Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned in strong terms the disturbing reports of students being forced to write their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) under dark and deplorable conditions across several centres in the country. Describing the situation as “a national disgrace,” Atiku expressed outrage that Nigerian children, in the year 2025, still face such indignities while taking one of the most crucial academic assessments of their lives.
In a statement released on Thursday, Atiku said, “It is unacceptable, unjustifiable, and utterly indefensible that in 2025, our children are forced to write critical national exams in pitch darkness like second-class citizens.” His reaction followed reports that students in numerous public schools sat for their WASSCE papers in classrooms with no electricity, some using torchlights and candles, while others were left in semi-darkness due to infrastructural failures and power outages.
The timing of the incident, just a day after International Children’s Day was observed globally, added what Atiku called “a layer of shame” to an already appalling situation. He questioned how a country could celebrate its children one day, only to subject them to humiliation and hardship the next. “This is not just a blight on our education system; it’s a damning reflection of our collective failure to prioritise our youth,” he said.
Calling for immediate government intervention, Atiku stressed that this incident should not be seen as a one-off mishap but as symptomatic of a deep-rooted crisis in Nigeria’s public education infrastructure. “This is not an isolated failure, but a damning indictment of systemic collapse in the public education sector,” he stated, urging a national reckoning over the standards of school infrastructure across the federation.
Atiku went further to demand that all examination papers written under such compromised conditions be retaken, insisting that allowing those results to stand would be tantamount to institutional injustice. “Examination preparedness is a shared responsibility between students and the examination authorities. In this case, it is glaringly evident that the latter have failed spectacularly in their duty,” the former Vice President argued.
In his recommendations, Atiku urged the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the Federal Ministry of Education to take decisive action by establishing enforceable minimum standards for infrastructure and environmental conditions in all national examination centres. He warned that without clear benchmarks, such negligence could become an unfortunate norm. “We must never allow such a shameful scenario to repeat itself — not under our watch,” he said emphatically.
The former Vice President also called on civil society organisations and education advocacy groups to hold government agencies accountable and ensure that students are never again subjected to such indignities. “Our students deserve dignity. They deserve light, security, and conducive learning environments — at the very least,” he remarked. He added that restoring faith in public education must begin with guaranteeing students basic rights during examinations.
