Conversation Nationale: The Case of the Fake Professor

By Hope O’Rukevbe EGHAGHA

Orezi: What is this talk about a fake professor which has dominated social media in the last one or two weeks?

Ofodile: No be small thing! The man is a public intellectual. Period. Not a professor.

Orezi: Why and how?

Munzali: There is nothing like a fake professor

Orezi: Confusing!

Ofodile: It’s either you are a professor or you are not one!

Munzali: True. A Professor is the highest academic rank at a university or collage. It is basically defined as ‘a teacher of the highest rank in a department of a higher education institution, who is an expert in a subject, conducts research, and teaches students.

Ofodile: It is some guy who had presented himself as a professor, had been addressed as a professor, commented brilliantly on socio-political issues only for the media to expose him as a fraudulent fellow because no institution appointed him a professor.

Prof: My sister, wonders will never end. Of all things to fake: a professorship that can easily be verified in the public space! The professorship title is an acknowledgement of one’s contribution to knowledge in an institution of higher learning, reviewed by peers, and pronounced by the university. A polytechnic in Nigeria, for example, cannot appoint a professor because it’s outside its academic brief and nomenclature. Some organizations, like the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) though not a university, can appoint professors after that institution had met the necessary criteria in collaboration with a university. But for an individual to market himself as a professor, present some fake documents to support their claim is a no-no!

Kome: Our love for titles is a disgrace!

Prof: It’s a strange development. In our traditional society, whoever wanted a title worked, laboured for it!

Orezi: A title does not make a man!

Lekan: Nor does it make a woman for that matter. In my part of the country, yes, we love titles. But they are earned. Not stolen. In Ekiti State, almost every family has a professor. It was and it is still an indication for their respect for education. It has been said that education is the industry in that state. It has not been heard that someone faked a professorial title in order to gain respect. Our people know our people. becoming a professor is a journey of decades and production of academic publications.

Prof: It is a person who lacks self confidence that struggles to be known by that title. Often when I go to public function and I am asked for my name, I never add the title. I simply say Samson Obebeduo. Simple.

Ofodile: In Igboland, titles are a reflection of social status. But they must be earned. But these days, there are all kinds of chieftaincy titles. Almost all of them are the first – Agbadabgruru 1 of Idemili Kingdom; Nkita 1 of Amadioha kingdom. Some of them are drug barons and kidnappers who use the titles as a veneer for their nefarious actions. As a result, the Igbo that were known for republicanism have become a rash of tiny fiefdoms with strange titles.

Prof: Since the news broke, some commentators have offered some inanities as proof of their own knowledge and discipline. There is one who dabbled in a university for a few years and was awarded a professorship. As far as I know, he was not an academic. But he parades himself as a professor. It is only a question of time; his ego will be perforated by those who know him.

Orezi: I wonder how Kila thought he could live in that façade before being exposed. I am very certain that some people who are close to him dropped the hint with Premium Times. I don’t see how out of the blue that media outlet would single out one man and focus on his past. A man’s foes shall be they of his own household!

Lekan: ‘Stolen identity as a National Pastime’, is a fitting title for a research essay! Hahahahahaha! I miss Fela Anikulapo-Kuti! I imagine the kind of music that would have come out of the matter of our president whose identity is in question!

Ofodile: I beg o. Nor go there o! Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no Melchizedek ooo! In the bible, Melchizedek is presented as a man ‘without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life…

Prof: What is the ancestry of Tinubu? Lagos State or Osun?

Ofodile: Iragbiji is the name of a town!

Prof: What has Iragbiji got to do with the subject we are discussing?

Ofodile: Proverbs to bones and silence, if I may borrow from our Nobel Laureate!

Lekan: I am a Lagosian. I know he ruled Lagos as governor. But he ruled as a man from Osun State along with the Aregbesolas.

Orezi: Let us return to our topic for the day: fake professorship. We should look beyond the act. What drives our people into claiming titles which they are not entitled to? That is the koko of the matter. Some negotiate for honorary titles from the church. Can you imagine a church awarding an honorary doctorate to a politician? That happened in my LGA!

Lekan: The fake professor ought to be invited by the police and questioned. The university where he served as Pro-Chancellor has requested him to step down. A fraudulent man serving as Chairman of a Governing Council.

Prof: All such men and women who parade fake titles should be invited for questioning. Kila could have passed for a sound public analyst without claiming what he is not. It’s a shame. Why, Kila, why? Why kill your image with a fake title? Where can he show his face in this country after this? It’s like Ms. Kemi Adeosun who faked her NYSC discharge certificate, and rose to a cabinet position in Nigeria. Where can she show her face in public without fingers being pointed at her? People ought to be careful.

Munzali: Yes, in the struggling years, some people throw caution to the wind and deploy all arsenals to achieve their goal. When they get to the top, they begin to regret their past. But the harm would have been done.