By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

The prevailing scenario today is that candidates seeking admission into Nigerian universities are required to participate in an examination organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, an agency established in or around 1989 as part of the errors of military regimes in forcing unitary government on a supposed federation. Since then, it has become compulsory for candidates to participate in the UTME process, for them to gain admission into any university. Many parents have been thrown into perpetual agony every year, due to the inability of their wards to secure admission into any tertiary institution, such that there are youths in Nigeria who have been on the JAMB radar for over five years, waiting for their letters of admission from the ‘almighty JAMB’. It has thus become an annual ritual, for the nation to be regaled with the record of performances of candidates who have been compelled to undertake a national examination in order to qualify to be admitted to study in a university. This anachronistic process threw up Mmesoma Ejikeme, the 19-year old girl who shot herself into global limelight the wrong way. How did this happen?

Mmesoma participated in the UTME computer-based test along with other candidates nationwide. She subsequently requested for her results electronically from JAMB and she was informed that she scored 249. Not satisfied with this result, Mmesoma proceeded in what has now become a well-orchestrated crime, to concoct a different result of 362 for herself and by herself. She instantly became a celebrity, garnering for herself undeserved accolades, awards and several promises for her career. Her claims were refuted and resisted by JAMB, with empirical evidence and data. Mmesoma then deployed social media and made a video of her supposed innocence, trauma and persecution. That act alone almost drove the entire nation into the precipice. Many who believed her story were not willing to give JAMB the benefit of doubt at all, since Mmesoma claimed that she was traumatized by her own fraud. Perhaps realizing the damage that this little girl would do to herself and the educational system, the Anambra State government promptly waded in to set up a committee of eminent persons in order to give her a soft landing. It was only a matter of time for her fable to collapse. Mmesoma has since confessed to the crime and has through her father, apologized to the nation and to JAMB as well. Is Mmesoma not a victim of forced federalism? Was the UTME necessary at all? Should it be the only means of securing admission into the university in a federation?

The JAMB Act was enacted to commence on December 7, 1989, with a mandate for the agency to perform the following functions, under and by virtue of section 5 (1) (a) – (c) and (2) thereof:

5. (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other enactment, the Board shall be responsible for –
(a) the general control of the conduct of matriculation examinations for admissions into all Universities, Polytechnics (by whatever name called) and Colleges of Education (by whatever name called) in Nigeria;
© the placement of suitably qualified candidates in collaboration with the tertiary institutions after taking into account –
(i) the vacancies available in each tertiary institution;
(ii) the guidelines approved for each tertiary institution by its proprietor or other competent authority;
(iii) the preferences expressed or otherwise indicated by candidates for certain tertiary institutions and course; and
(iv) such other matters as the Board may be directed by the Minister to consider, or the Board itself may consider appropriate in the circumstances.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt, the Board shall be responsible for determining matriculation requirements and conducting examinations leading to undergraduate admissions and also for admissions to National Diploma and Nigerian Certificate in Education courses, but shall not be responsible for examinations or any other selective processes for postgraduate courses and any other courses offered by the tertiary institutions.”

What section 5 of the JAMB Act reproduced above has done is to place the destinies of candidates in the hands of a government bureaucracy, which partly accounts for the number of youths trooping out of Nigeria for greener pastures. By including the phrase “by whatever name called” in the reference to tertiary institutions covered by JAMB, it means even universities and polytechnics established and funded by States and private entities have to go through JAMB for admission, through such mysterious criteria like federal character, educationally disadvantaged States, catchment areas, etc. Paragraphs 27-30 of the Part 2 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution place matters of university, technological or professional education on the Concurrent Legislative List, with power granted to the States to legislate thereon. So, the issue is why JAMB has become the only institution regulating admission into tertiary institutions.