Workers at the Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) are set to stage a protest against the alleged management’s highhandedness, illegal recruitment, imposition of pay policy, and unilateral constitution of panels against its members, among other issues.

This is coming less than 48 hours after the leadership of the examination body in the country declared its readiness to conduct a hitch-free 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) for a total of 1,959,636 candidates across 24,207 schools nationwide.

The three-day protest, which is expected to begin on Wednesday (today) at the examination body’s headquarters in Lagos, is expected to hold across WAEC offices nationwide, including regional and state offices.

This is contained in a letter addressed to the Head of National Office by the leadership of Nigeria’s headquarters of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).

One of the workers, who craved anonymity for fear of sanctions, noted that the protest was scheduled to hold between Tuesday, 12 May, and Thursday, 15 May, but was rescheduled to commence on Wednesday following the failure of the management to accede to the workers’ requests.

But both the Head of National Office of WAEC (HNO), Amos Dangut, and the acting head of the body’s Public Affairs unit, Moyosore Adesina, have failed to react to the development, ignoring messages and calls to their telephone lines by DevReporting.

Protest notice

In a letter dated Tuesday, 5 May, and signed by NASU’s General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, the union listed nine infractions against Mr Dangut-led leadership of the examination body, and gave him seven days to resolve the issues or face warning industrial action.

The letter, which was titled: “Re: A Call For Immediate Stop to the Shady Recruitment Interview Practices,” conveyed the approval of the national leadership of NASU to its WAEC members to proceed with the planned three-day protest.

The letter reads in part, “Kindly refer to our letter on the above subject referenced NASU/EBL/88/VOL.XVIII/198 dated 21st March, 2026 and your response to same, which we shared with our Branch Executive Officers.

“The Branch Executive Officers have expressed concerns that the issues raised in our letter remain unresolved. These have further given rise to additional issues requiring your immediate resolution.”

NASU national leadership said towards ensuring industrial peace in WAEC, it directed the branch leadership to hold an online meeting with all NASU branches in the Council “to aggregate their position in respect of the grievances.”

“The online meeting held on 30th April, 2026 and the outcome of the meeting is that all branches of NASU in WAEC nationwide have unanimously agreed to hold a 3-day protest in the first instance if management fails to resolve the following issues: suspension of the recent staff upgrade programme, imposition of minimum net pay balance policy, unilateral constitution of investigative panels, reduction of WASSCE (SC) duration and punitive measures, coordinated attempts to weaken the union through distortion of union membership, breach of seniority principle in appointment/placement, incessant dismissals and disproportionate sanctions, examination for promotion, and indiscriminate recruitment of contract EOs (Examination Officers) and AEOs (Assistant Examination Officers).”

NASU said it gave the approval for the protest, believing that within seven days of submitting the letter, the management of WAEC would have resolved the issues.

However, as of Tuesday, 12 May, the NASU leadership said the management has refused to resolve the listed issues, saying the protest would go on as scheduled.

WAEC writes NASU

The WAEC management, in a letter dated 8 May and addressed to the national leadership of NASU, denied all the allegations levelled against it, noting that it was surprised by the catalogue of issues listed in the letter.

The letter, which was signed on behalf of Mr Dangut by the Director of Administration, Eucharia Onodu, said it was not within the purview of the NASU national leadership to be briefed “on any inside information, actions or policies…,” particularly, on the matter of staff upgrade.

WAEC wrote; “Management has looked at the policy on minimum Net Pay Balance and decided to suspend it forthwith; a memorandum has been circulated to that effect,” adding that it is responsive, law-abiding and had always carried the union along in the constitution of investigative panels.

It also justified the reduction in the number of days for the conduct of WASSCE, noting that the decision was based on the directives by the Federal Ministry of Education “in view of the realignment/allocation of subjects”.

Reacting to the allegation of incessant dismissals of WAEC staffers, the examination body said it relies on the conditions of service for national staff of the council and rules on minor, major and intolerable offences and their sanctions are outlined therein.

“Nevertheless, staff seeking redress have been advised to follow the pathway laid out in the Conditions of Service of the Council,” it added.

Not the first time

Meanwhile, this is not the first time workers of WAEC have embarked on a protest since the appointment of Mr Dangut as the head of the national office in Nigeria. In 2024, similar protests paralysed activities at both the agency’s national headquarters in Yaba and its other offices in Ogba, and Ikorodu in Lagos.

Sources within the agency said the new management’s highhandedness had accounted for the irregularities that marred the conduct of the 2025 WASSCE for school-based candidates, forcing the candidates to sit examinations till very late in the night.

The release of the results of the 2025 WASSCE was also faced with controversies, as results earlier released were later withdrawn, leading to integrity questions.

WAEC keeps mum

As of the time of filing this report, the management of WAEC has declined to comment on the protest threat.

Calls and messages sent to both Mr Dangut and Mrs Adesina on Tuesday night were unreplied to as of Wednesday morning.