My opinion piece follows the popular sentiment trailing the appointment of the new JAMB registrar, the 39-year-old professor of computer science. I titled it “One Yoruba Go, Another Go,” to capture the mood on the street, but my argument is grounded in analysis. Analysis holds up a mirror. It forces us to see our actions and conduct in ways we never imagined. It can sound harsh and emotionally uncomfortable, especially to those without the maturity to sit with uncomfortable truths. But it compels us to ask whether the framing is fair or just blackmail, and whether federal character enshrined in law is being applied consistently or only when it suits those in power.
At the time I wrote, I had no idea the new JAMB registrar was the son of the NUC chairman. Nigerians picked up on it, and Law and Society Magazine amplified it.
The magazine reports that President Tinubu appointed both a father and his son to lead two key education agencies in quick succession. The father now chairs the National Universities Commission, while the son has taken over as head of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. The appointments have sparked quiet conversations in political and academic circles about elite continuity and influence. The concern is straightforward: are strategic positions being concentrated within a single family network, and what does that mean for fairness and independence in Nigeria’s education sector?
Social media has added another layer. The new JAMB registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, is also an ordained pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a chaplain in Redemption Chaplaincy International. He ministers at faith clinics and programs like RCCG Hope of Glory. It’s harmless on the surface, yet it’s left unsaid in his public profile, as if being a pastor is something to downplay. That stands out when you consider how openly the First Lady’s pastoral identity is embraced as a badge of honor. The secrecy feeds suspicion where openness could build trust.
The emerging analysis goes deeper. It’s not just “one Yoruba go, another come,” or a father and son in charge of two regulatory agencies in the education sector. The Minister of Education is from the South West. So is the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), and the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC). Taken together, it reinforces the perception that the South West is being positioned as the most educationally advantaged zone.
But the South West is one of six zones, and it doesn’t represent the entire South. Here’s the irony. We condemned Buhari for nepotism, and rightly so. Yet appointments from the North Central, North East, and North West are lumped together and treated as “Northern.” Meanwhile, appointments from the South are dissected into South West, South East, and South. The North is the most ethnically dispersed region, yet it’s treated as a single bloc, while the South is fragmented. By that logic, it would be fair for three of every six appointments to come from the North. In practice, if a leader appoints three Northerners and one each from the South West, South East, and South, it’s called balanced.
This framing puts the North Central at a disadvantage and fuels the renewed agitation for a distinct Middle Belt identity. It also explains why someone like Peter Obi from the South East can be seen as more justifiable for the presidency than Atiku from the North East, even though both regions have shared a similar fate since Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe’s time in the First Republic. Neither region has had another shot at the top since then.
So the question remains. In a nation of over 200 million people and six regions, how does federal character hold when one region corners nearly all the heads in one sector, and one family occupies two sensitive positions from the same region? How are checks, balance, and a sense of belonging supposed to work when the optics suggest otherwise?
*Bagudu Mohammed*
bagudumohammed15197@gmail.com
