Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has strongly criticized the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Federal Ministry of Education over the recent technical errors that affected the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.
The incident gained attention after JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, publicly apologized and became emotional during a press conference on Wednesday.
He acknowledged the irregularities and confirmed that some affected candidates would have to retake the examination.
Reacting on Thursday via a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ezekwesili questioned why JAMB failed to address the situation promptly and with transparency when concerns were initially raised.
“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 asked.
She criticized the Ministry of Education and JAMB for offering what she described as anecdotal and baseless explanations regarding the abnormal results, particularly in the five South-East states.
“Technical matters must always be examined with professionalism,” she said, adding that professionalism has been undermined by a culture of incompetence and dishonesty among those in charge.
Ezekwesili also referenced her past tweets, including a 2018 post in which she ridiculed the focus of the then Education Minister on revenue issues instead of systemic integrity. “If I were President and my Minister of Education concerned herself with the ‘revenue & remittance’ of JAMB rather than fixing the Integrity & Competence Testing of the Exam System, I would immediately reassign her to the Airport Toll Gate,” the tweet read.
She further cited her 2023 comments on the Mmesoma Ejikeme controversy, in which JAMB accused the Anambra student of manually altering her UTME score.
At the time, Ezekwesili called for an independent forensic investigation to uncover the truth.
“This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and JAMB requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts,” she wrote, noting she had reached out to the Registrar regarding the case.