I was utterly shocked when I received the news that the terror-linked Minister of Communication & Digital Economy, Dr. Issa Ali Pantami, has been promoted to the rank of professor at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. When the news reached me, many questions cascaded my thoughts, having passed through the university system and know how stringent the criteria for promotion to the rank is. Because, left to my knowledge of Pantami, I was so sure he had not earned such scholarly erudition and publication worth, to be promoted as such. And being a great lover of research and intellectual adventure, I decided to douse the assumptive tension, by embarking on a self-imposed expedition of discovery, which would cost me about three hours.
First, I needed to establish the fact that every litigious matter, such as Pantami’s ‘professorship’, must be critically assessed on its own merit. Fairness and justice demands that I don’t give in to the many cacophonies that had already surrounded the appointment lately. Hence, I would have to run an independent assessment of the issue, before reaching my judgment. In pursuance of this mission, I paid terminal visits to some accessible online sites, where scholarly works of academics can be comprehensively accessed, read and evaluated.
Armed with strong determination, my first point of call was Google Scholar. At least, to the best of my knowledge, no matter how primitive the scholarly works of a true academic are, Google Scholar is a right place to locate some of them. I wasted no time. First, I typed the initial and surname of the new “Professor” which Google gave as: “Issa Ali Ibrahim Pantami.” Realising that nothing meaningful, in form of publications, was credited to that name, I decided to employ the most common ways academic works are cited. I pressed forward and typed. “Pantami, A. I”. The result was same. So, I repeated the arrangement, but without ” Pantami” this time around. I replaced “Pantami” with “Ibrahim”. Nothing meaningful came up. So I gave up on Google Scholar.
Researchgate was my next point of courtesy call. I adopted the mode of academic citation I used in Google Scholar, to give a search. I was, however, fortunate this time around. I gleaned through Researchgate for about 30 minutes, just to clear all doubts. Result on Researchgate showed that, Pantami only have 25 citations and 24 research items. Mind you, research items are different from research publications.
A press further on Research Gate showed that, about 75% of the works credited to Pantami were compendium of speeches and jointly authored works. And as a matter of conventions, speeches made at events can not be qualified as academic papers. In short, Pantami’s score is 3.66 on Researchgate.
I am also aware that, extensive publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals, is one of the criteria used in promoting academics to the rank of professor. Hence, I wasted no time in paying visit to Scopus. I searched through Scopus voraciously, to see if I would get hold of any scholarly publications credited to Pantami. Unfortunately, my attempt was futile. Nothing concrete to get hold of.
Although disappointed by the exhausting fruitlessness of my various attempts at uncovering the truth, I decided to give further trials. I paid visit to the websites of some agencies and institutions Pantami was claimed to have administrative histories with. Perhaps, some part of the “169 academic publications” credited to him, by his PR handlers, would be found. Thus, A conscious peregrination was made to the website of the Federal Ministry of Communication & Digital Economy. The host website only displayed his biography and some news credited to him. Same attempt on the website of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), where he once headed, came out with same result.
Secondly, I also went through the general guidelines for the conferment of professorship in Nigerian universities, as brought by Google and credited to various universities in the country. The guidelines provide that, a professorial prospect must have been teaching and researching at a university for at least 10 years and be well published in local, national and internationally peer-reviewed journals. Such prospect also must have scaled through the hierarchical academic cadres, with at least three years in each cadre.
Going by the above criteria, the controversial appointment of Pantami as a professor leaves one with litany of questions to be asked? Does Pantami have straight 10 years of teaching experiences? Had Pantami ever taught in the University that gave him professorship? Does Pantami have, in his possession, the required numbers of local and international publications, to qualify him for the position? Who are the external asessors that assessed his publications in Owerri, before he was announced as a professor? What gave him the qualifications to be made a professor of cybersecurity, when he obviously has no peer-reviewed publications in such discipline? Was Pantami’s Doctorate in cybersecurity? All these questions must be answered by Owerri’s Management. Otherwise, his appointment was nothing short of political fraud.
The only feature that could be linked to academic in Pantami’s biography was his exploits at ATBU as a junior Lecturer, before he proceeded to Robert Gordon University, Scotland, for his PhD. On completion of his PhD, he was appointed an Assistant Professor, an equivalence of Senior Lecturer in Nigeria, and taught for two years, before he was made the Director General of NITDA in 2016. He was at NITDA for 3 years and appointed the Minister of Communication in 2019. Judging from this, one could comfortably conclude that, Pantami is not a thoroughbred academic; and as such, unqualified to be made a professor in Nigeria. Unless professorship now comes with political colouration, and our universities are now puppets in the hands of political jobbermen.
In my own judgment, all the inflated figures being pushed around his biography are a mere attempt at whitewashing the narrative, to justify the fraudulently unmerited appointment. For instance, some media publications credited that Pantami is an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. Those claims were all spurious, in the light of recent investigation. Recent investigation shows that, he only went there for Executive Education courses, which could be likened to workshops and symposiums. The courses do not in any way qualify him as an alumnus of the schools.
I therefore call on Pantami, himself, to toe the path of honour, by denouncing such legitimately-awarded titular fraud, and, henceforth, dissociate himself from it. Furthermore, the Management of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, that awarded such fraud should be sanctioned by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for rubbishing the system – with such melodramatic folly. All attempts must be made to ensure that sanity resides in our university system, and no means of political desecration, however minute, be allowed to have field days in our universities.
Ali Smart is a prolific writer, lawyer and public affairs analyst.
