Fact-Check: Old Image Falsely Used to Depict UNIMAID Students Reading under Street Lights 

By: Afeez Rabiu

Claim
A picture shows students of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Borno State reading under street lights.

Verdict
Misleading! Findings by FactCheckAfrica shows that the image has been online since 2016 and it is now recycled. 

Full Text
Amidst the controversy surrounding the state of Nigeria’s education between the government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a plethora of claims have emerged online to add a different agenda to the issue. 

One of them is an image claimed to be  students of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Borno State, Northeast Nigeria, studying under street lights at night, adding that this shows the current decay in the  tertiary education system of the country.

“UNIMAID students studying under street lights! This is a terrible reminder of the decay in the tertiary education system! Did our current political class ever study in this kind of condition? Wicked leaders, enemies of progress,” the caption reads. 

FactCheckAfrica can confirm that the picture has been widely shared on SM platforms especially closed WhatsApp groups and it is stirring debates about the safety of the students and the state of education in the nation. 

FactCheckAfrica decided to verify this due to the controversial opinions it has generated. 

While the image does depict students studying under streetlights, it has been in circulation since at least 2016, making it misleading to suggest it represents the current situation.

Verification

We conducted a reverse image search and found that the image has been online multiple times since 2016. This long history of circulation indicates that the image is not recent, contradicting the implication that it depicts a current issue at UNIMAID.

Also, using MyAIFactchecker, a digital verification AI tool to analyze the claim, there were no recent news articles or official statements from UNIMAID specifically addressing this image.

Conclusion

The claim that UNIMAID students are currently studying under streetlights, as depicted in the image, is misleading. The image has been in circulation for several years, and its recent resurfacing is driven by various motivations.