*Photo: Professor Ishaq Oloyede*
Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), reached the Platinum age of 70 on Thursday, 10 October, 2024. His retirement from the services of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Ilorin, Kwara State, as a Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence, was one of the landmarks of that epochal day.
Professor Is-haq Oloyede is a multi-dimensional personality. He was a member of the Students Representative Council, a National President of the UNILORIN Alumni Association, an Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) stalwart, an active member of the UNILORIN Staff Club, a long-term member of the Governing Council of the university, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) and a Vice-Chancellor (VC). He was also the Chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU).
On Wednesday, 9 October, 2024, marking his retirement, he was invited to deliver the University Lecture for this year on the topic “Artificial intelligence and the future of the humanities.” Then on 10 October, 2024, the public presentation of two books in his honour occurred. The first book is titled Islamics, scholarship and service to society: A festschrift for Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, edited by Mahfouz A. Adedimeji and AbdulGafar O. Fahm. The second book is titled Glimpses into the giant: A tapestry of tributes to Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede at 70 and is edited by Mahfouz A. Adedimeji and published in 2024 by the Consortium of Universities in Kwara State (KU8+) and the University of Ilorin.
When a person has attained Professor Oloyede’s kind of status, controversy becomes part of their essence, or even their tonic. Following his distinguished service as UNILORIN VC, he was appointed the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 2016. This national recognition was met with vehement protest by ASUU.
In a 15 August, 2016 press conference, the President of the union at the time, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said: “Given our inside knowledge of his anti-democratic and anti-union antecedents, Professor Oloyede is the last person that we expected to be so honoured with a national appointment of that status in the education sector.” He also said: “The Union has resolved to lodge an official complaint with the appropriate authorities and to demand investigation into the activities of Oloyede while in office as VC of UNILORIN.”
Some other critics had asked, “What can a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies offer the nation in public examination matters?” Contrary to the expectation of cynics, Professor Oloyede has broken myths and shattered stereotypes; and his tenure as JAMB Registrar/CEO has proved to be indisputably the most innovative, most revolutionary and most prudent so far. Certainly, those who appointed him saw more in him than the ASUU hierarchy and his sundry critics could see.
He was also subjected to attack quite blatantly by ethnic and religious bigots. The seemingly misleadingly-named Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), was a classic example. An Igbo candidate Ms. Joy Mesoma Ejikeme had falsified her University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result to portray herself as the best performing student in the examination for 2023. Through JAMB’s diligence and efficient deployment of technology, the fraud was discovered.
However, in its reaction, HURIWA framed the incident as that of a Muslim Yoruba head of JAMB who wanted to deny a Christian Igbo girl her well-deserved glory. Specifically, HURIWA, through its President, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said as follows at a press conference on 5 July, 2023: “The Islamic man that was made a JAMB head by former President Muhammadu Buhari is Igbophobic.” Other ethnic and religious bigots in high places jumped on to the HURIWA bandwagon. But as the English proverb says, “lies have short legs;” and so, in no time, the truth caught up with it, Mesoma confessed to the examination fraud, and Professor Is-haq Oloyede and JAMB were vindicated.
Incidentally, Professor Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, the editor of the book of tributes and Vice-Chancellor of African School of Economics (the Pan-African University of Excellence), Abuja, noted in Professor Oloyede’s citation in the book: “Though well known as a devout Muslim, the former 1st National Vice-President of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria and current Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) is renowned for justice and fairness in dealing with people. Prof. Oloyede does what he preaches and preaches what he does. Ethnic sentiments have no meaning to him while merit is never sacrificed for religious affiliation. For most part of his tenure as Vice-Chancellor, all of his Principal Officers were Christians.” As Professor Adedimeji further noted, “Prof. Oloyede has consulted for the World Council of Churches.”
Moreover, the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab O. Egbewole (SAN), observed as follows in the tributes: “The innovative streak of Prof. Oloyede is unbeatable at the University of Ilorin. It was under his watch that many Centres and Units were established. Indeed, the Centre for International Education and Advancement Centre were created for the advancement of knowledge and development of the University. As a man of law, he equally signed numerous Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and Memoranda of Action (MOA) with many universities, international organisations and agencies and so on, to place the University on the global map. Professor Oloyede was also the initiator of the Association of West African Universities (AWAU) and a Board member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and International Association of Universities (IAU). Prof. Oloyede marketed the University of Ilorin locally, nationally and internationally.”
