Congratulations to Umeh Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere, who came tops in the 2023 JAMB UTME examinations. I was doubly delighted to see her on national television fielding questions from an interview panel. Brilliant girl!
It is also my pleasure to celebrate Achunike Okafor, another Nigerian teenager who scored the highest among 2,649 graduates in the Class of 2023 in Newark, United States. Both teenagers are among the best of our children. Their trajectory suggests that our future is assured.
When the management of the Deeper Life High School, Mowe, Ogun State, rolled out the drums to celebrate the 16-year-old who had brought honour to the school, her achievement attracted national attention because a totally different person, Ejikeme Mmesoma, was attempting to steal the glory of being the highest scorer. JAMB had declared Kamsiyochukwu the top scorer with an aggregate score of 360 and the government of Anambra State, her home state, had decided to honour her as is customary every year, but one Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, a 19-year-old student of Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu Nnewi, protested to the state government that she scored 362 and ought to have been honoured with the highest scorer’s award.
The Anambra State government decided to seek confirmation of Mmesoma’s claim of scoring 362 from JAMB. The printout she was flaunting as proof of her scores was an old format last used in 2021. Out of the 1,5586,765 candidates who took the 2023 examination, only Mmesoma printed out the old format with a cloned QR code pinched from another person’s 2021 result. The fortuitous change in the design of the result notification in 2021 gave away the game immediately. How could only one person, out of 1.5 million candidates, be parading a different certification or proof of scores?
It is natural that one tends to side with the underdog. That explains the outpouring of emotional support on social media for the ‘poor’ student. Anything that has to do with government evokes the basest of emotions in people who have been at the receiving end of many anti-people policies and incompetencies of government.
The errant girl’s case was further convoluted by do-gooders who did not bother to verify the facts they flaunted. Those among them who flayed JAMB for terrorising a ‘minor’ could easily have checked her real age if truth was their goal. A 19-year-old cannot be described as a minor!
Drama Over Mmesoma’s Forged Results Ends With Apology
Some said JAMB had no right to parade the girl before the world as a fraudster. However, the girl was the one parading herself. I didn’t know what she looked like until she was misadvised to release a video which, ironically, confirmed her fraud rather than indict JAMB. Even the document she was parading stated her examination centre wrongly. Since 2021, the Centre’s name had been changed from Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development to “Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development)”. How come Mmesoma’s document reflects the centre’s former name?
Nobody would have heard of her if she had not presented herself to the Anambra State government as the highest scorer in JAMB of 2023. She had already collected a prize money of N3 million from Innoson Motors before her misadventure with the state government. It was in the process of verification by the Anambra State government that her lie was exposed.
The truth, without any padding or frills, is that Mmesoma, having already fraudulently collected N3 million from the proprietor of Innoson Motors heard that the Anambra State government was going to honour Kamsiyochukwu Umeh as the highest scorer in UTME 2023, and decided to waylay her by claiming to be the rightful winner. She did not reckon with the layers of verification embedded in the JAMB system.
Some critics accused JAMB of playing accuser, investigator and judge. That is untrue. JAMB merely exposed the fact that the result being paraded was fraudulent. Fraud is fraud. There is no softer name for fraud committed by a teenager. And the attempt to ethnicise the matter was so gut-wrenchingly odious. Mercifully, we now know that the authentic winner, Kamsiyochukwu, is also from the same Southeast geopolitical zone as Mmesoma. Many people did not even know that Mmesoma hails from Enugu State until the report of the investigative panel was released, showing that she is an Enugu State indigene resident in Anambra. The world loves a winner; a villain is quickly shown the road to her father’s compound!
It is instructive that Mmesoma did not confess to her fraudulent activities until she was literally confronted with the jailhouse. Had she persisted in her lies, the case would have gone to court and she would have bagged seven years imprisonment if convicted. “There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”, says Shakespeare. Mmesoma is a classic example.
JAMB’s claim that its system is transparent and user-friendly can actually be verified by any interested party. One can check any result via phone by sending UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 on the phone number the candidate used to register for the exam. The result will be transmitted immediately to the registered phone number.
Also, anyone interested in finding out the various tricks available to crooked candidates can google websites advertising ‘miracle centres’, ‘high JAMB scores’, ‘how to improve UTME scores’ , etc. There are all sorts of offers available and no one is more aware of their existence than innocent-looking students like Mmesoma. Something tells me that her accomplices are still at large.
For the records, here are the champions in the 2023 UTME as announced by JAMB:
Umeh Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere, 360
Aguele Stephen Osezuha, 358
Ositade Oluwafemi Anthony, 358
Gbolahan Azeem Ayinde, 357
John Fulfilment Ibhanfiodon, 356,
Duruji Chimdubem Ugonna, 355
Adesanya Jermaine Oluwaiomiloiu, 355
Shittu Priscilla Adedunni, 355
Atenisumen Enoch Oluwagbemisoke 355
Adetunji Victor Adewale, 355
Ofonime Iniobon Idongesit, 355
Imoukhuede Andrew Onayeme, 355
Truth be told, we have a social problem that makes people want to pass examinations at all costs. Part of the problem is the emphasis that the society places on any kind of formal test and the certification that goes with it. Many people don’t care that there is a marked difference between an aptitude test like JAMB and an achievement test such as WAEC, even though both achievement and aptitude tests measure the strengths and abilities of the test-taker. Aptitude tests focus on the potential someone has to learn new things while achievement tests focus on what has already been learned.
The fact that a student usually comes first in class does not necessarily mean that he/she will excel in an aptitude test like JAMB. The three-year ban handed down to Mmesoma as punishment is lenient considering that the penalty on conviction is seven years imprisonment.
Let’s light a candle rather than continue to curse the darkness. What is the secret behind the success of the 2023 UTME highest scorer, Kamsiyochukwu Umeh?
She said the secret of her success is adequate preparation and discipline instilled by her school, the Deeper Life High School, Mowe. According to her, “We started preparation immediately after we entered SSS3. This was when we started receiving pep talks on the exam; the school organised special UTME classes for us. I also practised a lot of past questions to familiarise myself with the kind of questions JAMB could bring out. I also read my textbooks and then, I paid attention when the teachers took us through classes… I have applied to the University of Lagos, and I aspire to study Chemical Engineering.I feel very excited and grateful to all my supporters and encouragers….”
Mrs. Umeh, Kamsiyochukwu’s mother, is justifiably proud of her daughter.
“When she is studying, I also make sure to involve her in household chores. I believe that a child’s success should be holistic, not just limited to academics.…”
Congratulations, Kamsiyochukwu! You are in good company with Achunike Okafor, another Nigerian teenager, who recently received an International Baccalaureate diploma with a record-shattering 4.625 grade-point average from the Science Park High School at Newark in New Jersey, USA. Achunike’s father, Godfrey Okafor, said his son’s achievements are also a source of family pride.
His GPA is the highest among Newark’s 2,649 graduates in the Class of 2023. It earned him more than 40 scholarship offers, many from the nation’s top universities: Spoilt for choices, the 18-year-old plans to attend Harvard University to pursue a neuroscience degree.
To our two worthy role models, Kamsiyochukwu and Achunike, let me re-echo those old-fashioned words made popular by the inimitable football king, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a.k.a Pele: “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
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