‘NECO Questions Sold for N3,000’ — Alausa says He Had Sleepless Nights over Exam Fraud

Tunji Alausa, minister of education, has recounted how students allegedly obtained National Examinations Council (NECO) questions for as low as N3,000 before sitting the exams in the past.

Alausa spoke on Thursday at a meeting with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Abuja, describing the spread of examination question leakages in recent times as “mind-boggling”.

The minister, who recounted his experience in the fight against examination malpractice, warned parents, teachers, proprietors, principals, invigilators and students against practices capable of undermining the integrity of public examinations.

“It’s sad. Before she and I came, the acceptance of examination malpractice, cheating and examination leakages in this country was mind-boggling, and the country accepted it. It was a nightmare,” Punch quoted the minister as saying.

“The registrar of NECO at the time had a name. His name was Wushishi. You would go to Wushishi… I didn’t know that ‘Wushishi’ meant going to the dark website.

“They bought his question for N3,000. That was it. Before the examination. They called him Wushishi and bought the questions for N3,000 before the examination.”

Alausa added that a similar scenario also played out during the 2025 examination period, when Suwaiba Ahmad, minister of state for education, repeatedly sent him leaked questions obtained from students before candidates sat for the papers.

“During that examination period, during the hardest time of my life, I was always worried, waking up,” he said.

“I would wake up to her text. She would send questions to me… She would say, ‘I just got this question.’

“It could be English or chemistry. I was always waking up with trepidation every morning, doing work. I would send it to the HNO and ask, ‘HNO, is this correct?’ And the answer I got was, ‘Unfortunately, that’s the question we’re doing today.’

“So, that was a more aggressive intervention because we were seeing the question and confirming from the other side.”

The minister said the revelations showed that examination malpractice had gone beyond students, becoming endemic in the system.

According to him, parents, schools, teachers, invigilators and principals all have roles to play in preventing candidates from gaining unfair access to examination materials.

“You might be in that isolated school, but the school system is also involved. In fact, I don’t blame the students that much. Any child can be bad,” he said.

“But when we have an ecosystem where parents, schools, teachers, invigilators and principals are in full connivance, the students are the smallest players. The people who should put the deterrents in place are the ones involved.”

‘DESECRATING THE SYSTEM WILL STOP’

Alausa, however, warned that the status quo would not continue, saying the federal government would strengthen measures to protect the integrity of public examinations and ensure that academic qualifications reflected genuine learning and merit.

He added that the measures form part of the wider education sector reforms of the Tinubu administration aimed at improving standards, strengthening accountability and rebuilding trust in Nigeria’s assessment system.

“What are we doing? Desecrating the Nigerian system? It won’t happen. Not under the watch of this President,” he said.

“This is a country with rule of law. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is transforming this country in a way that’s never been transformed before. This is Nigeria’s renaissance that we’re building to be sustainable into the future.”

Also speaking, the minister of state for education urged private school proprietors and other stakeholders to support the reforms, noting that stronger examination controls could initially expose gaps in students’ actual preparation.

She said some students who perform exceptionally well in internal examinations may have become accustomed to accessing leaked questions ahead of external examinations, leaving them less prepared when such avenues are closed.

According to her, the introduction of serialised examination questions would make reliance on leaked materials more difficult and reinforce the need for students to prepare genuinely for examinations.

She urged schools to complete the curriculum on schedule and encourage consistent study, while assuring private education stakeholders that the Ministry would continue to engage and support them throughout the implementation of the reforms.