Prof. Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, fspsp
Vice Chancellor, African School of Economics
(The Pan-African University of Excellence)
FCT, Abuja
Presentation Made at the Homecoming Celebration of Prof. Emeritus Is-haq Oloyede and the Investiture Ceremony of Distinguished Alumni and UNILORIN Ambassadors at the University of Ilorin Auditorium on Monday, August 17, 2026
Professor Emeritus Is-haq Oloyede: The Exemplary Leader
Introduction
It is both an honour and a privilege for me to stand before this august audience in the month of August to speak about an august personality. An august personality, for the purpose of clarity, is a majestic individual who inspires great respect and possesses grand and noble bearing. This is indeed the man of the moment, a man of all moments, Emeritus Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, FNAL, OFR, CON (Adedimeji, 2024a). President Ahmed Bola Tinubu expressed the feelings of many Nigerians when he said almost two years ago that Nigeria owes Prof. Oloyede “a debt of gratitude” while fittingly describing him on the occasion of his seventieth birthday as an “uncommon scholar and exceptional administrator” (Tinubu, 2024).
The programme of today, organised by the University of Ilorin under the visionary, smart and charismatic leadership of Prof. Wahab O. Egbewole, SAN, is in furtherance of paying that debt of gratitude to the enigmatic Oloyede, who by all available standards, is a role model extraordinaire and exemplary leader par excellence. Prof. Emeritus Peter Okebukola echoes the pulse of Nigerians when he wrote that “Nigeria needs more people like him” while describing him as a man who refused to be ordinary (Okebukola, 2026).
Exemplary Leadership in Brief
Leadership is everything and everything is about leadership. Defined as the process of guiding and impacting on others, leadership is the capacity and the will to rally people towards realising a common cause and achieving a common goal. John Maxwell (1998) avers that “the true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less” (p.15) and the fact that this programme is holding at all and everyone is present here is because of Prof. Oloyede’s influence on individuals, the university system and the Nigerian society at large.
Meanwhile, exemplary leadership is conceptually a standard of guiding others through personal integrity, clear actions and strong values, rather than only authority. This type of leadership, which Oloyede epitomises, inspires trust, encourages growth and builds shared purpose. Exemplary leaders exhibit five behaviourial traits: they model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act and encourage the heart (Kouzes and Posner, 2023).
In practice, Oloyede models the way by leading with values and personal example, creating credibility, trust and consistency. He inspires a shared vision in his team and followers by having a sense of purpose and direction, thereby entrenching influence and alignment. He also challenges the process he is involved in through improvement, innovation and adaptability as evident by his interventions at the University of Ilorin, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
Besides, as a team builder, Oloyede enables people to act through collaborating with others to achieve goals, building trust and engendering empowerment in the process. Then, he encourages the heart by recognising excellence, boosting morale and commitment just as he did when he introduced the Researcher of the Year award at the University of Ilorin when he was its Vice Chancellor. As JAMB Registrar, cash awards were given to exceptional staff of the Board and a whole centre was named after a remarkable staff member: Moduoluwa Aloba JAMB CBT Centre, Ogba, Lagos.
Oloyede’s 10 Exemplary Leadership Qualities
As a concept, phenomenology is the science of phenomena that simply means “letting things become manifest as they are” (Littlejohn and Foss, 2005 p. 38). It is a communication theory that rests on three principles, one of which is that knowledge is conscious, coming from direct experience (Adedimeji, 2024b).
Based on this theory, I want to briefly illustrate 10 qualities that make Prof. Oloyede an exemplary leader with reference to aspects of direct experience. In a world where exemplary leadership is increasingly becoming a rarity, the Oloyede example offers both hope and inspiration to the future and current leaders.
Ikigai: This is a Japanese idiom that entails discovering one’s purpose in life, what gives one’s life meaning. Not many leaders and people are able to discover their purpose. In an interview he granted This Day newspaper eight years ago, he articulated his ikigai which defines his personal and public life: sacrifice and service. It is for this purpose that he said that if he has the opportunity of coming to this world 20 times, he would still like to be a teacher.
A teacher’s life is typified by sacrifice and service because only God can pay teachers their full due. This also explains why he is an epitome of simplicity because he sees life and every assignment before him as an avenue to sacrifice his intellect, time and energy to serve the society. The definiteness of purpose is foundational to success in leadership in particular and life in general. Prof. Oloyede is always purpose-driven and intentional in whatever he does.
