UTME 2025: Catholic Priest Shares Thought-Provoking Observation about Video of JAMB Registrar Crying

• A Nigerian Catholic priest has shared what he noticed about the JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who cried while admitting to errors in the 2025 UTME
• Outrage and an increased call for resignation had trailed the apology and the admission of error in the 2025 UTME by the JAMB boss
• In a video, people present clapped when the JAMB registrar broke down in tears, and a Catholic took exception to that

A reverend father, identified on Facebook as Fada Kay Media, has reacted to JAMB Registrar Professor Is-haq Oloyede's admission of error in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The high point of a meeting of education stakeholders on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, was when the JAMB registrar broke down in tears while admitting the UTME was marred by technical issues and apologised to candidates.

Catholic priest faults JAMB registrar's apology

In a Facebook post, Fada Kay Media said he thought the registrar's apology was genuine, but concluded it was part of a script when people clapped for him the moment he burst into tears.

The clergyman wrote:

"I honestly thought the JAMB Registrar's Apology was genuine, until the script writers behind clapped because he CRIED..."

Another priest reacts to JAMB registrar's apology

Also reacting to the JAMB registrar's apology, another Catholic priest, Chinaka Justin Mbaeri, tagged it as a false apology made to appear sincere and win people over in the light of their gross irresponsibility. He wrote on Facebook:

"This was exactly my observation too. Sadly, they want to play with our intelligence by putting the blame on God in the name of a false apology just to appear apologetic, sincere, humble and win the hearts of many for their gross irresponsibility.

"SAD!"

Catholic priest's observation generates reactions

Legit.ng has compiled some reactions to the post below:

Chukwuebuka Augustus Nwojiji said:

"Crocodile tears.

"They even blamed God for disposing.

"Arụrụ ala akariala."

Ogonna Sobah said:

"It was a show meant to calm the nerves of all the people that are agitated over the matter."

Ezeokeke Austine Ebuka said:

"When he removed his eye lens to watch if camera is indeed capturing him, I checked for another page.

"Where did snake swallow money again?"

Jenkz Meka said:

"It’s only in Nigeria that visions are cut short. Can Nigeria ever do things right?"

Idoko M Odu said:

"It was never a script as no reasonable man will see another man crying without trying to cheer him up. Yes, I hate jamb's ineffectiveness and heartbreak but not everything we should down play."

Mosco Terhemba Fide said:

"I quit school because of jamb. And if jamb is involved then Is better for me not to go to school in Nigeria."

Man present during UTME review speaks

The CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, shared a comprehensive report written by his team. The statement narrated what happened as JAMB's system was reviewed to identify possible glitches.

According to the statement, the error happened after the exam body failed to deploy a patch to the Lagos cluster.

"...a major operational flaw was uncovered during the implementation phase. The system patch necessary to support both shuffling and source-based validation had been fully deployed on the server cluster supporting the KAD (Kaduna) zone, but it was not applied to the LAG (Lagos) cluster, which services centres in Lagos and the South-East. This omission persisted across all sessions until the 17th session, after which the error was discovered and corrected."

On those affected by the operation failure, the Educare team said:

"As a result, approximately 92 centres in the South-East and 65 centres in Lagos—totalling 157 centres—operated using outdated server logic that could not appropriately handle the new answer submission/marking structure. This affected an estimated 379,997 candidates, whose results were severely impacted due to system mismatches during answer validation."

In a related story, Legit.ng reported that calls for the resignation of JAMB registrar had heightened following the body's admission of technical glitches in the 2025 UTME.

JAMB apologises to candidates, admits errors

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that JAMB had finally admitted to errors in the 2025 UTME and tendered an apology to the candidates.

As reported by The Punch, the JAMB registrar of the Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, admitted to error during an ongoing press briefing in Abuja.

JAMB had earlier defended the results, stating they aligned with historical performance trends, while the minister of education supported anti-malpractice efforts.

Joseph Omotayo, the HoD of the Human Interest Desk, contributed to this report, adding Educare team's statement.

Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.

Source: Legit.ng