Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

Farooq A. Kperogi

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Sep 11, 2021, 7:22:23 AM9/11/21

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Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

By Farooq A. Kperogi

It emerged late last week that Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami (or his agents) possibly instructed Zamfara State governor Bello Muhammad Mutawalle to place an advertorial in the Daily Trust to congratulate Pantami on his “promotion to the Rank of Full Professor of Cybersecurity” by an unnamed university.

(In the advertorial, Mutawalle repeated the dishonestly hyperbolized claims Pantami cherishes and promotes, such as the claim that he has over 160 publications—which don’t show up in any scholarly repository—and that he was trained at Harvard, MIT, and Oxford even though he only attended a few days’ workshops there while in government. He used the American English “full professor” that the Islamic University of Madinah where Pantami taught also uses to describe what is simply called “professor” in British and Nigerian terminology. Since Mutawalle isn’t an academic, it’s obvious that Pantami wrote the advertorial for him.)

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.

The last academic position Pantami held before he became DG of NITDA in 2016 was an assistant professorship (roughly equivalent to a senior lectureship in the Nigerian system) at the Islamic University of Madinah where he taught for two years after his PhD in 2014.

Before earning his PhD in the UK, he taught at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi as a junior lecturer. At no point in his academic career did he ever teach at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. So, only ATBU or the Islamic University of Madinah could have legitimately promoted him to the position of 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.

At ATBU, he was either a Lecturer II or a Lecturer I—or perhaps an assistant lecturer— before he left the school for his doctoral studies. To become a professor there, he would first need to be promoted to a senior lecturer and then a reader (which is called Associate Professor in the North American system) before becoming a professor. That would take at least 6 years.

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.

You can’t be made permanent secretary and not work in the civil service, an ambassador and not work in the diplomatic service, an editor and not work for a media organization, a CEO and not be associated with the company that made you CEO, or a field marshal and be away from military service.

Pantami is a “professor” who doesn’t profess, who doesn’t teach, research, or render service at the university that supposedly conferred the title on him. That's a down-the-line intellectual scam that he should be ashamed of. It’s one of the most intellectually violent vandalisms of time-honored academic conventions I’ve seen in a long while.

As a religious cleric whom many young people look up to, Pantami should know better than to perpetrate fraud, promote it through third parties, and then swank it himself with unabashed hauteur. If he has any honor and really desires a professorship, he should disclaim this fraudulent “professorship” and earn it the right way.

After his tenure in 2023, he should go back to either ATBU or the Islamic University in Madinah and spend at least 6 to 8 years teaching, researching, and rendering service. Then he might legitimately earn a professorship. Different universities have different criteria for promoting academics to the position of professor. Some prioritize teaching over research. Others prioritize research over teaching. Still others strike a happy balance between the two.

If he is too impatient to follow the conventional route to professorship, he can get the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, to make him a professor of practice in cybersecurity AFTER his ministerial tenure. This will, of course, require him to relocate to Owerri and actually teach students there. Professors of practice don’t have to go through the traditional protocols of academic promotion because it is their industry experience, not their scholarship or pedagogy, that is the basis for their employment.

My friend Kingsley Moghalu was a professor of practice at Tufts University in the United States. Although Nigerian universities don’t have a tradition for appointing professors of practice, there is always a first time. If Pantami can bludgeon a university into “promoting” him to the position of “professor” even when he has zero formal association with it, he can cause it to do anything.

But to pretend to be a “professor” when he isn’t qualified to be one—and when he doesn’t teach and has never taught at the university that conferred the position on him—is the sort of self-debasing fraud a religious leader shouldn’t be identified with.

To be sure, Pantami’s fraudulent “professorship” isn’t new. As I pointed out in my June 25, 2011 column titled “Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s Fake Doctorate and Professorship,” former Nigeria Stock Exchange boss Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, whose PhD is fake, got her “professorship” the exact way Pantami got his: through intellectual legerdemain. The University of Nigeria Nsukka made her “professor of capital market studies” in 2007 without having ever taught a course at the university before and after her conferral.

The late Dora Akunyili’s path to professorship was less fraudulent than Okereke-Onyiuke’s and Pantami’s but it was also unusual. As I wrote in the June 25, 2011 column, “Although she taught at [UNN] for long, she left for public service when she was many ranks away from a professorship. Curiously, however, it was while she was officially away from teaching, research, and university service that she mysteriously skipped several ranks and became a ‘professor’.”

In my December 5, 2020 column titled “Ganduje and Fraudulent American ‘Professorships’ for Nigerian Politicians,” I called attention to the growingly maddening titular vanity among Nigerian politicians that causes them to want to be known as “professors.” “You see, bought honorary doctorates have lost their gravitas and the ‘Dr.’ title has now lost its sheen among Nigerian politicians, so they are moving to the next level, which is bought ‘professorships’,” I wrote.

