The London-based Economist magazine has often acted as a conservative Anglo-American establishment mouthpiece. Its recent leader (“How Not To Repair America” June 10, 2023) and the accompanying main article (“The Tide Goes Out”, 10 June 2023) on the reparations debate in the United States, exposes both its illiberal ideology and consistent misreading of race issues in America. The British-based magazine crudely caricatures this important issue, making lazy arguments that are often put forward by conservative analysts: reparations are unpopular and backed by only 30% of Americans; most living whites played no part in Jim Crow segregation and so none can be held responsible; black Americans are not the only disadvantaged group in America; resources are finite, and should go towards better schools and health for all Americans.

The argument that reparations are not popular, however, needs to be disaggregated. Explaining complicated historical issues to voters also requires strong and courageous leadership, as America’s partisan media space is often deluged by stereotypical arguments presented by conservative outlets such as this Economist perspective. Many Americans tend to think differently once this issue has been sensibly explained as a structural one in which the country benefited from 400 years of unpaid labour which facilitated America’s industrialisation, using 450,000 enslaved Africans who only won their basic voting rights in the 1960s. Such an approach would also note that, as the Economist itself concedes, the lingering effects of this legacy remains with America today, with many of the victims still alive as heirs who have inherited these socio-economic disadvantages. The Economist itself observes that the median net worth of black families in 2019 was 13% that of white families.  

Such gross racial inequalities are also evident in the lower levels of life expectancy and health, as well as continuing discrimination against African Americans. During the recent COVID/19 crisis, black Americans accounted for 30% of deaths, despite constituting only 13% of the US population. Today, members of this group are less likely to have healthcare; are more prone to police brutality; while 26% of black men have been incarcerated in what scholar-activist, Angela Davis, dubbed America’s “prison industrial complex.” Many African Americans also live in ghettos, suffering more the effects of bad housing, bad diet, and bad schooling, with 34% of black children born on or below the poverty line. These stark realities all constitute the continuing legacies of four centuries of slavery.

In terms of the Economist’s argument that African Americans are not the only group discriminated against, this is scarcely an argument for not paying reparations. After the Second World War in 1946, the US government’s Indian Claims Commission paid $1.3 billion (worth $20 billion today) in reparations to indigenous Americans who had historically been victims of widespread land dispossession and genocide. Japanese Americans incarcerated in concentration camps during the Second World War were also compensated through a $1.2 million payment (worth $18 million today). Though the Economist cites the Japanese case, attempts to repair historical crimes should not be turned into a hierarchy of suffering. Historical injustices with far-reaching and continuing consequences should be repaired regardless of the groups involved.

The Economist’s argument that no living whites are responsible for slavery ignores the structural issues of those who continue to benefit from four centuries of free labour, in stark contrast to those who continue to suffer from it. This statement is akin to saying that no one is responsible and should be held accountable for America’s contemporary racism, which was consolidated over 400 years of black exploitation, dehumanisation, and disenfranchisement. Governments in Canada, Australia, and Germany have paid reparations for crimes committed against indigenous populations and European Jews for which many of their living citizens were not directly responsible. The governments of Germany and the Netherlands have recently announced similar reparations for past crimes. Regarding, the Economist’s argument of resources being finite, the fact that Washington continues to spend more on its military than the next 10 countries combined is the clearest sign of the distortion of socio-economic priorities through its lobbyist-fuelled legislative process of legalised corruption. America can thus clearly afford to pay compensation to repair its past.   

The Economist then cites the case of two commissions in the “Golden State” of California which recently recommended reparations for descendants of American slavery, as an example of how “it is impossible to create an actuarial table of injustice…to determine how much cash is owed and to whom.” The reparations commission recommended that the maximum cost of reparations per African American should be $1.2 million as a down payment, while a similar reparations commission in San Francisco suggested $5 million per person. The Economist notes that California is focused more on repairing current racial disparities which the magazine concedes remain considerable across the country. It further cites 2016 figures showing that black Angelenos had 1% of the wealth of their white compatriots in Los Angeles.

