JAMB: Ex-NUC secretary praises Ojerinde, admonishes new Registrar

A former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola has lauded the immediate past Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Emeritus Professor Dibu Ojerinde, for “doing exceptionally well as head of the Board.”

He described the transformation that Ojerinde, a professor of Test and Measurement, brought to JAMB as huge, commending the modernisation of the body’s operations during Ojerinde’s nine years as Registrar.

Okebukola, in a statement he signed and made available to newsmen at the weekend, said: “With about nine years as head of JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde has done exceptionally well. The transformation which he took the Board through is huge. He modernised the operations of the Board at such a dizzying pace that I used to fondly call him the “magician” in JAMB. I note that he worked with exceptional directors and I should single out Dr. Yusuf Lawal who oversees Test Administration.”

This is just as Okebukola commended the appointment of Professor Ishaq Oloyede as the new Registrar of JAMB, noting that the Board “is in for a revolutionary time in terms of delivering more effectively on its mandate. Professor Oloyede parades excellent credentials to lead a whole sector like education in Nigeria, hence asking him to head an agency in education is like asking a 5-star, battle-tested general to quell a fight between two area boys in Ajegunle!”

Okebukola noted that he was convinced that with the way Oloyede ran the University of Ilorin as a model for the Nigerian university system and served  as chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and at the continental level, he would be able to “smoothen the rough edges of the unfortunate furore around the 2016 admission exercise.”

The former NUC secretary reiterated the relevance of JAMB, saying “I am unshaken in my belief that at this time in the nation’s higher education development, JAMB is still a relevant player,” warning the Board not to “overstep its bounds by infringing on those areas where the universities should exercise their autonomy.”

“Post-UTME, as originally conceived in 2004, not in its present adulterated form, is still a must if we are to get better quality students for our higher education system. Rather than shut the door on Post-UTME, we should scrape off whatever the universities are not doing right and not throw the baby out with the bath water,” Okebukola further advised.