Fresh facts have emerged on the sacking of Prof. ‘Dibu Ojerinde as the<\/p>\n
Registrar\/Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board
\nby the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
It was learnt that Ojerinde has long been penciled down for sack by
\ngovernment because of his ‘fight’ and disagreement with the Minister of
\nEducation, Mallam Adamu Adamu, over the 2016 admission exercise into
\nUniversities and other tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n
Their disagreement was said to have deepened after the cancellation of the
\nPost-Universities Tertiary Matriculation Examination by the Minister.<\/p>\n
Several calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages to Ojerinde for response to his
\nsack were not replied as his phones have been permanently switched off.<\/p>\n
Adamu was said to have waited for an opportunity to clean up the education
\nsector where many other chief executives would be affected.<\/p>\n
“For us, the removal of Ojerinde as Registrar\/Chief Executive of JAMB did
\nnot come as a surprise. The Minister is very smart because he knew he was
\ndealing with a Professor. What Adamu did was to wait for an opportunity
\nwhen many CEOs would be involved.<\/p>\n
“If Ojerinde had been sacked earlier, it would be seen to be
\npolitically-motivated. But now that many of them were affected, nobody can
\nread politics into it”, a source in the Education Ministry who pleaded
\nanonymity stated.<\/p>\n
Another source gave a detailed explanation on the cold war that had been
\nbrewing between Ojerinde and Adamu.<\/p>\n
He said, “After the cancellation of the Post-UTME, it was clearly stated
\nthat admissions will be based on the three criteria of Merit, Catchment
\nand Educationally Less Developed States. Since there is no Post-UTME,
\nafter sending them the bigger list, what Ojerinde did was, to prepare a
\nlist that reflected these three criteria.<\/p>\n
“Nobody knows what the authorities of Universities told the Minister and
\nbased on whatever they may have told him, Adamu advised him to withdraw
\nthe list in his own interest. Ojerinde is another stubborn person,
\nespecially if he knows he is very right in what he is doing. He declined
\nand refused to withdraw it.<\/p>\n
“After examinations, JAMB usually sent print out to the Universities. JAMB
\nsent a bigger print out. But after agreement that admissions will be based
\non the three criteria, JAMB sent out a smaller print out which reflected
\nthe three criteria. The Universities were not happy that JAMB conducted
\nadmissions. If you look at the Act establishing JAMB, it empowers JAMB to
\nconduct admissions.<\/p>\n
“But the Universities are saying the University Act empowers the Senate to
\nconduct admissions. But the Act establishing JAMB has not been repealed.
\nWhen you make a law, it doesn’t automatically overpower it. You either
\nrepeal it or retain with but say without prejudice the other. So, there is
\nso much confusion.”<\/p>\n
Our correspondent learnt that sensing danger Ojerinde, decided to withdraw
\nthe list of candidates that was sent to the Universities and assuage the
\ntemper of the Minister.<\/p>\n
“But it was very late, Ojerinde should have withdrawn it earlier. This was
\njust the cause of their disagreement. Despite the protest from Vice
\nChancellors, the Minister was solidly behind him during the cancellation
\nof the Post-UTME.<\/p>\n
“If he had withdrawn it, I can tell you that Ojerinde would have escaped
\nthe tsunami which shook the education sector on Monday because he did very
\nwell in JAMB, especially with the introduction of Computer-Based Test”,
\nthe source stated.<\/p>\n
When contacted, a senior Director in the Education Ministry who spoke on
\nthe condition of anonymity said “Ojerinde disobeyed ministerial directive
\nand if you call that fighting, that is your own interpretation.”<\/p>\n
Our correspondent reports that Ojerinde had withdrawn the list of
\nrecommended candidates for admission earlier sent to Universities and
\nother tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n
The announcement was contained in a terse statement by the spokesperson of
\nJAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjmin.<\/p>\n
According to him, the decision was to ensure that the Senate of
\nUniversities perform their statutory responsibility of conducting the
\nselection of candidates and refer it to JAMB for confirmation in line with
\nthe admission criteria of merit, catchment and educationally disadvantaged
\nstates as directed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu,
\nduring the policy committee meeting.<\/p>\n
Benjamin had said the earlier list was sent to help fasttrack the process
\nof admission so as to allow other tiers of institutions also conduct their
\nadmission.<\/p>\n
“Candidates should not panic because this is part of the process of the
\n2016 admission exercise. JAMB regrets any inconvenience this decision
\nwould have caused the tertiary institutions”, he had stated.<\/p>\n
Ojerinde, had given conditions for the 2016 admission saying it would only
\ngive approval “after appropriate screening of the candidates by the
\ninstitutions.”<\/p>\n
He had said, “JAMB wishes to state that the latest list of candidates sent
\nto all the tertiary institutions contains candidates who qualified for
\nscreening based on the individual institutions capacity. It’s not in any
\nway an admission list.<\/p>\n
“However, if this list is not sufficient for the need of any institution,
\nsuch institution can source from the omnibus printout earlier sent to them
\nby the Board. The public and all tertiary institutions should note that
\nadmission will only be approved by the board after appropriate screening
\nof the candidates by the institutions.<\/p>\n
“The list which is made up of candidates who met the national cut-off
\npoint within the set criteria are sent to the institutions. Again, for
\npurposes of clarity, all institutions that have need for more can source
\nfrom their omnibus printout as stated above. The candid intention of the
\nBoard is to ensure that available spaces are adequately utilised.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh facts have emerged on the sacking of Prof. ‘Dibu Ojerinde as the Registrar\/Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board by the Federal Government. It was learnt that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n