The South East Caucus in the House of Representatives has called for the resignation of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, over the technical failures in the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
In accepting Oloyede‘s public confession of failure, the caucus added that accountability should go beyond apologies.
It insisted that his resignation would allow an extensive, unbiased investigation of the failure and restore faith of the people in the examination board.
The caucus leader, Hon. Igariwey Enwo, in a Monday statement, quoted the response of JAMB as woefully inadequate.
The caucus attributed the blame to poor communication, scheduling conflict with the current WAEC examinations, and the limited time allowed for the resit, further stating that the occurrence has unnecessarily traumatised students and parents.
To that effect, the caucus called for the cancellation of the 2025 UTME immediately and the rescheduling of a new date, preferably after WAEC and NECO examinations, to prevent jeopardising any student.
The caucus also demanded the suspension of key persons responsible for JAMB‘s digital processes and logistics.
It said: “For the last week, we have exercised restraint, hoping that JAMB would take effective remedial action to address what is clearly a catastrophic institutional failure — one which has severely undermined public trust and student as well as family trust nationwide.“.
“Being a caucus, we are very disturbed because all five South-east states that we represent were specifically affected by these so-called ‘score distortions‘.”
The caucus brought back into the memory of JAMB their constitutional duty to provide equal and adequate educational opportunity to every Nigerian child, a duty which they stated had clearly been violated in this instance.
It noted: “While we admit Professor Oloyede‘s candour in acknowledging JAMB‘s failings, we can say unequivocally that remedial steps taken so far are grossly inadequate to satisfy the expectations of our constituents.“
JAMB‘s fire–brigade, knee–jerk reaction has been less than satisfactory. South-east candidates—most of whom are sitting their WAEC exams today—had less than 48 hours‘ notice to sit the re-arranged UTME.
We must remind Nigerians that as a government institution, JAMB is obligated by the government’s constitutional responsibility towards the people. The framers of our constitution recognized the cardinal role of education towards national development. Section 18(1) of the Constitution of 1999 very clearly states: ‘Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels.’
“By recent court pronouncements, the provision is a legal right for every Nigerian child. But for the thousands of South-east students, the poor and tainted conduct of the 2025 UTME has actually deprived them of that right to equal and ample educational opportunities.”
