Every year, hundreds of thousands of Nigerian candidates sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, and every year the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) publishes the short list of those who rose above the rest. In 2026, that list carried a name that the Jephthah family knows well: Victor-Onyeka Daniel Ifeanyi.
With a score of 368 out of 400, Victor-Onyeka was recognised among the best-performing candidates in the entire country, with the fourth-highest score nationwide. It is a result we should have celebrated here long ago, and we are glad to give it the full telling it deserves.
A Place Among the Nation’s Best
When JAMB unveiled the top scorers of the 2026 UTME at the Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions in Abuja, the figures at the summit were extraordinary: the best candidate scored 372, followed by 370 and 369. On 368 was Jephthah’s Victor-Onyeka Daniel.
Daniel sat the examination in Rivers State, and he named the University of Port Harcourt as his first choice, with the aim of studying Electrical/Electronics Engineering. It is a demanding course that rewards exactly the mix of strengths his results suggest: mathematical precision, scientific reasoning and the discipline to keep going when the work is hard.
To score 368 in the UTME, a candidate must do far more than prepare well. He must perform at close to the ceiling of a four-subject, 400-mark examination, under time pressure, in a national field of candidates. For a student from Port Harcourt to land in that company is a result of which the whole of Rivers State can be proud.
This Was Not a Surprise
For those who watched Victor-Onyeka through his years at Jephthah, the number confirmed what they already knew.
In his final year, he was named Student of the Year, an honour reserved for a genuine all-rounder: active in sports, a member of the media crew, a preacher, ICT-proficient, consistently among the top ten students in his class, respected by staff and students alike and a prefect. He was also recognised as the Best Behaved Student (Male) in SS3, which says as much about his character as the score does about his intellect.
His academic record was just as decisive. In the school’s 2026 subject awards, he topped Physics with 99.5% and Mathematics with 97%, and won the Computer Studies prize. He also carried the Oluwaseun Oyatogun Physics Olympiad Award for his performance in the subject.
The sciences were not the only place he shone. In the 2026 WASSCE-SC, he earned A1 grades in Mathematics, Biology, Civic Education and Further Mathematics, a set of results that placed him among the school’s top achievers and that showed his UTME score was no isolated peak but the high point of a consistent record.
The pattern is clear. Victor-Onyeka’s 368 was built over years, in classrooms, laboratories, hostel study sessions and chapel services, and not in a few weeks of cramming.
See also: Sent Forth With Purpose: Jephthah Comprehensive Secondary School Celebrates the SS3 Graduating Class of 2026
What a Result Like This Says About a School
A UTME score of this level is, first and last, the achievement of the student who earned it. He deserves the credit, and so do the parents who stood behind him. But it would be dishonest not to say that environment matters.
At Jephthah, we have always believed that academic excellence is not a separate project from character. Our students study in a structured boarding and day environment with qualified teachers, regular assessment and monitoring from SS1 to SS3, and a culture that treats discipline, punctuality and diligence as habits to be built, not suggestions. Our teachers also spend time every year sharpening their craft, because the quality of a student’s learning can never rise far above the quality of the teaching he receives.
Daniel’s journey shows what that environment can produce when a gifted, hardworking student is placed within it: a young man who is academically exceptional, respectful, spiritually grounded and ready for the next stage.
For Parents Looking for the Right School
If you are comparing boarding schools in Port Harcourt, or searching for good secondary schools in Port Harcourt whose results you can verify, the national UTME rankings are one of the few measures that no school controls. JAMB sets the examination, JAMB marks it, and JAMB publishes the list. A name from Jephthah appearing near the top of that list is evidence of a kind that a brochure cannot offer.
We do not promise every child a score of 368. What we promise is an environment in which a child’s ability is taken seriously, developed carefully and held to a high standard, in a school that treats character as seriously as grades.
Congratulations, Victor-Onyeka
To Victor-Onyeka Daniel Ifeanyi: congratulations on a result that puts your name among the best in the nation. Jephthah is proud of you, and we expect to hear a great deal more about what you do next.
To every student in our current SS3 class preparing for the next UTME: this is what is possible. Work with focus, study with discipline, and the doors that God opens will be waiting.
Jephthah Comprehensive Secondary School is a Christian boarding and day secondary school located at KM 4, East-West Road, Rumuome-Ozuoba, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. To learn more about admissions, visit jephthah.net/admissions or call 08037346444.
