The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) workers in Nigeria have begun a three-day nationwide protest across the Council’s offices nationwide, including regional and state offices, over unresolved welfare issues and alleged unfair labour policies.

Also, the workers are protesting against other grievances based on the alleged management’s highhandedness, illegal recruitment, imposition of pay policy, and unilateral constitution of panels against its members, among other issues, levelled against the Council.

The protest is coming at a time when the conduct of the Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) for School Candidates, 2026, which commenced in Nigeria and other member countries of Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia, respectively, on Tuesday, April 21, and will end on Friday, May 19, 2026, is ongoing.

The protest, which commenced at the Yaba, Lagos National Office of WAEC as early as 8 am yesterday, simultaneously took place at regional and state offices nationwide.

However, WAEC, through the Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Dr Amos Dangut at a press conference on Monday expressed the readiness of the examination body to conduct a hitch-free 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) for a total of 1,959,636 candidates across 24,207 secondary schools nationwide, with a pledge to prevent the repeat of exam glitches that characterised the last year’s edition of the exam where students in some exam centres had to write their English Language paper in the odd hours with candlelight and torchlights.

The protest followed the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum issued by the national leadership of NASU to WAEC management, regarding non-resolution of nine critical issues, including alleged shady recruitment practices and poor staff welfare.

The workers, under their umbrella union, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), had, in a letter addressed to the Head of the National Office of WAEC by the leadership of the union, informed the Council about the protest.

Meanwhile, NASU in a letter dated Tuesday, May 5, and signed by its General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, listed nine infractions against Dangut-led leadership of WAEC, and gave him seven days to resolve the issues or face warning industrial action.

In the letter, titled “Re: A Call for Immediate Stop to the Shady Recruitment Interview Practices,” NASU national leadership gave approval 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 the 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.”

Accordingly, the national leadership of the union insisted that to ensure industrial peace in the examination Council, 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.”

NASU added: “The online meeting held on April 30, 2026 and the outcome of the meeting is that all branches of NASU in WAEC nationwide have unanimously agreed to hold a three-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).”

According to the union, it gave approval for the protest, believing that within seven days of submitting the letter, the management of WAEC would have resolved the issues, but to no avail.

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

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

The letter, which was signed on behalf of HNO 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 said, “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,” stating further that it is responsive, law-abiding, and has 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.”

A source, however, said that the protest had earlier been scheduled to hold between Tuesday, May 12, and Thursday, May 15, but was rescheduled to commence on Wednesday owing to the failure of the Dangut-led management to accede to the workers’ demands.