The Economist then suggests that the sum of the proposed reparations would cripple the state’s finances. However, its own British government had paid the country’s slave-owners – and not the exploited slaves themselves or their descendants – £20 million (equivalent to £17 billion in 2016) for the loss of their “property” after Westminster abolished slavery in 1833. This sum was fully paid out just eight years ago in 2015. If the British government could take out a loan worth 40% of its Treasury’s annual income and 5% of its GDP at the time, to make perverse payments to 46,000 slave-owners and their descendants over a 182-year period, why can the government of California not have the ingenuity to devise a similar long-term compensation scheme for a more just cause? The Economist’s alternative suggestion that race-neutral anti-poverty programmes be put in place instead of reparations, seems utterly insensitive given that the institution of slavery itself had been based solely on race. The magazine’s suggestion that the governor of California, Gavin Newson, and mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, oppose cash payments is also mean-spirited.  

In seeking to nuance the Economist’s views, I consulted two mainstream American newspapers. The Los Angeles Times noted that California had been requested by its reparations commission to issue a formal apology for the persistent damage of slavery and discrimination, an important fact that the Economist omitted in its rush to discredit the case for reparations. The California-based newspaper further explained that monetary losses for the descendants of enslaved African Americans had been calculated based on the three categories of health disparities, mass incarceration and over-policing, and housing discrimination, making these sums less arbitrary than portrayed by the Economist’s superficial analysis. The New York Times also nuanced the 30% of Americans that the Economist noted are opposed to reparations, by citing disaggregated figures from the same Pew Research Centre survey: 77% of African American adults support reparations, as do 39% of Hispanics, 33% of Asians, but only 18% of whites. Unsurprisingly, the main beneficiaries of slavery are the most opposed to its redress, while the main victims of this crime against humanity are the most supportive. Significantly, the New York Times also exposed the ideological disparity in this debate, with 50% of Democrats backing reparations, in contrast to 8% of Republicans: a camp into which the Economist falls.

The Economist – not renowned for its cultural diversity, and notorious for a Eurocentric gaze on the non-Western world – tends to view race relations in America through the jaundiced lens of its own British society which is often in denial about widespread prejudices against black and brown people, despite clear evidence of institutional racism in its policing, public health, and more recently, its cricket. A magazine living in a London glass-house is clearly throwing stones.

Professor Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa.

It was described as a catastrophic implosion — the tragedy of the Titan voyage to the depths of the ocean to find the wreckage of Titanic ship that sank 111 years ago. On June 21, five men comprising the pilot and four passengers embarked upon a 10-day sail from Newfoundland. Each passenger paid $250,000 to journey down the ocean floor. There had been successful trial expeditions in 2021 and 2022 by dive experts, scientists and filmmakers in rehearsal for the great plunge of two weeks ago. OceanGate, the owners of Titan submersible, were confident that with the air pressure inside the Titan remaining “constant and equal to what we experience at sea level, eliminating the need for decompression during the ascent”, nothing could go wrong. According to their tourist brochure seen by foxweather.com “With the click of a button, Mission Specialists can select a camera, monitor the sonar, or view preloaded images of deep-sea species, and the Titanic as they experience an entirely foreign world that only a handful of people have had the privilege to experience.” Even then there were safety concerns and repeated warnings and that the “world of deep sea exploration is not well regulated.” Titan, it was also revealed was “not registered as a US vessel or with international agencies that regulate safety. And it wasn’t classified by a maritime industry group that sets standards on matters such as hull construction.”

Many questions have arisen since the disaster occurred. Was the voyage a suicide mission? Was it in aid of furtherance of science and technological development? As I reported last week with reference to a BBC online, warnings over safety of the Titan submersible repeatedly sent to OceanGate were ignored by the chief executive officer of the company. A leading deep sea exploration specialist, Rob McCallum showed evidence to BBC of his warnings through emails, but the chief executive officer of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, got irritated and would like to be left alone. His response was that “he was tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation.” In one of the emails, McCallum had warned him that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it had been certified by an independent agency. He urged the company to seek certification before using it for commercial tours. “The vessel was never certified or classed. Until a sub is classed, tested and proven it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations. I implore you to take every care in your testing and sea trials and to be very conservative. As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk.” However, the entreaties fell on deaf ears. “OceanGate engineering focused, innovative approach …flies in the face of the submersible orthodoxy, but that is the nature of innovation”, was the response from Mr. Rush. Mr. McCallum made the last effort at dissuading him and he wrote to him: “It will be sea trials that determine whether the vehicle can handle what you intend to do with it, so again, take care and keep safe. There is more riding this than Titan and the Titanic.”

