ONE of Nigeria’s most accomplished and widely respected public administrators, Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, bows out of public service at the end of July, leaving behind an enviable record of reforms and an indelible institutional legacy. It is safe to say that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the education sector and Nigeria will miss him when he steps down as Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB on July 31.
Appointed by the late President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016, Oloyede transformed JAMB during his two terms in office. He inherited an institution weighed down by corruption, inefficiency and public distrust. Today, he leaves behind one that has become a model of transparency, accountability and operational efficiency.
His reforms are evident across virtually every aspect of the examination body. In the six years to 2022 alone, JAMB remitted N50 billion to the Federal Government, including N29 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Account and N11 billion for capital projects.
This achievement is all the more remarkable considering JAMB’s notorious past, when corruption had become so entrenched that a staff member infamously claimed that missing money had been “swallowed by a snake.”
