Communication, not corruption, is the Achilles Heel of Nigerian institutions, By Lolade Nwanze

You cannot always predict events, or in these cases, human behaviour. Crisis will always come. However, as any institution worth its salt, you must be ready to respond appropriately and professionally at all times. That can make all the difference. JAMB and Arise News need to hire communications professionals today.

The more events unfold, the more glaring the gap for communications professionalism in Nigeria’s leading institutions.

Every public-facing business needs at least one communications professional in its employment or consulting role. The idea that only heavily regulated entities like the financial services or telecoms sector need professional communication support is a faulty mindset that needs to be buried. Businesses need to invest in expert support, including public institutions like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and media organisations like Arise TV.

We all witnessed the reckless and unsympathetic manner in which the official JAMB handle, @JAMBHQ, announced the unfortunate exclusion of nearly 400,000 students whose results were compromised in the recently concluded UTME 2025 exams. The unfortunate tweet was taken from the title of the speech that the JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, delivered at the press conference addressing allegations of misconduct at this year’s exam. The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is the standardised test administered to prospective undergraduates applying to public and private universities in Nigeria. 

For an event of such national significance, the examination body did not pay attention to how the information was shared with the millions of Nigerian stakeholders begging for answers for days on social media. While there have been lots of narratives about whether the tragic compromise was malicious or merely a technical glitch, this article will not debate the JAMB’s motive or lack thereof. Rather, it will focus on the manner in which the public institution admitted its complacency on the social media platform, X (formerly Twitter). 

You see, communication is not grammar. Many conflate it with grammar, hence the assumption that anyone can do the ‘job.’ It requires a skill set that can make the difference, especially in critical situations. Even the Bible admits, ‘A slow answer turns away wrath’ and communication professionals embody this wisdom.

So many things went wrong in the handling of that UTME event, which is sadly yet to conclude. But the very first trigger for the colossal catastrophe of that communication effort was the institution’s failure to quickly identify and label the event a crisis and to respond as such. Who would have had the capacity to make the assessment? A communications professional — which they clearly do not have.

Let’s take a look at what JAMB tweeted. The now-infamous, ‘Man proposes. God disposes’ tweet. 

Tone is everything. The use of language in communications is both a hard and soft skill. Would a more nuanced/humane tweet have changed the facts of the situation? No. Could it have affected the public’s reaction, e.g Pacify them? Probably. But would it have aggravated the public some more? Absolutely not! That is the power of communication. Because of the failure of that first tweet, every other communication became a charade – a performance – including the press conference where Mr Oloyede ‘cried,’ while apologising for the errors.

So many things went wrong in the handling of that UTME event, which is sadly yet to conclude. But the very first trigger for the colossal catastrophe of that communication effort was the institution’s failure to quickly identify and label the event a crisis and to respond as such. Who would have had the capacity to make the assessment? A communications professional — which they clearly do not have.

Here was my tweet on the matter: “A major disclosure…”

Note that this was a television production facilitated behind the scenes by crew members, including cameramen, alongside light and sound teams, whose technical brilliance makes the presenters and guests look good on TV. The downright shameful rebuke and threat created a viral clip that has made the rounds on social media. It’s been days and the television company where the abuse of power occurred, has not released an official statement on the matter.

There is a widespread assumption in a very close sector to communications – the media industry. A journalist is not necessarily a communications expert. You see, while the roles appear similar and share a strong overlap in terms of basic skills requirements, there is a significant difference between the professions. It is why the BBC, for example, has a robust communications department, despite being a public broadcaster with hundreds of the finest journalists the world can boast of.

This expertise/unit is clearly lacking in Nigerian media institutions, as we can see from the recent faux pas of veteran newspaper editor-turned-broadcaster, Dr Reuben Abati on the Arise News show on Monday. The celebrated journalist lashed out at his programme director on live television, threatening to react in a worse manner, should the latter interrupt him while speaking to his guest again.

Note that this was a television production facilitated behind the scenes by crew members, including cameramen, alongside light and sound teams, whose technical brilliance makes the presenters and guests look good on TV. The downright shameful rebuke and threat created a viral clip that has made the rounds on social media. It’s been days and the television company where the abuse of power occurred, has not released an official statement on the matter. I sent the message below to a director friend at a rival television station:

“I honestly don’t care much for a public apology from him (Mr Abati). It’s the institution that owes their public an apology for that unfortunate show. Let them (the public) know that there are no lesser humans in their organisation and surely no untouchables hence the incident has been addressed fairly internally. Assure us the Director is happy to continue his work there and that ‘mishap’ is not reflective of their values and culture as an organisation. This is why organisations like BBC have a comms department.”

You cannot always predict events, or in these cases, human behaviour. Crisis will always come. However, as any institution worth its salt, you must be ready to respond appropriately and professionally at all times. That can make all the difference. JAMB and Arise News need to hire communications professionals today.

Lolade Nwanze is a communication and PR strategist.