It is a quarter past two, and Naomi, 17, is busy. She is making cake batter and talks about how it’s for her brother, whose birthday was yesterday. She never says it, but in a way, she is celebrating more than her brother. A few days earlier, she checked her JAMB score, and it was 298. That’s almost a gross more than what JAMB had reported she got last month. A grave mistake that cost both her and the nation.
The 2025 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam came with a series of backlash, with many claiming their results were unusually low, and others saying the exam had technical difficulties. Eventually, JAMB acknowledged the errors, with the Registrar publicly apologising. They initiated an immediate review of the examination process and offered a supplementary examination to candidates in 157 affected centres (65 in Lagos and 92 in the Owerri/South-East zone), totalling nearly 380,000 candidates. Born, raised, and living in Lagos, Naomi was a victim of this glitch.
MEET NAOMI:
“Naomi, no last name,” she jokes. A glance at her home, she is an overachiever. With academic achievement plaques on the wall to prove it. The earliest, dating back to 2018, is her Primary School Valedictorian award. Yes, she is young, so young that she could not get into her dream school after writing her first JAMB because she was a minor. Last year, she was unsatisfied with her score and did not get her desired course.
She plans to study Physiotherapy, a healthcare profession focusing on helping people regain movement after an injury. Physical therapy, if you must. Her reasons behind this choice might seem juvenile, but there’s a beauty in being young and following a passion. “I wanted something both sports inclined and under the medical umbrella. So yes, I googled things that checked this box and found Physiotherapy.”
As a passionate swimmer, she has experienced the love and fear relationship that comes with devotion to sports. She swims weekly, but the drowning statistics in Lagos scare her from taking deep challenges. “I have a ‘deep side’ phobia. I am not fond of swimming in large bodies of water. It is dramatic to swim in the Ocean.”
Her thalassophobia is typical of a Nigerian. In a 2023 article on Nigerians and their Fear of Water, Business Day NG reported, “It is estimated that 27,000 Nigerians die annually of water-related causes, through floods and accidental drowning.” The iconic Nigerian artiste, Fela Kuti, once sang (1975), ‘Water No Get Enemy’, but for Nigerians, water is clearly no friend.
But not one to ever turn down a challenge, she assures me that she will get over the phobia. She makes no timelined promises. “When I have the courage, I will get over it. I want to try new adventures these days. I do not want to box myself. I have always liked the finer things in life, maybe I would end up in fashion or art.”
In some ways, her nouveau inclination towards adventure and flexibility can be attributed to her JAMB situation. She once had a rigid plan, “I will ace my JAMB, score in the 300s, then I’d intern and learn more about my career path.”
For someone who has not been specific with numbers, it is striking that she had a precise goal for her result. “My school has an annual 300s party. As the name implies, it is a party for kids who got 300 and above in JAMB,” she admits.
She doesn’t want people to mistake her aspirations for arrogance because it’s been a long road for her, and that was her chosen destination.
THE JOURNEY TO 2025 JAMB:
“Sometimes you have to acknowledge when you need a more professional training method. My second experience writing JAMB taught me that,” Naomi says as she explains why she enrolled at a prestigious examination prep school, Adam’s College, Oshodi.
“One month into my lessons, and I knew they meant business,” she exclaims about how they had monthly JAMB mock exams. She described her four-month enrollment at the school as the survival of the fittest.
This was what sparked the first sign that something was wrong with the 2025 JAMB scores for Naomi, “After every mock exam, there is a scoreboard. I had never seen such low scores on the scoreboard as I did in our actual JAMB results. Our top 20 couldn’t have abysmal scores.”
THE JAMB SITUATION:
They say the third time is the charm, but in the words of the JAMB board, “Man proposes and God disposes.” That’s what scared her the most, the uncertainty of the outcome. Methodically, she recalls the very day of the exam, “It was a Saturday, April 26th, 2 pm. I got to the WAEC international test centre, Agindibi.”
She recounts the rigorous search methods used to combat any electoral malpractices, ironic, she knows, and with a pep talk, she is good to go. Her first test comes before entering the exam halls as she runs into a group of people who try to convince her that she is at the wrong test centre. A common prank played at exam centres, the goal is rather unconfusing, as it benefits neither party if you miss your exams.
The next test was the exam, and for her, it was a nice experience, borderline easy. So it was genuinely heartbreaking when she texted ‘UTME results’ to 55019 and saw 178. The process of having to text 55019 was in itself annoying. “Do you know they charge 50 naira for that? That’s excluding the fee we paid to write the exam. JAMB receives both government and individual funding, so why the charges?”
As a well-documented overachiever, she was relaxed about her parents’ reaction, she knew they would not believe it either. “My mom started looking into other options: private university, or A levels. My main fear was that the government wouldn’t admit the flaw.”
Dispute often raises us with two options; fight to be right or count your losses for peace. Naomi was not confident about which direction the Nigerian government would choose, and honestly, the possibility of no one ever taking accountability terrified her. “Dramatic, but I could not sleep. There was an injustice, and the next action the government takes would redefine the next 365 days for me.” This might be new for her, but it is typical to have your life upheaved by a single decision taken by the government. Everything changed when she got a text on the 14th of May. It read that she had been among the affected candidates and would be rewriting her exams on the 17th. “In all honesty, I did not feel as good as I did the first time after the exam. I had not read in weeks. But it was a moment of national pride. I know we laughed at the JAMB statement, but they made a statement.”
It was a step in the right direction, and while we are on the topic of JAMB and its issues, Naomi airs another complaint. “Why does JAMB have to be once a year? I know we do not have the resources to admit students multiple times a year, but I think having to wait a whole year for the next exam is a bit much. They should look into that, too.”
The 2025 exam did not turn out the way she hoped. It is not one of those things she looks back and acknowledges the light at the end of the tunnel, she pouts that she won’t be at the 300s party. But right now, as she bakes her brother a butterscotch cake, she feels good and fulfilled knowing that her hard work paid off.