A Nigerian educator has expressed worry about a female student who allegedly went without food for two days after receiving an unexpectedly poor result in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Obanuso Temitope Obanuso, the teacher who prepares pupils for the exam, posted about the incident on Facebook, indicating that the girl is devastated by her score and has requested an official review. He claims she is so confident in her performance that she expects to be punished if her score remains below 300 after a fair re-evaluation.
“I have six pupils who scored close to 300 last year and received results below 160. These are dedicated and smart pupils. They gave their everything. One of them hasn’t eaten in 48 hours. She has been asking with me to call JAMB so that if they examine her work and discover her score is less than 300, she will be penalized because she knew what she done.”
The teacher also stated that he has received numerous communications from concerned parents and pupils, indicating a potential widespread problem. He questioned the dominant narrative, which attributes mass failure to students’ lack of seriousness.
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“I have dozens of parents and students in my DMs. They are defenseless. How can you explain the decrease in students from 270 or 280 in 2024 to 123 and 132 in 2025? Everyone believes that the widespread failure is the result of laziness. It’s a lie. Nigerian students are exceptionally bright. Are European and American pupils more serious? Which country in the globe does not have a large number of young people using social media and phones? Go observe how our students fare in international exams and competitions. Not everyone is irresponsible. Many of these students are more serious than the young adults who criticize them.”
Obanuso’s article has since gone viral, sparking debates over the UTME grading system, student mental health, and the legitimacy of recent exam results.
Responding to the post
According to @Omolola Prosper, there are numerous issues with JAMB this year. How to achieve justice, Koko bayi, because this is our Nigeria.
@Simeon Olukunle said, “Until Nigeria occurs to you, you’ll assume other folks who complain are lazy and anti-government. As we all know, Jamb, as a government organization, will always win. When I first heard about the results and people blaming bad reading culture, all I could do was chuckle.”