A U.S.-based Cameroonian academic by the name of Victor Mbarika used to routinely scam Nigerian politicians into thinking they had been appointed to “professorship” at a historically black Louisiana university called Southern University. Ike Ekweremadu was told that he had been appointed “professor” at the university. Ganduje was also scammed by the same guy until his scam was unveiled.

Pantami appears to be leading a detour back to home universities for the conferral of fraudulent “professorship” on politicians who can pay compromised university administrators. Fortunately, the NUC is now headed by Professor Abubakar Abdulrasheed, a conscientious, ethically sound, thoroughbred academic who has a reputation for doing the right things.

I hope Professor Abdulrasheed will cause the NUC to sanction the FUT, Owerri, for the intellectual fraud it has perpetrated in “promoting” an undeserving non-employee to its highest academic rank and ensure that other mercenary university administrators don’t replicate this swindle in the future.

I also hope Pantami has enough decency left in him to renounce the professorial fraud he wears— in the interest of the sanctity of what remains of Nigerian university traditions.

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Sep 11, 2021, 9:29:57 AM9/11/21

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A fine analysis.

Such analysis also needs to address the fact that in exceptional cases, some scholars have legimitately become academic professors without going through the ranks.

An example is the German classical scholar and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who, according to one account, was awarded a PhD without going through a PhD nor the rigorous "habilitation" required to teach in a German university and after his BA was subsequently made a professor at 24.

His teachers, however, may have done this on observing his phenomenal development, represented by his book that came out shortly after, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music.

Their recognition is further reinforced by the fact that their former pupil's greater achievement actually emerged after he had left his university work and entered into a different field-philosophy.

The question now becomes- do the people promoted so speedily demonstrate achievements that justify such promotion?

Great thanks

Toyin

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Sep 11, 2021, 4:38:38 PM9/11/21

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Nigeria is a country where titles can be bought and sold, forged, or rented or even be made up. This is because most Nigerians do not like to be ordinary persons. They have to be great somebody. They have to be important, very important person even when they add negative values to the community in which they live.

Some years back, the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, used to append the acronym *MNO* in backet after his names which is equivalent to the abbreviation of the National Honour Award known as, Member of the Order of the Niger. When an NGO threatened to take Kalu to court for fraudulently claiming to be *MNO* Kalu claimed that his own 'MNO' was Igbo Chieftaincy title derived from Mmadu Oha Nile, meaning Man of the People. After his tenure as the Governor of Abia State (1999-2007), Kalu was tried in court for stealing N7.2 billion from Abia people. He was finally sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in December 2019 but in May 2020 the Supreme Court of Nigeria ordered his release because a wrong Judge pronounced the right sentence. Although the Supreme Court ordered retrial, the fraudulent man of the people has hitherto been free from new trial. Fraudulent man of the people with fraudulent title.

Talking about titles, the case against the Director General of Bacita Sugar Refinery in Kwara State, in 1985 is worth recalling. The DG was accused of claiming to be a PhD holder in Bio-Chemistry whereas he had only a BSc on the subject. It was further disclosed that he registered for a PhD in the subject at Manchester University in the UK which he did not attend. Cross-examining the prosecution witness, the DG's defence counsel asked if the witness in the Nigerian context could tell the court the difference between a PhD and BSc holder, a professor and an Alhaji or a Reverend or a Chief. When the witness kept mute, the defence counsel said, " I put it to you that they are mere titles." The witness nodded affirmatively but the defence lawyer insisted on getting either yes or no as answer. And the witness answered *yes*. The lawyer further asked the witness if a PhD qualification was required to be a DG of Bacita Sugar Refinery to which the witness answered no. This brings out the fact that Nigeria's Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are manned by Nigerians whose academic titles are far more superior to the problems they are elected, selected, appointed or employed to solve. Educated Nigerians are like pangolin, always pretending to be crocodiles but lacking the courage and the amphibian dexterity of crocodiles. The only traits of crocodiles in most of the Nigerian intellectuals are the big mouth, small brains, extreme laziness and opportunistic lifestyles. Instead of talking about who is a genuine professor or not, I challenge Nigerians to research and debate the sociology of failed educated elites in Nigeria for producing darkness whereas light has been paid for, parched throats whereas potable water has been paid for, squalors whereas shelters have been paid for, cemeteries whereas roads have been paid for, morgues whereas hospitals have been paid for, and imported fuel whereas four refineries have been built and are allocated 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce fuel for domestic consumption. Farooq Kperogi is not serious in criticising Pantami for newly acquiring the title of professor. I will give reason for why I think he is not serious later.

