Oloyede: Trapped by His High Standards? A Closer Look at the JAMB Boss’s Dilemma

When he appropriately titled his speech at the press briefing he held last Wednesday on the technical glitch that occurred in some centers during the most recent Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar and chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), knew what he was talking about.

Oloyede, a former vice-chancellor, had spoken at numerous press conferences. In his current role, he has also spoken at numerous press conferences. In his several prior official or private roles, he had addressed the “gentlemen” of the press.

However, the May 14 press conference was different. When you have record accomplishments that you want journalists to share with the world, it’s great music.

When you receive national or international recognition for your outstanding performance, it’s good music. Excellent music when you are being portrayed as a man who has revitalized an institution that was about to fail

When everyone is staring at you for the wrong reason, though, it’s something else. This is particularly true for a man who has put forth much effort to achieve his current status. This is especially true for a man who has earned the nickname “Mr Integrity” because he is conscious of his appearance.

It’s a well-known axiom that if you don’t plan before starting a project, you’ve only prepared to fail.

To guarantee a flawless 2025 UTME, JAMB has taken all reasonable precautions. Recognizing that its employees couldn’t complete the task on their own, JAMB recruited numerous honest individuals from various departments to guarantee a seamless exam process and as part of its quality control procedures.

At the press briefing, Oloyede stated: “We have chief external examiners (CEEs), who are vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education; there are peace monitors, of 41 women of substance who are or have been principal officers of Nigerian universities.” A respected academic with expertise in cybersecurity and computers serves as the chief technical consultant for each state.

“We have the virtues vanguards, the roving group, the technical advisors group, the general monitors group, high-ranking opinion leaders, the equal opportunity group, the civil society group, and the peace monitors group.” Each of these teams is essential and helps our employees solve problems and guarantee quality.

That was for ad hoc personnel.

How about technology? After God, this is the foundation of everything Oloyede has accomplished in JAMB, so if we start talking about it, we will never finish.

Now, how do you explain that 379,997 of the approximately 1.9 million students who took the exam for which you had prepared so thoroughly are being asked to retake it?

The key question is that. And Oloyede’s “man proposes, God disposes” must have been based on that.

The reason for the failure to upload applicants’ responses during the first three days of the exam was discovered in anomalies associated with malfunctioning server upgrades in JAMB’s Lagos and south-east (Owerri zone), which includes the five South-east states: Abia, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi, and Anambra. Regretfully, this was overlooked before the findings were made public.

This preventable lapse was blamed for the widespread failure that followed the results announcement on May 9. Out of the 400 possible points, more than 78% of candidates received a score below 200.

In response to public outrage, JAMB formed a committee including a range of educational and examination specialists to examine the findings.

As JAMB’s registrar, I am personally liable for everything, even the service provider’s carelessness. I apologize for it. Oloyede

uttered with tears in his eyes.

Indeed, people typically care more about the outcome than the work. Once more, the apology should suffice despite the seriousness of what transpired. Nobody is flawless, after all. Since the error was not nationwide, the best course of action, even if it happened somewhere else, would be to retake the test in the impacted centers rather than canceling the results, as some were requesting. The mistake was detected throughout the process, and Oloyede publicly apologized to the country and took responsibility for the technical error.

What do we perceive, though? A flurry of comments demanding Oloyede’s head be put on a golden platter. However, it is encouraging that several experts in the field of social media did report and analyze the event professionally.

In reality, there are instances when it is difficult to interpret some things, particularly when it comes to Oloyede’s experience at JAMB. Since they are among those Oloyede’s strict rules have prevented from escaping either the country or the unfortunate candidates through various illegalities, it is hard to distinguish between those who are genuinely critical of the board and those who do so.

There is a third group, which is in between. This includes armchair critics who believe that criticizing the system is the only way to be relevant, no matter what. They believe that nothing positive can leave the nation, and when it does, it must have been an error.

