On national television, viewers watched in disbelief as Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), broke into tears. The reason? A technical error that marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), affecting the results of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian students. The professor offered a heartfelt apology and assured the public that affected candidates—nearly 380,000—would be given a chance to retake the exam.

But as the dust begins to settle, the question on many minds remains: Is an apology really enough?

Over two million candidates registered for the 2025 UTME, a figure that illustrates the high stakes and sheer scale of the exam. The consequences of this technical failure have already proved devastating. Opesusi Faith Timilehin, a bright student with high expectations, tragically took her own life after seeing a score that was later suspected to have been affected by the error. Her death has become the painful face of this debacle.

Before the results were released, JAMB reported that 2025 witnessed the highest UTME failure rate in Nigerian history. The internet quickly buzzed with blame and speculation. Some pointed fingers at the nation’s flailing economy, where even staple foods like eggs and fish have become luxuries for students. Others highlighted the chronic underfunding and neglect of the education system, while a few chose to vilify the students themselves—calling them lazy and disinterested in academics.

But with the revelation of technical errors from JAMB itself, a darker truth emerges. Faith’s life—like those of thousands of others—is a casualty not of laziness, but of a failed system. And while public apologies may show remorse, they cannot undo what has already been done. Professor Oloyede’s tears may have been sincere, but sincerity cannot rewrite exam results, revive a lost life, or erase the emotional trauma many students are now left with.

Think of the UTME like surgery. A single mistake—a miscalibrated machine, a glitch in a system—can cause irreversible harm. And in the case of Faith and many like her, it did. Students placed their futures in the hands of an examination body they trusted. That trust was broken.

This is no longer about one examination. It’s about the dangerous cracks in Nigeria’s educational infrastructure—from under-resourced classrooms to broken computers and unreliable internet connections. It’s about young people who, against all odds, prepared for this exam with hope and discipline, only to be told their dreams were derailed by a “technical error.”

We must demand more than an apology.

There must be an independent investigation into the 2025 UTME’s failures. There must be transparency about the contracts with the technology providers responsible. There must be a full report made public, outlining how such a colossal failure happened and what is being done to ensure it never happens again.

Nigeria has the minds, the tools, and the resources to run a fair, functional examination system. So why are we still burying students due to system failures?

This isn’t just about retakes or PR clean-ups. It’s about accountability. And for students like Faith, whose lives can never be retaken, it’s about justice.

Related Topics: #JAMB #UTME2025 #ProfessorOloyede #NigerianEducation #FaithTimilehin #EducationalReform
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By: Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi, Senior Content Associate at BellaNaija