S. Kadiri

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Farooq A. Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>
Sent: 11 September 2021 06:41
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Sep 11, 2021, 6:24:43 PM9/11/21

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Well, Christiandom had similar views on consecration of Bishops until the Reformation. Prior to that a Bishop Idahosa would not be recognised because he did not climb the ladder of Catholicism.

I recall the columnist expressing the same disdain toward honorary doctorates when he was newly awarded his PhD.

Its a wide world

OAA

Let those who believe in majority rule clamour for its practice at the centre in Nigeria come 2023.

Sent from my Galaxy

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Date: 11/09/2021 21:41 (GMT+00:00)

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

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Nigeria is a country where titles can be bought and sold, forged, or rented or even be made up. This is because most Nigerians do not like to be ordinary persons. They have to be great somebody. They have to be important, very important person even when they add negative values to the community in which they live.

Some years back, the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, used to append the acronym *MNO* in backet after his names which is equivalent to the abbreviation of the National Honour Award known as, Member of the Order of the Niger. When an NGO threatened to take Kalu to court for fraudulently claiming to be *MNO* Kalu claimed that his own 'MNO' was Igbo Chieftaincy title derived from Mmadu Oha Nile, meaning Man of the People. After his tenure as the Governor of Abia State (1999-2007), Kalu was tried in court for stealing N7.2 billion from Abia people. He was finally sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in December 2019 but in May 2020 the Supreme Court of Nigeria ordered his release because a wrong Judge pronounced the right sentence. Although the Supreme Court ordered retrial, the fraudulent man of the people has hitherto been free from new trial. Fraudulent man of the people with fraudulent title.

Talking about titles, the case against the Director General of Bacita Sugar Refinery in Kwara State, in 1985 is worth recalling. The DG was accused of claiming to be a PhD holder in Bio-Chemistry whereas he had only a BSc on the subject. It was further disclosed that he registered for a PhD in the subject at Manchester University in the UK which he did not attend. Cross-examining the prosecution witness, the DG's defence counsel asked if the witness in the Nigerian context could tell the court the difference between a PhD and BSc holder, a professor and an Alhaji or a Reverend or a Chief. When the witness kept mute, the defence counsel said, " I put it to you that they are mere titles." The witness nodded affirmatively but the defence lawyer insisted on getting either yes or no as answer. And the witness answered *yes*. The lawyer further asked the witness if a PhD qualification was required to be a DG of Bacita Sugar Refinery to which the witness answered no. This brings out the fact that Nigeria's Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are manned by Nigerians whose academic titles are far more superior to the problems they are elected, selected, appointed or employed to solve. Educated Nigerians are like pangolin, always pretending to be crocodiles but lacking the courage and the amphibian dexterity of crocodiles. The only traits of crocodiles in most of the Nigerian intellectuals are the big mouth, small brains, extreme laziness and opportunistic lifestyles. Instead of talking about who is a genuine professor or not, I challenge Nigerians to research and debate the sociology of failed educated elites in Nigeria for producing darkness whereas light has been paid for, parched throats whereas potable water has been paid for, squalors whereas shelters have been paid for, cemeteries whereas roads have been paid for, morgues whereas hospitals have been paid for, and imported fuel whereas four refineries have been built and are allocated 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce fuel for domestic consumption. Farooq Kperogi is not serious in criticising Pantami for newly acquiring the title of professor. I will give reason for why I think he is not serious later.

S. Kadiri

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Sent: 11 September 2021 06:41
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Sep 11, 2021, 6:52:32 PM9/11/21

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Different situations.

The Reformation created it's own serious criteria for recognition of achievement among clergy.

Idahosa is a Pentecostal, with its own rules.

Honorary PhD is not the same as an earned PhD.

Which academic rules are Pantami and the other Nigerian politicians Farooq is challenging operating within?

One of the reasons why many Nigerian institutions do not enjoy global standing is beacause of attitudes.

Attitudes that represent negative flexibility.

Flexibility towards low standards.

If anyone wants to be a professor the person should be able to clearly demonstrate the criteria on account of which they deserve such recognition.

Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote only two books and, if I recall well, one or few articles in his entire academic career, one of the books being published perhaps posthumously, yet he is known as a great figure of Cambridge academia and of Western philosophy.

Assessments based on the quality and impact of his work.

Recently retired Oxford professor of Hinduism, Alexis Sanderson, never published a single book, in an academic culture where books are central.

Yet even a layperson such as myself can recognise the encyclopedic scope of his essays and their groundbreaking character, leading to the pervasive presence of his work in the field.

What is the person's contribution to knowledge that justifies a professor hip?

Rowland Abiodun became professor at the then University of Ife with not up to ten articles if I recall correctly and, adding one or two more articles and a co-edited book,if I recall correctly, subsequently moved to the US as a professor, publishing his book length summation and rethinking of his work decades later.

