United States Associate Professor and social critic, Farooq Kperogi, has described the Professorship granted by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami as “some self-humiliating intellectual duplicity perpetrated by Pantami himself.”
He also stated that Pantami could not have become a Professor in the university he did not teach, research or render any service, adding that professorship was not a frivolous title acquired with money.
Kperogi disclosed this in a column titled, “Pantami’s fake professorship joins other intellectual fraud” published on Saturday.
The columnist added that the Communication Minister was a junior lecturer at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi before proceeding to the United Kingdom for his PhD programme, insisting that he had no lecturing business with FUTO.
He berated the minister for participating in fraud to buy his professorship position explaining that he did not even have the years required to get the utmost academic position.
Kperogi said, “I later learned that Pantami’s “professorship” was granted by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, where he has never taught. It doesn’t take much thought to see that the “professorial promotion” and, worse, its promotion in the media is some self-humiliating intellectual duplicity perpetrated by Pantami himself.
“In other words, Pantami is not qualified to be promoted to the rank of professor in the two universities he has some associations with. Most importantly, though, he is not qualified to be appointed professor by and at ANY university in the world because he does not teach, research, or render service at any university now.
“A professorship isn’t a flippant, honorary title that can be arbitrarily conferred on people who pay for it—like honorary doctorates have become. It is the crowning accomplishment and the highest professional rank that is bestowed on people who teach and research at a university.
“It’s like the position of permanent secretary for the civil service, editorship for journalism, ambassadorship for the diplomatic service, managing directorship or the position of a CEO for the private sector, or being a field marshal in the military.”
He clarified further that Pantami needed five years to be promoted from assistant professor to associate professor, citing that even his last academic position at Islamic University in Madinah, Saud Arabia was not enough to make him a professor.
“But he couldn’t possibly be promoted to professorship at the Islamic University in Madinah because having terminated his contract with the school to take up a government appointment, he is no longer in the school’s employ. Plus, his last rank at the university was an assistant professor.
“To be promoted to full professor he would first need to be an associate professor for at least 5 years, but he was assistant professor for only two years, and you need to be an assistant professor for at least 5 years to be promoted to associate professor,” Kperogi added.
