Behind JAMB’s result errors lies a national problem

A page from Nigeria’s book of 'anyhowness.'

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has acknowledged errors in the 2025 The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results of some candidates following widespread complaints about unusually low scores. After a review with stakeholders, JAMB Registrar Professor Is-haq Oloyede apologised and confirmed that affected candidates from 157 of the 882 centres will be given the opportunity to retake their exams starting Friday, 16 May. I really hope that that will not be the end—that someone or a set of people will be punished for such monumental error.

These are not just numbers we're talking about; it's human lives. Do we have any idea what failure can do to the psyche of these teenagers who, unfortunately, Nigeria has happened to? This is not how to treat our leaders of tomorrow. JAMB keeps multiplying revenue but can’t engineer an error-free examination process. Now, innocent children are paying for what they know nothing about. I'm not surprised because I, and many people I know personally, were also victims of JAMB's sloppiness when we sat the exam.

You see, our nation’s fabric lacks the culture that values human lives. If we are human-conscious, we would consider the implications of such examination errors on the lives of students who have burned the midnight candle to study for the exams. Nigerians have gotten used to discomfort that they’re sceptical when they see comfort. It is as though if the process is too seamless, it can’t be a Nigerian thing.

Let me summarise one of the many troubles JAMB took me through. When I was applying to university, I gained admission into two schools. Unfortunately, the school I didn’t want to attend was the one that offered me admission first. So, when my JAMB admission letter came out, it listed the school I didn’t want to go to. Later, the school I truly wanted to attend also offered me admission. At that point, I was at a crossroads. I was told I had to regularise my admission by cancelling the previous one so that my new JAMB admission letter could reflect the school I actually intended to attend. That’s how my ordeal with JAMB began. I travelled from Abeokuta to Ibadan to Lagos—back and forth—just trying to correct a simple error that I didn’t make.

At a point I began to question myself: Is it a crime to be brilliant? Is it wrong to put your best into every exam you write? Because it certainly felt like a crime. JAMB made the mistake, not me. And yet I was the one paying the price. All they needed to do was change the school’s name in their system—a process that should be simple. Instead, I found myself begging officials, making endless trips, and eventually paying over ₦20,000 just to get it sorted. If I didn’t fix it, I won’t be deployed for the NYSC program. This is just a tip of the iceberg of what many students are still facing today—and even more. Let me not go into details of how I recently tried to buy a WAEC scratch card on the official website and got scammed. UTME’s process, despite the use of technology, is ineffective and simply obsessed with revenue generation than improving processes.

The system shows little regard for students' time, effort, or even their lives. Don't we see parents and students complaining across the country about this year's exam timetable. It's as if no planning or thought was put into organising the exam. If not for social media, the current outrage over low UTME scores might never have gained attention. I strongly believe this isn't the first time these errors are happening, but we never made enough noise about them. I remember brilliant students—straight-A students—who couldn’t even score 200 in the UTME when I sat the exam. We simply kept quiet then that "Man proposes, God disposes," just as JAMB erroneously admonished us in their insensitive tweet on X.

Progressive societies are not defined by wealth or technological advancement, but by how it treats its citizens, especially its most vulnerable members like teenagers sitting UTME. The average Nigerian seems to have normalised tragedy. Road accidents are shrugged off, lives lost to insecurity are reduced to headlines, and preventable deaths draw fleeting outrage. This should not be our norm. When a society stops valuing life, everything else—justice, progress, innovation—rests on a broken foundation.

Valuing human life must be cultural, not conditional – and we lack that national culture in Nigeria. The value placed on lives cannot depend on status, tribe, gender, or age. It must be a principle we uphold in schools, in homes, in hospitals, in government, and in everyday interactions. A mother giving birth in a rural clinic should be as protected as a CEO in a private hospital. Until we build a culture where every life counts, we remain a nation at risk—risk of further decay, division, and distrust.

Let me also add that culture is not inherited—it’s created. Through stories, language, laws, and leadership, we shape what a society accepts and rejects. We must demand accountability from institutions meant to protect that life. We must celebrate empathy and condemn neglect—not just with words, but with action. That’s why JAMB’s error is supposed to be treated as a threat to human lives. That kind of error should be unpardonable because the lives of students affected may not remain the same again.

Finally, JAMB's so-called error is just a page from the volumes of Nigeria's book of no regard for human lives. This isn't about any political party; it's about a national culture that needs fixing. If we don't address it, we can forget about making any tangible progress as a nation—because culture will always eat strategy for breakfast, any day, any time. When the value of human life is at the core of everything we do, we will bequeath a great nation to future generations. Until life truly matters to everyone, we will keep losing too many to systems—and a culture—that failed them.