Prof. Ishaq Oloyede’s courage in admitting Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) errors in the 2025 UMTE Exams, quite commendable.
Not everyone possesses the courage to admit their mistakes publicly. Many will rather blame others or try to “explain’ the situation. They will try to justify that such mistakes do happen and that they are not God; hence, mistakes will always happen as they are not claiming to be perfect. Some will even delve into history and cite numerous instances of such errors in the past. They will point out that other sectors are afflicted with such hitches. Yes, many will refer to technological glitches.
I watched a man in tears, so pained that the huge mistakes occurred undetected early enough, taking full responsibility with apology. He also provided a remedy to the victims. That is pure courage.
I respect my former boss, Osita Chidoka, the then Corps Marshal of FRSC, for similar courage. Upon my resumption as the Head of the Policy, Research, and Statistics Department in 2013, I undertook a thorough review of the FRSC Road Traffic Crash records for the past three years and discovered that 3 years of data were under-reported. I made a presentation to management to draw attention, recommending that the incorrectly published data be retracted. Tough decisions. Many members of the management felt that it would be too damaging to the reputation of the FRSC. They argued that the data had been published in the last 3 years’ annual reports and circulated globally. Many reminded us that the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD), and other international organisations already had the data, and turning around to say the data were no longer correct would create doubts about our future data releases. Some even believed the Federal Government might feel embarrassed, and of course, such had consequences.
CM Osita allowed and keenly listened to every contribution. He asked me to come with more facts and reminded us all that “only God we trust, everyone must come with justifiable evidence”. Each time a management staff member went to him to convince him not to repudiate the statistics, he would send for me and ask the person to repeat the argument and that I should respond. Then at the next management meeting, I made a further convincing argument. Osita Chidoka kept quiet for a moment, then he said, “Gentlemen, since this is a genuine mistake and we did not falsify or intentionally decide to mislead, I am ready to go with Figaro to repudiate the data with explanation and offer the necessary apology. We should publish the correct data. Good, we discovered the mistakes internally; it would have looked somehow if some stakeholders had done that portraying us as insincere, that we are trying to present ourselves as good and performing”.That was a great courageous moment.
Then, there is a further test of courage. We were in Burkina Faso for the West African Road Safety Organisation meeting, where other nations praised our activities, including our data management, which they deemed worthy of emulation. CM Chidoka was the President. How do you throw away the same data being commended to the high heavens? A colleague of mine whispered to him during the break to reconsider his position. He welcomed me to “listen to my friend again. Then another level of argument. Then he ruled, “There is no going back; other nations should also learn transparency from us. They should understand the integrity of data. Data credibility is key, and we discovered there were mistakes, so we should be able to accept the errors and correct them. He drew the attention of all to the decision and replaced the earlier published data with the correct ones, which were higher. He subsequently directed that, the next annual report should contain the repudiated data and the corrected ones. That was inspirational.
I believe some staff and stakeholders of JAMB would have attempted to discourage the Registrar from publicly admitting the errors. Some of his friends could have warned him of the consequences, but our cerebral Professor took the path of honour, even though it was painful to see tears drawn from him. That is the way to go. Highly commendable. God bless you, Prof.
*Dr Kayode OLAGUNJU, mni, Deputy Corps Marshal, rtd sent in this piece.
