The University of Nigeria, Nsukka branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities has threatened to take legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board over the mass failure in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Speaking to newsmen in Nsukka on Wednesday, the ASUU-UNN Chairman, Dr. Oyibo Eze, said many students, especially from the South East and Lagos State, were unfairly affected. He said parents and members of the public have been calling and visiting his office to complain about the situation.
Eze described the poor results as a deliberate attempt to stop children from the South East from gaining admission into universities. He said ASUU will go to court if JAMB does not review the results and correct the scores.
According to him, over 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for the exam scored below 200, and many of them are from the South East and Lagos, where a large number of Igbo students live.
He said, “JAMB knows that children from the South East must score higher before they are offered admission, while others in some parts of the country can get into medical school with just 120 marks.”
Eze also called on South East governors to speak out and defend the rights of students from the region, warning that staying silent will allow the injustice to continue.
He pointed to the example of University Secondary School, Nsukka, where, according to him, not a single candidate scored 200 or more. He said this was hard to believe, as the school is known for producing brilliant students.
“I am not against punishing those who cheat, but failing every student in a centre just because of one or two bad cases is unacceptable,” he said.
Eze warned that if JAMB does not act quickly to fix the issue, it could turn into a national crisis with widespread protests.
He urged JAMB to urgently review the results and give deserving candidates their correct scores to save the academic future of thousands of Nigerian students.
