The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is’haq Oloyede, has said Nigeria is ruled by ‘certified thieves’.
Oloyede said this while speaking at 61st Birthday Colloquium of the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, in Osun on Sunday.
Oloyede, who spoke on “Functional Education as a Tool for National Development and a Gateway to Freedom” said the country’s education is facing difficulties because of “certified thieves at the helm of affairs”.
He explained that the difference between the revenue his predecessors generated and that of his own showed clearly that corruption held sway in JAMB.
“Nigeria is dominated by thieves at the helms of affairs, I mean certified thieves. Let me talk about JAMB for instance, since over forty years that JAMB has been established, the total money generated before we came in is N52 million
“After we finished our examinations for 2017, we generated N9 billion, in which I returned the total sum of N7.8 million to the Federal Government. Members of the National Assembly marveled at this feat; they wondered how I came about the figure. For this year also, I have realised over N9 billion,” he said.
Mr Oloyede also condemned social vices like cultism and prostitution thriving in tertiary institutions.
“You don’t need to use bomb to destroy a nation, just lower the quality of education and allow cheating by students in examinations. Education, being the art of acquisition and utilisation of knowledge is also an instrument in training individuals purposely to make them socially responsible.
“Functional education must geared towards the liberation of humanity from poverty and misery. All in all, education must be functional before it is adaptable.”
He charged Nigerians to ensure that students practice what they are taught as “education is not only about the certificates but its functionality.”
