The protesters at the entry gate of JAMB SouthEast Zonal office in Enugu
By Tony Adibe
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL) in alliance with Southeast Human Rights Civil Society Situation Room(SHRCSSR), Southeast Women’s Network( SEWNET), protested to the SouthEast Zonal office of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday during when they vehemently called for the urgent “scrapping of the examination body,” insisting that “it has outlived its usefulness.”
The groups bemoaned what they regarded as JAMB’s gross negligence, which caused mass failures that affected, largely, candidates from the five SouthEast states – Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, and Lagos State.
They emphasised that they were disturbed by the dust raised since the announcement of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results. “Let different universities organize their own examination, and people can choose the universities closest to them as they wish, as it was during our own time,” they said.
NewsBits reports that members of the 50/50 Action Women Group, drawn from different parts of Enugu State also joined the peaceful protest.
Led by the Rights Activist, Prof. Joy Ezeilo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), and Executive Director of WACOL, the protesters marched to the SouthEast JAMB Zonal Office, at Annang Street, Ogui New Layout within the Enugu metropolis, brandishing placards with various inscriptions such as: “We need fairness and transparency in Examination,” “No more JAMB, we need uniform exam”,
“Stop Traumatizing our children and youths with UTME, riddled with Glitches,” “One exam one standard”, “Re-conduct UTME,” “Protect students rights, cancel UMTE 2025,” and other such inscriptions.
Addressing the gathering at the JAMB office, Professor Ezeilo, advocated the urgent need to scrap JAMB, which, she insisted, has outlived it’s usefulness. She emphasised that the problem with the examination body “is systemic and the time for the relevant authorities to put on their thinking cap is now.”
NewsBits recalls that the Registrar of JAMB, Prof Olarenwaju Oloyode later admitted that technical glitch affected the outcome of the exercise in the entire South-East and Lagos State.
Speaking to newsmen at the entry gate of the SouthEast JAMB office, which was quickly locked up by Staff of the organization on sighting the protesters, Ezeilo, said the peaceful protest was organized by the groups to express their displeasure over the UMTE saga.
“As parents, teachers, and concerned citizens of Enugu State, we are protesting to register our displeasure with the ongoing saga at JAMB, and the UTME exams.
“Our children have had enough; we have been traumatized. You see people committing suicide, some suffering depression, mental problems, all because of JAMB,” said Ezeilo, who teaches Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
Ezeilo, who was a former United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur, stated that the idea of JAMB “deploying technology selectively and conducting examination in a selective manner was absolutely wrong and counterproductive.”
According to the Law Professor, “if organizers of the examination wish to adjudge it fair, they must make it uniform”, stressing, however, that “when JAMB admitted responsibility for the glitch of human error, or whatever they called it, we say that was good, and way forward.”
She was quick to add : “But seeing them within two days re-fixing another exam without full analysis of what went wrong, and without thinking about the parents and current hardship in the country, about people’s affordability, but just imposed examination, worst still, they put a time unknown to law, 6:30 AM, do people take exam this early?”
The university don wondered why the JAMB authorities should fix an exam during such time in SouthEast zone, “where there is a high rate of insecurity, exposing our children and wards to all forms of hardship.”
She said: “Some people are still missing as we speak, and our hearts is bleeding, our hearts are very heavy. Enough is Enough.
“So, we are here at the SouthEast zonal office of JAMB to tell them that they should cancel the examination outright. They should fix another date, if at all, JAMB will continue. But again, I think JAMB should be phased out, because it has lived out its usefulness. Let different universities organize their own examination, and people can choose the universities closest to them as they wish, as it was during our own time.
“People can choose different university exams, and if they are called, they can go wherever they want to go.” Ezeilo also expressed displeasure at the “hasty manner” JAMB organised the rescheduled examination for the affected candidates.
But attempts by the protesters to submit their protest letter to the JAMB officials did not bear fruit, as the personnel refused to attend to them. They were, rather, seen busy recording/filming the protesters with their cell phones from their office upstairs.
