The unread ‘speech’ in Prof Is-haq Oloyede’s tears

In other words, two types of speeches were delivered on the 14th of May, 2025 by the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O) of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB}, Emeritus Prof Is-haq Oloyede, during a media briefing. Indeed, aside from the members of the press that had hitherto been invited to the event, none of us had a prior knowledge of the pendency of that event that day. Again, nobody could ever have predicted or had any inputs into the other ‘speech’ that his eyes were destined to ‘deliver’ that fateful day to men and women imbued with knowledge and discernment. 

Put differently, when the briefing got underway, the Registrar presented two types of speeches to the world: the first was voluntary and deliberate; the second was involuntary, impulsive and irresistible. The first speech was pre-written in the Roman script, labeled a Press Release and read to the whole world; the second, while being un-premeditated, was birthed at that momentous and inimitable intersection of gnosis with logos and mediated to the world – the unforgiving and strange world- by the tears that cascaded his cheeks. Brethren, Prof Oloyede did not have the premonition that after having seeing it all, after having gone through the furnace of life, there were more to be seen; that he was going to be used by the Almighty as a metaphor for our vulnerability, for our utter imperfections relative to His eternal power and inimitable sovereignty in the universe.

Hours before that, I was busy as usual trying to make sense out of the multiplexities of inanities that shape and sharpen our lives as humans, when my son chanced upon the news item on the social media – ‘JAMB registrar shed tears’!. It was simply unbelievable. As if in search of validation, he then came to me and read the headline out loudly for me to hear. I looked him straight in the eyes and muttered: ‘Tears!? Tears?!! Why?’. To dispel the feeling of unbelievability, he then came to me and requested that I watch the video clip. But I could not. I could not bear seeing him in tears! 

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But my refusal to bear witness to that scene of extreme piety and penitence, did not and indeed could not have shielded me from hearing his voice as it cracked; as it became weighed down by the burden of truth, of honesty, of transparency. The prepared speech contained two major elements- copious details about the meticulous preparation of JAMB for the UTME nationwide and the event that preceded the glitches that affected the outcome of the exams in Lagos and in the Southeast. The speech also contained an apology; an apology for ‘sins’ that he ‘committed’- the sin of conscientious leadership, of the uncommon sense of responsibility, of the very rare audacity to show accountability in a land that is populated by men and women who lust after power not for service but for avarice. 

While reading the speech, Prof Oloyede probably experienced some sense of 

inadequacy; he might have felt that the prepared speech appeared not to adequately mirror the depth of his sense of lack of accomplishment regarding the UTME in Lagos and in the Southeast. ‘Have I lost the magic wand?’ Where is the imprimatur of perfection that I have always laboured to achieve?’

Perhaps. Perhaps our beloved Emeritus Prof Oloyede had forgotten, at that moment, one of the statements of the ‘Shakespeare’ of the Arab classical period, Abu-Tayyib Al-Mutannabi, on the slippages, the uncertainties and the vicissitudes of life. Al-Mutannabi once said that ‘he who desires a path to enduring greatness (should be aware) that there can be no mount without a hump’. Perhaps it is that hump that he also hinted at in another line where he says- ‘I found no flaws in humans that is worthy (of great lamentation); that is comparable to the inability of the capable to achieve perfection’.  

Thus, his heart trembled. His soul shook. He experienced momentary annihilation of the self in Him, in his Creator, in whose hands lie the portents of the heavens and the earth. There and then, the Registrar’s soul became illuminated with that light- the light that the Sufis would refer to as al-Marifah: the knowledge of His accountability in front of His Creator. His eye ducts then began to drip. He began to shed tears: tears of hope mixed with fear; tears of fear mixed with hope.

Seized less by pathos but more by the solemnity and the profundity that the media briefing had become, my heart then reached out to him, the same way millions of other well-meaning Nigerians sought to stand by and encourage him not to relent. For example, his well-wishers from Kano, through Prof Aisha, wrote as follows: ‘Inna lillahi wa Inna ilaihi raji’un. This is to commiserate with JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede for the unfortunate incident. Our hearts are already broken by the pains, the stress and anxiety inflicted on him and the entire (management) team of JAMB as a result of the unfortunate incident. Allah will be his strength and see him through these trying times. We are with him’.  

In my short message to him, I said, in part, as follows: ‘Sir, given your track record in that office in the past seven years and going by the quantum and quality of resources that you mobilised for the UTME, only those given to treachery and mischief would accuse you of failure. We all know that there is no sword that is sharper than fate; no human plans can prevent His will from coming to fruition’. 

Before the 14th of May, 2025, Prof Oloyede stood as a rock. On that day, however, the rock cracked open and produced waters of accountability. Our Creator says: “Behold, there are rocks from which streams gush forth; and, behold, there are some from which, when they are cleft, water issues forth; and, behold, there are some that fall down in obeisance to the awesomeness of the powers that hold the heavens and the earth together. (Quran 2: 74). The heart that betrays no emotion is probably sick. The soul that experiences no humility and the awesome powers of the Almighty is indeed “dis-eased”. But why would you suffer hardness of heart? Why would your heart and mine become harder than the inner core of the mountains? Why would your eyes not shed tears whenever you come face to face with His signs? The tears Prof Oloyede shed last week Wednesday was a metaphor; its meaning and the meaning of that meaning is embodied in the uncanny union of sense and nonsense; democracy and demagoguery; and ethnic loyalty versus multiple loyalties in our body politic as a nation!