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Claim: A Facebook post by Joseph4SL Blog Online TV shows what it says are the best universities to attend as a foreigner in Sierra Leone. The post features images labelled as Njala University, Fourah Bay College (FBC), IPAM, and EBK University.
Verdict: Misleading. The images shared in the post are not real pictures of the universities in Sierra Leone. They do not reflect the actual appearance or infrastructure of Njala University, FBC, IPAM, or EBK.
Full Text
On Facebook, a post by Joseph4SL Blog Online TV went viral, showing four photos labelled as Sierra Leone’s top universities: Njala University, FBC, IPAM, and EBK University. The post suggests that these are real photos of the campuses that foreigners can attend when they come to Sierra Leone.
Many people reacted to it, thinking these were actual images of the institutions. However, the pictures shared are unusually modern. This prompted DUBAWA to verify the images’ authenticity.
Verification
DUBAWA analysed the photos, checking known images of the universities, and running Google Lens searches. The photos do not match the Sierra Leone University structures.
Fourah Bay College (FBC) is situated on Mount Aureol and features a distinctive layout, comprising older buildings and familiar faculty blocks. None of the images in the viral post match FBC’s real landscape or architecture. The image tagged FBC appears to show a modern multi-level parking facility and office blocks found in another country. It does not resemble Fourah Bay College’s actual structure at Mount. The place shown in the image is the main campus of the University of South Africa (UNISA). This large university is one of the oldest and largest distance education institutions globally.
Njala University is renowned for its expansive campus and straightforward academic buildings. The photo in the post appears to be a modern Western-style campus with buildings not typically found in Sierra Leone. The photo labelled Njala University does not match any part of Njala University’s Mokonde or Bo campus. The building shown in the image is the TW Kambule Mathematical Sciences Building, located at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
IPAM (Institute of Public Administration and Management) is situated in central Freetown with a unique front entrance and urban surroundings. The picture shared looks nothing like the IPAM campus. The place in the image is a building at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The university is a public institution situated in Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa.
EBK University also does not resemble the image used in the post. The image tagged EBK University also does not match the real physical structure of Ernest Bai Koroma University in Makeni or any of its satellite campuses. The place shown in the image is the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), a higher education institution in South Africa.
The same applies to UNIMAK, UNIMTECH, CENTRAL UNIVERSITY, COMAHS, AND UNIVERSITY OF LUNSAR. The photos shared in the post don’t resemble any of those universities.
The universities’ official websites and social media pages show completely different buildings from the ones used in the misleading post. There is no evidence to support that these images represent the institutions in Sierra Leone. Universities in Sierra Leone have their own architectural style and structure, which are publicly visible and well-documented. None of them has the ultra-modern designs portrayed in the post.
Conclusion
The claim that the photos represent top universities in Sierra Leone is misleading. The images do not accurately represent the actual structures of FBC, IPAM, Njala University, or EBK University.
