will accuse me of writing this testimonial, without the disclosure of our affinity.
“Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede is one of very few individuals for whom I can swear with the Holy Quran about their honesty, integrity, transparency, incorruptibility, Human empathy and selflessness.”
Ali further stated that it was unfortunate that technical glitch engendered by 3rd parties, negatively affected the conduct of the 2025 JAMB examination in some places in the South East and Lagos, and that “This unfortunate incident, has led to the decision to conduct new examination for about 300,000 candidates out of the over 1.5 million candidates that wrote the examination.”
The professor noted that “Many of the commentators seem to forget the clime in which Oloyede operates, that he decided not to take the path of most public servants in our country by treating the complaints about the examination with impunity, has led a few of the commentators to ask for his head.
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“I dare say that the path he had chosen on this unfortunate matter of admitting that there were mistakes, owing up and showing genuine empathy to the victims of this unfortunate event, is a rare occurrence in our part of the world.
“Oloyede has shown that those who operate in our national space are also fallible like all humans and that perfection belongs only to Almighty Allah.
“He has shown candor, honesty, transparency, humanness, and leadership by accepting full responsibility for acts of others because he happens to be the head of the organisation.
“We that know Oloyede closely, can attest to the sleepless nights he usually has, at least, three months before any of these examinations, moving physically, sometimes at very unreasonable hours of the day to visit the various offices of JAMB all over Nigeria in preparation for these examinations.”
According to Ali, “No serious leader will abandon his people at the time of a crisis, which is what his resignation at this point will translate to. This unfortunate incident happened under his watch and it makes a lot of sense, that he should not abandon ship but be manly enough to see to the end of the problem. Good leadership is not about taking flight when negative issues arise.
“I therefore, attest to the patriotic and nationalistic credentials of Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede. We should also remember, this is not his first public duty assignment. He excelled in his former assignments to the admiration of all.”
