The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is facing intense public backlash, legal threats, and emotional turmoil among candidates and parents following the shocking revelation that technical glitches marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), affecting nearly 380,000 candidates across Lagos and South-East Nigeria.
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JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, broke into tears at a press briefing in Abuja as he publicly admitted to “errors” caused by a failed software upgrade and apologized for the trauma inflicted on candidates.
“This unfortunate incident represents significant self-harm to the integrity we’ve built over the years. But we remain committed to transparency, fairness, and equity,” he said, accepting full responsibility and announcing a resit for affected candidates scheduled for this weekend.
Oloyede’s emotional address followed devastating reports, including the suspected suicide of a brilliant young girl in Ikorodu, Lagos, who was allegedly overwhelmed by a disappointing result attributed to the glitches.
While some have praised the Registrar for his humility, others are demanding more.
“The apology is not enough. What happens to the life that’s already lost?” asked one commentator. “Who speaks for that family?”
In legal circles, some lawyers are calling for a class action suit against JAMB and the Federal Government. However, other legal practitioners doubt the efficacy of such a move.
“Which court?” one lawyer scoffed. “Our super-duper technical courts? Will they even get a hearing date before the 2025/2026 academic session is over? By the time a judgment is delivered, affected candidates might already be in final year—if they ever get admitted.”
He warned that even JAMB’s public apology could be dismissed in court as having “no evidential value” since it lacks statutory recognition under the JAMB Act.
Candidates remain divided. Some, like Aham Ijendu Chimereze and Uchenna Eme, expressed willingness to retake the examination, provided the issues are genuinely resolved.
Others, like Shoneye Neemah Darasimi, who had celebrated a successful result, now face heartbreaking uncertainty:
“How do you tell a child who has already started celebrating that their result might not be real?” she lamented. “The reversal might ruin my chances of early admission.”
Falola Deborah Oluwatunmise, another Lagos candidate, expressed fear that a resit could result in a lower score.
“I put in my best. If I have to retake it and score less, I’ll never forgive JAMB—or myself.”
While some candidates called for a retake only in affected centres, others demand a total cancellation of all results to ensure fairness.
“Cancel it for everyone,” said Mercy Obinna from Anambra. “Let’s all start afresh.”
Parents have echoed their children’s pain, with many calling for technological reforms.
Sydney Obi, a parent, said the errors caused emotional distress for entire families, while Funmilayo Lawrence praised the Registrar for owning up but urged better auditing in future.
“No one is above mistakes, but JAMB must not gamble with students’ futures.”
A professor at Nasarawa State University, Nasiru Idris, advised JAMB to adopt a real-time scoring system that produces results immediately after candidates submit their exams.
JAMB says affected candidates will receive SMS instructions to reprint exam slips for a rescheduled test on Friday and Saturday. But the fallout continues, with public trust in the examination body badly shaken.
As one educational expert, Oyarekhua Happiness, put it:
“This is not just about a test. It’s about justice, accountability, and national credibility. We cannot keep going back and forth on something this critical.”
Whether JAMB’s swift apology and promised remedies will be enough to salvage its reputation—and the futures of hundreds of thousands—remains to be seen.
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