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OPINION: JAMB, Glitches And An Inter-tribal War

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By Lasisi Olagunju

The enemy is behind everything that happens to anyone here. In electronics and computing, a glitch is an unexpected software or hardware malfunction. Here, you have your phone frozen or your app crashed, you respond cursing the devil that is responsible for the trouble. You suffer network failure, you hit or tap the desk and pray against the spirit of lost connections. Or you simply blame the village witch, and the next-door neighbour whose jealous, suspicious eyes you’ve been seeing in your dreams. You bind and curse them all —and all their generations.

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At exactly 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, thousands of students across China prepared to take the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture exam. One after another, they logged into the AP testing platform. For some, the exam began smoothly—they managed to answer a few listening questions—then their screens abruptly froze. Like today’s dog expertly pursuing today’s hare, the obedient citizens of the tech world did what the manuals advised troubled users to do: log out and try again, standard troubleshooting step. Many logged out and attempted to sign back in. But the system told them no: “Access denied. This account is already in use.” Nothing they did resolved the glitch. They remained logged out and locked out – and stranded.

The experience was not a one-centre fiasco. The malfunction was widespread; students from over 700 high schools were impacted. A makeup examination was later organized for those affected.

China is home to 56 officially recognized ethnic groups—a fine mix of cultures, languages, and traditions. But when the AP Chinese exam system glitched, no one pointed fingers at anyone’s ethnicity. No teacher or senator screamed: “Glitch caused by majority Han to retard the progress of the Hui.” There was no binding the devil and cursing the enemy. The problem was simply taken for what it was —a glitch, a technical chaos.

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JAMB discovered that an unfortunate glitch happened to a part of its 2025 exam and explained how it happened; it offered apologies and remedies. But some people say the JAMB glitch was not an accident; they say it was a carefully designed plot by the Yoruba, led by JAMB’s Professor Ishaq Oloyede to deny Igbo children university education.

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Nigeria is an impossible country. Oloyede is an Egba man from Abeokuta, therefore he must be carrying out a Yoruba agenda against their historical southern rival across the Niger. That is what some people say in rooms and verandas and on rooftops. I gasped reading very enlightened people, even respected top media people, entering the fray, blasting the walls of reason.

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Well, it turned out that the glitch affected more candidates in Lagos (a Yoruba state) than the total number of the victims in the South-East. In Lagos, there were 206,610 victim-candidates; the whole of the five South-East states had 173,397. Could the Yoruba have hated their neighbours so much that they would add their own part of the earth to the scorched? Only a suicide bomber would not mind inflicting more harm on himself than on his target. And suicide bombing is not a Western Nigerian delicacy.

Read the “moth in the hardware” story in the evolution epic of the computer. Anything machine can malfunction at any point and caused by anything. That is why it is called a machine, an invention by man. Read the Greek origin of the word and its long journey to today’s form and meaning.

The genius called Thomas Edison when he encountered technical hiccups which he called ‘bugs’ in his inventions, famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Science historians say Edison tackled the bugs and hiccups in his inventions through a combination of rigorous experimentation, documentation, and iterative problem-solving. I am almost sure that our scientists and engineers are part of this JAMB controversy, not as professionals proactively in search of solutions to future glitches, but as public or closet ethnic champions.

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I read a report credited to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The chairman of ASUU-UNN, Comrade Óyibo Eze, told newsmen in Nsukka on Wednesday that the massive failure, which he claimed mostly affected candidates from the South-East, was a deliberate attempt by JAMB to stop children from the zone from getting higher education.

“JAMB knows that children from the South-East must score higher before they can get admission, whereas their counterparts in some parts of the country will use a 120 JAMB score to get admission to read medicine at universities in their area. In the JAMB recently released result, out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 examination, over 1.5 million candidates scored less than 200, and the majority of these are from the South -East and Lagos State, where many Igbos reside,” he said.

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Nsukka’s ASUU reduced a national disaster to a glib tribal talk. It even added Lagos to its sphere of tribal influence. Jesus said: “It is finished.” Until I read that news report, I had thought that ASUU (of any branch) was what we thought it was: an association of intellectuals. Now we know. “If gold rusts, what shall iron do? For if a priest, upon whom we trust, be foul, no wonder a layman may yield to lust.” Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote those lines in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ apparently had ASUU-UNN in mind.

