When Ms. Mmesoma Ejikeme, who pulled a 419 on a country, first burst on the scene, she was a miracle of teenage genius. The social media whirled, the father preened, Anambra State swaggered, Nnewi spun from a stereotype of commerce to a land of a nerd, the nation nodded. This essayist was quietly applauding Innoson Motors for rallying philanthropy for brains as against a nation obsessed with the shallow artifice of Nollywood and comedians. After all, we just witnessed pure academic genius in Lagos State University where Aminat Yusuf, daughter of The Nation’s own journalist, snagged a perfect score. The BOS of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, filled her quiver with N10 million.
But the story strayed suddenly. Ishaq Oloyede revealed it was all a hoax. Mmesoma was an impostor. What was she high on? Lies, deceit, delusion of grandeur, 419, in her case ‘fraud one nine’? While Oloyede pinned his point on technology, it became a story of witch-hunt. Oloyede and his JAMB wanted to hunt her down. JAMB sought to make her into a witch. The mob sought to upend technology with sorcery. Conspiracy theories buzzed. They lost patience with exact science, but rather turned into agencies of sentiment. Oh, how the Innoson girl was innocent. After watching her social media act, JAMB must be a terrible institution. Oloyede must be a wicked man.
Others said, it was all about tribe. An Anambra State commissioner almost got caught in the web of persecution. But the governor, a cosmopolitan, made it a procedural affair. My great sister, Oby Ezekwesili, often under the spell of her own sentiment, called for independent inquiry. Fair enough until she wrote that it would be “a learning experience for @JAMBHQ and everyone…” She had cocooned JAMB as the guilty party, Mmesoma the innocent. How about a learning experience for Mmesoma, JAMBHQ and everyone else? The two principal figures were Mmesoma and JAMB. Oby opened herself to a charge of placing kin over conscience. Remember Achebe’s “A kinsman in trouble ought to be saved, not blamed”? Not a good way to tackle a national matter. Great that she accepted the truth after the Anambra State inquiry. Gov. Chukwuma Soludo would not be part of such a perfidy. He checkmated the runaway imagination of some in the state. Kudos to him.
This girl is not 14 or even 17. She has reached the age of majority. She might have voted in the last election. She can wed, be a mother, fight in the army, testify in court. This saga has shown us how innocence can be overrated. There she was online with a soft, feminine voice, a carapace of a white band and unwoven hair over a cherubic face. There is no art to find the 19-year-old’s construction in the face. She was a girl in whom many built an absolute trust. Trust is therefore overrated.
She erred and she knew it. I spoke with Oloyede, just as Ezekwesilii did. The JAMB boss said, “if I interrogate her for 30 minutes, she will confess.” It turned out, Mmesoma did not require that exalted audience to confess. She did not need conscience. She bowed to facts. In The Great Expectation, Charles Dickens says, “Conscience is a terrible thing if it accuses man or boy.” Hers was not about innocence, but naivete. As former Aviation minister Osita Chidoka narrates, Mmesoma presented the outdated name of his exam centre. The new name bears Ikemefuna, a name familiar in our most popular novel. She lacked the stealth and eye of a forger to update the school’s name, which had changed. It was an illumination from Chidoka in spite of exploiting the moment for partisan drivel. She did not know that JAMB had effected a change of result format. She scooped an ancient template for 2023.
Mmesoma exercised what Joseph Conrad calls a “bravado of guilt.” She walked with effrontery into the office of the state education commissioner to advertise her lie. She relished Innoson’s N3 million largesse with the showy impunity of a photo-op.
Many have not followed Oloyede. He is the public servant of this generation. He has not only turned an agency that gave N50 million as gains for over a decade to N50 billion. He has radicalized probity in education. Many students can no longer fake high scores to gain admissions and become false professionals. Who knows if the persons who misdiagnosed Gani Fawehinmi were products of such shambolic triumphs? Recently, a prominent Journalist had surgery in a big Lagos hospital. When the problem persisted, he tried another big-name hospital that insisted on another surgery. But a United States doctor said he had a mere allergy. The symptoms disappeared on prescribed tablets he used a few times.
We need the same example in WAEC and NECO. Many still score high in school certificate exams by fraud. Mmesoma’s story highlights a victory of institution. But we should not overstate this. It is the genius of one man who purified a system and turned it into an example. Political theorists often bicker whether rational choice supersedes institutionalism. But institutions are what men make them. It calls for vigilance. More applause for Oloyede.
Yet institutions cannot be underrated. Those who called for proper procedure for Mmesoma are calling for mercy. That is why we may not develop. JAMB spared Mmesoma the prospect of a jail term of beans with designer stones and typhoid water. If the DSS follows through, she might rejoice over the three-year ban from UTME. After all, many of her age mates are behind bars. Yet, my heart follows Apostle James, who espouses mercy over judgment and Jesus who would privileges mercy over sacrifice. Shakespeare’s immortal line, “The quality of mercy is not strained,” holds here. Let it drop on her like the gentle rain.
But not long ago, a fellow from Kaduna claimed 380, and the state government, like Anambra, was about to celebrate. Until JAMB exposed him. Some hysteria about North versus south wanted to becloud the facts. A father collaborated with a child in Benin. A few years ago, a fake student hired a SAN to sue JAMB and during interrogation, the lawyer had to beg JAMB to ask NTA not to cover the fraud as the facts leapt out. Syndicates are thriving in Igarra, Edo State and Mowe outside Lagos. Arrests have not deterred them.
The story underlines a world of fakery. If we have fake UTME results, it is because we have fake bread, fake malaria drugs, fake designer bags, fake clerics, fake army officers, fake doctors and lawyers and policemen, fake shoes, fake baby foods, et al. Hence many throng worship centres for miracle rather than faith. JAMB triumph is a triumph of technology, and that is how to save our country. Good persons, good technology, good country. For all its imperfections, we have made strides with technology for our elections. Nothing demonstrates this more than the willingness of the crybabies to agree with INEC where they won and disagree where they lost. We need it in our finances in the centre under President Bola Tinubu. He saved Lagos finances with technology. He should do it in Abuja.
Those who turned Mmesoma saga into tribe had a learning curve. They were chasing a giant rat that was not there. When Amina Yusuf won the LASU perfect score, no one made any bones about her tribe. It was not a tribal triumph. It was an individual shine. The tribalists forget that the real JAMB shero is Precious Nkechi Umeh, who soared to a 360 score, devouring the 90 percentiles in all science subjects and 66 in English. Innoson should give her the N3 million. After all, Umeh hails from Anambra, although she is a Lagos student of the Deeper Life High School. Where are her parents? I had called The Nation newspaper’s Yusuf as the father of the year for nurturing his daughter to excellence. Umeh’s parents share the honours.
But the saga is about how we make heroes. Mmesoma has seen many who earned praises as murderers, liars, thieves. Russian poet Pushkin wrote, In our time, man, whatever his element, was a liar, murderer or thief. It is from that spectrum of heroes that Mmesoma comes. In his Being There, novelist Jerzy Kosinski tracks a man with no education or rigour rising and being favoured to be the U.S. president. Or Harold Skimpole in Dickens’ Bleak House who lives a glamour life parasitizing on one and all. Or Jay Gatsby in what is one of 20th century’s great stories of a hero without roots.
Mmesoma is a fraud while 19. She deserves our scrutiny more than pity.
NB: Sam Omatseye is a respected columnist with The Nation Newspaper.
