Peter Obi has criticised the scheduling of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), saying the early start times are endangering the lives of young students.
The 2025 UTME started on Thursday, April 24, 2025, and will end on Monday, May 5, 2025.
In a strongly worded statement on Sunday, the former presidential candidate expressed concern over reports that teenagers, many aged between 15 and 17, were being required to arrive at UTME centres as early as 6:30 am.
“These are teenagers forced to travel in the dark, often across dangerous and unfamiliar areas, just to exercise their right to education,” he said.
Obi described the practice as “reckless” and cited reports of students being involved in road accidents, going missing, and suffering psychological trauma during the examination period.
“Who takes responsibility when a 15- or 16-year-old child disappears or is harmed while trying to access their right to education?” he asked.
The former Anambra state governor argued that the issue reflects deeper, systemic problems within Nigeria’s education sector, particularly a lack of adequate infrastructure.
“Nigeria has just about 200 universities for a population of over 200 million people. That’s one university for every one million citizens, a staggering and deeply worrying ratio,” he said.
Obi compared Nigeria’s gross enrollment ratio of around 12 per cent with Indonesia’s 45 per cent.
He pointed out that the Southeast Asian country, with a population of 280 million, has over 4,000 tertiary institutions.
“Indonesia has over 10 million students enrolled in tertiary education and a much more equitable spread of universities across its regions. This makes access to education safer and more democratic,” Obi noted.
Peter Obi called on the federal government to significantly increase investment in education.
He suggested that even reaching half of Indonesia’s infrastructure, around 2,000 universities, would improve access and reduce the risk to students.
“Education is not a luxury or an expense. It is the biggest contributor to national development. You cannot claim to want development while starving the youth of access to knowledge,” Obi said.
He urged a deliberate expansion of Nigeria’s education system to reflect the country’s growing population and protect the well-being of future generations.
“Our young generation should not be endangered because they desire education. We must do better,” the politician added.
In response to Obi’s scathing criticism, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) attempted to distinguish between pre-test verification and actual UTME start times.
The board did not, however, comment on concerns that students are being forced to set out very early, sometimes a day in advance.
Earlier, a teenage girl was reported to have gone missing during her commute to a UTME centre in Ajah, Lagos.
