Hullabaloo over UTME results: Matters arising

By Tiko Okoye

“Nothing is intrinsically valuable,” wrote American novelist John Barth. “The value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it from outside the thing itself by people.” American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner adopted exactly the same stance by averring that “There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you.” For example, where majority of the people perceive white as being black and black as being white, they become acceptable standards of normative attitude and behaviour.

The ramifications of the foregoing assertions can be seen in the tragicomedy that particularly attended the release of the results of the examinations conducted this year by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). It is difficult to exactly pinpoint how it all started but what isn’t in any doubt is how the story of a candidate, Miss Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme, who supposedly obtained the highest score of 362 in the 2023 UTME examinations went viral on social media networks.

The Cinderella-like story magnetised a horde of commendations and honours to the young lady from Anambra State, of which the most notable was a N3 million scholarship awarded by Chief (Dr) Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman/CEO of the Nnewi-based vehicle manufacturing company known as Innoson Motors.

But the tale soon turned curiouser and curiouser. In words to that effect, a flustered and worked-up JAMB reacted with ‘Not so fast! That isn’t our result!’ In a press release that virtually caused all hell to break loose, JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Mr. Fabian Benjamin, fired the opening salvo in what proved to be a very frightening expose. He disclosed that many of the results that many of these fraudsters are displaying are fake with the sole aim of deceiving gullible and unsuspecting members of the public.

However, one seriously doubts the correctness of JAMB’s declaration that “The case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to score 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3 million scholarship by Chief (Dr) Innocent Chukwuma, is the most pathetic of them all.” Did the JAMB reach this conclusion on account of the scholarship she was awarded or on the basis of something yet to be disclosed to the public? I ask this question because news report of a candidate from Kaduna State who claimed to score 380 was already circulating just about the same time.

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But back for now to the case of Miss Ejikeme. Her story only came to light because a top official of the Anambra State Government (ANSG) that was ostensibly seeking to honour one of its own that has brought acclaim and pride to the state – in what was seen as just an attempt to fulfil all righteousness – put a call through to JAMB to confirm her results.

The jolting feedback he received seemed to jar every bone in his body and temporarily plunged him into a state of numbness. He was told that Miss Mmesoma is just an impostor who had deliberately manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other undeserving awards!

What becomes even more apocalyptic for the educational sector is JAMB’s admission that “The likes of Miss Mmesoma are still out there (in the society) deceiving those who are always in a hurry to bestow honours on candidates without confirmation from the Board.” It was without any doubt a straight jab at Chief Chukwuma, who nonetheless expertly rolled with the punch by stating that the scholarship remains in place pending the formal indictment or acquittal of the girl in question. The ANSG has reportedly instituted an investigative panel to expeditiously consider the matter.

Meanwhile, JAMB has attempted to explain its side of things by informing the general public that “certain software” have been created to fake the versions of official JAMB results and put same out in the public space “for fun and this is what the sponsors of these candidates are using to defraud good-spirited Nigerians who sincerely wish to celebrate academic excellence by investing in the education of brilliant young Nigerians.”

According to JAMB, Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her 2023 UTME result after which she allegedly manually inflated her scores and pasted same on her 2022 UTME result sheet. She would have gotten away with her gambit if she had known that the Board has changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet.

And now, the Board has reportedly withdrawn Miss Mmesoma’s original result indicating 249, suspended her for three years from sitting for its examinations and hand her over to be prosecuted. It has vowed to investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Defaulters would equally have their original results withdrawn forthwith, suspended and handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.

There are many takeaways from this incident.

First, the ANSG must be roundly commended for doing the right thing, thereby saving itself from suffering the opprobrium of celebrating criminality in a manner that would come back to haunt it.

Second, the likes of Dr. Chukwuma and like-minded individuals and organisations who desire to invest in the future of brilliant youngsters should never be discouraged, but it behoves them to emulate the example proffered by the ANSG and learn to cross-check claims by candidates with relevant authorities. They must always look before they leap next time around.

Third, it is now clear that a very malicious variant of the 419 virus has sprouted and is spreading very rapidly in our secondary schools. As was earlier mentioned, a case similar to that of Miss Mmesoma was also reported in Kaduna, hundreds of kilometres away from Anambra – and who knows where else it has long been hibernating pending discovery! It was reported that one Master Atung Gerald from Kaduna claimed to score 380, making him overtake Miss Mmesoma, if the result is authentic.

Master Gerald’s ethnic nationality in southern Kaduna had even taken up the issue and has been advocating that he should be given a special recognition, only for the Board to leave them very embarrassed with the incontestable fact that he never even obtained the 2023 application forms not to talk of sitting for the examination!

Fourth, JAMB, the Ministry of Education and the intelligence and security agencies must judiciously and mercilessly stop this malignant cancer from affecting the rest of the student body. Imagine what would happen if university graduates start parading fake degree certificates on a grand scale. This would finally erode whatever little integrity and store of value is left in Nigerian degree/post-graduate degree certificates, transforming them into ordinary pieces of paper! Tufiakwa!

Fifth, I was very apprehensive when it seemed at the onset that ethnic bigots were dominating the public discourse. My concern was that Chief Chukwuma shouldn’t allow himself to be inadvertently dragged into partisan arguments by those who perceive politics as war by any other means because as a businessman he can only attain profitable economies of scale by selling his products in the much larger Nigerian market as a whole. Turning the episode into another ‘Them’ versus ‘Us’ roforofo fight would have been a very poor political choice.

There isn’t a scintilla of doubt in my mind that the relative calm that shortly ensued is chiefly attributable to the fact that the 2023 UTME candidate that JAMB unveiled as having the highest score of 360 is Miss Nkechinyere Umeh from the same Anambra State and South-East. I don’t even want to imagine, under the prevailing highly toxic polity, the kind of invectives that would have saturated the social media if a ‘wrong ‘ candidate had replaced Miss Mmesoma. It is what it is, and we must thank God for little drops of mercy like this.

In the midst of the goings-on, we must equally empathise with Miss Mmesoma and her family. Although, as English playwright William Shakespeare so aptly reminded us, there’s no art of knowing the mind’s construction on the face, she looks as innocent as a newly-laid egg. My gut feeling tells me she’s more of a victim than a villain sucked into a sickening maelstrom by the misadventures of her adult relatives.

I was inclined to initially believe that the villain that most probably tampered with her result sheet, if that’s what happened, is a JAMB staff but then he/she would’ve been aware of the reconfiguration of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Which makes me think that he/she must either be an ex-JAMB staff or one of these ubiquitous computer geeks.

But let’s patiently await the reports of the various investigative panels. Still, while Mmesoma and her family must be wondering how they went from grace to grass, Miss Nkechinyere and her family would be besides themselves with pride and joy. As former-Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike so poignantly sang: “As e dey pain dem, na so e dey sweet us.” Such is life!