GRWM to lose my job

Education stakeholders are asking JAMB’s registrar to resign

Good morning, Big Brains. We finally made it to Friday, and honestly, I want to give myself a pat on the back for writing about the insane things that have happened this week without losing my mind.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins

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Let’s get into today’s edition:

• Education stakeholders are asking JAMB’s registrar to resign

• Nigeria’s inflation has reduced on paper again

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The Big Deal

Education stakeholders are asking JAMB’s registrar to resign

It’s not every day we put on our big boy pants and take back our words, but today’s one of those days. Remember when we said the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results were giving #OlodoCore? Well, we know who the real dullards are, and it’s not the kids.

For those who have been out of the loop on the UTME drama, here’s a quick recap. Last week, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced that only 21.5% of the 1,950,000 students who sat for the exam scored above 200. It also added that 50.29% scored between 160 and 199, while 24.97% scored between 140 and 159.

The mass failure left people wondering what caused the poor academic performance. But the reason became glaring after JAMB admitted it had received over 1,534,654 petition signatures calling for a review of the results of students nationwide.

If you’ve been active on social media lately, you’ve likely seen the viral video of JAMB registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, breaking down in tears and admitting that there were technical errors in the released results. The next video we expect to see from Oloyede is a “GRWM to lose my job” vlog.

So far, neither the JAMB registrar nor anyone else involved has faced consequences for the error. However, there are reasons to believe he might get fired soon. Education stakeholders like Christian Okeke, a senior lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, are not-so-kindly asking Oloyede to resign, because that’s the least he can do after subjecting thousands of candidates to what many have described as mental torture.

Why is this a big deal?

For some students, Oloyede’s error is just another misfortune that comes with being born in Nigeria. But for 19-year-old Timilehin Faith Opesusi, who reportedly took her life following the release of her low UTME result, it is a life-altering mistake that can’t be fixed by crying on national television.

We didn’t expect Okeke and other education stakeholders to be the ones calling for Oleyede’s resignation, especially when he’s a civil servant who can technically be sacked by the president. But hey, this is Nigeria.

As we’ve mentioned before, this isn’t the first time Nigeria has had a mass failure on this scale. In 2024, 76% of students scored below 200. In 2022, only 378,639 out of 1,761,338 students who wrote the exam scored above 200. There’s no way to tell that JAMB’s error hasn’t contributed to these failures.

If public officials can fumble on this scale and still keep their jobs, what hope is left for accountability in Nigeria?

At this point, it’s not just about Oloyede’s resignation; it’s about fixing an entire system failing the same people it was created to serve.

Nigeria’s inflation has reduced on paper, again

There are things about Nigeria that even Albert Einstein cannot understand. In what feels like another episode of Expectation vs Reality, Nigeria’s inflation rate has experienced another “drop.”

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s headline inflation rate eased to 23.71% in April 2025. That’s a 0.52% drop from the 24.23% recorded in March. On paper, this sounds like good news. But if you’ve been to the market recently where red pepper is still cosplaying as the new gold, you might be wondering what this drop translates to.

The NBS says the drop in inflation is largely due to a reduction in food prices, especially staples like maize flour, wheat grain, dried okro, yam flour, soya beans, rice, and other types of beans. Apparently, food inflation dropped by 0.53%, settling at 21.26% in April.

Year-on-year, inflation has reportedly fallen sharply too. The current headline inflation rate is nearly 10% lower than it was in April 2024 (33.69%), while food inflation is 19.27% from the 40.53% recorded last year.

But let’s be honest, this “progress” is more statistical than anything else. It all goes back to a change in the base year used for calculating inflation. So, while the numbers look smaller, there’s barely any real life impact.

If you’re in the mood to celebrate, go for it. But we’re not exactly impressed because, as you already know, you can’t eat statistics for dinner.

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Let’s settle this thing…

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Play catch up

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