Friday Lines (119) With Dr Abubakar Alkali l: FAKE PROFESSOR: Why Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami Shouldn’t be Addressed as a Professor

By Dr Abubakar Alkali

Dr Isa Pantami’s Disputed ‘Professorship’ has Been Rejected By ASUU in 2022 and FUTO has taken ASUU to Court hence people should stop addressing him as a Professor Pending the Deternination of the Suit

The Court Case Instituted by FUTO in 2022 Against ASUU’s Rejection of Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami’s Disputed ‘Professorship Appointment’ Should be Given an Accelerated Hearing and Determined by the Courts__

As a former academician, university lecturer and one who holds the noble profession of teaching too dear, I feel hugely embarrassed when academic procedures, rules and regulations either for staff or students are deliberately flouted to achieve a predetermined goal.

There appears a gradual nay systematic undermining of the rank of Professorship, Associate Professors, Senior Lecturers and other academic titles on the altar of political, selfish and/or other sundry interests.

As part of the war against title racketeering and other forms of academic fraud in our universities and other tertiary institutions, the federal government in May this year issued a directive to the effect that honorary degree holders should stop prefixing ‘Dr’ to their names.

This is a step in the right direction and one that further calls for all hands to be on deck in the task of sanitizing our academic institutions from title racketeering and other forms of academic fraud.

The issue of title fraud in the academia is one that needs to be tackled by the NUC, ASUU, federal ministry of education and all relevant stakeholders so as to safeguard the sanctity of academic titles ‘Professor’ or ‘Dr’ as the case may be.

Recall that ASUU at its NEC meeting on 14/2/2022 has rejected Dr Pantami’s appointment as a Professor and directed all its branches and members not to recognise his Professorship. Also there is a pending court case instituted by the awarding institution, the federal university of technology Owerri (FUTO) on 15/2/2022 against ASUU’s rejection of Dr Pantami’s purported Professorship.

This case has not been determined by the court to date hence it amounts to a contempt of court to address Dr Pantami as a Professor.

The case of Dr Isa Pantami, the shifty Islamic cleric is one where academic rules for employment and promotion were allegedly contravened by FUTO to elevate an individual who is not even an academician or teaching in any university at the time, to the rank of a Professor.

Since the purpoted appointment, Dr Pantami was nowhere to be found near FUTO. He doesn’t teach anybody and has abandoned the role.

There are reports that Dr Pantami left teaching as lecturer 1 and is nowhere near the rank of a Professor. His next position in the academic ladder is a senior lecturer NOT a full Professor. He has not taught for the required number of years and hasn’t publish the required journal papers in the relevant field to qualify as a Professor.

Moreso, there were allegations of illegal double employment as Dr Pantami was in the public service as a minister and member, federal executive council (FEC) when FUTO purportedly appointed/promoted him as a Professor which bars him from taking any other job except farming based on chapters 4 and 10 of the civil service rules of Nigeria against double employment.

Holding multiple government appointments at the federal or state levels is categorized as gross misconduct under the civil service rules which attracts termination of appointment or summary dismissal.

Under chapters 4 and 10 of the civil service rules of Nigeria, double employment, moonlighting and private practice are explicitly prohibited and/or restricted.

To make matters worse, Dr Pantami allegedly prodded the management of the federal university of technology Owerri (FUTO) to get his disputed Professorship in an area he has very little or no knowledge about. CYBER SECURITY. When and where did Dr Pantami studied or became an expert in cyber security?

Those who know his academic trajectory will testify that Dr Pantami is never and has never been an expert in cyber security to serve any meaningful role in cyber security not to talk of being a full Professor of Cyber security. Is this a joke or what? How can anyone be appointed a Professor in a discipline he cannot defend and has very little or no knowledge about?

Many Nigerians have faulted Dr Pantami’s appointment as a Professor of cyber security by FUTO. This issue cannot be swept under the carpet even if to serve as a deterrent to those who may wish to cut corners to become Professors even if they don’t merit it.

The NUC and ASUU both need to step up and resolve Dr Pantami’s purported Professorship in the interest of Nigeria’s education system.

The NUC needs to come in and set the records straight just as ASUU has conducted its investigation since 2022 and clarified that Dr Pantami is not qualified to be a Professor.

In fact, Dr Pantami’s research area during his PhD at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Scotland U.K 2010-2014 is in management information systems (MIS) which is a business-centred discipline to drive business strategies. His PhD research area was not in computing or cyber security as he claims.

Dr Pantami’s PhD research involved a questionnaire and interview-based secondary research on ‘digitalization of company’s internal processes in the oil and gas industry’ which is a far cry from cyber security where he claims to be an expert.

The Pantami Professorship saga is a huge scandal and involved several academic lies which should not be allowed to pass. How could the NUC and ASUU allow this obvious insult on the noble profession of teaching to pass?

Since FUTO awarded him the so-called Professorship, Dr Pantami has never taught any students. He has not engaged in any research or contributed to knowledge in the area of ‘cyber security’ in fact, Dr Pantami has never set his foot on FUT Owerri to teach or meet with any student.

This clearly shows that Dr Pantami is in breach of the terms of his contract which includes a certain number of hours he should be physically present in Owerri to teach and meet with students. Clearly, Dr Pantami may have even abandoned FUTO as he seem to be only interested in the title to advance his gubernatorial ambition and future political career.

From all intents and purposes, Dr Pantami somehow got FUTO to award him the title of a Professor not because he can teach or he is interested in teaching but to prop up his CV and enhance his political profile to enable him navigate through Nigeria’s highly corrupt political system.

BACKGROUND AND LEGAL DISPUTE.

