Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede comes across as a workaholic to those who have had cause to relate to him personally or professionally. As a measure of his diligent attitude to work, he has consistently received commendations for his judicious management of resources in all the government agencies he presides over.
Some attribute his transparent deployment of resources to his religious background as an Islamic scholar of international repute. But it goes deeper than that, as others of similar religious persuasion have proved that it takes more than the hood to make the monk.
He is the serving Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB). Before he mounted the saddle at that agency, it had become a bye-word for financial mismanagement and malfeasance. It was alleged that rodents and snakes were the Board’s accounting officers, during which time millions of Naira could not be accounted for. Oloyede would have none of it as he brought renewed impetus to efforts to cleanse the Augean stable JAMB had become.
His leadership style and drive at JAMB are unique. He sanitised a once corruption-ridden public institution and transformed it into an enviable establishment, generating enough to self-finance its operations and remitting some to the federation account. He is known to have remitted billions of naira to the federal government abiding by the legal framework setting up the body.
Since assumption of office, Oloyede has transformed JAMB into a reference point in effective public service delivery in relation to transparency and accountability
Still, with the yeoman’s job of making JAMB relevant, this erudite professor of Islamic Studies, old-fashioned in a remarkable way, demures when the word simple is used to describe his imposing personality and uniquely moral refinement.
“I don’t know if I am simple,” he says, adding, “You cannot be anything but what you are. I have no option but to be myself.”
“It is not bragging about who you are. It is about doing what you are supposed to do for the benefit of humanity. I am an Egba man, and I appreciate their (Egba) culture and values – and the fact that you cannot become wealthy overnight.
Born on 10 October 1954, in Abeokuta South local government area of Ogun State, Oloyede had his Secondary Education from 1969–1973 at the Progressive Institute, Agege Lagos. He then learned Arabic and Islamic Studies between 1973 and 1976 at the Arabic Training Centre Agege, Lagos (Markaz). He received an Arabic and Islamic Studies certificate at the University of Ibadan in 1977 and a B.A. in Arabic at the University of Ilorin in 1981. In July 1982, he was appointed an assistant lecturer in the University’s Department of Religions. In 1991, he received his doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Ilorin.
Oloyede earned several scholarships and prizes during his student days, notable among which were the Arab League prize for the best final-year Certificate student in Arabic and Islamic Studies in 1977 at the University of Ibadan; the Federal Government undergraduate merit award from 1979 to 1981; the Department of Religions Award, University of Ilorin, 1981; and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Award, Unilorin, also in 1981.
Oloyede is a member of the Board of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (2010 – 2012) and also a member of many learned and professional societies – Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Fellow, Academy of Entrepreneurship; Member of Nigerian Association of Teachers of Arabic and Islamic Studies (NATAIS); Member of Editorial Board, Centre for Islamic Legal Studies, ABU, Zaria.
Oloyede attained the rank of Professor in 1995. He was elected Vice Chancellor of his alma mater, the University of Ilorin, in 2007 for five years, during which the university became highly ranked among the best in Africa and the most sought-after university in Nigeria.
Oloyede also served as Chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and Committee of Vice-Chancellors between 2011 and 2012. At the international level, he has held several distinguished positions.
In 2015, he was appointed the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Fountain University, Nigeria.
In 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him Co-Secretary of the National Political Reform Conference. In 2006, the National Universities Commission on Educational Reforms in Nigeria appointed him a consultant. Oloyede became the National Coordinator and Executive Secretary of the National Inter–Religious Council (NIREC) in 2007. Since 2013, he has been the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
Oloyede has two passions—to be a teacher and a good Muslim. He has achieved both in a manner that distinguishes him from the pack. As the devoted family man clocks three scores and ten, perhaps, for him, it is yet morning on creation day as he ages gracefully.
