Why Professor Is-haq Oloyede of JAMB is an uncommon person, By Yusuf Ali

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No serious leader will abandon his people in a time of 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 man enough to see to the end of the problem. Good leadership is not about taking flight when negative consequences arise.

Let me make a confession that Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the registrar and chief executive of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), 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.

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Mr 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.

It was unfortunate that a technical glitch engendered by third parties negatively affected the conduct of the 2025 JAMB examination in some places in the South-East and Lagos. This unfortunate incident has led to the decision to conduct a new examination for about 300,000 candidates, out of the over 1.5 million candidates who wrote the examination.

Some commentators seem to forget the clime in which Oloyede is operating. 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 commentators to ask for his head.

I dare say that the path he had chosen on this unfortunate matter, of admitting that there were mistakes, owning 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 within our national space are also fallible, like all humans, and that perfection belongs only to Almighty Allah.

He has shown candour, honesty, transparency, humanness, and leadership by accepting full responsibility for acts of others, because he happens to be the head of the organisation.

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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.

No serious leader will abandon his people in a time of 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 man enough to see to the end of the problem. Good leadership is not about taking flight when negative consequences arise.

I therefore attest to the patriotic and nationalistic credentials of Mr Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede. We should also remember that this is not his first public assignment. He excelled in his former assignments to the admiration of all. In-sha Allah, his tenure at JAMB will not be different.

Yusuf Ali is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).