By SHEDDY OZOENE
In a country burdened by growing public distrust in government institutions, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) added a fresh layer of controversy with the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The incident has become a national flashpoint, with reported mass failures, widespread student protests, and ultimately an unprecedented admission of fault by JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede. While a plan for a reseat offers a glimmer of hope, it does not answer deeper questions of institutional accountability, the future of Nigeria’s educational assessment system and the Board’s poor response to students traumatized by its ineptitude.
The UTME, a critical gateway to tertiary education in Nigeria, is an annual rite of passage for over 1.7 million candidates. For many, it represents the culmination of years of academic preparation, sleepless nights, and the fervent hope of a better future. The 2025 edition, however, turned into a nightmare for tens of thousands of students and their families.
Shortly after results were released, social media platforms and news outlets were flooded with reports of unexpectedly low scores. Students who had consistently performed well in internal assessments and mock UTME tests found themselves scoring as low as 120 out of 400—figures that disqualified them from admission into most Nigerian universities. The news was that about 75% of those who sat for the exams scored less than 200 aggregate marks!
Parents cried foul, educators expressed disbelief, and students, many of whom claimed to have completed the exam with confidence, protested the outcome. The emotional toll has been devastating, with reports that some of the teenagers have fallen into depression, others contemplating giving up on their academic aspirations entirely. One of them, a 19-year old student reportedly committed suicide.
On closer investigation, it has since been discovered that a technical fault from the exam body’s central server impacted approximately 92 centres in the South-East and 65 centres in the Lagos area – a whooping total of 157 centres in all. In the end, the results of about 379,997 candidates were negatively affected by the glitch which has been interpreted in many ways. In the South-East, for instance, conspiracy theories are flying that the ugly incident feeds into the historical incidents of Igbo marginalization and an institutional attempt to deny its children needed educational advancement.
In a rare and significant move, JAMB’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, publicly admitted that a “technical error” had compromised the integrity of some of the results affecting thousands of students across multiple testing centers. At the press briefing where he admitted the Board’s shortcomings, a few tears dropped from his eyes, a commendable show of empathy if I may add. But, it does little to soothe the pain of students whose academic dreams now hang in the balance.
The fallout has been swift and intense. Parents, students, teacher associations, and education advocacy groups – even the the National Assembly – have all demanded an independent investigation into the matter. Many also requested that Oloyede resign his position as Registrar and JAMB Chief Executive.
In response to the outcry, JAMB announced a corrective measure: a reseat for affected candidates. According to Prof. Oloyede, a detailed audit of the results has been conducted, and students whose scores were likely impacted by the glitch will be invited to retake the exam free of charge. Commendable as this offer is, the questions that arise are: how does a reseat compensate for the mental and financial toll already incurred? Who pays for the logistics? Will it be optional or mandatory? For an institution as central to Nigeria’s educational framework as JAMB, the implications for the failure of the exams in 2025 are far-reaching; the Registrar’s admission show empathy, however, his elaboration on the issue was not detailed enough, neither was his response to the salient questions of compensation.
A disturbing angle to the controversy was added by prominent Nigerian journalist and public commentator, Steve Osuji, who issued a blistering public statement which pointed to the possibility of a cover-up. In calling for an urgent and transparent investigation into the fiasco, Osuji stated “What I initially thought was an error may not be so upon further reflection,” adding that the events surrounding the flawed computer-based (CBT) exams in a specific zone may have been more than an error—“they could be part of a wider orchestrated concealment.”
It is on that premise that calls for a broader enquiry and legislative intervention into the matter, are mounting—not just to hold individuals accountable, but to strengthen the integrity of national examinations going forward, should be considered.
The UTME crisis of 2025 must serve as a wake-up call. While human error is an inevitable part of any system, the scale and severity of this failure indicates deeper structural weaknesses in how examinations are designed, administered, and evaluated in Nigeria. While the admission of failure is exemplary, many Oloyede has not adequately assured that the retake exams will be seamless and the results will reflect the actual performance of the candidates. That will be more important than the act of shedding tears before television cameras.
While it is doubtful that JAMB conducted rigorous pilot testing and third-party audits before deploying its new software, an independent examination oversight committee to help foster transparency and accountability has now become necessary. Ultimately, JAMB’s future depends on its ability to restore public confidence. The Registrar’s admission of fault is a critical first step, but it must be followed by sustained efforts to rectify wrongs, compensate victims, and rebuild the integrity of the system.
JAMB is a Board that has done much of earning billions into the federal coffers through all manner of questionable receipts from students. Every year, it makes a show of the billions it returns to the federal coffers as if it is competing with the Federal Inland Revenue Service. Last year alone, the Board remitted N6 billion of its earnings to the federal government, a figure that took its remittances to over N50 billion in just six years. So, beyond the tears, Oloyede should not shy away from the issue of logistical support during the reseat exams and compensation for the students traumatized by its failures.
Ozoene, Editor-In-Chief of People&Politics, is the Vice President (East) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
