Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has criticized the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Ministry of Education for the recent technical problems that affected the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.
Ezekwesili spoke out after JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede publicly apologized for mistakes found in the exam results. During a press conference on Wednesday, Oloyede was visibly emotional as he admitted the errors and announced that students affected by the problem would be allowed to retake the exam.
On Thursday, Ezekwesili posted on her X (formerly Twitter) account questioning why JAMB did not respond quickly and carefully to earlier complaints from candidates and parents.
She noted, “Why could the authorities not have immediately acted with humility and done an unbiased and swift system check once unusual trends emerged instead of immediately impugning citizens who expressed concern?”
She also commented on the response from both JAMB and the Ministry of Education, calling it “embarrassingly anecdotal” and said their explanations lacked evidence, especially regarding the unusual exam results reported mainly in five South East States.
Ezekwesili added that technical issues should be handled professionally but suggested that this was missing due to the “toxic atmosphere” caused by what she described as incompetent and dishonest officials.
In her post, Ezekwesili shared screenshots of her earlier tweets from 2018 and 2023 that referred to problems within JAMB and the education ministry. One of her tweets from 2018 criticized the focus on JAMB’s revenue rather than on improving the exam system’s integrity.
She wrote, “If I were President and my Minister of Education concerned herself with the ‘revenue & remittance’ of the Exam body, JAMB, rather than fixing the Integrity & Competence Testing of the Exam System, Process & Infrastructure, I will immediately REASSIGN her to Airport Toll Gate.”
Ezekwesili also mentioned the 2023 case involving Anambra UTME candidate Mmesoma Ejikeme, who was accused by JAMB of inflating her exam score. She called for an independent technical investigation into the matter and stated, “This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and @JAMBHQ requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts.”
