The motto of Daily Trust newspaper is ‘Truth is a burden’. Apparently, the founding fathers of the newspaper appreciated that in a world where lie reigns and dresses like truth, it is onerous to bear truth. A striking metaphor of the tragedy of truth today is a 19th century legend, depicted by Jean-Léon Gérome’s 1896 painting, “The truth Coming out of the Well”.
A quick recap is that The Truth and The Lie met one fateful, beautiful morning beside a well. After exchanging pleasantries, The Lie suggested that they should take a bath together. The unsuspecting Truth felt that the water was nice and undressed with The Lie to bathe. Suddenly, The Lie jumped out of the water, put on the clothes of The Truth and ran away.
The Truth ran out to pursue The Lie but the latter had disappeared into the world, which turned its gaze away in rage on seeing the naked Truth running around. The poor Truth returns to the well to hide forever while The Lie moves around disguised as The Truth, satisfying the needs of the world because the world and Nigeria is its microcosm, and is not interested in seeing the naked Truth. The Yoruba sum it up in ‘Aiyekooto’, meaning ‘the world rejects the truth’, the name they give to the West African parrot.
The fate of the truth in the legend is similar to that of integrity. A Latin word that derives from ‘integer’, the same integer everyone learnt in primary school as depicting a whole number as opposed to a fraction, meaning whole, intact and complete, integrity describes the quality of being untainted, upright, honest or having strict moral and ethical code. Though the qualities of truth and integrity cannot be said to be extinct, among the few Nigerians that epitomise them in the public space is the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Emeritus Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the acclaimed winner of the maiden edition of the prestigious Gani Fawehinmi Integrity Award in 2018.
Ever since Oloyede started his current assignment in August 2016, some people with a hideous agenda have sought every means to defame him or discredit his work. He has stood tall and fought entrenched personalities and principalities that had made JAMB a cesspool of corruption head-to-head for nine solid years.
He introduced far-reaching innovations that sought to eliminate fraud and entrench quality. He turned JAMB to a beautiful bride and a topmost government agency reputed for efficiency and credibility. Apart from returning over N60 billion to the coffers of the government, he also reduced the application fees for the examination from N5,000 to N3,500 nationally and from $20 to $2 internationally. He did many more including instituting awards to encourage institutions.
However, when immediate action was taken to review the results of the recent 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) after complaints and it was indeed found out that an error occurred, someone without a burden of truth and integrity on his shoulders would have approached the findings differently.
He would obfuscate the matter, stonewall the critics and give reasons to extricate himself. After all, it wasn’t his personal fault. But with the burden of integrity he bears, Prof. Oloyede spoke the unusual truth, took vicarious responsibility and the keyboard urchins roared with contempt and rage.
But one truth remains incontrovertible. Prof. Oloyede has changed the narrative of public service in Nigeria, upped the ante and demonstrated what no public servant has done in recent memory.
He invited his critics for co-investigation, explained the matter, identified the problem, apologised to the nation and could not control his emotions having been told just before his addressing Nigerians that a candidate committed suicide. He provided an immediate solution by rescheduling the examinations, which have now been concluded.
He had many options but he chose the path of honesty and accountability. In his 1915 poem, ‘The Road not Taken’, Robert Frost calls it the road ‘less travelled by. And that has made all the difference’. Only a person of Oloyede’s rare pedigree would have the courage to do what he did.
Despite the immaterial antics of ethnic chauvinists, religious bigots and misinformed pundits that revel in character assassination at the drop of a hat, it is clear to the sincere and perceptive Nigerians that it would be beyond a former Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) and ex-Executive Secretary and National Coordinator of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC) to stoop so low to target a religious or ethnic group in a national examination. To achieve what purpose at his age and stage in life? Nevertheless, as truth does not matter in our post-truth era, the uninformed, misinformed and ill-informed bared their fangs and poured venom, the only product in their possession.
There are also those who even call for his resignation, oblivious of the fact that doing so is an easy decision to make for a man like him, with zero emotional attachment to the vain embellishments of the world, if only he has his way. Long beyond his detractors were born or be of relevance, Oloyede had resigned from a ‘juicy’ national appointment. Not too long ago, in 2011 precisely, he also resigned from his coveted position as President of the Association of African Universities as a matter patriotic principle just to pave way for another Nigerian, the Kogi-born Prof. Emeritus Olugbemiro Jegede, to become Secretary General of the Association. He burns the candle at both ends in the service of the country because of his patriotism, not based ó. an iota of personal interest.
One point is as clear as daylight ultimately. Oloyede’s sun is far beyond being stuck by his detractors’ sticky mud. Universities and other tertiary institutions, with their consortia in West Africa and Africa as whole, individuals, organisations and bodies, including the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), have turned the table with their cornucopia of solidarity. They continue to appreciate Oloyede for his honesty, empathy, courage, nobility, probity and fair-mindedness in the face of glitch or an error of negligence by others. His hard-earned reputation and integrity are intact as he has handled the challenge to the admiration of many right-thinking Nigerians.
But beyond Oloyede, my hope is that other conscientious leaders would not be discouraged from being truthful and vicariously responsible in future as a result of the vituperations being poured in some quarters on a national hero. My charge is that the youth should remain positive that Nigeria is still worth being served truthfully and with integrity. They should renew their hope in their country, just as E. B. White wrote long ago and as is evident in Oloyede: “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us in a bad time.”
Prof. Adedimeji is the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the African School of Economics (The Pan-African University of Excellence), Abuja.