Why it matters that JAMB’s new registrar is 40, not 60
Segun Aina is a professor of computer engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, holding a Bachelor’s in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, and a Master’s plus a PhD in Digital Signal Processing from Loughborough University. His relationship with JAMB isn’t necessarily new, he began working with the board during his National Youth Service, gaining early experience in national admissions and data-driven institutional processes, and has since consulted for exam bodies like NECO and NABTEB on ICT systems and examination integrity. That’s the résumé behind the headline number.
The 2026 UTME was marked by widespread technical failures that left candidates unable to sit their exams across multiple centres, triggering public anger and a national conversation about the reliability of computer-based examination infrastructure. This wasn’t a scandal about corruption or malpractice, the kind of problem a seasoned administrator settles with policy and discipline. It was a breakdown in the digital plumbing itself: a gap between the ambitions of examination reform and the ground-level reality of patchy power supply, inadequate equipment, and overstretched CBT centres.
That’s precisely the kind of failure that rewards someone who has spent their career inside systems engineering, not someone who has spent it climbing academic administration. And that’s the real case for Aina’s youth: it isn’t a symbol, it’s a proxy for a different professional formation, one built around digital infrastructure, national examination systems, and institutional reforms rather than decades of general university leadership.
A break from JAMB’s usual profile
JAMB historically, has been led by exactly the opposite kind of figure. Aina’s predecessor, Ishaq Oloyede, was a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin before his appointment in 2016. He was the classic profile for the role: a senior academic administrator, promoted for institutional stature rather than technical specialization. That model worked. Oloyede’s decade in office restored confidence in the UTME, strengthened the credibility of the admissions process, and institutionalized technology-driven service delivery.
But it might have added to this year’s crisis. A leadership style built for institutional stability is not automatically built for infrastructure firefighting. Aina’s appointment reads less like a generational changing of the guard and more like a deliberate correction: JAMB’s problem is no longer “can we trust this exam?” it’s “can we make the technology work at scale?” That calls for a different kind of expert, and the Presidency seems to know it. Bayo Onanuga framed the appointment as underscoring “the administration’s belief in merit-driven leadership and the importance of positioning forward-thinking professionals in strategic public offices.”
The honest counterargument
None of this makes the bet risk free, and a fair piece has to sit with the pushback. Critics have pointed out that Aina has “just 15 years of experience,” questioning why candidates with three decades or more in the sector were not chosen, and calling the process a bypass of due diligence. That’s a legitimate institutional concern, technical fluency might not automatically translate into the political skill needed to run a federal agency of JAMB’s size, manage its workforce, and survive its bureaucratic pressures.
There’s also a real gap between diagnosing a systems problem and fixing it politically. Power supply and CBT center density aren’t purely technical constraints, they’re funding and infrastructure problems that sit well outside any registrar’s direct control, regardless of how sharp their engineering background is.
If Aina’s background genuinely translates into fixing the CBT infrastructure gap that broke the 2026 UTME, the appointment will validate the theory that specialized recent experience beats generalized seniority for this kind of role. If the 2027 cycle repeats this year’s failures, the “youth matters” argument collapses back into what critics already suspect it was a symbolic bet, not a strategic one.
