The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has brought to light a significant scandal involving the admission of underage candidates to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
During a policy meeting of JAMB in Abuja, Professor Oloyede disclosed that certain universities have been admitting students as young as 10 years, in blatant disregard of the legal age limit of 18.
He provided examples of universities, including UNILAG and OAU, which have established a minimum age requirement of 16 years for admission.
Furthermore, Oloyede recounted an incident where a candidate applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany, only to be revealed as having graduated from a Nigerian university at the tender age of 15.
“Whereas 18 years is the issue, but UNILAG, OAU will not accept anybody who is not 16. Some of you will admit even 10. Look at this case, underage admission, a case of a university in Germany. A candidate applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany. She then applied for the Erasmus Scholarship programme, which is an EU program. She applied for a postgraduate scholarship.
“The country found it strange that a candidate was born in 2007 and on her passport, she started university when she was 12 years. The selection committee contacted Nigeria to confirm indeed if the candidate studied at the university and graduated at the age of 15 in Nigeria,” Oloyede disclosed.
The JAMB registrar added: “The EU was asking us whether this is possible at that young age. And you know the implication? I can bet it with you in the next two to three years, they will tighten the issue. Graduates of Nigerian universities will have to suffer one humiliation or the other.
“We found that (JAMB) never admitted the candidate because she was underage. The university admitted and registered the candidate. I couldn’t respond to the EU because I was embarrassed. I didn’t know what to write.
“Ignorantly, the vice-chancellor confirmed that the student attended the school but that they weren’t the VC at that time.”
