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Rabat – Days after the bar exam fiasco following alleged “rigged” results, Moroccans are now taking to social media calling for Morocco’s Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi to step down as justice minister.
The hashtag #استقالة_وهبي_مطلب_شعبي (Arabic for Ouahbi resignation is a public demand) is taking the internet by storm. Social media users in Morocco are using the hashtag to express their indignation at the minister’s refusal to take action in the wake of the bar exam results which many believe to be “rigged.”
One Twitter user wrote: “We are not against the success of your son or anyone else, whoever it may be, but for you to come out with such a reaction when you are the Minister of Justice.”
In the same Tweet the user denounced the classist remark that the minister made: “Whatever the provocation of the journalist, it is unacceptable because it perpetuates classism and social injustice! We don’t care about apologies, we are not emotional, we want to open an investigation and re-correct everyone who rejected the result!”
#استقالة_وهبي_مطلب_شعبي
لسنا ضد نجاح ولدك أو غيره كائنا من كان، و لكن أن تخرج بردة فعل كهذه و أنت وزير العدل مهما كان استفزاز الصحفي فهي غير مقبولة لأنها تكرس للطبقية و اللاعدالة الاجتماعية!
لا يهمنا الاعتذار فنحن لسنا عاطفيين، نريد فتح تحقيق و اعادة التصحيح لكل من رفض النتيجة! pic.twitter.com/HiapLE7Og9— ⵀⴰⵏⴰ ??هناء ?? (@HanaeEster) January 5, 2023
The tweet refers to the minister’s statement commenting on the bar exam when the minister shrugged off the allegations, further fueling a new wave of uproar.
In a statement to journalists on Monday, Ouahbi said that those who passed the exam “are also citizens.”
The list of candidates who passed the exam seems to have a large number of names belonging to some of the most famous lawyering and affluent families in Morocco, as many social media users have observed.
While dismissing the nepotism allegations as unfounded, Ouahbi added that the case does not deserve a proper criminal investigation. “This is not a crime for me to open an investigation. I trust the committee. Should I open an investigation just because someone sitting in a cafe asked me to?” he said.
The exam was “corrected by machines and not people,” he explained. “Do they want to publish the list of those who failed, passed, and the grades with names and numbers? Do they want to see the machines that corrected the exams?”
His statement came at a time when many failed candidates have been calling for an independent investigation into the allegations.
Ouahbi’s provocative statement worsened when he was asked to comment on whether his son had also passed the exam.
“My son has two bachelor’s degrees from Montreal… His father is rich and paid for his education abroad,” the minister responded angrily. Many Moroccans took offense at the minister’s statement saying that it undermines the national education system and the millions of hardworking students who come from disadvantaged social backgrounds.
Following the nationwide backlash that his statement triggered, Ouahbi spoke to Morocco’s state-owned TV channel SNRTNews, saying that he was sorry “if his statement was misinterpreted.”
The minister blamed the media for misinterpreting his comments saying: “If some journalists manipulated or edited videos to manipulate what I have said, those who listen should be reasonable,” he explained.
On a concluding note, “I apologize to the Moroccan university and to the professors who taught me,” he reasoned.
Read Also: Moroccan Political Parties Condemn Handling of Bar Exam
