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Meet the young Nigerians campaigning to end English-language discrimination

By:   []

Date: 2022-02 

Campaigners in Nigeria are asking the British government to alter its policy of requiring English language tests for people who want to live or study in the UK.

Most overseas nationals applying for a UK visa must show proficiency in English by taking a standardised test, known as IELTS. Citizens of countries that the UK regards as “majority English-speaking” are exempt, but currently this doesn’t include Nigeria.

The campaign was launched by Ebenezar Wikina of Policy Shapers, a youth-led Nigerian think tank, in 2020. Since then, it has gained traction on social media under the hashtag #reformIELTS, and been covered by the BBC World Service. More than 70,000 people have signed a petition in support of the campaign.

Campaigners are unhappy because the tests are expensive and only valid for two years. Many also question why they are necessary at all in Nigeria, where English is widely spoken.

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Some Nigerians also regard the testing process as unfair. “The exam is actually testing how well you can perform under exam conditions,” says Desmond, who has taken the IELTS test.

“The more you practice, the more you’re able to get high marks,” says Ayantola, another IELTS veteran. “My friends who prepared longer got higher scores. It was more about time management and being smart about answering questions […] than knowledge of English.”

Wikina was prompted to launch the campaign when he applied to study for a degree at Nexford, an online university based in Washington DC. He was told that his existing qualifications in English were not valid and he would have to take an IELTS test.

After Wikina shared his correspondence with Nexford on Twitter, the university got in touch to say that it would soften its policy. Encouraged by this response, Wikina decided to shift the focus of his campaign to the UK, which oversees the IELTS system.

In October 2021, Policy Shapers wrote to the Home Office, the government department in charge of immigration control, to ask that Nigeria be added to the list of countries exempt from the test. The department said it needed evidence that more than half of Nigeria’s population speak English as a first language. “Currently, based on the information available to us, Nigeria does not meet the requirement,” the Home Office stated.
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