When the matter blasted and dominated the social media, I was among the strong defenders of the young girl who was said to have forged her UMT exam score. I listened to her brilliant submissions on the matter. I was swayed to believe her because in my opinion, JAMB was hasty in her reactions to the issue. Moreso when JAMB had suffered a very serious fatal integrity blow with their epic narrative of the snake and the millions of naira. I said to myself, a body which could easily explain away such crime can’t be trusted to give an honest opinion on any issue of public concern. I was not alone in this line of thought because Jamb acting on a rather impulsive and rave to act the saintly body, gave away herself by initially, passing judgement without trials. JAMB also negated the spirit and letters of fair hearing. It acted as the accuser, investigator, prosecutor and judge on the matter. My insistence like other people that due process must follow was in line with the concept of natural justice and fair play. Am always guided by the words of the erudite jurist, the legal Socrates, late Justice Oputa that justice is a three way traffic. First, justice to the offender, second, justice to the offended and three, justice to the society. These are the very pillars of justice.
JAMB only sought and obtained justice for herself, the offended. For me, this is not enough. Now the Board had used modern technology to prove that actually, the girl’s result was forged and indeed, it was not only hers but many others are involved, so who are those behind all this? Can JAMB use this Mmesoma saga to drive the nails into the coffin by going aggressively against the cartels that disrupt the integrity of our youngsters by talking them into the heinous acts of exam manipulations for commercial gains? Can JAMB also carry out internal cleansing exercises to purge herself of possible insider collaborators?
I really feel the pains that at the end my fears were confirmed. Young Mmesoma should not be allowed to fade away by this act which if looked into well, she was only a pawn on the chessboard of some criminals. I said so because her merited UMTE score was quite good and capable of securing admission for her in the first place.
Now JAMB is right and poor Mmesoma is wrong, let our empathy take the better side of us. Her future is important. She has learned it the hard way and am sure, she will be better guided. Those who will or are shouting “stone her” should remember the intervention of our Lord Jesus Christ against those pharisees out to stone Mary Magdalene. “Cast the first stone if you’re not without guilt.”
A pardon for her is the best as it will make her a possible renewed Mary Magdalene of our time. My empathy goes to her and my pray is that, God renews her in all human consciousness to the greater glory of His and blessings of His people.