EDUCATION MINISTER ALLEGES NECO QUESTION PAPERS WERE SOLD FOR AS LITTLE AS N3,000 BEFORE EXAMS. (PHOTO).

Education minister alleges NECO question papers were sold for as little as N3,000 before exams

Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa has alleged that National Examinations Council (NECO) questions were previously sold for as little as N3,000 before candidates sat for the papers.

Alausa made the disclosure on Thursday at a meeting with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools and other education stakeholders. He described the scale of examination malpractice in Nigeria as “mind-boggling.”

The minister warned parents, teachers, school proprietors, principals, invigilators and students against practices that undermine the integrity of public examinations. He said malpractice had been tolerated for years, creating an unfair system in which students who prepared genuinely were disadvantaged by those who obtained leaked questions in advance.

Alausa warned that the situation risked pushing honest students into cheating in order to compete.

“It’s sad. Before she (Minister of State for Education) 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,” he said. “The danger was that the good students would also become bad.”

Recounting efforts to combat the problem, Alausa alleged that examination questions had been obtained and sold before the tests. He referred to former NECO Registrar Ibrahim Wushishi while describing how the leaked materials were allegedly marketed.

“The Registrar of NECO at the time had a name. His name was (Ibrahim) Wushishi. You would go to Wushishi… I didn’t know that Wushishi meant going to the dark website,” he said. “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 also recalled receiving repeated messages containing alleged leaked questions during the 2025 examination period. He said the materials were verified with examination authorities and some were confirmed as the actual questions for that day’s papers.

“During that examination period, during the hardest time of my life, I was always worried, waking up. I would wake up to her text. She would send questions to me… She would say, ‘I just got this question,’” he said. “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.’”

The minister stressed that examination malpractice could not be blamed solely on students. He said the wider education ecosystem — including parents, schools, teachers, invigilators and principals — must take responsibility.

“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,” Alausa 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.”