The scandal surrounding the 2025 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination is not just an embarrassment – it is a national disgrace. What unfolded over the last few weeks is nothing short of a comprehensive failure of leadership, judgment, and responsibility by the JAMB management. The events surrounding the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are not just regrettable – they are disqualifying. This year’s national university entrance exams have revealed a catalogue of failures that no apology, however emotional, can excuse. Yes, JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede cried on national television. Yes, he admitted to “errors.” Yes, a resit has been offered. But that is not enough. This is not a time for damage control, half-hearted apologies, or token reviews. It is time for resignations or firings. JAMB’s leadership must resign, or be fired. Immediately.
What unfolded in April and May of 2025 is a disaster of such magnitude that its implications go far beyond test scores. It calls into question the legitimacy of the results of over 1.9 million candidates, many of whom are now left in limbo, not knowing whether to believe the scores on their slips or the Registrar’s tears. From the outset, this year’s UTME has been mired in confusion, chaos, and controversy. A staggering 78% of candidates scored below 200. Thousands of candidates and parents, with unusual confidence and unanimity, rejected their scores as falsified or incorrect. Over 8,400 formal complaints were submitted demanding access to scripts. JAMB’s first response? Blame the candidates. Blame technology. Blame everyone but themselves.
This is a public institution tasked with the future of Nigerian youth. And yet, when faced with a credibility crisis of this magnitude, JAMB’s leadership defaulted to obfuscation, arrogance, and deflection. For three days, they ignored the uproar. When they finally spoke, it was to dismiss legitimate concerns as the result of “candidate errors” and “digital omissions.” Let’s be clear: a catastrophic failure in national exam management is not a public relations issue; it is a governance issue. The very foundation of Nigeria’s higher education entry system was shaken, and JAMB’s leadership looked the other way.
The Board has admitted that 379,997 candidates in Lagos and the South-East were victims of glitches. That’s nearly 400,000 young Nigerians whose educational futures were compromised due to “errors.” But what about the rest? JAMB wants us to believe that only those 379,997 were affected—but over 1.5 million candidates scored below 200, in what is now widely regarded as a disastrous showing. Here’s the problem: Why should the public accept these scores from a system that has admitted failure? Once credibility is lost, every figure, every statistic, becomes suspect. A grading process riddled with acknowledged errors cannot be trusted to fairly evaluate the rest. How do we know the “unaffected” results were not distorted in subtler ways?
Even the so-called remedial steps – the eventual apology and offer of a resit – only came after immense public pressure and potential legal consequences. Why did it take threats of litigation to prompt basic accountability? Why was candor only possible after days of denial? And it wasn’t just the results that exposed JAMB’s systemic rot. The mock UTME was plagued by disorganization, with candidates posted to far-flung states due to “unavailable centres” – a logistical excuse that smacks of incompetence and poor planning. The adopted Literature text was printed in a barely readable format, a consequence of what can only be described as callous disregard for students’ ability to succeed. And most annoyingly, the 6:30 am reporting time, in an insecure country where even adults fear early-morning travel, showed a shocking lack of empathy and foresight.
This is not a case of poor student performance. It is a failure of institutional leadership, of basic logistics, of ethical accountability. From disorganized mock exams, to dangerous early morning start times, to barely readable textbooks – JAMB failed at every stage of its mandate. And now, even its final product -the results -is tainted beyond redemption. The tears of the Registrar, while human, do not absolve him of responsibility. If anything, they underscore the gravity of the breakdown under his leadership. No amount of emotion can substitute for consequences. Nigerians must stop being emotionally manipulated by apologies unaccompanied by reform. Let us be clear: If this level of dysfunction happened in a private organization, the leadership would be dismissed within hours. Why should public service standards be lower?
The cumulative impression is not of an institution that made an isolated mistake, but of a bureaucracy that is detached, indifferent, and fundamentally unfit to serve. The role of JAMB is too critical, too central to the aspirations of millions, for it to be left in the hands of a leadership that treats failure as business as usual. JAMB’s current leaders have failed to anticipate problems. They have failed to communicate transparently. They have failed to execute their core mandate with fairness and professionalism. In any functioning society, such a record would not be met with polite explanations and televised press conferences. It would be met with swift resignations or dismissals. We cannot continue to tolerate mediocrity cloaked in officialdom. We cannot normalize failure simply because it is common. The JAMB fiasco is not a footnote in a bad year; it is a direct threat to the credibility of Nigeria’s education system.
Enough is enough. JAMB’s leadership must go. Either they resign voluntarily, or the relevant authorities, starting with the Federal Ministry of Education, must sack them. This moment demands decisive action, not bureaucratic dithering. The Nigerian student deserves a future free of preventable obstacles. The nation deserves a public institution that works. We call on the Minister of Education and the President to act decisively. The entire JAMB executive team must resign or be fired. A full-scale, independent forensic review of the 2025 UTME must be commissioned. Most importantly, we must build a new culture of accountability in our public institutions, where failure has a price, and competence is rewarded. If we allow this to pass without consequence, we are saying to the next generation that failure is acceptable, as long as it’s painted over with press releases. That is a message we cannot afford to send. JAMB’s 2025 performance was not just a failure of exams; it was a failure of public trust. And that trust will not be rebuilt until those responsible are held to account. It is time for change. And that change must begin at the top.