Mr. Rush would have none of the warnings; he took the plunge and it ended in disaster in which all on the voyage died — Mr. Rush and the four tourists enthusiastic to sail to the ocean bed to see the wreckage of the Titanic that broke into two and went down. The Titan itself like the Titanic a century before it curiously broke into two also.

As I was saying, predictably, views on the catastrophic expedition will necessarily differ. A great many would see nothing wrong in men’s spirit of adventure despite uneasy feelings which no doubt each of them must have had and ignored or suppressed. Mr. McCallum’s pronouncements were prophetic warnings. Many saw the expedition as the path to discovery: Nothing ventured, nothing gained; He who dares wins. Where there are no pains, there is no gain. Life is all about risk taking. There is the argument that the advancement of mankind has always come with risks. A young public figure friend of mine as I said last week argues that life’s paths to development and progress are strewn with risks. He is among those who see the Titan voyage as an attempt at innovation. It was through such daringness that the world has developed, he had said in his note to me.

He wrote: “They are the men in the Arena. They tried and failed. Sadly they do not have a second chance. I am certain others will learn from their mistakes, improve and succeed. That is the story of mankind. Seemingly a senseless and daring mission upon which mankind’s course was altered for good.” He went on: “Don’t cry for them. When the University of Bologna the first and surviving university in the world started in 1088 AD, it was not certified by anyone. Certification is for established systems. I went to Jamestown with my family and saw the replica of the Susa Constant, the first ship that came from England in 1607. No ship registry will flag the vessel today for human transport. The imploded Titan submersible is a forerunner to our effort to conquer the seas, mountains, and space…Every year, the success rate of reaching Mount Everest peak keeps improving. Between 1990 and 20005 the success rate was around 34 per cent but from 2006 to 2019 the success rate doubled to around 66 per cent.

“The descent to the ocean beds will become normal in the near future and we may yet learn more about the wonderful cosmos around us or just enjoy what those who climb Everest feel when they reach the peak despite the dangers. We try, we fail, we succeed, learn, evolve and improve. That is the story of mankind.”

I have reproduced his note to serve as background for the basis of my point of view. Another interesting view was forwarded to me after reading this column last week in which it is stated that, indeed, risks taking began from the cradle. It comes with childbearing processes. If it were not so, there would have been no concern over maternal death rate, especially where science has not sufficiently developed to mitigate it. Women, the argument goes, brave all the risks and pains attendant to child bearing and today our world is filled with human beings such that in some countries the talk is about overpopulation. The risk is today taken for granted and all families court it. When the risk succeeds, there is outpouring of love, there are shouts of congratulations; there is dancing and rejoicing. The risks are not over nor are the pains eliminated even though appreciable progress has been made in this sphere with advancement in health care knowledge and practice.

The foregoing points of view are no doubt persuasive, and interesting, no doubt, and the arguments adduced seemingly unassailable. The issues as noted last week are, however, much deeper than that. Who was Mr. Rush and was there any possible connection between him and the disaster of Titanic that sank in 1912, for example? Why was Mr. Rush rushing to put the vessel on the sea to comb its depths to see the unsinkable Titanic that ironically sank 111 years ago? What else could have shown how limited we human beings are? What forces were goading Mr. Rush to be obstinate and pushing him despite warnings and signals about concerns over the viability of his vessel? Was there anything he carried deep within him that connected him with the catastrophic mission of the Titanic, using Titan as the vessel? Mr. McCallum had said…”There is a lot more riding this than Titan and the Titanic.”

