Mmesoma: Urging JAMB To Carry Out Independent Forensic Investigation, Rather Than Being The Accuser And The Judge -By Isaac Asabor

It is no more news that not a few Nigerians, particularly parents, are befuddled for been acquainted with the news that the leadership of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said it will prosecute one of its candidates in the last JAMB examination, Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma for parading a fake UTME result from which she was awarded N3m scholarship. The board claimed she scored 249 in the examination as against the 362 she paraded.

As gathered from a Statement issued by the examination body on Sunday, June 2, 2023, by its Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, where the public was told to ignore many candidates who were brandishing high scores, saying they were fake, the examination body advised individuals, organizations, and institutions wishing to honour or award scholarships to candidates with high scores to seek its confirmation before doing so.

JAMB insisted that many of the results being celebrated in the media are fake, explaining that, “In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.”

The statement cited the case of Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma”, and also the case of one “Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380.”

While Miss Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not 362 as she claimed, Atung Gerald did not obtain the 2023 UTME application documents not to talk of sitting the examination as it asserted in its address to Journalists.

Unarguably exonerating herself from the accusation, Mmesoma has spoken through a Video circulating online that she did not forge the result, insisting that it is genuine. In the video where she was seen holding a printout of her UTME result, she defensively said, “I don’t understand them saying I forged the result”, and asserted that there may have been discrepancies from JAMB’s end as she printed out the result she was given.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is not an exaggeration to say that since her video began to trend, and which was equally watched by this writer, that responses from members of the public over the controversy have been mixed, with some doubting the possibility of Mmesoma fabricating her own result, particularly as the original score, which JAMB confirmed to be 249, can also earn her admission into the university.

Given the air of innocence that her response in the viral video has evoked, it is expedient for Nigerians to spare her a thought, if not for anything, for the fact that though we live in a time of stunning technological wizardry, unfortunately, it has been observed for the umpteenth time that under certain situations, that technology fails due to dubious manipulation by unscrupulous officials. For instance, such situations have been recorded in elections where vote counts are allotted to the wrong candidates while the winning candidates voted for by the people are announced to have lost the election. In a similar vein, Nigerians have been witnessing a situation in the banking industry where due to failing technology, bank customers have wrongly received credit alerts or debit alerts involving huge amounts of money, thus putting the reliability of technology to question.

There is no denying the fact that while tremendous technological leaps are being made in other parts of the world, primarily in developed countries, too often some countries, including Nigeria, remain far behind in attaining the full benefits derivable from the adoption of technology if not excluded entirely. Many have little choice beyond the use of obsolete technologies, such as those used in an election where not a few electorates were disenfranchised with many candidates cheated and shortchanged in such elections.

Without resorting to holding brief for Mmesoma in this context, there is wisdom in saying that technology can streamline processes, improve agility and add value to any given business, but the fact cannot be denied that to make it a success, the need to have the right team on board remains paramount.

We have all felt the pain of technology failures. From website glitches to whole servers going down, many technical problems are unavoidable, but they can really impact anyone’s day. And we are all relying on technology more and more. Head to any school and you will find iPads, tablets, and laptops in every classroom.

If I may ask, “How many people today can do their day-to-day job without a computer and internet connection? Even the least expected workers today across various offices rely on computer systems to communicate with colleagues.
At this juncture,it is not an exaggeration to opine that giventhe air of innocence that exudes from the video made, and posted online by Mmesoma in defense of the accusation made against her that anyone that watches it needs to have rethink as she needs to be heard. In fact, since the saga began, the story has been one-sided as it is only JAMB that has been speaking through its spokesman.

Without resorting to holding briefs for her, it is expedient for Mmesoma to be seen as innocent until found guilty. The kind of air of innocence she exuded in the video clip explains she did nothing wrong as the video indicates that she has broken no laws, committed no sins, and is not guilty of any morally evil act. In fact, in as much as this writer is not betraying his gullibility in this context, it is germane to say that Mmesoma comes across as a naive and innocent girl. Against the foregoing observation and experience, it is expected that justice would truly be accorded to her only if JAMB calm down and carry out a forensic investigation to save her and her family from the trouble therefrom, which is basically psychological in nature, even as she has in the video confessed that the allegation has already caused her psychological trauma.

As if JAMB is not prepared to hear her own side of the story, it has hastily slammed her with a three-year ban just as it said that it has also canceled the result obtained by her in the examination.

As gathered from Vanguard newspaper today in its news story headlined, “JAMB, Mmesoma trade words over result”, the spokesman of the board, Dr. Benjamin Fabian accused the lady of engaging in a criminal act. If I may ask, “Why will JAMB be the accuser and the judge at the same time?”

Fabian in his judgmental statement said, “What she did was to alter a result that was obtained by somebody in the 2021 UTME. She is banned for three years from sitting for the UTME too. That result of hers, where she scored 249, has been canceled as well,” he said on the phone.

Asked how the girl could have altered her result without the connivance of an insider, Fabian said there was no hacking into the Board’s facility, and replied thus: “Our results are safe and nobody has hacked into them. She only altered her results, and the QR code will always show her true result”.

However, Mmesoma, in a post on her Facebook wall, denied any wrongdoing.“They are just trying to harass me and my family. After the results were released over two months ago, why is it taking them this long to say what they are saying now? Now, using the QR code is indicating another name, OmotolaAfolabi, which initially showed a score of 138 and, later, 338. Somebody cannot have two different results from the same examination.

“I cannot do what they are accusing me of. I have been a brilliant girl from my Nursery School days. I scored over 300 in my common entrance examination to secondary school,” she stated.

Ostensibly authenticating her claim to brilliancy, her father, Mr. Romanus Ejikeme, has said that her daughter had always come out as the overall best student from her nursery school days to date. Ejikeme made the disclosure while speaking with Journalists on Monday in Onitsha.

According to him, “My daughter has been taking the first position from her nursery school till now. Some of these results are still with me and I have shown them to some journalists who came to my house and they were surprised.
“I showed her results to them and they were like wow. Those who have met with her will know she can’t manipulate results.

“I am just explaining to the world that my daughter’s result has been manipulated. I am not happy about it, they gave her results to another person and they are still intimidating her. What they are doing is not good.”

Just like Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has demanded an independent forensic investigation over the trending saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and the JAMB, it is expedient the examination body hearken to diverse voices of reason been sounded by Nigerians since the saga began so as not to use the systemic rots that have characterized our public institutions to demotivate this brilliant girl. “Brilliant girl?” Yes! She is brilliant, after all, it is not easy to score the 249 which JAMB agreed she originally scored.