Alex Onyia, an X user, is spreading misinformation that Professor Alexander Animalu, a Nigerian Professor of Physics at the University of Nigeria, has been nominated for the Nobel Prize, the well-known award for outstanding contributions to the sciences, literature and humanitarian causes, twice.

With the professor’s picture attached to the post, Onyia claimed that the Animalu had appeared on the nomination list for the Nobel Prize two times. He did not state the years such nominations happened.

This post, published at 1:50 pm on Saturday, has garnered wide engagement with over 95,000 views including 2,880 likes, 701 reposts and quotes, 61 comments, 115 bookmarks and several congratulations like this and this at press time.

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Onyia wrote, “This is Professor Alexander Animalu. He is a physics genius. He has been nominated for [the] Nobel Prize twice. He is a physicist of international repute, member of the highest advisory body on Science and Technology to the Nigerian government, a pioneer of solar energy in Nigeria, the only African member to date of the Advisory Board of the Euro-Journal Physics and the only African member of the Editorial Board of the Hadronic Journal. He is a hero and deserves our highest national honour!”

CLAIM: Professor Animalu has been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize.

VERIFICATION: FIJ found this claim to be misleading as the Nobel Prize institutions only publicly publish nominations 50 years later.

According to the official Nobel Prize website, the prize-awarding institutions cannot reveal nominees until after 50 years of their nominations.

“Nominations can only be made public at least 50 years after the nomination has taken place — so nominations for this year’s Nobel Prizes are a closely guarded secret,” the Nobel Prize website states.

“Any rumours regarding recent nominees are either just rumour, or someone among the invited nominators has leaked information. Since the nominations are kept secret for at least 50 years, you’ll have to wait until then to find out.”

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The respective institutions only list the Nobel Prize winners annually.

FIJ browsed the Nobel Prizes website for a nomination archive. The website had a nomination archive, but Animalu was not in it.

Also, Physics Today, an independent website which keeps a database of Physics Nobel Nominees from 1901 to 1970, has no record of Animalu’s nomination.

CONCLUSION: While Animalu is a scholar of international repute, there is no evidence supporting Onyia’s claim that he has been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Prize does not recognise him as a nominee. If he indeed was nominated in the past 50 years, it remains a closely guarded secret.

VERDICT: Onyia’s claim that Animalu received two Nobel Prize nominations is false and misleading.