What’s in a name? This column has treated the issue of name about twice in which it was stated that there are no accidents in a name. Each person comes to this earth with his name. He is the name he bears. His talents and abilities and destiny are enshrined in the name which is why everyone is at alert that his name is protected; it must be without stain. No alteration or modification is tolerated. He is what he says his name is. Lawan will complain if you call him Lawani. Muhammadu will not answer you if you call him Mohammed or Muhammad. Ishaya will sharply correct you if you call him Isaiah. The tones emitted by the groupings of the consonants and vowels are not without effects as they resound in the bearer; they make all the difference and the bearer is ready to defend his name with all he can muster. So is it that no matter how long it takes and the attendant preparation a family may make to get the name right, at Christening, the child will be given his name, what he comes with. The name is whispered to the prospective mother by the baby itself while in the womb. If the mother is inattentive, it will be received by the father, grandmother or a woman of influence around the family or even a relation from afar. The whispering by the child is normally through connecting radiations between it and the mother.

For the fulfillment of what he carried within him and what is contained in his name, Mr. Rush got himself driven to rush the catastrophic mission. He was the owner of OceanGate which he founded in 2009 and in which he was the chief executive officer. Titan is not much different from Titanic in sound and the tone sent out; every letter radiates, every word sends emits rays which constitute the material for the weaving of the tapestry of life by the Nature Beings. In the case of Titan, the waves of the volition that accompanies it coupled with the rays the letters and sound emit cannot but be without effects. They cannot be ruled out that Titanic is targeted in the volition. There is, therefore, no doubt that there were connection threads between Titan and Titanic. Was Rush in the Titanic? Could he have been the owner of Titanic or the chief captain on its tragic mission? We may not know because of the veil over his inner eyes, but most likely. We can sense that the links are active. What error of judgment could he have committed that he had unquenchable longing to visit the Titanic down the depths of the ocean? He sensed something strongly about Titanic the voyage of which, from his inner stirring, and pull he was undoubtedly connected? Since this expedition ended in disaster, he must come again in a repeated earthlife until there is recognition of his possible guilt that may have led to the unmitigated tragedy and there is atonement and his slate is wiped clean.

From the enlightenment of these times, we are permitted knowledge of events and recognition of possibilities both here on earth and in the Beyond. There are millions of disincarnate souls roaming about in the ethereal world, among them would count victims of the Titanic tragedy of 1912. Many of them who carry deep wounds in their souls may be embittered over the premature termination of their lives on earth through the Titanic voyage. A great number amongst them may have been seeking opportunities to avenge their unsavoury experiences on Mr. Rush out of immaturity instead of moving on to make progress who may be seeking opportunities to avenge their experiences instead of learning from them and moving on. The bitterness and the vengefulness are capable of releasing dark forces to trigger a ship capsizing once they could find anchorage. Such vengefulness compounds woes hindering their progress in the Beyond.

Mr. McCallum must have been standing at his post and may have carried out his tasks through his unrelenting warnings and admonitions to OceanGate to sever his own connection with the tragic mission of the Titanic and connection with Mr. Rush. The Creator does not place disaster on man’s way in order for mankind to make progress. Man is surrounded with help, starting from his intuitive perception and helper in the Beyond. The Lord has placed in Creation His Divine Laws to govern Creation. Was there no time when mankind forged links with the Light Region and heavenly melodies filled the earth? That was in the very beginning of human sojourn on earth. There was swinging as it was meant to be and there was joy and rejoicing on this same earth. We are told in the great Work, “A Gate Opens” by Herbert Vollmann, (Heavenly Melody): “The time came when these delicate flames had blossomed forth in purity into human spirits, and in the blossoming there mingled a faint note from faraway lands, which touched the strings of their hearts like gentle hands, awakening that tone which had sounded so beautiful to them as they departed, and they had quietly received into their innermost being. For they were seized by a vehement urge: for they knew the sweet sound of home, and soon their strings resounded more fully, and their song grew into a melody filled with longing.”

