Peter Obi says JAMB endangering teenagers with ‘reckless’ UTME scheduling

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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. Thecable