According to the group, the elevation of NBAIS certifications, especially those related to Tahfeez and SAISSCE, to the same level as WAEC and NECO amounts to privileging one religion while systematically excluding others.

A religious advocacy organisation, The National Prayer Altar, has issued a scathing petition against the Nigerian government’s recognition of certificates issued by the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) as equivalent to WAEC, NECO, and NBTE qualifications for entry into Nigeria’s secular tertiary institutions.

In a statement dated May 14, 2025, and addressed to top education regulators including the Minister of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the organisation demanded the immediate revocation of the policy, warning that it could erode Nigeria’s secular educational framework and ignite dangerous religious and ethnic divisions.

Describing the policy as “a structural breach of Nigeria’s policy secularity,” the group insisted that the Federal Government had “taken a step that functionally violates constitutional neutrality” by promoting a religious-based certification system into the mainstream education system.

“This policy decision does not merely flirt with constitutional boundaries, it crosses them,” the petition read. 

“It introduces a theological asymmetry into a national education system that is, by law and by design, intended to be secular, merit-based, and religiously agnostic.”

According to the group, the elevation of NBAIS certifications, especially those related to Tahfeez and SAISSCE, to the same level as WAEC and NECO amounts to privileging one religion while systematically excluding others.

“No federal education board exists for Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Tiv, Ijaw, or Christian Biblical Studies,” the statement noted. 

“This action violates the constitutional mandate of religious neutrality under Section 10 and directly undermines the Federal Character principle under Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution.”

The National Prayer Altar also raised the alarm over what it described as the lack of transparent curriculum moderation, legislative backing, or inter-agencovery consensus on NBAIS’s new certification status.

“To date, there is no publicly accessible Act of the National Assembly, Executive Order, or inter-agency communiqué that explicitly confirms NBAIS’s elevation to the status of a general certifying body,” the group said.

"Legitimacy in a federal education system is not conferred by silence, speculation, or stealth.”

It further warned that the policy could “invite a wave of lawful demands from other religious and cultural groups for federal equivalence, resulting in a proliferation of fragmented certification boards, ideologically divergent syllabuses, and policy incoherence.”

Calling the policy “a strategic distortion of Nigeria’s secular, merit-based education framework,” the group declared that their petition was not a call for reform but a demand for total reversal.

“This is not a call for review or reform. It is a call for total reversal,” the group stated. “The NBAIS equivalence policy must be abolished in its entirety. The future of Nigeria’s children, its institutions, and its democratic integrity depends on it.”

Among their demands, the group is calling for the immediate abolition of NBAIS certificate equivalence; aformal declaration by the Presidency and National Assembly reaffirming that only WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBTE-approved bodies shall be accepted for general academic progression; That no cultural or religious certification be granted national status or equivalence without a universal and secular framework available to all traditions under identical terms.

The petition was signed by over 100 religious and academic leaders from across Nigeria and the diaspora, including Professor Kontein Trinya, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel, and Professor Olanrewaju Awotona, among others.