The union should have left such cheap tribal talk to arrogance of ignorance and those who revel in it. There is a reason why university teachers are called intellectuals. “An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.” That was Albert Camus in ‘The Enigma of the Universe’ (1948). If you are called an intellectual, your scent must be self-awareness; your breath, critical thinking; your thoughts, introspection. Psychologist John H. Flavell called it meta-cognition — thinking about thinking. A union of university teachers which failed to question its own assumptions, and neglected an analysis of its reasoning before taking a stand on a key national issue puts all branches of knowledge to shame.

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A teacher should never be found “in the thick of the hoi polloi”, saying what the unwashed, the unthinking are saying. Or, maybe we overrate some people. Or, should I say William F. Buckley Jr., founder of the US ‘National Review’ magazine, was right in his popular political preference for the crowd over the caste of the learned: “I’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 faculty members of Harvard University.” If anyone holds that same opinion today of the Nigerian ivory tower, the person would be justified.

I have my own grouse with JAMB, and this is on the unresolved issue of those it calls underage candidates. I wrote about it last year. Their results are withheld this year. There is a subsisting court judgment which nullified the age restriction policy authored by JAMB. The order issued by the Delta State High Court, to the best of my knowledge, has not been upturned by any higher court. Besides, if you would not give these young people admission, you should have programmed your system not to accept their applications, fees and all. So, if there would be an uproar, it should be for victims of that policy. What we have on air, instead, is a war of tribes and tongues over a glitch that has extracted apologies from the JAMB boss and remedies given the victims.

Shakespeare’s King Lear says “I am a man/More sinn’d against than sinning.”

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We should have enough of people reading tribal meanings into anything and everything they are involved in. What I write here is a debugging attempt, an effort at telling ethnic moths to remove themselves from our relays; an attempt at protecting the system from human glitches.

Or, maybe we should just pack up Nigeria since we cannot live a minute without threatening each other. And over what? Over glitches that can happen even under an angel’s watch.

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Senate Approves Establishment Of Bitumen Development Commission

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The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill seeking to establish the Bitumen Development Commission in Nigeria.

The bill was read for the third time and passed following the presentation and consideration of the report by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development.

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Presenting the report, Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau Central), a member of the committee, recommended the establishment of the commission as proposed by the bill’s sponsor, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo South).

Senator Plang informed the Senate that the committee, in accordance with legislative procedures, held a public hearing on the bill and received overwhelming support from critical stakeholders across the country. The consensus was that a regulatory body is urgently needed to oversee the exploration, exploitation, and production of Nigeria’s estimated 42 billion tonnes of bitumen deposits, the second-largest reserve in the world.

READ ALSO:Senate Confirms Chairman, MD Of South-South Development Commission, Others

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In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio commended Senator Ibrahim and the Committee on Solid Minerals Development for what he described as a development-driven initiative.

This is a significant step toward diversifying Nigeria’s economy and unlocking the vast potential of our mineral resources,” Akpabio stated.

The proposed Bitumen Development Commission is expected to serve as a regulatory and development agency to drive investment and innovation in the bitumen sector, positioning Nigeria as a key player in the global bitumen industry.

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NYSC Commends Bauchi Govt On Infrastructural Development In Orientation Camp

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The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has commended Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state on his infrastructural development projects in NYSC permanent orientation camp in the state.

Mr Umoren Kufre, the NYSC Coordinator in the state made the commendation on Tuesday during the closing ceremony of the 2025 Batch ‘A’ stream II orientation course on Wailo, Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state.

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According to him, the renovation of corps members’ hostels and camp officials’ blocks as well as the construction of a brand new multipurpose hall in the camp by the state government portrayed the governor as a good father of the youth.

“This kind gesture will remain very fresh in our minds for a long time to come. Once more, thank you, your Excellency.