Yet, each of those articles is a defining force in the study of Yoruba and African aesthetics, demonstrating an unequalled density of visual and verbal exploration, examples and analyses.

All done at Ife up till 1990.

Standards, standards...

Thanks

Toyin

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Ashafa Abdullahi

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Sep 14, 2021, 5:35:38 PM9/14/21

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A REJOINDER TO KPEROGI'S ATTACK ON PANTAMI'S APPOINTMENT AS A PROFESSOR

By Professor Tukur Sa'ad (A former Vice Chancellor)

Kperogi is a great writer and crusader for a just system to be established in Nigeria, but he is a bit out of touch with the new Nigeria. He may read all and listen to all that is passing around but he cannot unravel the riddle in the Nigerian academia. The systematic erosion of the system started long before he joined the academia and it has been going on ever since. He wants NUC to sanction Owerri for making Pantami a Professor. May be his knowledge of our university laws and the various statutes is limited. so also his understanding of the level of autonomy universities have vis a vis NUC. A University can decide to appoint an individual to a position either through promotion or straight appointment based on the criteria they set up indipendent of NUC. We that spent our working lives in in the First generation universities cannot comprehend the happenings in the new universities. Most of our Senior lecturers with little prospects of becoming Professors have migrated to newer universities and became Professors. NUC does not create professorial Chairs or determine the mode of appointment of a Professor. If I were to cite cases that would surprise Kperogi, I would write a book. Yet the cases are legally right. One may disagree with the criteria for such appointments or promotions but cannot challenge their legality. It may erode the status of professors who had to obtain their promotion through the British system where you had only one Professor and Head of Department, others had to wait until he retired or died or until a new chair is created, but what obtains now is legal and cannot be challenged by NUC or Ministry of Education until a Bill giving them the powers are passed by the National Assembly and is accented by the President. Kperogi should be familiar with the US system having been there and may be still teaching there. In many disciplines, especially the technology or professional areas such as Architecture, Engineering, Medicine, Fine Arts etc. an individual who has made tremendous contribution to the discipline by his practical work may be offered and invited to occupy a chair without ever teaching in a university. Harvard Graduate School of Design is known to practice, unless it has been discontinued. But as of 1990 I witnessed it. Great Architects from Japan, Latin America and Europe, whose command of English left a lot to be desired were invited to occupy profesdorial chairs. Their mastery of the practical skills in their areas was in no doubt. Let those who obtain professorship by writing papers and publishing in peer reviewed journals, get their professorship by writing about these practical men and their works, but they remain men of creativity and skills. Even in Nigeria I was a witness to one such incidents in University of Lagos, whose system of assessment for Professorship involved the hosting the assessors to do the work insitu. Architect Godwin of Godwin and Hopwood fame decided to retire from practice and impart knowledge to young Nigerians. Unilag offered him Senior Lecturership. He declined and instead that he applied for a professorial position. Take itbor leave it. I was invited among others to do the work insitu and interact with the candidate during the process. You see, I respect professors from Lagos more than most other Universities because of this format in their assessment. You will read all what he claimed to have published while you stayed in the University Guesthouse. During the interaction session you will know whether he actually wrote these papers or was it communal effort where academics do the so called group research and publications, when in fact is one talented individual who did the work and understood what went on and was willing to help colleagues come along by putting their names on the paper? You will also assess the quality of the journal, was it really a referred journal or was it like let say "Samaru Journal of Architecture" vol. 1 no 1. where group of academics cutting accross many universities in the country in a particular discipline will float a journal and pressure the University to accept it as a refreed journal through intimidation by ASUU? Let me go back to Arc. Godwin's case. Some of the assessors took a stand similar to that of Kperogi on how Professors were made. But with my Harvard experience of 1990 when I went on Sabbatical I cited cases and names of practicing architects with no University teaching experience occupying a Chair. I also cited the case of my Hungarian colleague who was recruited at ABU as a LECTURER I, but who had been a star architect in Hungary winning a lot of national and international competitions just looking for an outlet from the suffocation by the then Communist system of his country, by taking a contract in ABU Department of Architecture. From Zaria he applied for a professorship when it was advertised in Alabama State University and got appointed, by 1990 we linked up in USA he was already the Dean of Architecture in Auburn for some years and was about to move to Pennsylvania State University as the Dean of the Architecture School, a more prestigious school. His mastery of English still left a lot to be desired for a Dean in a highly rated school of architecture. His publications in architectural theory consisted of numerous miniature sketches with annotations. A very novel and unique way of transmitting ideas in the academia. Kperogi can check it up if he is interested. His name was Peter Mygar. With my superior argument backed up by facts the other assessors holding similar arguments to Kperogi gave up. So Lagos was lucky to get a Professor with practical skills and knowledge. I am not saying that Pantami can fit into the examples that I gave, but that Kperogi should be flexible in assessing an issue, as an intellectual when faced with a situation. Unfortunately, the journalist in him usually takes over when he hears or sees things. He wants to be the one with the "breaking news" and the Front page story. I rest my case.

