Ogungbangbe Pushes Scholarships to Osun East, Headlines JAMB's Place In National Development

By ISAAC OLUSESI

Dr Thomas Olaleye Ogungbangbe has taken a sweeping swipe at the recent Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) results and slammed mass failures and the reset of the examination as potentially capable of affecting academic calendar, admission timelines, and candidates' industry, financial stability, and scholarship opportunities.

However, the All Progressive Congress (APC) Senate aspirant from Osun East Senatorial District cautioned against hushed proposition to rubbish the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), a crucial organization in the nation's education system, responsible for conducting UTME into tertiary institutions.

He spoke in Lagos at his Dr Thomas Olaleye Ogungbangbe Scholarships Foundation. The Foundation that holds its exercise every other year, had the last one in April 2025. The stakeholders include educators and policymakers; PhD scholars, other students, currently receiving the Foundation's scholarships; awardees, those selected to receive scholarships; and their lucky parents and guardians from across Nigeria.

The Scholarships Foundation had engaged significant discussions on the downtimes ahead of the academic progress of the UTME candidates, being planned to revisit the UTME examination centers, occasioned by the JAMB's technical issues, system glitches, and human error. Or data-upload failures.

Reports had it that "a significant number of candidates score below the national minimum cut-off of 160 with over 75percent, scoring below 200," in the 2025 UTME results, released on May 9, this year. And the results spontaneously sparked strong public reactions.

In a remark at the summit of the Scholarships Foundation, Ogungbangbe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CITA ENERGIES placed under review, the JAMB's examination infrastructure, examination score assessment process, and examination environment.

And he charged JAMB "to review its qualifying examination system for admission into tertiary institutions, implement robust cybersecurity measures to prevent data breaches, and redevelop disaster recovery plans, put on regular reassessment to identify and address potential technical issues before they come to impact examination processes.

"And I can assure you that such technology governance would guarantee the JAMB system stability, and enable the organization to operate efficiently, reduce errors and, foster public trust and confidence in its operations."

On his Scholarships Foundation, the scion of the Ajagbusi Ekun Owaloko Royal Dynasty of Iloko-Ijesa in Oriade local government council area gave express instructions to the management to push its boundaries to the Ife/Ijesa axis, the electoral mainstay of the state, for the benefits of the mass of youths, others and their good parents and guardians. That's favour and goodness. 

Prince Ogungbangbe has at heart the interest of the Osun East women and youths. His kindness would amplify and continue into his developmental representation in the Senate. And it would make a meaningful difference in the general lives of his constituents. He is one man-people, a people-person, standing for the people and for the benefit of the people. His own version of the Abraham Lincoln democracy in his Gettysburg Address.

He opined that the deliberate overhaul of JAMB with reforms to its examination processes and technology governance would cause improved organizational efficiency. Ultimately, it would optimize the quality of students, entering into tertiary institutions, and better the standard of education in Nigeria. And that, stemming from the revamped JAMB, would essentially drive the nation's human capital development capacity and expertise.

 *OLUSESI writes via* isaacolusesi@gmail.com