The Creator sent Prophets and Teachers of Mankind to teach and lead us human beings from one step of development to the other. At nowhere are we told that they as exemplars for man took risks or taught same. They received guidance for their activities from the Light Region to which they were connected. Indeed, we learn in higher knowledge that God gives to His own in their sleep. There are no inventions, there are only discoveries. All mankind needs are lovingly brought to the earth from a plane called Medium Gross Matter by the servants of the Lord for the use of mankind at the appropriate time consistent with the measure of their maturity. Despite all we have been blessed with, all the technological wonders that daze us, we are told, our best are yet to come! It is not for nothing we are given the faculty to weigh and examine and be guided to choose what furthers our development and progress.

It may be asked: Of what benefit to mankind or Creation is paying a handsome fee of $250,000 US Dollars for a jolly but risky ride of eight hours just to go and see the remains of a ship that got wrecked 111 years ago? Even if it was a journey of scientific investigation, which incidentally, it was not, it is still outrageous. We learn from higher knowledge beaming In the Light of Truth and spreading on earth today: Motion — A Law of Creation, “Man does not gain anything by being the fastest runner, a skillful boxer, a bold driver, or if he knows whether the horse appeared on earth before or after the fly!”

Certainly our sympathy goes to the five occupants of the Titan submersible, and to their loved ones over the tragedy. At the same time we cannot but feel immense pity that they chose to fritter away their precious lives in pursuit of absolutely nothing, for with knowledge we can work on ourselves and alter the course of our journey away from fateful entrapment we are wont to call destiny! The question remains for everyone to ask and it is where to start: “Who am I? Why am I here on earth?”

Your Royal Highness,

So soon after the Moslem season of spiritual purification, it is sad to see the ancient city of Ilorin, a confluence of faiths and ethnic varieties, reduced to this level of bigotry and intolerance, manifested in the role of a presiding monarch. The truncation of a people’s traditional festival is a crime against the cultural heritage of all humanity. Year after year, the Ramadan has been celebrated in this nation as an inclusive gathering of humanity, irrespective of divergences of belief. Not once, in my entire span of existence, have I encountered pronouncements by followers of any faith that the slaughtering of rams on the streets and market places is an offence to their concept of godhead. Vegetarians hold their peace. Buddhists walk a different path. Prior to Ramadan, non-Moslems routinely join in observing the preceding season of fasting as a spiritual exercise worthy of emulation.

Perhaps this is another occasion for self-introduction. I currently teach courses in Abu Dhabi in the Emirates. That is the region of Origin, all others are mere appendages. I was there just before Christmas. I passed through again in the countdown to Ramadan. On both occasions, the streets, businesses, hotel lobbies and other public spaces were lit up with the same festive spirit. Only the symbols within the designs were different. The mood of celebration was equally pervasive and inclusive. Painfully, my mind could not help but travel back home, and some years past, recalling for instance how a procession of Corpus Christ was once attacked, some killed, by a brood of Moslem fanatics, for daring to process along the streets of that same Ilorin. Needless to say, such abominations have become routine. Community is sacrificed to bigotry.

It may interest you to know that, in Abu Dhabi, numerous programmes are pursued, at government expense, for the evolution of a humanized community based on religious tolerance and mutual respect. By contrast here, several tiers removed from Origin, must we turn the turban of enlightenment into a crown of bigotry?  And in a society whose very constitution that supposedly governs us all guarantees freedom of belief, association and movement?

Your Royal Highness, it is conduct like this that has bred Boko Haram, ISIS, ISWAP and other religious malformations that currently plague this nation, spreading grief and outrage across a once peaceful landscape, degrading my and your existence with their virulent brand of Islam. It is conduct like this that has turned, before our very eyes, a once ecumenical city like Kaduna into a blood-stained mockery of cohabitation. It is conduct like this that makes it possible for a young student, Deborah, to be lynched in the very presence of armed police, on mere allegation of having belittled the image of a revered prophet. It is action of this nature, perpetrated in obscure as well as prominent outlets of the nation that turns a young generation into mindless monsters, ever ready to swarm out and kill, kill, kill. Simply kill for the thrill of it, but under presumption of religious immunity. It is conduct like this that then nerves one extremist to wake up one day in a Scandinavian country, publicly announce his intention, and proceed to make a bonfire of copies of the Qur’an. Reprisals follow, equally mindless, trapping humanity in an ever-ascending spiral of costly but gleeful violence.

