Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The 2025 University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) commenced on Thursday April 24, 2025, to Monday May 5, 2025 nationwide.
Within the period under review, Candidates were assigned specific dates and examination venues while timeframe was provided on their examination slips.
As usual, with high expectations, candidates innocuously abided by the rules and guidelines as stipulated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the body saddled with the responsibility of conducting the age-long examination.
According to JAMB, 1.95 million candidates sat for the 2025 examination across the country.
It is expected that at least not less than 80% of this number would be jostling for admission into the various tertiary institutions in the country to fulfill their lifelong ambition and lifetime dreams.
In a country where certificate is the gateway to survival and mediocrity placed above creativity and a country where laziness is rewarded above hard work, the craze for certificate is very high, everyone wants to be counted.
The joy and excitements were very high both for parents and their wards; everyone was expectantly looking forward with hope that level was about to change.
The shattering news
Incidentally, on May 14, 2025, the results were announced, with the news that over 1.5million candidates did not score upto 200 out of the 400 total marks.
JAMB data showed that out of the 1.95 million candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME, over 78% scored below 200, with just 12,414 scoring 300 and above.
A breakdown further showed that, 1,534,654, scored below 200. They consist of 2,031 who scored below 100; 3,820, scored between 100-119; 57,419, scored between 120-139; 488,197, scored between 140 and 159; and 983,187, scored between 160-199.
Diverse reactions
One of the earliest reactions to the mass failure in the JAMB examination came from the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa. He attributed the mass failure in the 2025 UTME exams to the success of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) advanced anti-examination malpractice technologies. Speaking to Channels Television, the minister claimed that the computer based system made cheating “almost impossible.”
Meanwhile, many candidates, parents, Civil Society Organization and the notary public kicked against the results, describing it as sham and unacceptable. Even so, the results as released by JAMB ignited criticism from lawmakers and civil society groups across the country. The South-East Caucus of the 10th House of Representatives even called for the resignation of Professor Ishaq Oloyede, branding the exam outcome a “national shame.”
Some Nigerians argued that the fault could not be from the candidates but from the examination JAMB. They insisted that the poor performance of candidates was a reflection of the decay in our national life.
Sadly, a 19-year-old Miss Timilehin Opesusi, a candidate in the examination with full of hope and aspiration refused to aspect her result knowing full well that she performed better than what JAMB released as her result. Unable to do anything, she became downcast, and went ahead to take her own life for the sins she did not cause.
As the argument was raging, JAMB came out to congratulate themselves for a job well done insisting that, for the first time, it had gotten it right by blocking every loophole for malpractices, piggy-backing on the Minister of Education.
But as JAMB was about clinking glasses, a shocking revelation emerged. A panel raised by JAMB authorities in reaction to many public complaints against the result discovered that there were serious discrepancies in the software used for the examination.
The process of discovering the glitch was led by a private citizen Alex Onyia and his Educare, which led the technical review of the 2025 UTME examination revealing systematic lapses and human errors as being behind the mass failure and recommended a full probe into the examination process.
After a full review, it was later finally confirmed that the discrepancies affected all the South-East states and some parts of Lagos State, albeit where the South-East candidates also held sway with over 379,000 candidates affected.
It came to pass that those who raised their voices did not do so in vain; that many were vindicated after all, while the bright and tragic young lady, Opesusi, who felt so disappointed could not bear it and decided to take her life by committing suicide.
All these boiled down to lack of due diligence and thoroughness in our way of doing things.
JAMB owns up
The discovery jolted the JAMB authorities hence the Executive Secretary of the body, Professor Ishaq Oloyede came down from his high office to apologise to Nigerians for the mistake.
Speaking at a press conference following the discovery of the glitch, Professor Oloyede while struggling to contain his tears said: “I hold myself personally responsible Including for the negligence of the service provider and I unreservedly apologise for the glitch and the trauma it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly or indirectly.”
Sadly though, the minister of Education who was too quick to applaud JAMB for blocking the cheating avenues in its exams has not bothered to apologise in the light of the emerging facts including the excellent scores coming out of the South-East in the repeated examination. This is more so because his statement seemed to insinuate that the excellent results regularly posted by South-East candidates were attributable to cheating.
JAMB under fire
However, prominent Nigerians have condemned the situation by voicing out their concerns blaming JAMB for the glitch. Some questions were raised as to why the glitch affected exam centres in all the states in the South-East region and few centres in Lagos.
Mr Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and Presidential candidate of Labour Party in 2023 election said the situation raised a very serious concern.
Obi advised that there must be no room for further glitches in any arm of the government, noting that the cost of repeated failure was simply too high.
In a statement, Obi noted that the incident had brought to light a far more troubling reality – the persistent fragility of our institutional systems.
“Let’s not make glitches become a National crisis.
“Going forward, JAMB and similar critical bodies must adopt comprehensive quality assurance frameworks. This includes rigorous testing and constant auditing of technical infrastructure, ” he said.
Other prominent individuals particularly in the South-East have voiced their concerns over the development. For example, Professor Joy Ezeilo, a prominent legal scholar and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was particularly angered by the development. She said: “Some of us wanted to give the JAMB Registrar the benefit of the doubt. Some, including myself, praised his acknowledgement of responsibility for the mass UTME failure and alleged glitches that impacted South-Eastern states. Many accepted the explanation of human error. Yet, the chaos of today’s resit exams, coupled with complaints about last-minute venue changes and the hardships candidates faced, leaves us questioning who will be blamed next. Are the conspiracy theories and allegations from the Igbo people baseless, especially given their historical and ongoing marginalisation in various sectors?
“It’s time to implement stringent “ethnic bias” integrity tests for officials handling sensitive national tasks, including lie detectors, to ensure equal opportunity and transparency for all.
“While we await results, an independent investigation and audit of JAMB’s technology and personnel are crucial to pinpoint the root cause of this debacle. Accountability is non-negotiable. Bigots and racists must be kept away from national assignments.”
Also, the former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili had also spoken against the glitch and condemned it in it’s entirety.
“Technical matters must always be examined with professionalism and that has sadly disappeared in the toxic atmosphere created by incompetent and dishonest politicians and intellectuals who should know better,” she said.
Gov Uzodimma & Co., no show
However, very troubling is the fact that no authority in the South-East including Governors and Commissioners for Education in the Five South-East states has made a single comment on the matter.
This raises a lot of concern because the welfare of the citizens should be paramount for every administration knowing that education is the bedrock of development of any society.
The grave silence of South-East governors and their commissioners for education in such a critical matter that affects the life chances of their youth is a betrayal of trust. It is not only wrong and irresponsible but also undignified and leaves much to be desired.
