August 10, (THEWILL) — The release of critical examination and election results in Nigeria has repeatedly descended into chaos due to technical failures, undermining public confidence in key institutions.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have faced significant disruptions in recent years, each marked by systemic issues that have delayed processes, cost candidates and voters time and money, and eroded trust.
The 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the 2023 general election all suffered from technical glitches that exposed fragile infrastructure and inadequate planning.
Let us take a moment to examine these incidents, identify common patterns, evaluate their impact, and propose practical solutions to prevent future crises, drawing on credible sources to ensure accuracy and depth.
The West African Examinations Council announced on August 7 that it had suspended access to the 2025 WASSCE results for school candidates after discovering technical errors in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics. The issue stemmed from a new security measure called paper serialisation, intended to curb examination malpractice by assigning unique identifiers to question papers.
An internal review revealed that this system caused inaccuracies in result processing, prompting the council to take the result-checking portal offline for 24 hours to correct the errors.
The council issued a public apology, acknowledging the inconvenience to candidates and urging them to recheck their results after the fix. Only 38.32 per cent of the 1,969,313 candidates achieved credits in five subjects, including English and Mathematics, a 33.8 per cent drop from the previous year, with 192,089 results withheld due to suspected malpractice.
The Federal Ministry of Education later confirmed the resolution of the glitch, but the incident sparked widespread frustration among students and parents, many of whom faced delays in university admissions processes.
Similarly, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board encountered significant problems during the 2025 UTME. A server error, attributed to a faulty software patch, affected over 370,000 candidates across 157 examination centres, particularly in the South-East and Lagos regions.
The error led to blank screens, terminated sessions, and scrambled scores, forcing thousands of candidates to retake the examination. The board conducted a review and issued corrected results, but the disruption caused financial burdens for candidates who had to travel or pay for additional preparation.
The incident also delayed university admissions, as institutions awaited revised scores to finalise their processes. Public outcry highlighted the emotional toll on candidates, many of whom had prepared for months only to face uncertainty due to technical failures. One candidate, 19-year-old Timilehin Faith Opesusi, reportedly took her own life because of this issue.
The Independent National Electoral Commission faced parallel challenges during the 2023 general election. I wrote about this last year, following the controversies that ensued after the formal declaration of the result of the presidential election.
INEC’s Result Viewing (IReV) Portal, designed to upload polling unit results in real-time to ensure transparency, failed to function as planned during the presidential election.
A post-election report by the commission attributed the failure to a configuration error that prevented timely uploads, leading to widespread allegations of electoral manipulation.
Observers, including the European Union, noted that the glitch significantly undermined public confidence in the electoral process, with many voters questioning the integrity of the results. The commission acknowledged the issue and promised improvements, but the fallout fuelled legal challenges and public protests, highlighting the stakes of reliable technology in democratic processes.
These incidents share striking similarities that point to deeper systemic problems. Each involved critical systems, WAEC’s result-checking portal, JAMB’s examination servers and INEC’s IReV platform, that failed under pressure due to inadequate preparation.
The introduction of new technology, such as WAEC’s paper serialisation or INEC’s IReV, was not accompanied by sufficient testing. In WAEC’s case, the serialisation system, though modelled on practices by other examination bodies, was not thoroughly vetted, leading to errors that could have been caught earlier.
JAMB’s server patch was applied without adequate pre-testing, a lapse that affected thousands of candidates. INEC’s failure to simulate peak loads on IReV left it vulnerable to collapse during a high-stakes election. Budget constraints also played a role: Nigeria’s inconsistent power supply and limited investment in modern infrastructure likely exacerbated server vulnerabilities across all three cases. Additionally, the lack of robust contingency plans meant that when systems failed, there were no immediate backups to mitigate the impact. For instance, WAEC had to shut down its entire portal, and JAMB required weeks to organise retakes, while INEC’s delays left voters without real-time access to results.
The consequences of these failures extend beyond immediate disruptions. For students, the financial and emotional costs are significant. Apart from the gravity of the suicide case, other candidates affected by JAMB’s 2025 errors incurred expenses for travel, accommodation and additional tutoring, particularly burdensome for low-income families. WAEC’s glitch delayed admissions, with some students missing university application deadlines.
Parents and students without smartphone data spent money on transport and online time at cybercafés, only to find the portal inaccessible.
The broader economic impact is also notable: Retakes and reviews strain institutional budgets, with JAMB and WAEC spending millions to address their errors. In the electoral sphere, INEC’s IReV failure contributed to costly legal battles and a loss of public trust, with surveys indicating declining confidence in the commission post-2023.
These incidents disproportionately affect marginalised groups, such as rural candidates with limited access to technology or voters in remote areas reliant on manual processes, highlighting equity concerns.
The erosion of trust is perhaps the most enduring impact. When institutions responsible for critical civic functions, education and elections, fail repeatedly, public faith in governance weakens.
The 2023 election controversy led to accusations of deliberate sabotage, despite INEC’s claim of technical errors. Similarly, WAEC and JAMB faced criticism for rushing result releases without proper checks, fuelling perceptions of incompetence. The cumulative effect is a growing scepticism about Nigeria’s ability to manage high-stakes processes, which could deter participation in future examinations or elections.
Addressing these recurring failures requires practical, evidence-based reforms. First, independent audits of technological systems must be mandated before deployment. External experts could have identified vulnerabilities in WAEC’s serialisation or JAMB’s server patch, preventing widespread disruption. The Commonwealth Observer Group’s report on Nigeria’s 2023 election recommended such audits for electoral technology, a model applicable to examination bodies.
Second, transparency in vendor contracts is essential. The public deserves clarity on which companies supply these systems and whether they face penalties for failures. Reports suggest JAMB’s server issues stemmed from a third-party provider, yet no accountability measures were disclosed.
Third, pre-release stress tests simulating peak usage, such as thousands of simultaneous result checks or uploads, should be standard operating procedure when deploying these systems.
Finally, investing in modern infrastructure, such as cloud-based backups and stable power systems, could reduce reliance on outdated servers. The Federal Ministry of Education’s plan to introduce computer-based testing for WAEC and NECO by 2026 is a step forward, but only if accompanied by robust testing and training.
These reforms are not merely technical fixes but steps toward restoring public confidence. Nigeria’s young population depends on reliable examinations for educational and career opportunities, just as its democracy hinges on transparent elections.
The 2025 WASSCE glitch, JAMB’s server errors, and INEC’s IReV failure are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a broader neglect of infrastructure and planning.
By learning from these crises, Nigeria can build systems that deliver results on time, fairly, and transparently. The cost of inaction is clear: further delays, financial losses, and a deepening distrust that could undermine the nation’s educational and democratic foundations. With accountability and investment, these institutions can regain credibility, ensuring that students and voters alike are no longer left waiting for systems to catch up.