*Prof Tukur Sa'ad (a former Vice Chancellor)*

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Toyin Falola

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Sep 14, 2021, 5:42:27 PM9/14/21

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Professor Ashafa:

Is there a way we can get hold of the CV of Dr. Pantami? I was told he is published under a different name. My communication manager could not get hold of the CV. His office did not reply.
Is there a way we can get the University of Technology to write a statement on the procedure and process?

I think in the interest of fairness to Dr. Pantami, the case should be investigated by a neutral party, like the Premium Times.

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Sep 14, 2021, 8:52:00 PM9/14/21

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Peter Mygar? If he's Hungarian ( from Magyar-land) more correctly the name has to be Peter Magyar

( Magyar-land, the country that produced Bartok, Kodaly, Liszt, many others, most lately the enthralling András Schiff, and, in the world of Letters / Literature, Atilla Jozsef, Endre Ady, many, many others

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Sep 15, 2021, 8:45:44 AM9/15/21

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Toyin Adepoju.

Im glad prof Tukur Sa'ad responded well to your queries. Your distinction between academics and scholars is quirky. They necessarily overlap and are not substitutes.

The point Professor Sa'ad made is that universities autonomy is non-existent if their freedom to make appointments based on their priorities is challenged. If Pantami is being made a professor of music, I can understand the furore. But he is an expert in the particular field having achieved a PhD in the field.

Kperogi can rest assured Pantami will not come calling at Kennesaw with his professorship to dislodge him from his perch. So no need to worry.

Idahosa being a pentecostal does not mean all pentecostal have no integrity simply because they are not Catholic. After all GE has brought to our attention despite the age long world renown of Catholicism some of their priests who molest innocent choir boys. So the point I am making which Tukur Sa'ad reinforced and which Kperogi referred to tangentially but denied Pantami is that standards are not monolithic across institutions. If Owerri places more premium on Pantami's recent practical national service in digital work, that is their choice.

Tony Blair the former British PM without a single Masters degree anywhere lectures at Yale where many people with multiple PhDs seek employment without success. This is what I meant by 'its a wide world' and standards and practices cannot be monolithic.

OAA

Let those who believe in majority rule clamour for its practice at the centre in Nigeria cone 2023

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>

Date: 15/09/2021 02:00 (GMT+00:00)

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami’s Fake Professorship Joins Other Intellectual Frauds

Peter Mygar? If he's Hungarian ( from Magyar-land) more correctly the name has to be Peter Magyar

( Magyar-land, the country that produced Bartok, Kodaly, Liszt, many others, most lately the enthralling András Schiff, and, in the world of Letters / Literature, Atilla Jozsef, Endre Ady, many, many others

On Tuesday, 14 September 2021 at 23:35:38 UTC+2 Ashafa Abdullahi wrote:

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Ashafa Abdullahi

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Sep 15, 2021, 1:51:46 PM9/15/21

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The sad thing is Dr Pantami's CV cannot be found beyond the position he left ATBU Bauchi as Lecturer I. The ex-VC who put up a rejoinder to yours did not mention didn't mention the University he served as VC.

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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Sep 15, 2021, 1:52:17 PM9/15/21

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I don't think you've stated anything that I have not stated in my various responses, Agbetuyi, even though I have qualified those observations.

I have given examples of variations across history in how a professorship may be awarded.

The onus is on the awarding university to present and justify it's criteria for this particular award, or for the new professor to explain.

Failure to do that in the name of an idea of autonomy will not help the credibility of the award.

The concept of professor of practice, closer to the Tony Blair example, as different from an academic professorship, was presented in one of the essays linked here to clarify these issues.

If your stance is uncritically accepted, everyone who has significant experience in a particular field may be awarded a professorship in that field.

Thus Buhari, IBB, OBJ etc may become professors of govt.

Their work would be seen as equivalent to the writings of an Ayo Olukotun or a John Rawls, if I'm giving the right names in the study of governance.

The limitations of such blanket awarding are relatively clear.

Academia, the clergy, sports, the arts, etc, represent relatively specialised communities of thought and practice whose integrity depends on the logic of how they function. Modifications of rules need to be explained and justified, if not the system is destroyed.

The most realistic way to become a professor is to operate according to the disciplines, the approaches created for that purpose, not to invoke criteria different from those rubrics.

At the core of academic work is advancement of knowledge in a field through developing, presenting and applying ideas and techniques.