This continent has endured centuries of disdain and despoilation at the hands of alien religions – Christianity and Islam at the forefront. Both religions have been sanctimoniously deployed as justification for unspeakable atrocities, for the dehumanization of the black race. Do I need to teach you your own history, or is it that you prefer to forget? To encounter, in this century, a convert to alien spiritual dogma, appropriating the cloak of piety to impede the observation of our antecedent spirituality is not just racial treachery but an assault on civilized conduct as a universal aspiration of humanity, where every discovery, every new encounter usher in new propositions of enlightenment. Humanity builds on the past, preserving alternatives of world views, not destroying that past which, in any case, is indestructible. Your conduct is an affront to my sense of racial being, and that holds true for millions beyond these national and continental borders, stretching into the Americas and the Caribbean. There you will still encounter ISESE and allied spiritualities. There, ISESE still exerts its hold on the human spirit. Visit Brazil, go to Columbia, explore Cuba, and be humbled by the tenacity of this spirituality among the descendants of black humanity.

Even the sturdiest of thrones crumble. Long after you and I are gone, generations will continue to endure the effects of present anomalies, pretensions, hypocrisies, will continue to harvest the bitter fruits of the seeds of discord being sown by their forebears. I therefore urge you to rein in those agents of division, of triumphalist intolerance, such as the Majlisu Shabab Ulamahu Society. There is a thin line between Power and Piety. Call Yeye Ajasikemi OIokun Omolara to your side, make peace with her and make restitution whichever way you can for this grievous insult to our race. We know the history of Ilorin and the trajectory of your dynasty – but these are not the issues. The issue is peaceful cohabitation, respect for other worldviews, their celebrations, their values and humanity. The issue is the acceptance of the multiple facets of human enlightenment.

The greatest avatars that the world has known were not without human frailties, flaws, and errors of understanding.  You are NOT Omniscient. And you are not Omnipotent.

Wole SOYINKA

Akintalun of Egba

Giiwa of Ijebu-Remo

Akogun of Isara

Listening to (and reading) the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin’s pointed accusations of Ejikeme Mmesoma, the candidate who claimed she was robbed of the top scorer award in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, one would think he was there in the room where the said mutilation happened. For an organisation that claimed they handed the case over to security agencies and would prosecute her for forgery, they could have laid out the facts from their end without rushing to conclusions as to how the said forgery happened. I understand they have their facts and are eager to protect their image but making grievous accusations (and personal comments) on what they do not yet know is unprofessional. What they know for a fact is that the result slip did not emanate from them. Whether the girl is the forger or not, or whether she is working with a criminal syndicate, is presently out of their purview.

For those about to ask why I chose to focus on JAMB’s professionalism rather than the candidate under scrutiny, the answer is easy. The former is the institution that will remain after candidates have come and gone with their seasonal dramas. JAMB cannot control the accusations people will direct, but they can establish institutional protocols for managing issues without yielding to public hysteria. An institution going against a teenager and then issuing a ban over a case not yet formally concluded risks turning a case of forgery into a top dog vs. underdog contest. Nigerian institutions are typically guilty of this. Even when they are doing the right thing, they conduct themselves so poorly that public opinion shifts to reading the situation as a case of David and Goliath.

Also, I would like to implore them to consider respecting people’s right to privacy even when under pressure. Not only did they announce Mmesoma’s scores, they also publicly broadcast the name and scores of another 2021 candidate unconnected to the issue beyond the misfortune of a QR code attached to her name. Presently, Mmesoma’s UTME result slip with details that ought to have been redacted is floating around. For anyone who thinks that the circumstances warranted such undue exposure, please know that their lack of concern for privacy is more of an institutional attitude. In 2019, when I read the UTME top scorer Ekene Franklin tell a journalist how surprised he was to hear his name stated as the highest scorer, I was surprised they did not call him first. An examiner announcing your score without giving the courtesy of asking you to waive your right to privacy is like your doctor broadcasting your medical result.

