It was supposed to be a local-girl-makes-good story. Or a rags-to-riches story. It was supposed to be the stuff of legend and folklore. The kind of gripping and enthralling story that uplifts. And inspires at a time of despondency.
It was the kind of tale that galvanizes Screenplay writers and spurs Directors to make movies that edify and etch themselves in our memory.
MMESOMA Joy Ejikeme of the Anglican Girls Secondary School, Uruagu, Nnewi, in Anambra State, told the world that she had bested Nkechinyere Umeh, a fellow scholar, from the same State, who had 360 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UMTE). Mmesoma claimed she scored 362, thereby emerging the overall best scholar in the said exam.
Nigerians were wowed. The imagination of those who set store by excellence was captured.INNOSON AUTOMOBILE COMPANY LIMITED was so enamoured of this feat that it gave out a scholarship and three million Naira to boot. MMESOMA Joy Ejikeme reportedly approached the Anambra State government, seeking for recognition and a scholarship to read in the university.
Alas, it turned out to be a fairy tale and a hoax. The wunderkind turned out to be a fraud. Like Janet Leslie Cooke of the WASHINGTON POST, who once used the figment of her imagination to contrive a story, in order to win a Pulitzer Prize, Mmesoma gamed the system. Deploying an App, Jambfun-Fake Jamb Result Maker, she manipulated her scores. From her original 249, she upped her scores to a dizzying 362.
Not even shrill JAMB disclaimers that Mmesoma manipulated her scores were taken seriously, even by influential Nigerians. Most were swayed by emotion and ethnocentricism. This was until the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, set up a Committee to investigate Mmesoma’s outlandish claim. The Committee’s findings vindicated JAMB. Mmesoma was said to have confessed her fraud to the Committee. And her remorseful father, Mr. Romanus Ejikeme, who claimed ignorance of her mischief, has apologized to JAMB and the public. To serve as a deterrent,JAMB has promptly banned Mmesoma from writing its examinations for three years.
It was a poignant anti-climax. Our joy was turned into disappointment. INNOSON AUTOMOBILE COMPANY LIMITED quickly withdrew the sumptuous scholarship it had earlier awarded with gusto. JAMB was right to have banned Mmesoma. There must be consequences for bad and willful behavior. Otherwise, impunity will reign supreme. Mercifully, we have heard of the restoration of Nkechinyere Umeh to her position as the true and veritable star of the UMTE exam. Furthermore, Governor Soludo has awarded her a scholarship “in appreciation of her hard work” and “to provide her with the opportunity to further her dreams and contribute to the development of the state in the future”. This is salutary. In the famous case of Janet Leslie Cooke who fabricated a story and won a Pulitzer by default in 1981, the prize, in the aftermath of her outing, was presented to Teresa Carpenter, a nominee who had earlier lost out to Cooke.
What is sad is the raucous discourse that attended the Mmesoma episode. Prominent Nigerians, who should know better and exercise circumspection in such situations, either threw caution to the wind or elected to view it through ethnic prisms. In spite of the Registrar’s yeoman’s and concerted efforts to reform the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), in recent times, profound doubts were cast on the board’s integrity. Many preferred to pitch their tents with Mmesoma in spite of JAMB’s protestations and disclaimers until the outcome of the findings of the Committee set up by Governor Soludo and Mmesoma’s lachrymal confession.
This recourse to ethnicity to read a purely technical matter underlines how sundered we are along ethnic lines. It also underscores our absolute lack of faith in public institutions. No doubt, not a few public institutions have disappointed Nigerians. Most people view them as cesspools of corruption. Thankfully, JAMB, under the diligent watch of Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, in this case, has redeemed itself. In spite of the many interrogations and tests of its integrity, it has thus far emerged unscathed. This should inspire other organizations to put their houses in order and to carry themselves with fidelity to their mandates.
If Mmesoma’s is a sad story and an anti-climax, we must ask: Why was she motivated to contrive such a fraud? True, success resonates with us. It resonates more with our compatriots in the South East where people live in awe of stellar performance and great accomplishment. Perhaps to take advantage of the glow in which she would have basked and the incentives that would have accrued, she was pushed into manipulating her scores. Little wonder, hardly had she upped her scores than she reportedly approached the State government for recognition.
But beyond the quest for rock-star recognition and an award of scholarship, Mmesoma’s misadventure was symptomatic of a deeper malaise. Ours is a society in which people willfully cut corners in order to advance. And they do so brazenly. The system, unfortunately, rewards them and they sickeningly flaunt it at their helpless compatriots.
The conduct of the recent primaries and the elections that followed hot on their heels are examples. Delegates were openly bought. Deep pockets emerged as flag bearers in at least two of the country’s prominent political parties. Lucre – indeed filthy lucre – played a significant role in the elections and their outcomes. We often give the impression that one can cut corners, get away with it and, for good measure, capture state power. The young ones are watching intently. They are acting it out, hence the profusion of many Mmesomas. Sometimes they are aided by their complicit parents and guardians who take them to write exams at “miracle centers” at which students score highfalutin marks which they cannot defend thereafter.
Political office holders who loot their treasuries and who pauperise their citizens with abandon are being lionized by their very victims who ought to hold them accountable. Witness the humongous debts bequeathed by outgone governors. If you subject their tenures to scrutiny, you will discover that these states have no projects or infrastructure to justify these debts.
Children and students in their teens are not only impressionable, they are adept copy cats. Unfortunately, they are in an environment and landscape suffused with, and dominated by, charlatans. The few who carry themselves with decency and integrity are hardly celebrated. It is the confidence artists(419,in our parlance) and the scalawags that are praised – and to the high heavens.
To curb the Mmesoma syndrome, we must go back to first principles. We must regain and restore our lost values of integrity, hard work, honesty etc. Rather than deride solid and honest achievers, we must hold them up for emulation by the younger ones. Otherwise, we will come to grief.