Professor Yusuf Ali (SAN), former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Osun State University and former Chairman of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN), remarked as follows about Professor Oloyede in the foreword to the book of tributes: “Oloyede brings his ingenuity to bear on all the places and activities he led and has been called upon to render services. Mention the University of Ilorin, the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, you will be left in awe of how Allah has packed all the qualities described in the essays that make up this book in just one person.”
In his case, Professor Salisu Shehu, the Vice-Chancellor, Al-Istiqamah University, Sumaila, Kano, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), noted: “As Oloyede was beckoned by fate to become the Secretary-General of the NSCIA (SG), so was I similarly fated to be appointed in 2016 as its Deputy Secretary-General (DSG). … My appointment as the DSG … availed me the opportunity to work closely with Prof. Oloyede and indeed to be under his direct mentoring and tutelage. … Working with Oloyede would reveal that although he is a scholar that is truly erudite … he is not an arm-chair academic that enjoys pontificating in his own intellectual utopia. He is a very practical and down to earth leader and administrator. … He abhors mediocrity, he distastes … fraudulent behaviour and he is not given to cowardice.”
Professor Oloyede never suffers laggards gladly. According to a tribute to him by Professor Lateef Onireti Ibrahim, the Director, Centre for International Education, UNILORIN, his demand for “perfection, promptness, diligence, and appropriateness in everything” accounts for the discomfiture of those who could not measure up. Professor Rhoda O. Oduwaiye, of the Department of Educational Management, UNILORIN, a former National President of the UNILORIN Alumni Association, noted, in this regard, that at the end of Professor Oloyede’s tenure as VC in the university, when asked the question “’What do you want to be remembered for?’; he replied, ‘Discipline.’” To achieve this, among other objectives, he deployed technology. For example, to monitor attendance at Senate meetings, he introduced electronic entry into the chambers.
Professor Is-haq Oloyede holds his personal relationships very dearly, and continues to be very comfortable in the company of even those with whom he attended the madrassa in his youth. According to Michelle Obama, former American First Lady, a position of influence doesn’t change who you are; it only reveals who you are. An amazingly empathetic, outstandingly generous, yet exemplarily prudent man, when it comes to speaking the truth, Professor Oloyede spares neither friend nor foe.
In an 8 October, 2024 tribute by Mr. Kunle Akogun, Director, Corporate Affairs, UNILORIN, titled “Inside Prof Ishaq Oloyede’s 70 years of impactful service career, By Kunle Akogun”, in Premium Times, he said: “In the face of a national feeling of hopelessness, despondency and unending apprehension over whether anything good could ever come out of Nigeria, fuelled by a near general belief that the country is probably primed for failure or even decidedly doomed to perdition, the actions of a few exceptional Nigerians tend to elicit a glimmer of exultation. The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is one of these rare breed Nigerians, who have rejected the way we do things here and are frantically proving to us all that Nigeria … can indeed be made to work for Nigerians, function properly and take its rightful place in the committee of sane nations.”
Similarly, Mallam Aliu Badmus, the Proprietor of Iqra Group of Schools, Ilorin, asserts in the book of tributes: “It is [people] like Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede that move the world forward and he has shown this convincingly. Despite the great odds, under his watch, University of Ilorin became truly ‘better by far’ (ascended to the 1st position in web raking of Nigerian universities) and JAMB attained global reckoning among examination bodies. This gives us hope that Nigeria is not beyond redemption, if Allah spares the life of Professor Is-haq Oloyede for long with sound health to enable him to do more for the country; and also makes many more people in positions to emulate him.”
Kenyans call their late President Daniel Arap Moi “the Political Giraffe” for his capacity to see far politically; and Professor Is-haq Oloyede may as well be called an ‘Intellectual Giraffe’ for his capacity to project very far into the future academically. He has himself benefited from this gift of vision; and so have his family, friends, associates and mentees. He has met this Socrates requirement: “Let [those] who would move the world, first move [themselves].” Then he has lived by this Booker T. Washington principle: “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Professor Oloyede has lifted up very many people and he has himself ended up constantly upward bound.
As Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede exits UNILORIN in a blaze of glory, this is wishing the trailblazer a grace-filled retirement life and renewed vigour as he continues to offer distinguished service to the nation as the Registrar/CEO of JAMB and in various other capacities.
