Nmesoma Ejikeme vs JAMB: 10th wonder of the World
By Gerald Adeola Daramola
In 1999, A handsome young man wanted to contest a house of representative election in his constituency. He did not want to stop there, he also wants to be the speaker when he gets to the house. Young Salisu Buhari knew that a beautiful University degree will spice up his CV. He had none but believed he could acquire one. ” A lot of people are doing it”, he must have thought within himself.
Salisu brought out a big ball-shaped world map, closed his eyes and spinned the map. He used his index finger to stop the spinning ball and then opened his eyes to see where his finger landed. His finger landed in North America. He looked intently to see the lucky country, it was Canada.
Salisu smiled to himself, thanked his star for picking a reputable country. He knew a degree from Canada will catch INEC’s fancy. Salisu quickly searched through Canada and settled for a University founded in 1827 in Canada’s most populous city. University of Toronto.
Beaming with smile, Salisu sauntered to his expansive living room, humming a Dan Maraya song under his breath, picked up his NITEL landline and dialed his contacts in Oluwole. Within days, a beautifully designed certificate of University of Toronto, with honors in Business Administration, was delivered to him.
Armed with the fake certificate, Salisu Buhari contested and won the election to represent Nasarawa Federal constituency, Kano in House of Reps and also went ahead, with the help of Obasanjo, to become the speaker. Nigeria’s number 4 citizen.
TheNEWS magazine , headed by Bayo Onanuga, exposed Salisu Buhari in their story titled ” The face of a liar: How Buhari deceived his Nation”. Salisu initially denied but when University of Toronto, the issuing authority of the certificate, disowned him and told the whole world that the name Salisu Buhari had never passed through the institution and also Business Administration is not offered at undergraduate level, Buhari was concerned.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, Salisu Buhari confessed, apologized to the nation and resigned not only as speaker but also as a member of the House of Reps.
Fast forward to 2016.
Sahara Reporters broke a news that Senator Dino Melaye forged his Ahmadu Bello University certificate. The online newspaper alleged that , though Dino attended ABU, but he did not graduate. The news caused a frenzy among Dino’s enemies and friends alike and caused the Senate to set up a committee.
The whole frenzy died down when ABU, the issuing authority of Dino’s certificate, came out through its Vice-Chancellor and confirmed that Dino actually graduated and that the certificate he is parading was duly issued by them.
In the two stories above, the matters were resolved immediately the issuing authorities of the certificates confirmed or disowned them. The issuing authority has the final say when it comes to authentication of a certificate or results
The case of Nmesoma Ejikeme defied this simple logic and common sense.
19 year old Nmesoma sat for JAMB exams and scored 249. Sensing that the score may not be enough to get her admitted to her preferred course in her preferred university,, she contacted modern day digital Oluwole and she inflated her scores. She was greedy about it by making herself the highest scorer in the country. Talk of brazen senselessness.
Nmesoma did not wait for JAMB, she declared herself the MVP and started collecting scholarships from unsuspecting public. Anambra state government wanted to honor Nmesoma and contacted JAMB for verification of her scores. JAMB said nobody scored 362 in the last exam and provided iron cast evidences that Nmesoma doctored her results.
Nmesoma jumped on social media, did a video and started arguing with JAMB. She was trying to authenticate her own result despite agreeing that what she was holding as result was different from the result of other 1.6m candidates that sat for the exam.
I titled this piece ” 10th wonder of the world ‘ because this is the first time in human history that a forger will contend and argue with the issuing authority of the document she forged. Not even Frank Abagnale in his hey days pulled such a stunt.
I became so worried for Nigeria when some morally bankrupt individuals, mostly from the tribe Nmesoma hailed from, threw their weight behind her. They , as usual, played the victim card and threw up tribal shenanigans. It is glaring that these individuals must have bred or are breeding crooks as children.
Nobody in his or her right senses will support Nmesoma in the face of concrete evidence brought out by JAMB.
These ethnic irredentists even called for the scrapping of JAMB just because one of their own forged a result. That is how low morals have sunk in the Eastern part of the Niger. It got to a head when the father of Nmesoma even accused JAMB of trying to rob his daughter of her glory. What a shameless father! Surely sanity has taken flight from that region.
Nmesoma is 19, hence she is not a minor. In Canada, she will be referred to as a woman. She is old enough to face trials and should be charged for forgery. It is clear that she is a hardened criminal, a barefaced liar from an irresponsible family. Her boldness to stick to her guns in the face of overwhelming evidence is disgusting.
Nmesoma’s saga has almost robbed the real winner, Umeh Precious, her deserved fame and glamour. Fortunately for Nigeria, she is also from the same tribe as Nmesoma. Just imagine if the real winner had been a Yoruba girl from Ekiti, our people in the Eastern part of the Niger would have said that Nmesoma was rigged out to pave way for a Yoruba because JAMB registrar is Yoruba. Everything , to them, is tribal.
As for Nmesoma supporters, I am only worried but not surprised. They are the same people who said military should come and take over because their candidate lost an election. They said JAMB should be scrapped because one of their own forged result and I am also sure they will call for the judiciary to be scrapped when they lose in court. It is an insane cycle.
Everything is not politics. You can not be politically correct at the detriment of the truth and yet claiming that you want a good society. You can not discredit all the institutions in your country and expect outsiders to respect you. Nigerian graduates are respected outside the country today because of the foundation JAMB laid and we should not let some irresponsible tribal janjaweeds tarnish that reputation. Nigeria risks an implosion with these array of toxic citizens.
When you see a bad country, check the citizens. Bad and toxic people can not make a good country.
This piece was written by Gerald Adeola Daramola.
