By Isah Aliyu Chiroma
Last week, there was a hullabaloo on social media that shifted the focus to a teenage girl named Mmesoma Ejikeme, whose viral video expressed anger, dismay, and fear over her UTME result. This came at a time when the new president was making important choices that would benefit our nation. You will learn about the government’s strategy movement and the next step to take if you are reading the policy advisory council report by the National Economy subcommittee. This will give you an insight as to where we are heading.
We have seen the results of those decisions as they have been documented in the report. But it seems that we don’t take the time to read crucial documents that will have an impact on what decision is the government taken and the new environment the government is creating. Whether we like it or not, the decisions and policies that have been adopted must have an impact on us in some way. Everyone gets wet when it rains, whether they are prepared or not, as someone once said. We must be aware of these issues and watch the government every move since, in the long run, we will all have to participate in some way. These tactical choices reveal the new direction our nation is heading in and the type of leaders we have.
There are few items on the JAMB sage that we need to pay particular attention to. It’s possible that the girl fabricated her score. So why did JAMB decide to give the young girl a media trial? The most important of things is whether or not JAMB data is protected. Those are significant inquiries that require an answer.
It is possible from the standpoint of the likelihood that the girl will fabricate her test results. We have seen firsthand how some students will pay more to boost their scores in order to get into professional programs at universities as well as to meet the admissions requirements. This has been occurring in several organizations, secondary schools, and even higher institutions. One of our lectures last week narrated to us an incident involving a student who completed her undergraduate program and the school denied her, her result. She invited her mother to come along with to school, to know why her daughter was denied her result. Unfortunately, it was discovered that she should have repeated in her third year. She disregarded the order and continued with her studies till her fifth year.
How she managed to get through undetected may be a mystery. Later, it was discovered that the courses she was supposed to have retaken in her third year to advance to her fourth year were missing from her student account. How is that even possible? This is absurd. Only with the assistance of an internal worker who completed the work was this made possible. Considering the situation at hand, it is then possible that the girl can fabricates her result. Some have argued that a young child who is innocent cannot commit such a crime, but in actuality, crime has no age restrictions.
Second, JAMB chose to have the young girl undergo a media trial. This, in my opinion, is not the wisest course of action in this circumstance. An internal investigation into what occurs and who is responsible should be conducted by JAMB as an examination body. Then, a separate organization should carry out a comparable study, with JAMB agreeing by granting them access to all the information they require, so that we can have an open report that does not take sides between any party.
And finally, the crucial query: are JAMB data protected. I call this a huge question for a reason. Because making a conclusion without conducting an investigation would be a major slap in the face to JAMB if JAMB data was easily manipulated. How do we get two outcomes from one people if it is protected?
An application called “jambfun-fake jamb Result Maker” is available on the Google Play Store based on the findings of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ). You can “fool your friends” by creating fake UTME scores with this application. To test if the app would provide results similar to those displayed by Ejikeme, FIJ used example details. The outcome demonstrated that it was possible to obtain a result equal to the one Ejikeme displayed. By using the program, FIJ generated a candidate who did not take the exam but had a UTME score of 400.
When the QR code was scanned, the output revealed a separate person with the name Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, who received a score of 138, matching Ejikeme’s result. This was their conclusion in relation to Ejikeme’s UTME score. Further, FIJ acquired two authentic results from applicants who took the 2023 UTME. They returned a code that went nowhere when their findings were scanned. As a result, codes associated with the initial 2023 UTME results cannot retrieve scores using a standard QR code barcode scanner.
Then, in order to quell the uproar, it has sparked among the citizenry, JAMB needs to officially address those issues. The most crucial thing is to conduct an inquiry, a fair probe that will uncover the truth and stop it from happening again. What I worry about is how horrible it would be if someone decided to fake Ejikeme’s results without getting her consent. Once the inquiry is complete, it will make the truth and everyone involved clear.
How reliable is Ejikeme’s result? Is the JAMB database protected? What happens to other candidates who have the same issue? These are just a few of the straightforward questions that can be used to summarize the concerns stated here. To assess this young girl’s fate, it is crucial that those inquiries have solid answers. We have every reason to think that we will be able to find the answers to those questions through reliable research.
Our examination boards must always administer reliable exams for which the students are adequately prepared, and awarded what they wrote. And they must take appropriate action against anyone found to be abusing the system.