READ ALSO: NYSC Urges Bauchi Governor To Reconstruct Collapsed Camp Fence

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“I also wish to thank the Bauchi state Government for providing the conducive environment and security for both Corps members and camp officials which contributed in no small measure in making this exercise a huge success

“Similarly, I appreciate all of our collaborating agencies that sent their personnel to assist us in the running of the camp. My staff, as usual, were at their very best to ensure a seamless exercise. May God bless and reward you all

“I wish to register our appreciation to the Wailo Community for being our good host and neighbours over the years, their efforts in meeting our needed casual labour demands eased much stress on the Corps members and officials

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“In the same spirit, I sincerely like to commend the patriotism, loyalty, patience, perseverance, understanding, and the good conduct of Corps members during the orientation course,” he said.

READ ALSO: NYSC Assures Impactful Participation Of Corps Members On Host Communities

Kufre enjoined the corps members to continue to be obedient, loyal and diligent, urging them to endeavour to settle down quickly in their places of primary assignment and adapt to the ways of life there.

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He further called on them to do their best in obeying the rules governing their host communities, learn to appreciate their customs and culture and ensure that they leave the places better than they meet them.

The people of Bauchi state, as you have been told many times, are hospitable people and the glaring proof as you can see are the buses sent by Local Government Councils to convey you to your places of primary assignment.

“I implore you to reciprocate this good gesture by contributing your best to the upliftment of your host communities and Bauchi State in general,” said the Coordinator.

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1,300 corps members completed the orientation course and were posted to different parts of Bauchi state for the one year compulsory service.

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Ghana Deports Convicted Nigerian For Smuggling Fake $100,000

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A Nigerian, Aremu Adegboyega, convicted by a Circuit Court in Accra, Ghana, for smuggling counterfeit CFA francs worth over $100,000 into the country through an unauthorised border route will be deported to Nigeria, according to The PUNCH.

Justice Christiana Cann, who presided over the case ordered his immediate deportation by the Ghana Immigration Service.

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According to ASP Isaac Anquandah, as cited by a Ghanaian news outlet, The Chronicle, on Monday, Adegboyega was arrested in 2023 by customs officers stationed at the Aflao border while he was travelling on a motorcycle.

The 55-year-old was charged with two counts of possessing forged notes, in violation of Section 18(2) of Ghana’s Currency Act, 1964 (Act 242), as well as one count of illegal entry into the country.

READ ALSO:Ghanaians Protest, Decry ‘State-sponsored’ Harassment In Abuja

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For possession of counterfeit CFA francs, the court fined the convict 250 penalty units, equivalent to GH¢3,000.

In default of payment, according to the report, he will serve a two-year prison sentence with hard labour.

For illegal entry into Ghana, he was reportedly fined an additional 120 penalty units or GH¢1,440. If he fails to pay, The Chronicle reports, he will serve another two-year prison term.

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The sentences are expected to run concurrently, meaning he will serve a maximum of two years if he defaults on both payments.

READ ALSO:Ghana’s Ex-security Chief Charged With Theft, Money Laundering

The report added that, in addition to the fines and prison sentence, the court ordered his immediate deportation to Nigeria.

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Adegboyega was apprehended at Beat Zero, an unauthorised crossing point along the Ghana-Togo border.

Riding as a pillion passenger on a motorcycle and carrying a backpack, according to the police, he aroused suspicion, prompting the officers to search his belongings.

During the search, officers discovered bundles of suspected counterfeit currency: CFA francs totalling CFA 80,653,000 and Nigerian naira amounting to N101,500.

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READ ALSO:US Deports Six Nigerians For Various Offences

Further investigation revealed that he had smuggled the fake currency into Ghana from Togo.

According to the police, he admitted in a caution statement that he was aware the money was counterfeit.

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He also confessed to receiving the forged notes from a man identified as Alhaji Saibu in Nigeria, under the instruction of an alleged mafia figure named Alhaji Dials, believed to be based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Adegboyega joins another Nigerian, Abu Arome, who is currently standing trial alongside three Ghanaians for alleged fraud.

A statement issued on Friday by the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed the suspects were accused of committing the crime using forged documents, falsified signatures, and fraudulent claims.

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