It requires clear evalutation of the state of knowledge represented by a field of knowledge and of how a person's contributions expand that state of knowledge.

Extensive practical experience in any field does not necessarily constitute expansion of knowledge.

To so qualify those activities need to be processed through reflection on their nature and relationship with the state of knowledge in the field of activity in question and the understanding gained presented for public assessment by those adequately informed to examine the quality of the achievement thus developed.

Along those lines, Tony Blair might not qualify for an academic professorship if he has not engaged in such activity, in spite of his vast experience in govt but his predecessor Winston Churchill could, given his writings on the Second World War in which he participated and on other public affairs, a record that explains his Nobel Prize in Literature, if I recall correctly.

Wole Soyinka became a professor without an MA. His critical prose alone, particularly Myth, Literature and the African World is a landmark in African thought.

The difference between scholarship and practice is in the movement from action and practice to sustained reflection and expresion, scholarship, even though reflection is always implicated in action. The difference in scholarship is the scope and presentation.

At it's best, a professor in one university should be recognisable across the world as having accomplished work that justifies that title, after all, the globally dominant educational system is a single system.

One of our problems in Nigeria might be inadequate aspiration to global visibility and recognition.

If Wariboko and Falola, for example, can be acknowledged by even a blind man as prominent figures in their fields, why not any professor in any Nigerian university?

There are various ways of examining that question, various indices of analysis, but the point remains the same.

What is the carrying power of one's scholarly achievement?

Rowland Abiodun, Akinsola Akiwowo, among other figures from the then University of Ife, did their foundational work there, achieving relatively global visibility from there.

In today's networked world, such visibility is even easier to achieve.

Thanks

Toyin

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Toyin Falola

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Sep 15, 2021, 2:01:36 PM9/15/21

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Great one:

Owerri must release his CV and offer a statement of its procedure.

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Sep 15, 2021, 6:18:24 PM9/15/21

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The title of Farooq Kperogi's article of Saturday, 17 April 2021, was : Pantami is My Friend, But He Can't Be Defended. That was when the Federal Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami was under public pressure to resign because of his alleged previous romance with Islamic terrorist organisations. I pointed out in my response then that contrary to the title of the article Farooq was actually defending Pantami. Farooq informed his readers that Pantami earned his PhD from UK's Robert Gordon University in 2014 presumably to justify his appointment as a Communication and Digital Economy Minister, which had nothing to do with his past romance with religious extremists. I stated further in my response to Farooq's defence of Pantami in April 2021, that Professor Farooq Kperogi is a narcissist simply because he attributed his defence of Pantami to what he termed " ..scores of people have importuned me to intervene in the controversy regarding Communication and Digital Economy Minister, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami's utterances before he came into government .." That scores of people appealed to him to intervene was an imaginary grandiose image of himself since he did not tell his readers the names of all who appealed to him. Obviously, the reason for his intervention in favour of Pantami is insignificant to his audience. What really happened was that being a professor, Farooq regarded himself superior to Pantami who is an ordinary PhD holder. That was why he chose to defend his junior, Pantami. Now, almost five months later, Pantami acquires professorship and Farooq feels deflated as a professor and he has to reinflate himself by degrading Pantami publicly even when the acquired title will not make Pantami a good and efficient Communication and Digital Economy Minister. Since 2019, Pantami has been in control of Nigeria's massive data and telephone infrastructure, but bandits have been able to kidnap people and negotiate for ransom through telephone conversations with the abducted families without the kidnappers being tracked down by the nations legal forces. As if professorship is a required qualification to being appointed a Communication and Digital Economy Minister, Farooq is enraged by Pantami's acquisition of professorship and not earning it. Here, the validity of what clinical psychologists say on marcissism comes into play. The narcissist, clinical psychologists say, has the capacity and ability to empathise, but ultimately his/her own needs come first. The narcissist empathy is often short-lived as he/she will acknowledge that someone else is suffering, but that will quickly dissipate so that the narcissist can get back to his/her own self-promotion. That is why Pantami can be a friend of Farooq in April and to become an enemy in September.

Introducing his Saturday, September 4, 2021 article to readers, Farooq Kperogi wrote, "The following column was first published on the back page of Saturday Tribune on July 27, 2019 but has been fraudulently attributed on social media to Pat Utomi who has refused to disclaim it even when I've called attention to the intellectual scam of *falsely attributing authorship of the expression of people's ideas to well-known people who didn't author them* in an October 12, 2019 column titled, 'Epidemic of Plagiarism in Nigerian Traditional and Social Media.' I'm reproducing and updating it both because of its renewed relevance and in order to reclaim the theft of my thoughts."

