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Stakeholders cite poor teaching, moral corruption, others
From Femi Mustapha, Edirin Robinson and Divine Macaulay in Kaduna
When the Nigerian Government in the year 1978 decided to stop universities from admitting students separately into their institutions and established the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to conduct the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), candidates saw it as a welcome development.
The Board started posting candidates to different geopolitical zones, building harmony among people of different backgrounds, religions, cultures, and tribes.
JAMB for the past 47 years has been fulfilling that assignment under the pioneer Registrar, Michael Saidu Angulu, who served from inception in 1978 until 1986, to the incumbent, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
The Board has tried to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the examination processes in the country. However, some schools of thought recently expressed dismay at the number of candidates who failed the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME.)
Investigation revealed that a significant percentage of JAMB candidates had scored below 200 in the past few years, indicating a high number of underperforming students.
The data for 2025 shows that over 50% of candidates scored below 200. In 2024, a similar pattern was observed, with 76% of candidates scoring below 200, and 78% in 2025.
The above analysis can be seen as not just a statistical failure but a moral one that reveals how stakeholders continue to shortchange the youths by denying them the tools needed to thrive in a competitive global economy.
According to Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s spokesperson, the Board is merely an assessment body and not responsible for teaching, saying that the quality of results is directly proportional to the quality of preparation.
It would appear that nothing has changed with the performance of university hopefuls who recently sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination this year.
Once again, we are greeted with a familiar narrative: dismal results, frustrated students, overwhelmed parents, some of whom have even stormed JAMB offices to protest their children’s poor performances, and a society caught in the vicious cycle of educational stagnation.
The only noticeable difference between this year and last year’s JAMB is that, unlike last year, no parent was reportedly caught impersonating their child during the exams.
In 2024, during an inspection of the examination proceedings at the Kaduna State University CBT Centre, Kaduna, JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede informed newsmen that a father had been apprehended for impersonating his son.
Both were promptly detained and handed over for legal prosecution. Additionally, no candidate has emerged to announce that they scored the highest, only to be exposed for being deceptive, as was the case with Mmesoma Ejikeme’s infamous forgery in the 2023 UTME.
The absence of such incidents this year indicates a slight improvement in ethics but it is hardly a cause for celebration when academic performance remains woefully poor.
However, a different kind of tragedy struck when 19-year-old Opesusi Faith Timilehin took her own life following the release of her Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam results.
Miss Faith was said to have passed away after allegedly ingesting a rodenticide known as ‘Push Out.’ The heartbreaking incident occurred in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State, where Faith resided with her sister.
According to reports, she scored 190 in her second attempt at the exam—an outcome she believed was lower than her 2024 result, leaving her devastated.
The tone of the music changed when JAMB held a press conference to disclose that there were errors during the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that affected the performance of many candidates.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made this known while speaking at a press conference in Abuja.
Prof. Oloyede, who fought back tears while speaking, revealed that the board had rescheduled the fresh UTME for 379,997 candidates in the five states of the South-East and Lagos State.
Prof Oloyede said, “What should have been a moment of joy has been marred by one or two errors. This incident represents a significant setback.
“Once again, I apologise, and I assure you that, We remain committed to emerging stronger in our core values of transparency, fairness, and equity. It is our culture to admit error because we know that, despite the best of our efforts, we are humans. We are not perfect.”
However, Nigerians across social media have expressed their indignation and displeasure at this controversial and unfortunate turn of events.
Some of the candidates who wrote the 2025 University Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) even called for the total cancellation of the results while speaking to Citizenship Newspaper as part of their reactions to the JAMB’s errors that affected candidates’ performance in the examination.
According to Ahmed Dahiru, he was scheduled to write his exam by 6am, and the JAMB had to extend it to 4pm, and still changed my centre on the same day of the exam.
“I have not checked my result to know if I did well or not after the story of poor performance broke out, but I don’t mind retaking it as well.”
Another candidate, Mary Onoja, outrightly said she would be glad to retake the examination if the errors were not repeated again.
However, some candidates differ in their opinion. Amos Ruben said the exam went smoothly for him, and he did his best, and “I’m okay with my result. But I’m kind of scared. What if they ask me to come back and write this exam again, and God forbid, my score is not up to the one I got the last time? I’ll be so disappointed and I’ll hate JAMB for it and myself too.”
Similarly, Eunice Aduku said, “God forbid, rewrite now? I’m one of the people that they said we should retake this exam because we put in our best in the last one, and it’s just that people failed a lot.”
In its reactions, the Youth wing of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, frowned at the decision by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to fix a fresh examination for those affected by what it called errors in the recently released results.
In a statement made available to journalists, the National President of the group, Okwu Nnabuike, stated the arrangement was unacceptable.
Okwu stated, “It is a disservice for JAMB to subject the candidates to another round of mental torture, stress, and risk for no fault of theirs.
“We want to state unequivocally that our people will not accept any fresh examination, having already been subjected to mental torture by JAMB. The candidates are not in the right frame of mind to undergo another examination, having been faced with mental torture ever since the fake results were announced.
“Besides, who is going to bear the cost? Are the same parents who are facing severe financial challenges? What of the risk of moving to the examination locations, in a country ravaged by insecurity?” Okwu queried.
He declared that, “Having said this, we demand that JAMB should allocate a 300 score to all the South-East candidates affected by its error, not that of the candidates. Igbos are very brilliant people and could have made 300 and above.
“It was a deliberate design to punish the people of the South-East, clearly to deny them education opportunities. Should JAMB fail to heed our request, we shall not hesitate to drag them to court; no form of crocodile tears by the Registrar will save the Board,” he warned.
