By Abiola Olawale
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has expressed deep concern over the recently released 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results, which revealed that over 78% of candidates failed to score above 200.
This is as Obi attributed the mass failure to what he described as decades of underinvestment in the education sector.
According to JAMB’s official statistics, a total of 1,955,069 candidates sat for the 2025 UTME.
Shockingly, only 420,415 candidates, representing 21%, scored 200 or above, while over 1.5 million candidates, equating to 78%, fell below this benchmark.
Also, JAMB’s official data reveal that only 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above, with just 4,756 achieving scores of 320 or higher.
In a statement shared via his verified X account, Obi described the results as a “disheartening indication” of Nigeria’s deteriorating education system.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, emphasized that the poor performance reflects deep-rooted structural challenges within Nigeria’s education system.
“The latest JAMB results once again highlight the consequences of decades of underinvestment in education, a sector that should be central to our national development strategy,” Obi said.
Drawing comparisons with other countries, Obi noted that Nigeria’s total university enrollment stands at around 2 million students, a figure dwarfed by the enrollment in the National University of Bangladesh, which alone has over 3.4 million students, despite Bangladesh having only about 75% of Nigeria’s population.
He continued: “One university in Bangladesh surpasses the entire university enrollment in Nigeria.
“I have consistently said it: education is not just a social service; it is a strategic investment. It is the most critical driver of national development and the most powerful tool for lifting people out of poverty.
“We must now invest aggressively in education — at all levels — if we are serious about building a prosperous, secure, and equitable Nigeria.”
