The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) for the 2027 election, Omoyele Sowore, has said he will abolish the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) if he becomes Nigeria’s president.
Sowore made the announcement in a post on his 𝕏 handle, where he said admissions into higher institutions should be handled directly by the institutions through a transparent and merit-based process instead of another layer of bureaucracy.
He also said he would scrap the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and replace it with a two-year voluntary National Job Corps.
According to Sowore, the proposed programme would provide participants with meaningful employment, practical skills, entrepreneurship support and opportunities to secure permanent jobs.
He wrote: “When I become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: @JAMBHQ will be abolished.
“Admission into tertiary institutions should be determined by the institutions themselves under a transparent, merit-based system, not by another layer of bureaucracy.
“The National Youth Service Corps @nysc_ng, in its current form, will be scrapped. In its place, we will establish a two-year, voluntary National Job Corps that guarantees participants meaningful employment, practical skills, entrepreneurship support, and pathways into permanent careers.
“Nigeria’s young people do not need more compulsory schemes. They need opportunities, jobs, skills, and the freedom to choose their future.”
Meanwhile, Sowore has alleged that more than 1,158 inmates, including 37 prisoners receiving treatment for tuberculosis, are being held in overcrowded cells at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.
He made the claim on Wednesday, July 1, 2027, after regaining his freedom from the correctional centre, where he had been detained over a case filed against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Sowore was remanded last week by Justice Muhammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja during proceedings in a case linked to his description of President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal.”
However, he was granted bail on Tuesday after spending more than one week in detention.
In a statement issued after his release, Sowore criticised what he described as the use of state institutions to silence dissent and intimidate critics of the government.
