It was from Markudi, Benue state that the news came. For most Nigerians no one was sure of what to make of it. It was a funny but crying shame. Corruption has taken another turn. Who else is left to blame but snake. News from Benue since this year began has not been good. It has been one tragedy after the other. This time, it is a tragi-comedy. The introduction of the reptile to the many top government agents involved in stealing of public funds trumps them all.
According to widely circulated reports, a staff member of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB told a routine audit team when questioned about her stewardship and gaps in her official book keeping log found out that some funds were missing. In the process, one Philomena Chieshe, a sales clerk in the JAMB office, Makurdi, told JAMB Registrar and his team that she could not account for the N36m she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards. Scratch cards were hitherto sold as a warrant to candidates to access JAMBโs portal for registration.
โIn the course of interrogation, Philomena denied the allegations that she stole the money, but confessed that her housemaid connived with another JAMB staff to spiritually (through a snake) steal the money from the vault in the account office,โ the report said.
Then came Senator Shehu Sani. The Kaduna senator and former human rights activist added more drama when he stormed JAMB headquarters in Abuja with cartons of anti snake venom concoction. Sani said his visit to JAMB was in response to the story that a snake swallowed N36m. He lamented that it was of concern that such a huge sum of money was reported to have been swallowed by a snake.
โI believe that the contribution I can make is to bring snake charmers from my constituency to the JAMB office and to help them fish out the snake and weed out snakes from their premises.โ
Sani further said that if a snake could actually swallow N36m, one day, Nigerians might wake up to say that a snake had swallowed the countryโs foreign reserve. โEven if it is a spiritual matter, we believe that these people I brought are some of the best snake charmers in the country and they will help in arresting both physical and spiritual snakes if there has been any in the JAMB office.โ
The metaphor is not lost on us. This tragi-comedy is a tell-tale sign of how low we have sunk as a people. Such that officials of government can in truth without fear tell such ridiculous lies as alibi to exonerate themselves from imminent disgrace. When they are cornered, people can manufacture any lie to attempt a cover up including lying against a snake. This goes to show the new order in JAMB. The organisation under the new leadership has made giant strides in probity. Senator Sanni explained that it was very clear the incident did not happen during the tenure of the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
โWe are very proud of him. We believe he is someone who should continue to run this agency. It is good for Nigerians to know this is what happened before he came into office. I believe the best thing we can do is to continue to support him. It is time Nigerians knew that there may be other dirty things happening in other places, but this place has exposed it for us. We know the truth and Iโm very happy about that.โ
Shedding light on the processes introduced to stem corruption in JAMB, their Spokesperson Fabian Benjamin, explained that on assumption of duty, the registrar, Oloyede, discovered that there were loopholes in the sale of scratch cards. โWe discovered a lot of loopholes. The registrar thereafter introduced PIN vending. After introducing the PIN vending, it was natural for him to call for an audit of the former use of scratch cards After taking stock, it was discovered that in some offices, they could not account for what they sold. Ms Philomena Chieshe was entrusted with a number of scratch cards which she sold, but N36m could not be accounted for. When asked, she actually said she sold them at the said amount, and kept the money in the public vault. According to her, a snake swallowed the money.โ
We salute the probity in JAMB. We take notice of the billions they now pay into government account instead of the paltry sums hitherto paid in the years of snake magic. We urge JAMB to continue with their reforms until the place is fully sanitised. This is another plus for the current regimeโs fight against public waste and corruption
