Factcheck: Will UNIMAID Promote All Students At The End Of The 2020/2021 Academic Session?

A claim attributed to Professor Aliyu Shugaba, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), declaring that no student will repeat any course this semester due to a school team victory has been circulating on WhatsApp.

The Dean of Student Affairs of the varsity, Professor Maina Alhaji Gimba, has refuted the claim. 

“This is the first time I am hearing such, it is not in the varsity culture to do such. There is a difference between games and academics.”

A WhatsApp user who asked for anonymity posted a screenshot of the claim in a WhatsApp group on the 3rd November 2021. When this reporter inquired about the validity of the post, the sender had no proof for it, saying: “I saw it on someone’s status and shared [with] the WhatsApp groups,” she responded.  

VERIFICATION:

The claim allegedly made by the VC is incomplete. First of all, if the claim were true, the VC’s name should have appeared on the announcement, not just signed “VC UNIMAID.” Secondly, the particular semester was not specified, neither was the academic session. Additionally, there appears to be a typo in the statement where the word ‘bought’ is used instead of ‘brought,’ further stripping validity from the statement. Finally, the school team’s name was not attached to the post as it usually would be in correspondence from the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

FACT:

As contained in the UNIMAID student handbook, the grading system is used to determine a student’s academic performance, not extra-curricular activities. The equivalents are:

Source: Unimaid student handbook for 2016/2017 Academic session, p67.