Patrick Okedinachi Utom, popularly known as Pat Utomi, is a Nigerian professor of political economy and management. I am not aware if he belongs to this list serve, not to talk of him reading what Farooq has written about him. A careless reader, however, would get the impression that Pat Utomi has, through his social media proxies, appropriated to himself an article written by Farooq, but Farooq lacks evidence to that effect. There is no evidence that Pat Utomi ever asked anyone on social media to attribute the authorship of Farooq Kperogi's article to him and the right place for Farooq to ask for a disclaim are the relevant publishing social media. Yet, Farooq went on to accuse Pat Utomi of refusing to disclaim the authorship of his (Farooq's) article attributed to him by saying, "even when I've called attention to the intellectual scam .." Here, Farooq's "I've called attention to the intellectual scam" is not specific as if he were to write, I've called his (Pat Utomi's) attention to the intellectual scam. Pat Utomi may not even be aware that he is being accused by Kperogi of theft of thoughts on this forum.

Reading Farooq Kperogi's articles confirm what clinic psychologists say of narcissism. Briefly they say, in unison, that a narcissist is not a self-confident person, he/she is empty and is not in command of his/her emotions and sense of self. Characteristically, a narcissist lacks empathy, he/she is very arrogant, he/she disrespects other points of view, and he/she feels entitled and grandiose. Lack of empathy, clinical psychologists say, may be the key defining characteristic of a narcissistic person resulting in his/her inability to identify with or recognise the experiences and feelings of other people. Everything is about him/her and belongs to him/her. The narcissist smoothly oversteps the personal boundries of others, mistreating, devaluing, and humiliating people to bend others to his/her desires. The narcissist does not care or understand how other people feel and rarely considers other people's feelings in his actions or words. The narcissist will often say cruel things in an offhanded manner and is oblivious to the pain he/she causes with his words. He/she is the hunter and others are his/her prey. He/she is beset with underdeveloped conscience. The narcissist has poorly regulated self-esteem. Thus, he/she is chronically reliant on the opinion of others to form his/her own sense of self and is always comparing him-/herself, his/her status, his/her possessions and his/her life to other people to determine his/her sense of worth and self-esteem. With the natural resources at our disposal in Nigeria and the academic qualifications of Nigerians in various fields of education, Nigeria should not be an underdeveloped country. Pityingly, that is not the concern of Nigeria's obese intellects.

S. Kadiri

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Toyin Falola

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Sep 15, 2021, 6:36:20 PM9/15/21

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Dear sir:

This is not contributing to the issue but abusing the other person. I did not read the posting thinking that you were raising serious intellectual objections.

TF

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Gloria Emeagwali

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Sep 16, 2021, 5:47:19 PM9/16/21

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My question is for Toyin A.

Would you recommend that all geniuses

should be given professorship?

GE

On Sep 15, 2021, at 18:36, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Sep 16, 2021, 7:27:53 PM9/16/21

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Thanks.

I'm puzzled, though.

Does anything about my contributions on this subject suggest anything relating to the idea that all geniuses should be offered professorships?

I thought my argument was about unusual cases in the award of professorships, suggesting the variety of this phenomenon?

A professorship is a form of guild recognition, by a group of people who have come together to practise a discipline, the discipline of scholarship or scientific and technological creativity, according to particular principles, and who develop various means of recognition for fellow members of the guild.

The central means of recognition in this context are titles indicating levels of career progression and of corresponding increase in income, with the academic professorship being the pinnacle of this recognition.

Not all practitioners of those disciplines belong within that guild and so fall outside the career path culminating in such recognition.

The provision of such recognition to those outside the guild would therefore be an exception.

Academic professors are academics, scholars employed by a university to research and perhaps teach.

Academic work implies not only scholarship or a particular kind of scientific and technological creativity, a core it shares with such cognitive work everywhere, but particular rules about methods of assessment and methods and platforms of presentation, represented by peer review and academic publishing, along with conventions about methods of training represented by the various levels of university education.

Academics culture themselves in terms of this system and expect to reap it's rewards, a central aspect of which is the professorship.

Not all scholars or creatives are interested in all or parts of this system and so prefer to do their work outside it.

Some may identify with it but be unable to gain acceptance. In spite of his PhD, Einstein could not get an academic job until his 1905 papers and the US philosopher and scientist C.S. Pierce was not so fortunate in spite of perhaps his PhD and recurrent applications after he lost his non-tenured job at John Hopkins.

Not all scholars or thinkers are academics, therefore it's unusual for them to become professors.

I earlier quoted Paul Guyer on Kant's predecessors amongst the founders of modern Western philosophy as being Independent Scholars, with Kant being the first academic-the first full time philosopher and university research worker among them.

A similar list could be drawn up in modern scientific cosmology, with the line from Copernicus to Kepler to Brahe to Newton, with Netwon being perhaps the first academic, the first of these founders of modern scientific cosmology to work in a university.

