A recent meeting between the five South-East Education Commissioners and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Enugu has sparked outrage, particularly due to the exclusion of Alex Onyia, the education technology expert who first uncovered discrepancies in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results, reports ITREALMS.
Critics argued that this pattern suggests deliberate targeting, fuelling concerns of ethnic bias in Nigeria’s education system.
Sources from Enugu the city of the meeting, confirmed to ITREALMS that despite Onyia’s technical expertise and deep understanding of the issue, he was not invited to the meeting.
This, ITREALMS gathered has raised questions about transparency and accountability, with many industry watchers believing his exclusion was intentional, given his role in exposing the irregularities.
The five South-East states affected by the JAMB glitch includes Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo.
The governors of the five South-East states were heavily criticised at the break of the viral controversy on the unbecoming silence on the matter.
Activists and concerned citizens argued that their lack of response reflects a broader trend of political complacency regarding issues affecting Igbo students and Igbo nation in general.
Public outcry had led to calls for an independent forensic investigation into JAMB’s grading system to determine how the error selectively impacted South-East candidates.
Many feared that if left unchallenged, similar discriminatory pattern could emerge in future national policies, including the upcoming 2025 Census.
“Silence enables systemic exclusion,” a social activist, Charles Ogbu had declared, while encouraging citizens to demand answers from their governors and education commissioners from the South East.
Ogbu said that current JAMB controversy has reignited discussion about what he described as “historical exclusion” of South-East in national projects.
He cited for instance the railway projects that bypassed Igbo majority areas, NELFUND students’ loans that allegedly excluded Igbo students and infrastructure funding that neglected Igboland and presidential committees that failed to include South-East representatives.
Remmy Nweke/DoP
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