By: Gnothi Seauton✍️
It was a shocking sight to behold, a sight that left almost all its beholder puzzled and in utmost disbelief. A harrowing experience that begs the existence of the values and the kind of moral standard upheld by the institution-an acclaimed circle of the intelligentsia. You may wonder what it is being spoken of, follow closely as I take you on a voyage of discovery.
Earlier today, a couple of students logged into the UI students’ portal to settle some lingering questions in their hearts as regards the payment of fees and some other vital information from the institution to keep abreast with information. Little did they know that they would leave the portal with more weighty questions in their hearts, far beyond that which they came with.
After having disclosed the amount to be paid as the acceptance fee(N35,000) for freshmen, a UI news titled “Admission Exercise: Payment of Acceptance fee” uploaded on the school portal had one of its paragraphs linked to a porn website.
The controversial paragraph reads “Thank you. Free porn videos and xnxx related contents are located here… Quality content of porno is on this page.”
This has raised eyebrows among people in various quarters. On one hand, there are insinuations that the link was included in the news report by an insider with the technical know-how. These categories of people believed that such an insider was meticulous in doing the act which explains why the news report no longer feature on the list of news on the school website.
Another set of people believed that the school’s website was hacked. If this is the case, it begs the question of the feasibility of having virtual classes if the institution’s website security could be easily infiltrated as such.
Below is a video of the content of the website at exactly 10:46am.
Warning: sexually explicit content
However, when the website was further checked around 12pm, the controversial news had been pulled down. While this may be the wisest thing to do in such situation, the incident will not be erased from student’s memories easily.
Before the 2018/2019 academic session, no amount was charged for the technology fee. Fast forward to the 2018/2019 academic session, #6,500 was added to the school fees as technology fee with another increase to #10, 000 for the session that is yet to begin. According to the management, a large chunk of the money was and will be used to maintain the website especially the students’ portal. Not all students could access the free Wi-Fi gifted to students last session even though the management claimed it was not part of the amount paid for technology.
This begs the question of what went wrong, if the institution takes an extra fee for technology, what giant step has it made to upgrade the website? How did the report come to be missing on the list of news on the institution’s website? Could this truly be the doings of an insider or the mechanics of hackers?
These and many other questions heat the heart of these students who boldly uphold the torch of the highly revered institution. While these questions may seem rhetorical, students are still anticipating an explanation from the school authority.
