I will never…do such a thing!
JAMB registrar has told everybody calling for his resignation to eat grass
Good morning, Big Brains. A part of me is hoping that my employers will surprise me with my credit alert today because God knows I need it. In my next life, I’ll rush to the front when God is looking for nepo babies.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
JAMB registrar has told everybody calling for his resignation to eat grass
Nigeria is clearing its debt, but it has new problems
The Big Deal
JAMB registrar has told everybody calling for his resignation to eat grass
There’s regular crazy and there’s batshit crazy. We’ll deny this if anybody quotes us, but we lowkey believe that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, belongs to the latter category.
Remember when we said the next video we expect to see from this man is a “GRWM to lose my job” vlog? Well, the man just hit us with an “I will never do such a thing” plot twist.
Last week, Oloyede admitted (with tears in his eyes) that there were technical errors in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results. Every right-thinking individual would expect Oloyede to take some sort of accountability and not resort to emotional manipulation, but things hardly ever go right in this side of the world. Oloyede and the entire JAMB team insisted that the affected students would have to rewrite the exams rather than remarking their scripts. That decision annoyed education stakeholders so much that they called for his resignation.
On Wednesday, May 21, Oloyede told anybody that cared to listen that they haven’t given birth to the grandfather of the person who would force him to resign because “truck pushers cannot direct pilots.” He also added that the reactions that followed JAMB’s error were fueled by ignorance and misinformation. According to him, the error had nothing to do with JAMB’s institutional weakness or incompetence.
Why is this a big deal?
A public official refusing to take accountability for his actions in Nigeria? Colour us shocked. As unfortunate and disturbing as Oloyede’s comments are, it’s just another drop in the dirty Nigerian ocean, even though it shouldn’t be.
For the sake of 19-year-old Timilehin Faith Opesusi, who reportedly took her life following the release of her low UTME result, and all the other students who have been subjected to emotional torture due to JAMB’s errors, we expected more than an arrogant attempt at brushing off public concern. People have lost their jobs for less in countries where the government actually cares about its people.
President Tinubu, who has developed a fine habit of throwing government officials out of office, has been conveniently quiet since the news of the error broke. In March, he declared a state of emergency in Rivers state and suspended its elected governor when there was no constitutionally defined emergency. But sacking Oloyede or at least calling for a proper investigation into JAMB’s error is where he draws the line.
If people like Oloyede continue to go scot-free, it endorses a cycle of screwing people over and getting away with it — a cycle that Nigeria needs to break immediately.
God help us!
Nigeria is clearing its debt, but it has new problems
In an attempt to beat its chronic debtor allegations, Nigeria cleared the debt it owed the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But it now has a different problem to address.
Despite settling the $3.4 billion Rapid Financing Instrument from the IMF, Nigeria’s overall debt burden is still eating up its money, a lot of it.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the country spent $2.01 billion on external debt repayments between January and April 2025. That’s a 49% increase compared to the $1.33 billion paid in the same period last year. Debt servicing alone accounted for 77.1% of all international payments made by Nigeria during those four months. For context, that figure was 64.5% in early 2024.
This wouldn’t bother us so much if the country’s foreign reserves weren’t dipping. But our reserves were already down by about $3 billion between January and April. So while we’re paying off old loans and trying to look good in the global creditor books, the safety net we rely on to keep the naira afloat is getting thinner.
The IMF, on its part, confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the Rapid Financing Instrument it received in 2020 to manage the economic effects of the pandemic and the oil price crash. However, the repayment doesn’t mean the federal government has completely said toodles to the IMF. On the contrary, Nigeria will continue to pay about $30 million annually to the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) charges over the next few years.
What does this mean for regular Nigerians?
In simple terms, the more money Nigeria spends repaying external debt, the less it has available for things that matter at home, like infrastructure, education, or healthcare. The amount of money the country is pouring into foreign exchange can also put more pressure on the naira and keep the currency crashing or stagnant. While repaying the IMF loan sounds like progress, it doesn't change much for the average Nigerian. And dipping that much into foreign reserves isn’t progress either. The IMF debt is gone, but shege continua.
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Let’s settle this thing…
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