The professorship has value particularly for people who identify with the career progression and systems of recognition of academia and are prepared to work along the lines that implies.

Not all scholars and creatives share such identification.

The philosopher Spinoza was offered academic jobs and honours but declined, preferring to remain in his work grinding and designing lenses.

What Newton and Kant gained from the professorship may be said to be economic stability and a conducive working environment, enabling them to concentrate on the work for which they have become known.

Ironically, I wonder if the conditions in which they worked are possible anymore.

Their careers are marked by about a ten year silence after gaining the professorship, a period in which they did not publish but privately developed their ideas.

Newton does not even seem to have had a focus on publication but invested himself in a complex mix of private and at times deeply secretive investigations of which his physics was one expression and may be described as stimulated to write up his greatest work, the Principia, on the urging of another scholar.

The bulk of his work in various fields, to the best of my knowledge, from alchemy to Biblical study, remained unpublished until centuries after his transition, allowing their interrelationship to at last be understood.

Will any contemporary university in the highly driven contexts of the West where these scholars worked allow a professor to remain unpublished for ten years?

A major problem between Cornel West, then a very high ranking prof at Harvard and the then Harvard President Larry Summers may be described by one view as West's efforts at reworking his mode of scholarly activity, with one observer stating that West had not published a single authored book for some time, something seen as disturbing, particularly in contrast to West's very active cultural activism, making a rap record and appearing in the Matrix film, if I recall correctly.

In some other less driven contexts, in other countries, the professorship has been known to imply for some that having reached the pinnacle of their profession, they need not publish any more or do any more research.

Different strokes for different folks.

Thanks

Toyin

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Harrow, Kenneth

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Sep 17, 2021, 3:33:30 AM9/17/21

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hi toyin

i've stayed out of this thread since i don't know pantami or the issues, except superficially. i get the gist, the politicization of the academy, but i can't say i know how it works in nigeria.

however, the extension of the debate carries forward in two ways that need, let's say, refinement.

whatever a university might expect from its professoriate, that has changed dramatically over the years, and changes as i speak. makes no sense to me to ask about the requirements in einstein's day compared with today--especially since his initial failures to secure a post had to do with his relation with his advisor (I believe).

going back earlier, the requirements for advancement were radically different from today's, and universities were often, initially, schools of religion, whatever that meant. now most universities don't even offer degrees in religion.

secondly, each profession is different. famous great surgeons, say, need have no university affiliation. my son, who is a quantum computer scientist, had as advisor a scientist who was not an academic--he worked for ibm--still does, is highly regarded, but still not an academic. lots and lots of physicists find work in institutes or centers like Perimeter, which is an institute (sorry had to capitalize to avoid confusion).

in our field, we have creative writers and then teachers of creative writing, and profs who teach fiction. we all kow tow to the great writers, and thinkers. some have university affiliation; most don't.

or might have.

how about film directors? some like spike lee teach at universities; most do not. and their affiliation w universities is a gift to the university, not vice versa.

there are many many professions like that: politicians and poly sci, for instance. i mentioned health and medicine. another is law.

who is more famous as a jurist: a university prof or a major judge?

last point: as i was finishing my career, 3 yrs ago, it became apparent that my grad students were more likely to make impressions on hiring committees with teaching portfolios more than research. that might not be true with the ivies, but it is w state schools. a seachange from 20 years go.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Sep 17, 2021, 4:30:06 AM9/17/21

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Thanks for the contextualization, Ken.

I see your comments as further highliting the need for the University in question to explain it's rationale for the Pantami professorship.

Thanks

Toyin

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Toyin Falola

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Sep 17, 2021, 4:30:12 AM9/17/21

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Ken:

Pantami’s case landed me on an island of caution: how not to use an apparent corrupt case to signal to the Nigerian society that there are excellent practices that the Universities must promote to attract outstanding talents. If the University based at Owerri had been open about the process, revealed the man’s CV, explained his contributions to the world of knowledge and technology, I would have been defending the appointment. We are all agreed that talents, creativity and research are located outside of the universities. R&D in major companies have become so impactful that many universities cannot even compete with them. The young IT guys don’t care about higher degrees or research papers but about creating “products.” Universities can do what they like in a non-corrupt atmosphere to recruit them. Thus, the balance is to make the public aware that we are not opposed to recruiting talents but opposed to corruption. What Farooq sees as fraud, I see as madness. I revised my thinking yesterday, relating Pantami’s appointment to the behavior of Zuma, an ongoing process of state capture.

TF

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Toyin Falola

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Sep 17, 2021, 4:34:42 AM9/17/21

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Correction:

We are all agreed that talents, creativity and research are also located outside of the universities.

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