Prof. Oloyede and JAMB’s finest hour

He was a Vice-Chancellor at the premier University of Ilorin in Kwara State for five years. But, it is now that he is the incumbent Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), that Professor Ishaq Oloyede is regularly getting superlative reviews on both the traditional and social media circuit.

The erudite Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence has received flurry of effusive adulations, instead of sneering condemnations, since President Muhammadu Buhari tasked him with the exigent assignment of ‘individually’ sanitizing the tertiary institutions’ admission processing agency.

Under Prof. Oloyede’s pragmatic and exemplary stewardship as JAMB’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the board has recorded many exceptional landmark achievements and incredible watersheds. The former UNILORIN VC has outstandingly re-organized the board’s administrative processes, which are aimed at repositioning the agency for optimal service delivery to the general public.

He has also revolutionized the Federal Government’s establishment, hence making it a shining model for others to borrow a leaf from. In contrast to what obtained before, the JAMB shepherded by Prof. Oloyede is now a revenue-generating and money-spinning outfit.

In 2017, the body, under the purposeful and innovative leadership of Prof. Oloyede, raked in N12 billion as revenue, and remitted N7.8 billion naira to the federal government, after deducting its expenses.

Oloyede’s piloted JAMB subsequently remitted additional billions into government coffers in 2018. That the board now annually remits humongous revenue shows that it has succeeded in blocking all loopholes, while checking unnecessary wastages.

The erstwhile UNILORIN Vice-Chancellor has equally blazed the trail in championing critical reforms in the processes of conducting UTMEs and offering of admissions into various higher institutions.

Also, the board has since evolved means to check unscrupulous activities of candidates who engage in multiple registrations by deliberately writing their names wrongly with the intention to claim the result of the one with the highest score and thereafter demand correction of the name, claiming that the fault is not theirs. To check malpractice and ameliorate stress on candidates, JAMB has successfully automated its vital services such as late registration, change of course/institution, printing of admission letter, printing of result slip and correction of data. Hence, their services are now rendered online. The logic behind the aforementioned innovation is to eliminate time wastage and stress in travelling to Bwari, the Board’s Headquarters in Abuja-so as to complete any of the operation.

The revolutions taking place at JAMB, and gallantly midwifed by Prof. Oloyede, may be silent, yet they are ground-breaking. The JAMB of today, unlike previous epochs, has witnessed many ‘beautiful’ moments of unmatched accomplishments. But perhaps, the ‘finest hour’ awaiting the Board is when it will begin to rake in trillions (as revenue), as a result of the anticipated increase in the number of UTME candidates, following a presidential directive slashing the JAMB registration fee to N3,500 from N5,000.

Mahmud, a freelance journalist wrote in from Abuja.