The House of Representatives has slammed the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for the chaotic conduct of the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), describing the process as an embarrassment to Nigeria’s education system and demanding the resignation of the agency’s head.
The lawmakers grilled Amos Dangut, WAEC’s Head of National Office, on Monday following reports that students in some centres wrote their English Language paper late at night—under the illumination of torchlights and phone flashlights—due to hours-long delays caused by alleged question leakages.
“The exams held under those conditions were not credible. They fell short of our standard,” Dangut eventually admitted after intense questioning by the House Committee on Basic Education and Examination Bodies.
Initially defending the examination as “credible”, Dangut blamed the logistical disruptions on the last-minute need to reprint questions after original papers were compromised.
But under mounting pressure from lawmakers, he conceded that the integrity of the exams had been compromised in affected centres.
“Exams written in the dead of night, with flashlights, in a country like Nigeria? That is a complete failure,” declared Rep. Billy Osawaru, a member of the committee. “If you want to cry, cry now. After that, resign.”
The House Committee did not mince words, with Rep. Amobi Ogah demanding that Dangut step aside immediately over what he described as national embarrassment.
“What happened is a disgrace. It exposed Nigeria to ridicule globally,” Ogah fumed. “In any serious country, you would have resigned already.”
Ogah also raised concerns that the south-east was disproportionately affected by the delays, asking whether the chaos was a case of sabotage or ethnic targeting. “What have we done to deserve this?” he asked.
The WAEC boss, while insisting that the bulk of the examination across the country went smoothly, admitted that “pockets of centres” experienced challenges that breached examination protocols.
Chairman of the committee, Oboku Oforji, concluded the session by directing WAEC to submit a comprehensive report detailing the full extent of the disruptions and the official guidelines governing conduct during examinations.
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