For the past few weeks, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been sweating in the wrong places following mounting criticisms over his failure to hold a successful mock United Tertiary Matriculation Examinations ((UTME).
But the story was different at the weekend as Oloyede strutted round the JAMB office in Bwari blessing his staff and fetting them for a job well done for the successful mock Computer Based Tests (CBT). It was held in the country nationwide at the weekend.
Staff got pats on the back, eating ,drinking as they arrived Abuja from different States where they went.
They also began to pray fervently for the main examination to be a resounding success for the sake of their jobs. Staff have been afraid that a failure under Oloyede may re-ignite the push by public universities for full autonomy, including organising their entry tests.
Oloyede has been roundly criticised, especially by his arch enemy, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who many say do not see anything good in Oloyede on account of how he checkmated the national body’s activities in the University of Ilorin where he was Vice Chancellor.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has rounded up a syndicate in Abeokuta, the Ogun State for hacking the network of JAMB.
The syndicate allegedly confessed to been paid N600,000 to do the job.
The deal, according to one of the hackers, was to extend the JAMB network from an accredited Computer Based Test centre in Abeokuta to some cyber cafes for the illegal registration of candidates for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.