Ordinarily, a tribute to Professor Is-haq Olarewaju Oloyede, Registrar of Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, should have waited till the end of his tenure, which must be presumed to be glorious―because the morning of today has shown the forthcoming day. But a landmark 70th birthday is too significant to ignore. Just by being true to the requirements of his practice of the Islamic faith, Oloyede strikes you as an Imam, a leader of men, and a teacher, who is also firm, upright, truthful, dignified, honourable, and exceedingly innovative.
Whenever you meet Oloyede, you may not readily see the “Big Man” in him. He has an exceedingly simple mien and carriage, that neither carries the power nor the grandeur of the office of the JAMB Registrar on his shoulders or his sleeves. As Secretary General of Nigeria’s Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, led by His Eminence, Sultan Abubakar Sa’ad of Sokoto, Oloyede is also a spiritual leader of Muslims.
He has successfully blended both roles of a secular leader as Registrar of JAMB with that of an Islamic leader in a most honourable fashion. From his first days on the job as Registrar of JAMB, he has worked like a super-sleuth, a gumshoe, with an uncanny talent to detect, trail, and foil examination malpractices perpetrated by wayward candidates, writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, and their criminally indulgent guardians. He is in his best element when he begins to describe his many encounte.