However, it is regrettable that the 2025 UTME technical issue served as a sufficient reminder to those who have never found anything positive in Oloyede’s administration or JAMB to resume the discussion about the massive payments he has been making to the federal coffers since taking office. The Federal Government has praised JAMB for its accomplishments, which total over N50 billion in seven years.

This is despite Oloyede’s N1,500 reduction in the UTME form application fees. Despite the fluctuations in the country’s economy, he has never considered raising it.

Even while we can observe some of the benefits the money has been used for through the annual awards the board organizes to encourage the higher institutions to follow the rules, the opponents continue to argue that he should still lower the fees to assist low-income parents.

Oddly, these opponents say nothing about people who have misused or embezzled the money Oloyede has been sending to the government since the board was established in 1978.

What a nation!

Since 2017, JAMB has shown extraordinary bravery in improving accountability, openness, and transparency in its financial operations by releasing its weekly income and spending profiles to the public. How many government organizations can achieve this?

All of this is in addition to the technologies he has used to boost JAMB’s performance and the reliability of its tests.

Oloyede himself may not be aware of this, but many of us are. He is a victim of his standards. During the board’s difficult years, many things that individuals would have dismissed as one of those things have now become fundamental demands of his JAMB.

Additionally, the brickbats may be true friendly fire from those who believe that the individual has moved past this type of error. Or from those who would like to take advantage of this chance to get their pound of flesh from Oloyede because, as I previously stated, his policies have prevented him from escaping candidates or the nation. These unhappy individuals view Oloyede as a pollution and nuisance, whose removal from the system they would be happy to support and/or plan.

I stated this to correct the record, not to trivialize the UTME problem.

When assembling this piece on Thursday, I came across a post by someone who claimed that he received a score of 90 or so on the UTME and that his score increased to almost 200 when his father wrote the JAMB because he believed he could have performed better on the test. I was surprised. I read down the line that that occurred roughly 24 years ago, and I had assumed it was a result of the current UTME. We were approaching JAMB and UTME from that perspective. Unfortunately, we forgot too quickly. Nowadays, only those directly involved are aware that UTME is being held.

Since Oloyede’s arrival, the chaos of the past, in which candidates would be rushing from one place to another in pursuit of their center, —as well as the numerous issues related to the manual administration of the test have vanished.

Since his tenure, Oloyede has conducted the UTME every year. Among other positions, he served as vice-chancellor of one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. He is aware of his onion. His success as JAMB registrar has earned him respect on a global scale, and to his credit, he has consistently outperformed his predecessors.

However, it is encouraging that several organizations and people have expressed support for him at this time. He needs it, and the nation needs it.

Otherwise, we would unintentionally give the loud critics in the minority the upper hand, making them appear to be in the majority. There are far too many critics in our nation, many of whom are unable to run even one classroom, yet they are quick to demand the heads of otherwise diligent Nigerians for a single error or gripe.

It is regrettable that Faith Opesusi, one of the candidates, supposedly died after ingesting poison due to her “failure” in the mass failure. Normally, one would have stopped at expressing sympathy for her parents and other family members, but in a situation like this, it is also beneficial to offer advice to both parents and prospects. The youths require counseling in such circumstances.

JAMB and the tertiary institutions would not travel to America or South Africa to recruit students if UTME had experienced the widespread failure that it did. Students who “failed” would still need to be admitted. The standards would be further lowered if necessary. According to reports, she received her admittance letter soon after her suicide, thus, that’s what happened. Before passing various exams, many outstanding people in the world had to retake them multiple times. We must instill in them the knowledge that an exam is not necessarily a reliable indicator of a person’s aptitude.

Mischief makers may call it dancing on the grave of the poor girl, therefore, this is hardly the time to ponder why standards are declining in many of our schools. There is no end to mischief-making in our climate.

It is sufficient to suggest that JAMB utilize the exam’s technological issues as an opportunity to reevaluate its procedures. Unfortunately, this preventable human error has tainted a test that the board had intended to be a poster exam.