A former Registrar, Joint Matriculations and Admission Board (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, on Tuesday said he was leaving the board better than he met it after nine years in charge.
Prof. Ojerinde told reporters at a dinner organized to honour him in Abuja that he had done virtually everything he needed to do to move the board forward.
According to him, his achievements could only be built upon by the new JAMB registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who took over from him last week.
He urged management of the board to continue to work to keep the philosophy on which JAMB was established.
Prof. Ojerinde said: “I feel good that I am leaving JAMB better than we all met it that time. I am sure the person who has come to takeover is going to be as good if not better than I am.
“I have done everything I wanted to do. There is no other thing I want to do and that is why God says it is time for me to leave. That is it. No more.
“Through the grace of God a lot of things have been done. My wish is that the management should continue the way they use to do it. We used to have a philosophy of yes you can do it and things are been made possible.
Ojerinde denied media reports that he was sacked by Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, over 2016 admission list.
“I was not removed because of that. After all I was not the only one replaced. 17 of us were replaced so why should I be removed? I don’t think I was removed because of that,” he said.
On reverting to paper and pencil test (PPT) as being clamoured by stakeholders, the former JAMB registrar noted that it would be one step forward and two steps backwards to embark on such decision.
“May God forbid going backwards. We will move forward. In fact they should go multimedia and I think the present person will do it.
“No I don’t believe that. That hullabaloo has also been in the system during my time. When I combined UTME with MPC and UME there were hullabaloos. Before we started CBT there were hullabaloos because of the fear of the unknown.
“We are used to that in JAMB and we see challenges as progress. When we are challenged we face it. Nothing good comes easy,” he added.