We must set the record straight that the problems besetting the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board, JAMB, did not begin today.

In the first examination the body conducted in 1978, many students were offered admission to study courses they never applied for. An applicant for History and Philosophy at the then University of Ife was given Yoruba. He, however, ended up graduating in History and Political Science.

Ola Francis, now a “Social Change Agent in the Public Interest,” wrote recently that after he took the UTME and JAMB’s admission letter came out, it put him in the school he did not prefer.

Later, the school he truly wanted to attend offered him admission. At that point, Francis was at a crossroads. He was told to regularise his admission by cancelling the previous one so that the new JAMB admission letter could reflect the school I actually intended to attend.

Then his ordeal with JAMB began. He travelled from Abeokuta to Ibadan to Lagos — back and forth — just to correct a simple error. “I found myself begging officials, and eventually paying over ₦20,000 just to get it sorted. If I didn’t fix it, I won’t be deployed for the NYSC programme,” he wrote.

Today, 45 years after it was established, JAMB’s process, despite the use of technology, has become ineffective and simply obsessed with revenue generation with little or no regard for students’ time, effort, or even their lives.

The case of Basola Jamiu Owodunni who wrote the UTME in 2017 and got admitted to the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, to study Civil Engineering but now in a dilemma of an alleged fake admission best typifies JAMB’s inefficiency.

FUTA reportedly checked and confirmed his name was on JAMB CAPS. So, Owodunni spent six and a half years in school, finished his examinations and graduated in 2024 with a cumulative grade point average, CGPA, of 4.41.

But now. The young Nigerian can’t proceed for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. All efforts by the institution’s authority have proved abortive as JAMB is adamant that Owodunni’s admission was fake.

Because of that, his JAMB portal was blocked, refused to mobilize him for NYSC and handed him over to the Department of State Service, DSS and the Police.

This is the sad tale many Nigerian youths seeking admission into universities go through and not a few of them are losing hope: their future is now on hold because of a system that refuses to listen or reform itself.

Instructively, Nigerians are fast giving up on Professor Is-haq Oloyede’s style, as typified by the 2025 imbroglio over the UTME. For the first time since he mounted the saddle five years ago, the euphoria and wide acclaim for him as registrar of JAMB, suffered a major ebb.

In the 2025 University Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, JAMB faced its worst test so far: terrible technical glitches, thus leading to widespread complaints and a resort to a retake of the examination for about 380,000 candidates.

The technical glitches that marred this year’s examination included incomplete questions, issues with the examination platform, and fingerprint verification failures. And the result: Mass failure with over 78 percent of candidates scoring below 200 out of 400.

This year’s disaster prompted public calls for Oloyede’s resignation. Some called for the outright scrap of the agency while the House of Representatives commenced an investigation into the scandal.

Oloyede admitted the disastrous incident and ordered a retake of the examination for affected candidates between May 16 and 19, 2025. “What should have been a moment of joy has changed due to one or two errors,” he said as he wept before the nation.

According to the examination body, a total of 1,955,069 results were processed, out of which only 4,756 candidates (0.24 percent) scored 320 and above, considered top-tier performance, while 7,658 candidates (0.39 percent) scored between 300 and 319, bringing the total for those who scored 300 and above to 12,414 candidates (0.63 percent).

Also, 73,441 candidates (3.76 percent) scored between 250 and 299 while 334,560 candidates (17.11 percent) scored between 200 and 249.

A total of 983,187 candidates (50.29 percent) scored between 160 and 199, which is widely regarded as the minimum threshold for admissions in many institutions.

In the same vein, 488,197 candidates (24.97 percent) scored between 140 and 159; 57,419 candidates (2.94 percent) scored between 120 and 139; 3,820 candidates (0.20 percent) scored between 100 and 119, and 2,031 candidates (0.10 percent) scored below 100.

Some affected candidates threatened to initiate lawsuits against JAMB. But worse, a candidate committed suicide on account of JAMB’s mistake.

We are worried that rather than a dispassionate analysis of the crisis, Oloyede’s hatchet men vigorously defended him over the inglorious glitches which affected only a section of the country.

We believe that it is high time the Federal Government began a total rest of JAMB. No man has a total repository of knowledge. If Professor Oloyede has exhausted his bag of ingenuity in running this very important 45-year-old education agency, new brooms should be brought in for a proper clean up.

Several cases like that of Owodunni abound across the nation. There must be a way to resolve such cases.

Nigeria cannot afford to continue to toy with the destinies of its children yearning for tertiary education.

“Nigeria cannot afford to continue to toy with the destinies of its children yearning for tertiary education.”