Group Disowns NASU Award to Ex-JAMB Registrar Oloyede

Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions(NASU), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) Branch, under the umbrella of August 1st Freedom Group(AFG) has discredited the purported award given by the Branch to the immediate past Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, calling the exercise a charade and mockery of the great ideals and principles of NASU.

Oloyede had stepped down Friday, July 31st as Registrar, handing over to Prof. Segun Aina who served in JAMB during his National Youth Service more than a decade ago.

However, during Oloyede’s sendforth ceremony at Abuja Continental Hotel on Friday night, NASU purportedly gave him an award in recognition of his “outstanding, visionary administration” among other things.

Some of the achievements credited to the former Registrar included introduction of staff canteen, renovation and construction of an edifice of the National Headquarters, training and retraining of Union executives to improve performance, implementation of air tickets for official assignments, approval of 13th month salary and 25 percent Examination Security and Incentive allowance respectively and Management’s consistent financial support to the Union to mention a few.

However, AFG in a statement by its Coordinator, Comrade Chuks Madueke said that the purported award is fake, baseless and not deserved by the former Registrar since such was never discussed in any Congress held by NASU, wondering how one or two people who apparently benefitted from Oloyede’s tenure will just decide to “dish out” awards on behalf of the Branch.

The AGF Co-ordinator and pioneer Ex-Officio member of the Branch said: “When was this idea of giving this so-called award conceived and who supported it? Which Congress did we ever hold to screen nominees for our awards?”

The former Ex-Officio member also wondered what welfare schemes the former Registrar pursued that qualified him for such award.

“What welfare are we talking about when our members were unjustly and maliciously victimised daily under his watch? Our members were intimidated and humiliated at flimsy promptings by the Oloyede-led Management”, he stated.

Madueke lamented years of alleged torture by the former Registrar, citing rampant malicious redeployments of staff without relevant allowances paid and other situations where salaries and allowances of staff were withheld without due process.

He further highlighted the “pains and anguish” experienced by so many families when such vindictive redeployments took place with “female staff taken away from their children like the slave trades of yore”.

“A female staff member was involved in an accident during one of the redeployments and had her leg amputated. According to him, the former Registrar did not facilitate her access to benefits under the Employees’ Compensation Scheme,” Maduke said.

He further alleged that, the former Registrar demonstrated his usual lack of empathy when he directed that the stipend paid to the staff member during her hospital admission be retired by her.

“The incident had left the staff member and her family devastated till date.”, he said.

“Our staff lived in perpetual fear of malicious denials, demotions and stagnation with so many staff not being promoted over the years under the former Registrar.”

He also wondered why the offices nationwide did not have staff buses while billions were ironically spent on corporate social responsibility initiatives benefitting other organizations.

He said: “Under his tenure our staff was deprived of some of the core jobs they did while such was allegedly contracted out to his associates, cronies and relations who were paid outlandish salaries and allowances”.

The AFG Coordinator regretted that the former Registrar loved such awards probably to boost his ego and impress the public, wondering if the former Registrar really feels that he deserved such awards.

Madueke also noted that though the former Registrar sponsored some of the leaders of the union on tours of some African countries while their respective spouses were equally appointed to supervise our exams, however such gesture was not enough to trade away their conscience or our Union.