Integrity: This is the quality of being wholesome and unimpaired or steadfast adherence to a strict and ethical moral code; the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. That Prof. Oloyede is a man of exceptional integrity has been attested to by many. He publicly declared years ago that he had never taken a bribe in his life and he reiterated it recently as well. Then, when people tried to discourage him after returning billions of Naira to the coffers of the government (7.8 billion Naira in the first year alone in an agency that did not remit 50 million Nairaa in 40 years) that JAMB is not a revenue-generating agency, he countered them that the Board is not a revenue-wasting agency either.
Integrity often goes with transparency and he institutionalised the publication of revenue and expenditure at the University of Ilorin, the feat he repeated also at JAMB. According to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in a foreword to a book in our exemplary leader’s honour, “Prof. Oloyede’s life and work exemplify high ideals of scholarship, integrity, commitment and service” (Obasanjo, 2026). He is incorruptible and selfless and his bosom friend, Prof. Yusuf Ali, SAN, affirms he is one person because of whom he can perform ablutions and swear in the name of Allah to proclaim “his integrity, incorruptibility, honesty and selflessness” (Okebukola, 2026 p.xviii).
Competence: This is the ability to do something successfully by combining relevant knowledge, practical skills, background experience and appropriate behaviour. Apart from the fact that Prof. Oloyede is a cerebral scholar and first class graduate, he has the capacity to harness human potential to achieve set goals and objectives. While the bane of leadership in some climes is sentiment, mediocrity and nepotism, Prof. Oloyede magnetises competence and he is exemplary in putting round pegs in round holes. Primordial affinities have no value if competence is lacking. I once asked him why he trusted someone with an assignment. He said he knows the person dislikes him but the person is capable of doing the job.
When he assumed office in JAMB, he was given a note containing his entitlements. But he spent several hours studying the law, rules and policies of the agency and realised that what was presented to him was inflated, a trap. In any establishment he is affiliated with, the first thing he studies and digests is the law and the rules. He always puts an extra effort in ordinary things till he becomes an extraordinary personality.
Courage: While standing trial on September 11, 1963, the late stateman and sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, said as part of his allocutus (or statement before sentencing), “It is not life that matters but the courage you bring to it.” Prof. Oloyede appears to have taken this quote personally. His life and leadership are defined by courage: courage to be different, courage to do the right thing and courage to combat the formidable forces of evil. Leadership requires courage because many people don’t want to do the right thing and Prof. Oloyede is not a person to be intimidated. He doesn’t look for trouble but when trouble finds him, he faces it squarely. He is the type of a person who would take a machine gun to a street fight if there is a need.
In the early 2000s when Dr Usman Akanbi, President of the Nigerian Association of Authors (ANA) and son to the late legendary jurist, Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi, was launching one of his books, there was a staccato of gun-shots around the venue at the Mini Campus. I was there. Everyone ran helter-skelter but Prof. Oloyede went to the source of the pandemonium, the Student Union Building. He came back to assure those of us who preferred to stay that it was a fluke. As Vice Chancellor, he also laid an ambush for a criminal who was harassing female students around mid-night in the bush surrounding their hostel. If there was a need, Prof. Oloyede would dare the devil and damn the consequences. He fought the owners of “miracle centres” to a standstill and stood against principalities that benefitted from admission racketeering and fraud, despite threats to his life.
Commitment: When Prof. Oloyede is given a task, he devotes all his energy and sinews to it as if his life depends on it. He considers every assignment before him a religious responsibility deserving his full attention, a matter of Amanah (trust). This is why he does not do things half measures. As Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, he made it a point of duty to clear his table every day before he slept. I was with him around 1a.m. on one occasion at home and he was resisting sleep while struggling to minute on memos. I told him to sleep since he was tired but he said there might be someone’s memo whose approval might be late if it was delayed till office time the following day.
That commitment would make him to always be thinking of innovative ways of making the system he superintends over better. It was commitment that would make him pioneer Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for post-UTME and large-class examinations in Nigeria at the University of Ilorin. The same zeal would make him deepen digital transformation at JAMB, scaling and hardening CBT nationwide, adding biometric verification, making NIN linkage mandatory, installing CCTV monitoring of centres, developing the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), onboarding remote authoring tools and installing anomaly-detection systems that would cost him countless sleepless nights.
If many leaders are as committed to their assignments and constituencies by just 50% of what Prof. Oloyede gives, various sectors of the Nigerian society would witness a transformation. He is also committed to excellence, merit, transparency, fairness, inclusion and justice.
