A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Iduma Igariwey, has called for the immediate cancellation of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), describing the process as riddled with “catastrophic institutional failure.”
Speaking Tuesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Igariwey, who leads the South-East Caucus in the House, berated the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for what he called a breakdown of fairness and integrity.
“The whole thing has lost its integrity. People who prepared diligently couldn’t even sit for the exams. We’re saying it loud and clear, cancel it and do it the right way.” He maintained.
His call comes in the wake of JAMB’s admission that nearly 400,000 candidates must retake the UTME due to what the board blamed on a “technical glitch” and “human error.”
Referring to JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede’s May 14 statement, Igariwey said the scale of the failure was unprecedented. “This has never happened in Nigeria’s history. It shocked the nation,” he added.
JAMB rescheduled a nationwide retake for May 16 just 48 hours after acknowledging the error, a move Igariwey slammed as hasty and inconsiderate.
“We got distressing reports. Many students couldn’t make it to exam halls. Yet JAMB moved on as if nothing happened,” he said.
Critics have accused the board of rushing the process without addressing the root cause. “You haven’t explained what went wrong. You haven’t told Nigerians it’s been fixed. And then you’re holding new exams immediately?” he queried.
Recall that that the South-East Caucus had earlier demanded Oloyede’s resignation and a complete cancellation of the 2025 UTME.
In his apology, the registrar admitted to the mishap, saying, “We are human; we are not perfect.”
But for lawmakers like Igariwey, that’s not enough. “You can’t just paper over this. The future of hundreds of thousands of students is on the line,” he warned.
