During the just concluded 2019 Presidential Elections, the Nigerian media was a daily bed of fake news. At this time, WhatsApp has even taken to radio for jingles on how to battle fake news. Due to the events surrounding the 2016 American Presidential Elections and the problem of Facebook’s reach, there has been increased pressure on Facebook to actually root out fake news.

In the Nigerian case, we have heard about terrible Universities and lecturers. In fact, on so many instances, with the very terrible reputation of Nigerian public universities and Lecturers over their likeness for making good grades hard for students, we have seen some crazy questions fly across the internet. They purport to showcase the dark realities of Nigerian public universities.

On Saturday, March 2, 2019, the snapshot of supposed question, allegedly from the Department of Political Science, University of Ilorin, Kwara State started circling the internet. The questions were supposedly for a course, ‘POS 425’ for the final year students of the same department. The course is allegedly titled, ‘Electoral Process,’ and the questions were worded like a hoax.

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On the paper, these were three questions;

1.      Mention the names of the 71 candidates in the 2019 Nigeria’s (sic) Presidential elections.

2.      Mention the names of the 71 political parties that contested in the 2019 Nigeria’s Presidential elections.

3.      Mention the names of the chairmen of the 71 political parties that contested the 2019 Nigeria’s Presidential election.

The lecturer-in-charge was supposedly Dr. J.O Olaniyi. The questions were simply impossible and they seemed callous. When the news became public knowledge on Twitter, it caused massive outrage and people were voicing their displeasure at the supposed questions.

In the thick of it, Pulse decided to do some digging to determine if the questions were real or fake.

Findings from two sources revealed the questions as fake, but those sources were not compelling enough. One of those less compelling sources said the questions circling the internet had leaked a day to the examination, and those questions were changed for the actual exams.

The most compelling chat was with Ganiyat Olowoyo, a final year student of Mass Communication at the University of Ilorin and the Vice-President of the Union of Campus Journalists.

Olowoyo tells Pulse that, “The questions are fake. At the time the supposed questions started circling the internet, I spoke with a source and she confirmed that they the exams hadn’t even been written yet.”

When Pulse asked her what the questions were then about, Olowoyo said, “According to my sources, the question started off as a joke from students who were simply highlighting their worst nightmare. Somehow, they printed the paper and it found its way onto the internet.”

As news concerning this breaks further, Pulse will report them.