Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party and former Anambra State Governor, has expressed concern over the schedule of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
In a post on X platform Sunday, Obi highlighted the risks faced by candidates, mostly teenagers, who are forced to travel early in the morning to take the exam.
According to Obi, the situation exposes a deeper systemic failure in Nigeria’s education system, where there are not enough universities and exam centers to cater to the country’s large youth population.
“This situation sadly exposes a deeper, systemic failure: Nigeria simply does not have enough universities and exam centres to cater to its youth.
“Today, Nigeria has just about 200 universities for a population of over 200 million people. That alone means one university for every one million citizens, a very disturbing and staggering ratio that shows the dilapidated level of the country’s access to education,” he said.
He cited statistics showing that Nigeria has only about 200 universities for a population of over 200 million people, resulting in a Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of just 12 percent.
Obi contrasted Nigeria’s education system with that of Indonesia, which has over 4,000 tertiary institutions and a GER of over 45 percent.
“If we had even half of Indonesia’s educational infrastructure, which would be about 2,000 universities, the Nigerian child would not be forced into life-threatening journeys just to write an exam and still face challenges of university acceptance after performing well,” he said.
He emphasised the need for substantial investment in education to yield national growth and development.
The former governor called on the government to aggressively expand the education system and ensure that young people have access to knowledge without risking their lives.
He stressed that education is not a luxury or expense, but the biggest contributor to development for any nation.
“You cannot claim to want development while starving our young the access to knowledge. You cannot claim to value your citizens while risking the lives of teenagers every examination season.
“We must aggressively and intentionally expand our education system. We must strive to match our population with access to education.
“Our young generation should not be endangered because they desire education. We must do better as a nation and ensure that our future leaders get the new Nigeria that they deserve,” Obi said.
JAMB had explained that the reason it had asked candidates to arrive at the examination centers around 6.30 am was to enable the commencement of preliminary verification, which includes processes that would take time before the examination proper.
