The House of Representatives Committee on Digital, Information Communication Technology, and Cybersecurity chairman, Hon. Adedeji Dhikrullahi Stanley Olajide, stated that the House of Representatives is watching closely and will act decisively as the national assembly.
Other stakeholders await concrete steps from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and its parent ministry to rebuild confidence in Nigeria’s most critical tertiary admission process.
Affected candidates began retaking their rescheduled JAMB exams from today.
Hon. Olajide said this while speaking to journalists after an oversight session with stakeholders in the education and tech ecosystem in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
Olajide noted that preliminary investigations revealed systemic deficiencies in JAMB’s operations.
He said these range from poor registration architectures to a lack of real-time server backups, inconsistent CBT centre standards, and outsourcing critical functions to poorly regulated private agents.
The lawmaker described the recent crisis involving the JAMB as a “national embarrassment”, stating that the lives of over two million young Nigerians are being toyed with due to the technical illiteracy and administrative lapses of those entrusted with managing Nigeria’s critical examination infrastructure.
“What happened is more than just a glitch,” Hon. Olajide said. “It is a symptom of a larger rot within our public systems, a product of neglect, poor training and a disregard for the importance of technology governance. If a malfunctioning computer server or inadequate oversight determines the life of a 17-year-old, then our nation has failed.
Widespread reports of system failures, mass failures, and unexplained low scores marred the 2025 UTME. Over 1.5 million out of more than two million candidates scored below 200, prompting public outcry. JAMB later admitted that updates installed on some servers before the examination caused data upload failures in several centres across Lagos and the South East.
According to Olajide, his one-on-one interactions with affected candidates and their parents in Ibadan revealed that many had spent sleepless nights preparing only to face traumatic experiences during registration and at CBT centres.
“We had candidates who could not access their results. Some were wrongly marked absent. Others went through hell trying to register, jumping from one cybercafé to another because the JAMB portal failed. Centre allocation is another nightmare,” he said.
He described the continued reliance on privately owned CBT centres as deeply troubling. Many of these centres, he noted, cannot handle national-level digital examinations. He also raised security concerns about data exposure and the integrity of the examination environment.
“You have a situation where students are compelled to go to private business centres for something as sensitive as registration. Private interests own some CBT centres, which exhibit little or no compliance with data protection protocols. Such conduct is not just mismanagement; it is a security risk,” he added.
The lawmaker, whose committee oversees digital institutions such as NITDA, NDPC, NCC, and NIMC, called for an urgent overhaul of JAMB’s digital infrastructure. He recommended that the Federal Government immediately initiate a multi-agency review of all digital public service delivery platforms, starting with examination bodies.
He also disclosed that the House Committee on Digital, Information, Communication Technology, and Cybersecurity will soon summon JAMB, NITDA, and the Ministry of Education to provide a complete account of the events leading to the UTME crisis.
“We cannot claim to be in the digital age and still fail at basic digital processes. Nigeria must create a unified, government-owned digital ecosystem for national examinations. This ecosystem should be transparent, secure, and not outsourced to poorly vetted private interests,” Olajide stated.
He further called for the implementation of Artificial Intelligence monitoring systems at examination centres, biometric validation at all stages, and blockchain-backed result verification mechanisms to restore trust in the system.
While commending JAMB for taking responsibility and rescheduling the exams of over 370,000 affected candidates, Olajide stressed that apologies must be matched with action.
“This is not just about salvaging this year’s exam. We must ensure that this never happens again. Every young Nigerian deserves a fair and credible chance at their future. We must not fail them again.”
