Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has raised the alarm over the continued hardship facing candidates seeking to register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, warning that thousands of young Nigerians risk missing the examination through no fault of their own.
Obi, who aired his concerns through a post on his verified X account on Monday, said a visit to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board office in Amawbia, Anambra State, last Friday, left him deeply unsettled, as the chaos and overcrowding he had flagged the previous year remained unresolved.
“Last year, concerns were raised about the hardship students faced at various centres across the country, particularly at the Amawbia, Anambra State, office of JAMB, following the proscription of several CBT centres over alleged infractions. The expectation was that corrective measures would follow. Sadly, as I passed there again last Friday, I met the same crowd and confusion,” he wrote.
The former Anambra governor disclosed that upon making further enquiries, he was informed that the situation was not peculiar to Anambra State, with similar scenes of disorder and congestion being reported at registration centres in several other states across the country.
Obi acknowledged that the board may have acted within its rights in sanctioning centres found to have committed infractions, but argued that the approach being adopted was falling short of what the circumstances demanded from a body charged with managing the academic futures of millions of young Nigerians.
Offering what he described as a practicable middle ground, the former presidential candidate suggested that centres currently being investigated should not be shut out entirely, but instead be permitted to render limited services under stringent official supervision to prevent a total collapse of the registration process.
“Centres under investigation could be allowed to continue offering limited services under strict monitoring to prevent further lapses. If it is difficult to approve new centres quickly, the authorities could still make temporary use of previously approved centres under close supervision to ease the pressure on state offices,” he said.
Obi painted a sobering picture of the desperation gripping candidates as the February 26 registration deadline draws near, noting that some applicants were travelling from remote villages and sleeping on the streets of Awka overnight just to secure a position in the registration queue.
“With registration ending on the 26th, the consequences are serious. Many candidates travel from distant villages, some even sleeping in Awka to secure access. If nothing urgent is done, some will miss the examination, not for lack of preparation, but because the system failed them,” he warned.
The politician and businessman turned the full weight of his argument on the moral dimension of the crisis, insisting that it was unconscionable to allow the inadequacies of a public institution to derail the ambitions of students who had fulfilled every obligation required of them.
“Students cannot be made to suffer the failings of a system to which we have all, in one way or another, contributed. What is required now is not blame, but swift and compassionate intervention to ensure that no young person’s future is jeopardised by avoidable administrative bottlenecks,” Obi stated.