Overall, I suppose the reason people became invested in this case goes beyond Mmesoma herself. Whether JAMB knows it or not, they influence the shaping of destinies.  There is virtually no path to upward social mobility in Nigeria that does not pass through JAMB so people are relating to the case based on the significance of their existence. Yes, there are many lowlife folks out there lashing out because their narrowed minds have reduced this issue to ethnic victimisation. However, there are also others who are convinced that JAMB is the guilty party because of their bitter experiences. The case would not have resonated with them if they had not been jammed by JAMB sometimes for reasons beyond their control. I speak from some experience.

The first time I took the UTME, my score was so good that everyone around me took it for granted that I would be admitted to the university of my choice. The admission season ended without any correspondence from the schools. The conclusion by people around me was that my place must have been switched with that of another—probably less performing—candidate. When I sat for the exam the second time, I made the same choices of subjects and universities. This time, my mother consulted an admission officer who told us that my first choice of university could not have admitted me because of my subject combination. The other school might have admitted me based on scores, but they will never consider a candidate who consigned them to a second choice. These were not stated in the JAMB brochure. I chose the subjects on the advice of the school counsellor who thought they were my areas of strength. Between my mistakes due to gaps in communication and years of ASUU strike, I wasted three and a half years of my life before going to the university.

Looking back now and considering the experiences of others too, I can put it to JAMB that some aspects of their operations are outmoded and need an overhaul. I will be fair to the organisation by noting how much they have improved their processes, but the integrity of the examination should not be at the expense of those who write it. Some of the changes I will propose to them might require a legislative framework, but they can advocate for it.

One, they should run the examination multiple times yearly. Presently, it is structured as an annual festival where you either show up or lose out. A candidate might be a potential top scorer but still fail the exam because they were flustered by an incident on their way to the examination venue. Rather than condemn them to waiting for a whole year, they could simply retake it within a shorter period.  Those who take it multiple times can select the best of their results within an admission cycle. An examination that significant should not restrict people’s chances to just one shot per year when their options can be expanded. In April, I read about a candidate who complained that the University of Lagos did not admit her despite her UTME score of 326. Unilag responded that she failed to upload her SSCE result on time and was therefore disqualified. Such an unfortunate mistake, but why must she wait till 2024 to retake the UTME?

Two, they should extend the validity of their examination beyond one year. Going back to the case of 15-year-old Franklin, the 2019 top scorer who, we were told at the time, would not go to the university because the school he chose only admits 16-year-olds and above, it would have been helpful if he could present the same result the following year. Rather than an outstanding candidate retaking an exam (with the probability of diminishing returns), the process can be flexible to make their results valid for three years.

Three, expunge the whole “first choice” and “second choice” etc. categories entirely. What it asks of candidates is to hedge their chances of being offered university admission on an examination they have not taken and whose eventual outcomes they cannot determine. Many students whose chances were locked into some big-name schools that eventually did not admit them either overestimated their own abilities or were pressured by other agents around them. Better to let candidates see their scores first and retrospectively match with the school/programmes with a cutoff that can admit them. The role of JAMB in that arrangement would be to grant the student’s request to forward the result to the schools where they have a chance.

Finally, the founder of Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma, who was going to give Mmesoma a scholarship said, “The little girl I saw looked so innocent that I can’t believe that she can manipulate her score. If I find out that she deliberately faked her result, I will cancel the scholarship because I can’t encourage a criminal; such a person cannot be useful to society.”

There are two assumptions here. One correlates the face to character and the other judges someone’s future based on a single incident. Who is to say Mmesoma cannot learn a lesson from this be useful to society? In a country where people vote candidates with sketchy certificates as president, we should stop preaching values that run against the grain of reality to young people. It is only a matter of time before they find out that if you have gained enough money and power in this life, there are really no repercussions for anything you do!