- ASUU Threatens Legal Action Against JAMB Over Mass Failure
- Amid Admission Of Errors, JAMB Reschedules Exam For Nearly 380k Candidates
Calls for the resignation of the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede has reached a deafening crescendo on the social media by Nigerians.
This follows the admission of the registrar that there were indeed errors that affected candidates’ performance during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, which was held across different centres in the country a few weeks ago.
The Matrix Newspaper reports that Prof Oloyede yesterday in a rare and emotional moment, broke into tears as he publicly apologised for the errors that disrupted the exam.
Fighting back tears during a press conference in Abuja, Oloyede said, “I apologise for the trauma caused to the candidates”.
This apology seems not to have carried enough weight with Nigerians who have called for his resignation or sack over the harrowing experience suffered by Nigerian students.
According to Steve Rufus on Facebook, Prof Oloyede should resign for not carrying out due diligence.
“This man should tender his resignation for gross failure. How come he released the JAMB result without first analysing the glitch that happened during the exam?
“He was hasty to declare that 75% of the students failed yet could not first ascertain how many of the Systems at JAMB Exam Centers failed to perform optimally.
“There are reports allegedly spreading that one of the JAMB candidates has committed suicide because JAMB gave her a score that doesn’t reflect her true efforts and performance. If this is true, should the registrar not face serious sanction?” he wrote.
His position was backed by Arthur Uneze on Facebook.
According to him, “The same official who now puts on a show of tears was the one who boldly announced the JAMB results, presenting statistics on pass and failure rates without the slightest mention of any technical glitch.
“At the time, no proper post-examination system audit was conducted, an omission that reflects the alarming carelessness and lack of due diligence that often plague our government institutions.
“It took massive public outrage for JAMB to go back and scrutinize their system. Now, faced with growing criticism, he resorts to emotional theatrics. But in a country where accountability is a rare currency and where public officers are rarely held responsible for failure: deliberate or otherwise, such displays ring hollow.
“If there was indeed a glitch, why proceed to release the results in the first place? Why subject intelligent, hardworking students to emotional trauma by presenting them as failures, all to protect the image of an institution clearly struggling with transparency?
“This is not just a technical error; it is a breach of public trust. But, as we’ve seen before, when INEC bungled an election and walked away untouched, it sets a precedent. Now JAMB follows the same path. Until public institutions are held to account and failure is met with real consequences, the cycle of mediocrity, negligence, and impunity will sadly persist”.
Toeing the same line, Joshua Wada Yusuf also called on the Registrar to resign.
“The best thing to do is not to shed crocodile tears on TV and go back and laugh at us. Back the tears up by resigning from your position as JAMB registrar and terminating the contract of the third-party ICT company.
“Then we will know your tears were really genuine” he also wrote.
For Eze Uchenna Excel, Prof Oloyede should have submitted his resignation letter before the Press.
“If there’s any single integrity left in him, he should have submitted his resignation letter before the press” he added
Speaking in the same vein, Blessing Ogunsakin called on Prof Oloyede to resign for this monumental failure on the part of JAMB.
Meanwhile, others have rejected the call for his resignation while positing that he should be hailed for admitting there were errors.
Abdulkabir Bamidele wrote, “Only senseless ones are criticizing and calling for his resignation. For him to come out publicly, admit error, apologies and make provision for retake means he’s 100% a man of integrity. I respect this man. I salute Prof Isaq” he wrote.
In a related development, Prof Oloyede has announced the rescheduling of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 379,997 candidates across the South-East region and Lagos State. “The affected candidates will begin receiving rescheduling notifications via text starting tomorrow,” he said. “I apologise deeply. I take full responsibility.”
The Board has also launched an internal investigation and brought in IT experts to audit the UTME systems and probe reported irregularities.
Further details, including new exam dates and guidelines for the rescheduled candidates, are expected to be released in the coming days.
Prof Oloyede may be facing even more trouble as the University of Nigeria Nsukka branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU-UNN) has issued a stern warning to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), threatening legal action over what it describes as a “deliberate” and “unjustifiable” mass failure in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Speaking to journalists in Nsukka on Wednesday, ASUU-UNN Chairman, Dr. Óyibo Eze, accused JAMB of intentionally disadvantaging candidates from the South-East region, many of whom, he claimed, recorded historically low scores despite adequate preparation.
“My office has been flooded with complaints, protests, and visits from distraught parents and members of the public. This mass failure is not coincidental, it is targeted,” Eze declared. He warned that ASUU would challenge the results in court if the examination body fails to review and rectify what he described as “gross irregularities” in grading. Dr. Eze specifically criticized what he called JAMB’s “double standards” in admission thresholds, noting that students in the South-East often have to score significantly higher than their peers in other regions to gain admission into the same courses.
“In some states, candidates gain admission to study Medicine with scores as low as 120, while our children are denied admission even with scores above 200,” he said.
Citing figures released by JAMB, he noted that out of the 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME, over 1.5 million scored below 200, with a significant portion from Lagos and South-East states, where many Igbo students reside.
Dr. Eze called on governors from the South-East to take immediate action, urging them not to stand by while what he described as an academic injustice unfolds.
“The governors in the zone must rise to the occasion and demand accountability from JAMB. We cannot allow the academic future of an entire generation to be sabotaged.”
Dr. Eze also pointed to surprisingly poor performances from elite institutions like the University of Nigeria Secondary School in Nsukka, where no candidate scored above 200, despite the school’s strong academic track record.
“Even if there were isolated cases of malpractice, is that enough to collectively punish hundreds of innocent students who studied diligently?”
He warned that if JAMB fails to address the issue promptly, the situation could escalate into a nationwide protest, as the credibility of the UTME and the futures of thousands of candidates hang in the balance.
“This is no longer just an education issue; it is a national crisis. JAMB must act quickly, transparently, and justly.”
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