JAMB Is Correct But The Girl Has A Great Opportunity

Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
4 min readJul 4, 2023

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I have now watched the full Channels interview with the JAMB spokesman and the TVC interview with both the JAMB spokesman and Mmesoma Ejikeme’s father. I have to tell you, JAMB will win this case 100% if it goes to court. 100%.

In fact, if you watch both interviews and still think that JAMB is “trying to bring the girl and the Igbo ethnic group down”, you are something that starts with an I and ends with a T.

If you really want to be against JAMB for tribal or underdog reasons, the best thing you can say is that there is a miscommunication somewhere.

That said, there is a chance that the girl and her father are innocent. It’s a very slim chance. But it’s there. That slim chance is based on the idea that although the girl is intelligent, she has been deceived by someone else into thinking she really scored 362. We’ll have to know who that person is.

I doubt it’s her father because he didn’t sound too savvy in tech matters but who knows. Rather than counter the JAMB man’s hard facts and evidence, he was focused on emotional blackmail by saying they want to ruin his girl.

He then brought in the naira redesign as proof that Nigeria can do anything. Which is too true but misplaced in this case because the change in JAMB result format is two years old now. And not only is the sheet the girl is carrying obsolete, it also has a wrong date of birth. Didn’t her father notice this?

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But, yes, as a card carrying Nigerian with a card carrying Nigerian father and mother, I know that some Nigerian fathers/parents can be absentminded, especially if they are not too educated or think of providing as their only duty.

All they know is that their child always come first but the details of that first position is missing to them. From experience, I have to say that coming first in school and getting 240+ in JAMB is not abnormal. The way the girl’s father was insisting on his child’s brilliance made me believe that he doesn’t understand that 249 showcases her brilliance, too. 362 is a lot but even the most brilliant kids score 202 every year.

But away from all of these debatable points, the real reason why Mmesoma’s people should not sue JAMB is connected to the girl’s phone number. JAMB has every record of her number contacting their service for results and the records show that she contacted their service in April twice. She got a message indicating that her results were not out yet.

Then on the 4th of June, she sent a query that gave her results as 249. That should have been the end. But for some reason, she or somebody with her phone sent another query 5 days later. This time, rather than request for her result, she sent a message to the JAMB service with the fake scores we have now seen.

This was the wrong move that gives JAMB the upper hand in this case. Someone with her phone was feeding the JAMB service the inflated scores and hoping it spits it back to them. VERY STUPID move but I can see the logic.

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This is why that viral text showing the girl’s high scores are online. But both texts were sent messages and not received ones.

And yet, even though her number attempted to feed the service the fake scores, the service still sent her the original 249 as the score. Checkmate.

The question now is: What happened between the 4th and 9th of June? And if Mmesoma wasn’t with her phone, who was with it on the 9th of June? Because by early last month, her phone number had to have already received her original scores. Airtel has the records so there’s no escape.

I expect a confession if this matter keeps getting dragged. But the best thing would be for someone to tell the Ejikemes to take the money and run. They need to shut up, let the noise die down, and get their girl to take the clout-seeking scholarships offered to her by any one of her aggrieved tribespeople and go abroad.

Many people think JAMB is after her. They won’t change their minds and won’t watch the interviews with their brains, so the family can capitalise on the usual Nigerian folly and change their little girl’s life.

Because it is a child in the middle of this wahala, I will say that a mistake has been made — and maybe a crime has been committed — but it is the type of mistake that is attached to fortune. The Ejikemes better not ruin it.

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Oris Aigbokhaevbolo
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo

Written by Oris Aigbokhaevbolo

Nigeria’s most acclaimed writer-reviewer.

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