The Collective Movement (TCM), a non-socio political group commends the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, for his bold and admittance of errors on the parts of the Board that, the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), was highly compromised, an error he took sole responsibility.
Also commendable is the corrective step the Board took to reschedule the exams for candidates whose scores were affected by glitches.
This is contained in a Press Statement by The Collective Movement’s National Media Director, Edwin Nwachukwu, on Monday, May 19, 2025.
This development, though unprecedented, portrays the principle of fairness and shows a genuine dedication to duty, which is what is required in Nigeria’s education system.
For candidates in regions like the South East, Lagos, and Oyo State, where irregularities were most pronounced, this move offers not just relief but recognition that the education system is on its way to sanitization. It reinforces the fact that no student can be punished for no fault of their own in this present administration, no matter the geopolitical zone where the anomaly is discovered.
This quick response of JAMB’s Board to correct this mistake marks a turning point in public accountability. It also reopens important conversations around earlier controversies, such as the one that involved Mmesoma Ejikeme in the 2023 UTME, whose case was dotted with ethnicity and politically imbued, leaving many at that time to question the integrity of JAMB.
The 2025 revelations, and JAMB’s corrective actions, now may have lend credence to calls for a sober re-examination of that incident in order not stir division anymore, but to pursue truth and reform in the system.
TCM has consistently maintained that the real challenge facing Nigeria’s institutions is not ethnicity but dysfunction of infrastructure, oversight, and trust.
By recognising the flaws in its system and by taking steps to redress them, JAMB is showing that our institutions can be fallible but at the same time reformable.
To build on this progress, TCM calls on JAMB to:
Commission an independent audit of the 2023 and 2025 UTME cycles, and modernise its digital testing infrastructure with transparency and resilience at its core.
We must not allow tribal narratives to cloud systemic issues. The rescheduled exams are a commendable effort toward fairness, but more work lies ahead. The future of Nigeria’s education system depends on our collective insistence on accountability, reform, and equal opportunity for every child.
