JAMB: A 1993 Warning Still Echoes Loud in 2025

The Nigerian Economist in its April 1993 edition noted that the main problems confronting Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) were overcentralisation, inefficiency, and the delicate tension between merit and federal character. Thirty-two years later, these same issues have returned unwelcomely familiar.

The recent claim of systematic discrimination, especially against applicants from Nigeria’s South East, has stained the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The release of unusually low scores sparked an outcry, intensified by a technical report by Alex Onyia, the CEO of Educare, highlighting significant fundamental infrastructure flaws with JAMB. Parents and enraged candidates complained about outcomes unrelated to actual efforts, a sobering reminder of the inefficiencies underscored in 1993.

In a rare public admission, JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, broke down in tears while apologising for “errors” in the 2025 UTME system. However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened legal action, condemning technical and mass failures as “unacceptable.”

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

The crisis reflects the Economist’s 1993 criticism of JAMB’s over-centralised power and how the oversight of admission procedures runs the danger of inefficiency, discrimination, and public mistrust under one agency. Then, it was evident that an open, dispersed, technologically dependable access system was needed.

Sadly, Nigeria seems caught in the same pattern, even with years of warnings. JAMB’s structural flaws reflect more general governance shortcomings whereby institutional opacity, regional tensions, and quotas overwhelm merit and fairness; they also reflect operational ones.

The Economist’s 1993 caution was not just about JAMB; it reflected Nigeria’s struggle with equity, competence, and accountability in education. Three decades on, the warning still matters.

About The Author

Oluwasegun Sanusi

author

See author's posts