‘Technical Glitch’: Nigeria’s Institutions and Their Habit of Avoiding Accountability

In Nigeria, “technical glitch” has become a catch-all excuse to deflect blame from the systemic failures plaguing the country’s key institutions. Whether it’s the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) or the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), this term has repeatedly been used to cover incompetence, negligence, and a lack of accountability.

In 2023, during the presidential elections, INEC’s electronic transmission system, the IReV portal, failed to upload results in real time, undermining the transparency of the process. Instead of taking responsibility for the breakdown or offering a thorough investigation, the commission blamed a technical glitch, leaving the public in the dark.

Similarly, in 2025, JAMB encountered a series of technical issues during its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), leading to mass failure. Once again, the problem was quickly attributed to a technical glitch without any real explanation or accountability. Subsequently, the social media handler tweeted downplaying the gravity of the situation, “Man Proposes, God Disposes“.

This repeated pattern indicates a trend within Nigeria’s institutions: rather than addressing the root causes of these failures, such as inadequate planning, poor infrastructure, or corruption, officials resort to ambiguous excuses and deflect blame. It is a culture of “anyhowness,” where the public is expected to accept failure with little recourse.

When systems fail, it isn’t just a technical problem. It’s a reflection of the incompetence at the leadership level.

The nature of the issue lies in the fact that these institutions have grown accustomed to operating in a state of disarray, with little regard for the citizens they serve. There’s no urgency to ensure systems are properly tested, maintained, or upgraded. When things go wrong, the blame is placed on the system rather than on those responsible for overseeing it.

The ‘anyhowness’ of Nigerian institutions isn’t just frustrating. It’s dangerous.

  READ MORE: UTME 2025: JAMB Admits Errors, After Public Outcry Over Mass Failure, Technical Issues

As Nigeria looks to the future, it is clear that this culture of making excuses and failure to implement proper solutions has to change. It is not enough to throw up your hands and say “technical glitch” when critical systems fail. There must be accountability, transparency, and a genuine commitment to fixing what is broken.

Until Nigerian institutions are held to higher standards and their leaders are made to answer for their failures, “the anyhowness” will persist, and so will the frustration of millions of citizens who deserve better.

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