Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, has called on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to take immediate and compassionate steps to ease the mounting registration crisis confronting candidates seeking to sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, warning that young Nigerians must not be penalised for institutional shortcomings they played no part in creating.
Obi made the appeal after personally observing the situation at JAMB’s office in Amawbia, Anambra State, where large crowds and visible confusion among prospective candidates had gathered. He noted that the scenes in Amawbia were not isolated, with similar reports filtering in from multiple locations across the country, suggesting the problem has taken on a national dimension.
The former Anambra State governor traced the root of the current pressure to JAMB’s recent proscription of several computer-based test centres over alleged infractions — a decision that has significantly reduced the number of available testing and registration points for candidates, many of whom are now converging on the few remaining functional offices, stretching their capacity well beyond manageable limits.
While stopping short of condemning JAMB’s regulatory action outright, Obi framed his appeal around the principle that legitimate institutional discipline should not come at the cost of innocent candidates. He acknowledged that the examination body may have had valid grounds for sanctioning erring centres but argued that the manner in which the fallout has been managed leaves much to be desired.
As a practical halfway measure, Obi suggested that centres currently under investigation — rather than being shut down entirely — could be permitted to continue offering limited registration services under close and strict monitoring. This, he argued, would allow the authorities to maintain oversight and prevent further infractions while simultaneously preventing the bottleneck that has effectively transferred the burden of institutional failure onto the shoulders of students.
He also proposed that JAMB consider temporarily reactivating previously approved centres under supervised conditions, where the timeline for licensing and bringing new centres online may be too long to provide relief before the registration window closes.
“With the registration deadline approaching, many candidates — some travelling long distances and even spending nights away from home — risk missing the examination through no fault of their own,” Obi said. “Students cannot be made to suffer the failings of a system to which we have all, in one way or another, contributed. Swift and compassionate intervention should be made to ensure that no young person’s academic future is jeopardised by avoidable administrative bottlenecks.”
The UTME is the gateway examination through which Nigerian secondary school leavers gain access to degree programmes at universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country. Administered annually by JAMB, a federal statutory body established by Decree No. 2 of 1978 and later reconstituted under subsequent legislation, the examination attracts well over one million candidates each cycle, making it one of the largest standardised testing exercises on the African continent.
The examination has in recent years undergone significant structural reforms under the leadership of Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who has served as JAMB Registrar since 2016. Among the most consequential of these reforms was the transition to a fully computer-based testing format and the accreditation of private computer-based test centres spread across the country to serve as both registration and examination venues. The policy was intended to decentralise the process and reduce the pressure on state offices — an objective that the current crisis suggests has been partially reversed by the sanctioning of several of those centres.
JAMB has maintained a firm line against centres found to have facilitated examination malpractice or violated accreditation conditions, a stance that has been broadly supported by education stakeholders and civil society organisations who regard the integrity of the UTME as foundational to a fair admissions process. However, the timing and volume of the recent proscriptions appear to have created a supply gap that the remaining approved infrastructure has struggled to absorb.
The situation is particularly acute for candidates in states where the density of functional centres has dropped sharply, forcing many to travel to distant JAMB state offices — often in urban centres far from their home communities — to complete their registration. Reports of candidates sleeping outside offices overnight to secure a place in the queue have drawn concern from parents, educators, and public commentators in recent days.
Peter Obi’s intervention on this matter is consistent with a public posture he has maintained since his emergence as a major national political figure — one centred on governance accountability, institutional efficiency, and the welfare of young Nigerians, themes that formed the rhetorical core of his presidential campaign. His Labour Party candidacy in 2023, which drew unprecedented enthusiasm particularly among young and first-time voters in a movement that came to be popularly known as the “Obidient” movement, was built substantially on promises of a more competent and responsive government.
Though he was not declared the winner of that election — a result he contested in court before the Supreme Court ultimately affirmed Bola Tinubu’s victory — Obi has remained an active voice in Nigerian public discourse, frequently weighing in on issues touching education, poverty, infrastructure, and governance.
His decision to visit a JAMB registration site personally before making his appeal lends the statement a degree of firsthand grounding that distinguishes it from purely political commentary, though the remarks will inevitably be read within the broader context of his standing as a leading opposition figure.
