Farooq Kperogi, a US-based Nigerian Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media has reacted to a panel set-up by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, validating Minister of Communication, Isa Pantami’s appointment as Professor of Cybersecurity.
The panel in its report, had claimed that “the appointment of Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami as a professor of Cybersecurity by the FUTO Governing Council followed due process”.
However reacting to this, Kperogi stated that while “FUTO’s registrar had told the Nigerian Tribune that Pantami told FUTO that he was an “associate professor” at the Islamic University in Madinah before his relocation to Nigeria, and that Pantami’s promotion to a Professorship in cybersecurity was a consequence of his last academic position”, “Pantami lied and FUTO is either too feckless or too compromised to catch his obvious.”
The US-based Nigerian Professor claimed that the last article the Minister wrote while at the Islamic University in Madinah in January 2016 is “The Importance of Identity Management Systems in Developing Countries” (which he co-authored with a Yusuf Abubakar at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University), and he resigned and took up a government appointment thereafter. He alleged that in the artice, Pantami self-identified as “Asst Professor,” which is the short form of “Assistant Professor.”