Ogbuagu laments authority actions that ostensibly explored everything but forgot to determine what is the alleged crime that Mmesoma committed.
Today, I can comfortably accuse Nigeria of committing a grave crime against Mmesoma Ejikeme, the 19-year old accused of forgery. At three different levels, a Pontius Pilate arose among us, conspiring to destroy the future of this rising star. JAMB played the first Pilate, quickly followed by Anambra State Government, and then the Yoruba-Igbo ethnic nationalists. Each of the three groups mindlessly offloaded their peculiar biases on the shoulders of this poor girl. None of them neither resorted to the law or applied commonsense and empathy to her case. Discerning members of the public who were able to see through their biases. They sadly noted how governments and citizens destroy rather than give young people an opportunity to live through their mistakes.
Here is a summary of the case. Mmesoma printed a result from a spoof website that misrepresented her Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination scores. She subsequently flaunted the fabricated result on social media. The girl probably thought the whole thing a joke, as is often the case with social media pranks. She could also have been chasing clout. Or it could have been an act of desperation? Perhaps to remedy what she thought was a let down on her JAMB performance. Whatever it is, she never submitted her fabricated result to any authority for gain. However, people made promises of scholarship and other sponsorship, until JAMB exposed it as a misrepresentation.
Playing Pontius Pilate
Certain facts remaiin uncontested in the ensuing controversy. Mmesoma is a brilliant student whose real scored is an above average 249 points (62%) in the JAMB examination. This performance qualifies for merit-based admission in most disciplines in our universities. Additionally, her teachers testify that she has been a consistent highflyer, including recording a statewide best score in her high school common entrance examination. She then makes a mistake, a single mistake, and a certain breed of Nigerians appear to have lost their heads. For this blunder, netizens call her evil names. I’ve read her description as a “young scam artist,” and an “upcoming Hushpupi,” in their cringe-worthy rants.
As already noted, JAMB played Pontius Pilate in the handling of her case. How she procured her fake result did not intereste the agency. Neither did it make any comment on spoof sites that mirror its results and lead students to temptation. JAMB’s only interest appears to be to prove that she fabricated the result that she publicly flaunted. The agency also had the temerity to boast of its prowess in exposing those gaining admission with similar fake results. Still it did not mandate the secret police to investigate the root cause of the problem. This problem is the existence of spoof sites that routinely embarrass JAMB.
Anambra State Government quickly followed the JAMB playbook. For the record, Mmesoma’s parents live in Anambra but are not originally from the state. This fact, on its own, should have been an advantage. It should have invited a certain level of detachment, if not disinterest, in the panel that judged the case. Instead, it appeared that prejudice ruled the work of the government panel that investigated Mmesoma’s case. This is evident from the panel’s conclusion and recommendation. The conclusion was that Mmesoma acted alone, based on the naïve reason that she refused to name her accomplices! It recommended psychological examination. One wonders why it did not go further to suggest psychiatric treatment!
Lone Wolf?
It is laughable when a panel of professors conclude that Mmesoma acted alone. So, she owns both the business centre where she printed the result as well as the spoof website? To stretch this ridiculous conclusion further, should we now begin to suspect that she also manipulated her prior academic laurels? The panel is however not to blame. There may be an unspoken mandate to make Anambra State look good. The panel failed to explore the intrinsic factors that predisposed this youth to cross the bounds of ethical behaviour.
As for social media netizens, the controversy quickly degenerated into the perennial ethnic contest between the Yoruba and the Igbo. Igbo irredentists started the fight by suggesting that Mmesoma was being persecuted because of where she came from. How low can these people get? The suggestion riled Yoruba ethnic nationalists who jumped into the fray. They came in to protect their own – the Ogun State-born registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede. And they went overboard, accusing the Igbo of being a land of fraudsters. In their anger to offload on the Igbo, they forget something. In one corner of their region (Oluwole Market) is the undisputed forgery capital of Nigeria! Ironically, the ethnic netizens pushing the fight were the same as those stoutly defending forgery charges against a presidential candidate. Reasonable people looked on in dismay as the issue degenerated into the perennial (and stupid) ethnic supremacy battle.
All three actors (JAMB, ANSG, and netizens) could unite in a battle to save this bright star. The idea should be to reform, not enable a young person fall into the underworld or tumble into irredeemable depression. Let us know what went wrong with this highflier. We should honestly and diligently investigate the forces that acted to push her to the public show of shame. We should not focus only on preserving reputations, and leave Mmesoma alone in a cold dark world.
What is the Mmesoma Crime?
It is interesting how Nigerians unite to inflict maximum punishment on the petty thief. And allow the pirates of national misery to get away with murder. And what a petty thief Mmesoma has turned out to be. All we needed were to debunk her social media claims. Withdraw any gains from such claims. And “pepper her” on social media. These should serve as enough disgrace for her foolish action. We didn’t need to approach the matter as if we are bent on catching a hardboiled criminal.
Come to think of it, what was her crime? What is JAMB punishing her for? Is it for flexing on social media? Something that more than 90 percent of netizens daily indulge in without batting an eyelid? We are punishing Mmesoma for brandishing a fake result on social media? Isn’t that more of fake news than forgery? Forgery, is afterall, a fake report submitted to an authority or persons for an undue advantage? If anything, she was merely a bearer of fake news in the media. Section 24 of the 2015 Cybercrime Act makes this a criminal offense under Section 24 of the . Even atthat, it would have been difficult to sustain the charge with that section.
What is Mmesoma’s Crime? Will JAMB withdraw my university degree certificate, or my 1980 admission, if tomorrow I do this? Take to Twitter to claim that I was best JAMB candidate during my time – and brandish an “evidence”? Mmesoma is simply a victim of mob psychology and a reflection of a national pastime of hypocrisy.
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