NUC debunks viral fake Nigerian professors' list in circulation

 By Olayinka Awofadeju

A source, who does not want to be quoted by name, told Oduduwa media that former NUC ES, Abubakar Rasheed, only spoke in 2019 about hundreds of Nigerians parading honourary professorships, among others, without mentioning names.

The Acting Executive Secretary of the commission, Chris Maiyaki, in a telephone interview with our correspont on Sunday, said the agency never blacklisted any academic as fake professors at any time in the past.

Mr Maiyaki said the agency would soon issue a rebuttal on the development, even as he called on Nigerians to beware of fake news.

“There was no time NUC listed anyone in Nigeria as fake professors, and, unfortunately, someone would go and dig up a report of 2019, five years after it had been clarified,” he said.

“In the next couple of hours, we will make public our rebuttal.”

The commission’s Director of Press, Haruna Lawal, also corroborated Mr Maiyaki in a separate interview on Sunday.

Our correspondent's findings however, revealed that the immediate past Executive Secretary of the commission, Abubakar Rasheed, had in 2019 during NUC’s annual retreat for university vice-chancellors, announced that some academics who were not full professors had been listed as professors in its compendium.

A source, who does not want to be quoted, told this Oduduwa media that Mr Rasheed, a professor, was referring to some Nigerians who claimed to have received honourary professorships, and those in the category of ‘readers’ who were listed as full professors in the compendium.

“The truth was that no single person was named neither by the ES nor in the bulletin published by NUC at the time. So where these people saw the names listed is what is strange to me. It is a concoction and an act of mischief,” the source explained.