When the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) announced its so-called vote of no confidence in the Head of National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Dr. Amos Dangut, many Nigerians could not help but roll their eyes. Once upon a time, student unionism was the conscience of society, a platform for progressive agitation. Today, what we are witnessing is a parody of activism, hollow drama, baseless allegations, and the handiwork of invisible paymasters using students as pawns.
The charges against WAEC are as sweeping as they are shallow. According to NANS, WAEC under Dr. Dangut has presided over “systemic failure,” “mass failure in English,” “late-night examinations,” and “gross misconduct.” These words make for sensational headlines, but the substance is missing. The claim that students failed English en masse is not proof of WAEC’s incompetence; it is a reflection of the quality of teaching and the declining reading culture in our schools. Examinations test knowledge, not entitlement. You cannot scroll through Instagram reels all year and expect WAEC to award you grades like Christmas hampers.
The assertion that some students sat for exams “late into the night” is equally ridiculous. Nigerians are well aware of the structured and supervised nature of WAEC’s operations. At best, this could have been an isolated hiccup at one or two centres. But to take such isolated incidents, if they even occurred, and use them as grounds to blackmail the entire examination council is not just dishonest, it is mischievous. It is like demanding that the entire aviation sector be shut down because one airline had a delayed flight.
What is even more telling is the language of the NANS communiqué. Phrases like “totally uncalled for,” “deliberate attempt,” and “gross misconduct” are strung together with the recklessness of people who believe volume can substitute for facts. Yet no hard evidence is offered. Who are the WAEC staff allegedly aiding malpractice? Where is the documentation? Where is the investigative report? None exists. Why? Because the entire show is built on conjecture rather than truth.
It is difficult to ignore the fingerprints of shadowy sponsors in all this. Blackmail and intimidation have become lucrative tools in the hands of the idle. Some individuals cannot stomach WAEC’s credibility and discipline, so they resort to weaponising students as attack dogs. Sadly, NANS has allowed itself to be reduced to a rented crowd, abandoning its noble role of defending genuine student welfare, issues like affordable tuition, improved campus infrastructure, and enhanced security, for empty posturing that serves private interests.
Dr. Amos Dangut, by contrast, has done nothing to warrant such vilification. Under his watch, WAEC has continued to uphold credibility and consistency, despite the enormous pressures of administering examinations across multiple states. To accuse him of deliberately sabotaging the future of Nigerian students is not just malicious-it is laughable. WAEC’s very existence is anchored on certifying and validating the competence of students. Undermining its credibility would undermine its very reason for being. Why would its leadership choose to destroy the very platform on which it stands?
The truth is that the future of Nigerian students lies not in rented protests or baseless ultimatums, but in discipline, hard work, and responsibility. It lies in cultivating a culture of study, demanding reforms that genuinely improve education, and engaging institutions constructively rather than blackmailing them.
If NANS truly has the interest of students at heart, let it channel its energies into pushing for practical reforms: improving funding for education, reducing the exploitation of students through arbitrary fees, lobbying for better hostel facilities, and working with the government to improve teachers’ welfare. That is the kind of activism Nigeria needs, not this hogwash of blackmail masquerading as advocacy.
Nigerians should therefore treat this vote of no confidence for what it is: a hollow drama scripted by joblessness and acted out by a body that has lost its moral compass. Hogwash, after all, remains hogwash, no matter how elegantly it is packaged.
Modupe writes from Abuja.
