The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has described under-16 candidates who scored above 80 per cent in the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as the geniuses who will change Nigeria and the world, saying they represent just 0.005 per cent of all JAMB candidates.
Alausa said this while hosting some candidates in his office, where he noted that Nigeria has 220 million people, an average age of 18.5 years, and 70 per cent of the population under 30.
He said President Bola Tinubu isunique because whebelieves in the youth aas thefutureand is carrying out transformative cchange,not aust for ythe ounger generation, abut for allstudents , affirmingthat the future ris theirs
“For a society that we know we have to harness, nurture and look for talents and look for geniuses in our society. And you are the genius. You are the geniuses in our society,” he said.
He said the students present are the highly selective people in society, being under-16 students who will have the privilege of attending university despite the Federal Government’s stringent policy of not admitting anyone under 16 years into any tertiary institution, especially newly established universities.
Alausa explained that the policy exemption was to harness, nurture and identify talents and geniuses, because they are the ones who will provide solutions and develop innovations that will power the country and the world.
He added that following the rigorous selection process, only 108 candidates met the stipulated requirements.
Giving the statistics of how the 108 emerged, Alausa said 2,244,149 candidates registered for the 2026 UTME, out of which 2,174,396 sat for the examination, and 39,000 of those who sat were below 16 years.
He said the first criterion for underage admission was to score 80 per cent in UTME, which equates to 320 out of 400, noting that only 391 of the under-16 candidates scored above 80 per cent.
He listed the other criteria as scoring 80 per cent in the post-UTME examination, scoring 80 per cent based on the ranking of O-level results, and passing a screening test to check maturity and psychological and emotional readiness to enter university.
Alausa disclosed that he met with the JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who sat in the screening test and gave feedback that he was blown away by the level of intellect, confidence and composure of the candidates in addressing the screening questions.
He said that from 2.1 million people who sat for the exam and 39,000 in the under-16 age group, only 108 qualified in the end, with six of them present at the meeting, including the two best-performing candidates in JAMB.
The Minister said the Ministry is very proud of them and that they will enter institutions not just to study, because they are already ahead of the average students, and their lecturers will have difficulty teaching them as they are far ahead.
He said they are the ones that will change Nigeria and change the world with their innovations.
He congratulated them on behalf of himself, the Minister of State for Education, the JAMB registrar and everybody at the Federal Ministry of Education, on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and on behalf of all Nigerians, adding that the nation expects them to bring innovations and solutions that will impact tens of millions of people in Nigeria and hundreds of millions in the world.
Speaking during an interview, the overall best candidate, Owoeye Daniella Jesudunsin, who scored 372, said emerging as the top was not easy and came at a cost.
She said, “It is good to become the best, but there is no success without a price. For every star there is always a cost. The journey was actually not very easy. But I want to thank God I was overall successful and my efforts paid off.”
On the notion that school is a scam, she said, “I have observed that there are many great people in Nigeria that because of education, education gave them the edge over their mates. Education pushed many great people from humble backgrounds into the spotlight and made them great. So education, school, is not a scam. It actually helps even people from really poor backgrounds.”
Also speaking, Kingsley Ikenna, who emerged second overall best with 370, said his feat was unexpected. He attributed his success to prayers, support from his mother and teachers, and expressed optimism that others could succeed if given the right support and people around them.