Contentment: A major driver of corruption is greed but its opposite is contentment. As Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, true wealth is not by material abundance but by the richness of the soul through inner satisfaction. Prof. Oloyede is not rich and I am aware he takes loans to meet some of his needs, like many of us. He is contented with what he has and that is why he considers himself a teacher, just a professor. He is not under any pressure because of that contentment, which directly derives from his ikigai. He told me how much his gratuity was when he retired and what he did with it. He thinks the returns from the investment per month is okay but even I believe it is not enough. He remarked that one can only do whatever one can do with what is within one’s means. If a leader is contented, his dignity and integrity will be preserved and Prof. Oloyede exemplifies this.
Welfarism: One of the marks of great and exemplary leaders is putting their followers’ needs, wellbeing, safety and growth at the font burner of their agendas. Oloyede cares for those under him and demonstrates this through a number of ways. As Vice Chancellor, people worked hard but they were adequately compensated. His belief is that when workers are motivated, efficient institutions are built. This is why the subject of welfare is part of his inaugural address to the Senate of the University of Ilorin, “Regeneration for a New Age: It’s a New Day” on October 26, 2007. Also, welfare was the first of his five-point agenda as elaborated on the day the mantle of leadership was handed over to him at JAMB as articulated in his “Let us do it Together: The Biggest Room in the World” on August 8, 2016.
So, at JAMB, he pumped over 8 billion Naira into employees’ retirement savings accounts with the Pension Funds Administrators, gave retiring staff parting handshakes of between three and 10 million Naira, introduced the 13th month salary, increased examination duty allowances up to 20-25% and provided daily meals to staff. Even candidates benefitted from his welfare as he reduced the application fees from #5,000 to #3,500 Naira and he did more for the special needs candidates.
Kindness: Despite Prof. Oloyede’s public persona as a strict and no-nonsense official, behind the façade is unusual kindness and generosity. There are many examples but a single one would suffice due to time constraints. What many people believed to be technical glitches that generated national uproar during the release of the 2025 UTME results was actually a human problem. It was an opportunity for those who wanted to attack him to have a field day. But rather than disclosing who was responsible for the error, he accepted responsibility. I asked him why he would shield the person and throw himself under the bus. He said the young man would be destroyed, given the level of public anger. So, he took all the bullets to protect an employee under him who would have been torn to pieces by the hyenas. His kindness is not limited to material things he gives. He would dignify subordinates with his presence and recommendations thereby uplifting them. Many of his mentees and staff are beneficiaries of this kindness and for that too, they don’t prepare his pounded yam without covering it.
Discipline: This is the capacity to train oneself or others to follow rules, keep order and build self-control and this, to me, is the peak of what makes Prof. Oloyede exemplary. He is a paragon of discipline in all its ramifications: academic, moral, financial, social, attitudinal and personal. His fidelity to time is legendary and punctuality is truly the soul of business to him. As far he is concerned, discipline is the first law in heaven and indiscipline is the mother of all evils.
When he was Vice Chancellor, dress code was institutionalised and students knew that if they misbehaved, they would “face Tanke” or be expelled. At JAMB, deserving people were prosecuted and he stepped on toes as part of instilling discipline.
Kaizen: This is another Japanese concept and it means seeking to improve in all areas of one’s life. Prof. Oloyede is a lifelong learner, reading, studying and seeking improvement on a daily basis. He would enrol himself in school after becoming a professor and he is never shy to be a learner. This speaks to his simplicity and humility despite being a genius. He never pretends to know all. He consults widely and refines his thoughts and processes as he gains new insights. Seeking knowledge is from the cradle to the grave as far as he is concerned.
Conclusion
The exemplary qualities of Prof. Emeritus Oloyede are many and the illustrations are countless though time is limited. His teacher, Baba Yusuf Kolawole Jumuah, observed him keenly and said he was almost an angel, belonging to the super-human level. It is almost an impossible task to acquire all his qualities and the most ardent of his admirers can only focus on some. We can only pray that the Almighty Allah preserve him for many years more and multiply his kind among Nigerians.
To conclude, I noted elsewhere that what Fidel Castro said of Che Guevara applies fittingly more to Prof. Oloyede, and one can paraphrase the iconic Cuban leader thus (Adedimeji, 2024b):
If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: let them be like Is-haq Oloyede! If we wish to say how our children be educated, we must say without hesitation: we want them to be educated in Is-haq Oloyede’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Is-haq Oloyede!
May the Almighty Allah continue to bless and protect our mentor, Professor Emeritus Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede.
I thank you very much for your attention.
References
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Okebukola, P. A. (2026). The man who refused to be ordinary: Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede. In Okebukola, P. A. (Ed.) A peep into the future of higher education in Nigeria: Book in honour of Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede. (pp.xv-xx).
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