JAMB Addresses Hijab Adjustment at UTME Center

A video circulating on social media showed an ad hoc staff member at a computer-based test center in Ibadan instructing a Muslim candidate to adjust her hijab during screening for Nigeria's Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on Thursday, April 16. The incident at the Esther Oshikoya CBT Centre in Oyo State prompted swift condemnation from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which oversees the nationwide exam.

The footage captured the candidate being delayed ahead of biometric verification for the morning session of the UTME, raising immediate concerns about potential violations of religious rights. According to JAMB, the board's monitoring systems detected the issue in real time, leading to an on-the-spot intervention. Officials called the staff member to order and issued directives that no candidate wearing a hijab should be asked to remove or alter it.

In a statement from Abuja signed by spokesperson Fabian Benjamin, JAMB emphasized that the action was not part of its official protocols or the center's procedures. "This act was neither perpetrated by the centre nor part of its official protocol. Rather, it was the action of an overzealous ad hoc staff member...