On May 9, 2025, Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) released the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The outcome shocked the nation as over 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates, that is 75%, who sat for the exam, reportedly scored below 200, the popularly acclaimed cut off mark for admissions into many courses. The development greatly hit the hard-earned reputation of JAMB and its Chief Executive, Professor Ishaq Oloyede. Many students threatened to sue JAMB while some loud voices called for the resignation of Oloyede. Indeed, there were calls by interested parties especially university teachers for the scrapping of the exam body. Luckily, the dark clouds have since eased off drastically thereby opening the door for impartial and objective commentaries on the matters arising.

Of utmost importance, is the expedience of seeking visionary leadership to strengthen societal institutions in Nigeria. First, there is much to gain if government can consider deploying a result-oriented technocrat like the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC – an institution that has always been overwhelmed by its seasonal assignments. This is not a new suggestion from this column. A similar appeal was made exactly 6 years ago in an article titled “INEC should emulate JAMB’s Ishaq Oloyede” published on May 10, 2019. What prompted the call at the time was the strict adherence to the use of technology by JAMB compared to how INEC permanently prevaricates and polarizes its concentration on its chosen strategy. At the time, JAMB introduced biometric verification and directed it should be the only mode for admittance of candidates into examination centres.

To ensure it was adhered to, JAMB instituted an operational slogan known as ‘no biometric verification no examination.’ The situation was the direct opposite at INEC where the nation was told that no card reader no election, yet elections were held in many centres where card readers were deliberately discarded without consequences. Other innovations have been similarly handled over time. What this implies is that the introduction of technology is not all that needs to be done; it must be monitored, guided and coordinated all through. The first sign that Oloyede was the master of the game was his evolution of a software that created a 5-sided link which made the headquarters receive LIVE reports from all registration centres on a) when a centre registers a candidate; b) the exact time the candidate was registered; c) the official who registered the candidate; d) the computer system used; and e) the location of the registration centre.

Before Oloyede’s tenure, JAMB activities were bedevilled by a myriad of challenges ranging from examination malpractice to admission fraud – an era which has vanished since 2016 when Oloyede designed a system whose efficacy virtually nullified every dubious disruptive plan. Apart from operational effectiveness, the old culture of snakes swallowing millions of naira as well as inefficiency in the exam processes and procedures came to a sharp end. This posture notwithstanding, the exam body was critically challenged last week when some technical personnel deployed by the Service Provider in some locations especially those for Lagos and the South-East zones inadvertently failed to update some of the delivery servers. The carelessness and negligence of the agents caused JAMB incalculable damage. But we must give it to Oloyede that within 24 hours of rigorous work, where the problem emanated from was isolated.

The damage control which the authorities quickly applied was not only successful, it has remained a classic example of how effective leadership ought to function. This is a feature that is clearly absent in many Nigerian institutions and organizations. In the case of elections, the umpires look out for no hitches and take no heed of those brought to their attention. Instead, they exhibit a posture of nonchalance and a garb of self-importance which closes the room for accountability. For example, the golden opportunity given to INEC to officially review some disputed results within 7 days is usually wasted in asking complainants to go to court. Painfully, this culture is encouraged by the attitude of the courts which places every burden on complainants without even assisting them to get INEC to release the relevant public data in its custody so as to diligently arrive at the justice of the case.

Last week’s problem with JAMB’s examination results was treated differently. It took only one day of diligent work for JAMB to identify the problem which it quickly tackled. Most importantly, Professor Oloyede did not pass the buck, he personally in an emotionally laden voice of remorse took the blame. This idea of vicarious liability in which a leader takes responsibility for the lapses of his subordinates does not exist in Nigeria. In March 2014, the then Minister of Interior, Abba Moro under the guise of supervision took over the management of the recruitment of staff by the Nigerian Immigration Service. Due to negligence, there were deadly stampedes in stadia in Abuja, Benin and Port Harcourt etc. with more than 20 deaths recorded. The Minister’s only offensive argument was that ‘the tragedy was caused by the refusal of the applicants to adhere to the rules of engagement designed for the recruitment exercise.’

Nothing was known to have been done to the Minister other than a report few years later that he was charged for fraud over missing funds generated during the botched exercise as if the priority of government was to generate revenue from its unemployed citizens. No remorse, no apology and no vicarious liability. As for INEC, what we hear always is that some irresponsible transporters failed to distribute materials leading to delayed or failed segments of elections. No one gets to know what is done to such negligent transporters just as no one understands why the same transporters are reengaged for the very next activity. At one point, the electoral body rather than apologize for inexplicable postponement of elections said there was no difference between apology and the expression, ‘it is unfortunate.’ Indeed, INEC can procure servers at huge costs and at the end claim it didn’t use servers.

Different groups of critics especially parents of affected candidates who berated Oloyede and JAMB did well and should be commended for it. They should do so to all entities as the lethargy within our service delivery system is attributable to the timid approach of citizens to incompetent officials. The efficacy of stoutly rejecting service failure as the parents did to JAMB last week is by far higher than riots and demonstrations that are politicised and never sustained. At the same time, it is necessary to condemn buck-passing and dishonest rationalization of failed actions. The running of Nigerian entities on excuses and bold-face untruths are not persuasive as we all know the strategy to belong to arm-twisting of the public to which institutions ought to be accountable.

There is also the need to warn busy bodies that are always in the forefront in defending the indefensible. It has become a practice for some publicity seeking citizens to speak for organizations on matters about which they have little or no knowledge. Here, it is necessary to call out the Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, which as soon as the uproar of the hitches identified with the JAMB error were disclosed decided to speak for JAMB. MURIC gravely misfired by urging parents and students alike to shelve the idea of suing the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, over the 2025 UTME mishap. It instead advised parents to return home to correct their mistakes ahead of 2026 session. MURIC’s Executive Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, reportedly advised candidates and their parents to lick their wounds and stop blaming JAMB for their failures adding that it was not the fault of the board that the students recorded poor results.

What does MURIC know about JAMB in general and last week’s incident in particular? Can that organization ever educate the nation better on JAMB matters than the visibly proactive spokespersons of the latter? It is indeed uncharitable that the same MURIC which spoke so authoritatively and loudly on the subject did not deem it necessary to emulate Prof Oloyede to publicly apologize for misleading the public. In view of the injury of false alarms to society, i dare say it is still not too late for MURIC and other critics to recant.  We can also hope that leaders of societal organizations and government itself would learn to be accountable to the public as the JAMB boss just did. Those in authority should endeavour to constitute an impartial electoral umpire for Nigeria and allow it to operate independently. Only well-meaning technocrats such as Oloyede and not politicians should be sent to INEC.