Recall that in 2021, the federal university of technology Owerri (FUTO) created a vacancy of Professor of cyber security, hired Dr Pantami and promoted him as Professor of cyber security in one fell swoop. At the time Dr Pantami was appointed by FUTO, he was a serving minister of communications and digital economy which amounted to double employment and not permitted under Nigeria’s civil service rules.

The academic staff union of universities (ASUU) rejected Dr Pantami’s appointment which it declared ‘illegal’ and subsequently directed that he shouldn’t be addressed as a Professor. The union under Professor Michael Osodeke in 2022 subsequently set up a panel to investigate Dr Pantami’s appointment and subsequent promotion to the rank of a Professor by FUTO.

The panel carried out its forensic investigation and reported that Dr Pantami doesn’t merit the rank of a Professor on the following grounds;

1. Academic deficiency and lack of required qualifications; Dr Pantami lacks the required number of years of teaching and research after his PhD in 2014 to be appointed a Professor.

2. ⁠Dr Pantami doesn’t have the required number of published relevant journal articles to quality as a Professor

3. ⁠He doesn’t have the required teaching experience to qualify as a Professor

4. ⁠Dr Pantami’s appointment doesn’t follow due process as at the time of his appointment, he was not on the teaching roll of FUTO or any university for that matter. At the time of his appointment, Dr Pantami was said to be a translator at a university in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

5. ⁠At the time Dr Pantami was appointed a Professor by FUTO, he was a serving minister of the federal republic of Nigeria which amounts to illegal double employment.

Subsequent upon the above findings, ASUU threatened to sanction FUTO and all officials involved in the alleged academic fraud over Dr Pantami’s Professorship for a clear violation of the rules governing appointments and promotions in universities.

Arising from its meeting on 14th February 2022, the ASUU NEC rejected Dr Pantami’s appointment as it violates established procedures governing appointments and promotions in universities. The union further directed all its branches across the country not to recognize Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami as a Professor.

Subsequently, Professor Emmanuel Osodele, the then ASUU President addressed a press conference where he clearly spelt out the position of ASUU NEC on the matter. He said:

“ NEC directs all members and branches of our union throughout the Nigerian federation not to recognize, accord or treat Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami as a professor of cybersecurity under any quise”

The next day 15th February 2022, FUTO under the then VC Professor Nnenna Otti ran to court and sued ASUU as it (FUTO management) sensed the clear threat from ASUU to unravel the mystery that made Dr Pantami a Professor ‘overnight’

FUTO challenged ASUU in court over what it called ‘interference in the internal affairs of the university. There is the propensity that heads may roll at FUTO if the truth about Dr Pantami’s purported Professorship will be unravelled hence FUTO had to act fast.

The then FUTO VC, Professor Nnenna Otti disclosed that the matter is in court. She made no further comments as to which court the suit was filed, assigned judge, suit number etc.

However, a senior management staff at FUTO disclosed that;

“Just like ASUU does not tell the university council and its Senate who to promote, it cannot tell them the criteria for promoting somebody to rank of professor. In law, you cannot withdraw what you don’t have. ASUU does not regulate appointments and promotions. Some of these things are derived from NUC guidelines, and every university sets up its standard.”

Albeit, to this moment there was no record in the public domain regarding which court FUTO filed the suit, the suit number and name of the judge to whom the case has been assigned etc. FUTO needs to make further clarification on these details. Which court was the suit filed, what’s the suit number and which judge is hearing the case?

Normally, when a case is brought before a court of law, the first thing the court does is to ask all parties to ‘maintain status quo ante bellum’ pending the determination of the substantive suit. This means the warring parties should ‘go back to the position before the break out of hostilities. To this end, technically Dr Pantami is NOT a Professor until FUTO’s suit against ASUU is dispensed with, done and dusted.

The case filed by FUTO challenging ASUU’s jurisdiction to interfere in its internal appointments and promotion processes has not been decided and is still pending in court. This necessitates the question as to why the judiciary has not delivered any ruling on this matter after more than 4 years. On the other hand, the NUC as the custodian of academic titles should come into this matter. ASUU has maintained its stand that it doesn’t recognise Dr Pantami as a Professor.

The downside for ASUU is that the union so far, hasn’t made good its threat to sanction all staff of FUTO said to be involved in the alleged scam on Dr Pantami’s alleged fraudulent Professorship appointment. Many Nigerians were calling for the sack of the then FUTO VC Prof Nnenna Otti who was seen in a viral picture sitting comfortably in Dr Pantami’s office while he was minister during the saga. Some commentators actually alleged that money may have exchanged hands at FUTO over the appointment.

The right thing to do for ASUU is to revisit this case and sanction all FUTO staff involved even if to serve as a deterrent.

Is the delay by the judiciary in failing to deliver judgement on FUTO’s suit against ASUU a ploy to make Dr Pantami’s matter subjudice? Have the judges been co-opted in the alleged academic title fraud involving Dr Pantami and FUTO?

The fact is that ASUU is the umbrella body of academic staff in Nigerian universities and hence has every right to challenge academic appointments and promotions. In fact ASUU by its stance on Dr Pantami’s alleged Professorship, was not interfering in FUTO’s internal processes but merely taking its stand on an issue concerning its members, and it has every right to. Dr Pantami’s Professorship case cannot be swept under the carpet.

CONCLUSION

Dr Pantami’s purported Professorship appointment by FUTO is in court as the union ASUU has rejected the appointment while the awarding institution FUTO has gone to court to challenge ASUU’s rejection of the appointment.

By ASUU’s stand, no university in Nigeria can recognise Dr Pantami as a Professor.

The issue remains unresolved and until the court makes the final judgement, ASUU’s position that Dr Pantami is not qualified to be a Professor stands and anybody who addresses him as a Professor risks being charged for contempt of court.