Activist Aisha Yesufu has called for the immediate sack of Nigeria’s minister of education, Tunji Alausa, following widespread criticism and outrage over the poor performance in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Yesufu’s demand comes in reaction to comments made by JAMB registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, who on Wednesday admitted that technical glitches and newly introduced anti-cheating measures may have contributed to the mass failure, particularly in five South-Eastern states and Lagos.

Taking to her official X account (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Yesufu questioned the integrity of the system and the competence of the education leadership.

“If Nigeria had a President, the Minister of Education would have been sacked immediately. That man came to say it was measures they put in place to stop cheating that led to the mass failure,” she wrote.

“Wait a minute, or is it that something was actually put in place to massively fail students?”

The 2025 UTME has drawn criticism from students, parents and education stakeholders, following reports of malfunctions at computer-based test (CBT) centres, including power outages and system errors that disrupted the examinations.

While Oloyede blamed the introduction of stringent anti-malpractice mechanisms for the drop in performance, critics argue that broader systemic issues, such as underfunded schools, poor teacher training, outdated curricular and the economic pressures on students, played a significant role.