NIGERIANS are asking for the sack of registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, for his inability to conduct a hitch-free United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in 2025.

There have several complaints over the examination body’s handling of the 2025 UTME, with several parents and educationists disappointed with the body over several technical glitches experienced by the candidates during and after the examination.

On Wednesday, JAMB had announced that a technical review revealed that there were critical oversight in server updates, including a human error. This prompted the body to invalidate the results of 379,997 candidates in the five states of the South East and Lagos State.

In partnership with Educare Technical Team, an independent technical partner, JAMB gathered data from more than 18,000 candidates, analysing 15,000 authentic response logs.

JAMB registrar weeps

The scale of the challenges overwhelmed Mr Oloyede, who broke down in tears for failing to fulfil his pledge to conduct a hitch-free examination.

Speaking during the press briefing in Abuja, Oloyede admitted that the errors were a result of systemic failure, stating that 379,997 candidates were affected and would resit the examination.

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“In simple terms, while 65 centres (206,610) were affected in Lagos Zone (comprising only Lagos), 92 centres (173,387) were affected in Owerri Zone, which includes the South East states.

“In clear terms, in the process of rectifying this issue, the technical personnel deployed by the service provider inadvertently failed to update some of the delivery services. Regrettably, this oversight went undetected prior to the release of the results.”

He explained that JAMB had decided that all the candidates affected in the 157 centres out of 882 centres would be contacted to retake their examinations starting from Friday, May 16, 2025. He revealed that the candidates were to be contacted through text messages addressed to their registered phones.

“I understand that there are three powerful expressions which contain one word, two words and three words respectively. They are please, thank you and I am sorry. So, I appeal to the candidates and those affected by the error of our system to accept this explanation as the truth of the matter without embellishment, PLEASE. I apologise and take full responsibility, not just in words.

“Then, I want to say a big THANK YOU to the Honourable Minister of Education for his unwavering belief in JAMB and what the board stands for. I also appreciate all officers and officials who believe in us for their goodwill in the face of this challenge. We have vowed to uphold integrity as the abiding philosophy of JAMB and we won’t waver or depart from it despite the fact that we are not infallible. I am equally grateful to all stakeholders who have lent us their support and expertise in arriving at a logical conclusion that we have arrived at. And for the inconveniencies, once again, on behalf of JAMB, I say, I am sorry to all Nigerians.”

Apologies not enough

However, some Nigerians have criticised the exam body, saying that apologies are not enough. They said the AM calling for his sack.

‘First of all, these errors were pointed out to the JAMB registrar but he dismissed them. Why did he not set up a committee to verify the claims initially?” ask an Abuja-based educationist. Dr Shettima Biu.

For a Lagos-based teacher, Ms Josephine Aghaonu, the JAMB registrar has exhibited arrogance and incompetence and should be sacked.

“When people fail to do their job in other climes, they resign or are sacked. Mr Oloyede should go

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According to an educational psychologist, Ms Maryann Nyedam, the JAMB registrar should be sacked. “He is still holding onto some results and should release them. You would never know how the candidates felt. Someone committed a suicide because of the failures of the JAMB registrar. So, to cut it short, he should go for his incompetence.”

Co-founder of BudgIT, Mr Seun Onigbinde, commended Nigerians for activating their active citizenship.

“The institution was almost running away with it without the courageous efforts of incredible Nigerians. Professor Oloyede should step aside and a total audit on the exams should be conducted,” he said on his X account.

Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate and human rights activist, said:  “This is a country of really dangerous public officials; while @JAMBHQ registrar is here forming, he ‘regrets’ the monumental disaster he superintended upon that has claimed a young life, and instead of resigning immediately, he brought to the same press conference a bunch of callous yesmen to clap for him. #ScrapJAMB Sack the incompetent Prof. Oloyede Now!”

However, an educationist, Mr Obinna Ani, said calling for his resignation would be ill-timed. He explained that the registrar had apologised and should be forgiven.
“We will gain nothing if he resigns. My opinion is that we should allow him to correct the errors first and work on the results yet to be released.”