November 02, (THEWILL) — Watching a delegation of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, walk out on the House Committee on Basic Education and Examination Bodies during a hearing at the National Assembly, last Wednesday, was as distressing as it was unbelievable.
The Committee chairperson, Hon. Oboku Abonsizibe Oforji, had asked the head of the delegation, the Director of Finance and Administration, DFA, Mr Mukthar Bello a simple question: Brief the committee before submitting the documents on expenditure for 2024.
Rather than go ahead, even if superficially, Suleiman thumbed his chest at members of the committee and requested that the press be removed before he could proceed. His reason was that he was about to share sensitive documents exclusively for the members. The Committee rejected his request and reminded him that he was a public official and Nigerians needed to know how a government agency had performed in office. That was all. Bello got up and was followed by his team out of the meeting gruffly.
Entreaties by the Committee to stop him and advise him on a better civil approach was rebuffed. According to a member, the ought to have follow a simple courtesy of introducing himself and his team and then requested to see the Chairman to raise his objection for consideration.
Quoting a relevant section of the amended Constitution, the Committee Chairman reminded the DFA that it was duty bound to hold JAMB to account for its expenditure in the outgone budgetary year.
This behaviour by the JAMB public official is audacious and condemnable. His conduct showed that the organisation has something to hide which is contrary to code of conduct of public officials. Indeed, only a fortnight ago, the Federal Government read the riot act to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, on the need to obey summons by the National Assembly and assist relevant committees to perform their oversight functions.
While we understand the underlying cause of My Bello’s behaviour as a career civil servant who may be afraid to divulge information that a political appointee like the Chairman of JAMB, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, can easily give, we condemn his disrespectful behavior before elected representatives of their people carrying out their oversight functions.
Besides, Mr Bello may have realised that he had goofed when he made an uncomplimentary remark about the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, regarding JAMB and decided to save further embarrassment. That slip, however is no excuse for bad behaviour.
We hail the decision of the House Committee to suspend the meeting till Tuesday this week, when they expect to summon the Prof. Oloyede to appear before them and take charge of the situation which his representative had flung.
Despite official warnings against incivility, public servants still carry on as if they are beyond reproach. It is time the government made examples of its workers like Suleiman not only to serve as a deterrent others but also to show that rules and due process are enforceable without respect for rank, fame or reputation.
Prof Oloyede had cleaned up the erstwhile bad image of the examination body since taking over as Chairman of JAMB. But lately, the organisation has been experiencing some challenges that tend to paint it in bad light, no thanks to the recent technical glitch that affected the results of many students and dented the images of many schools which were falsely accused of aiding and abetting examination malpractices.
We urge the Committee to invoke the necessary constitutional provisions and sanction any official of the organisation that fails to answer its summons on Tuesday and submit the relevant documents for its oversight work. Apart from the Constitutional provision, the government’s recent directive on MDAs in respect of appearances before the National Assembly, is also a weapon for the committee to wield against insubordination.
