Ganduje Demands Apology From American University For ‘Embarrassing’ Appointment

For allegedly embarrassing him and the people of Kano State, Governor Umar Ganduje has demanded an unreserved apology from the East Carolina University after it denied appointing him as a visiting professor to the university. 

Recall that several Nigerian newspapers, excluding THE WHISTLER, had recently reported that Governor Ganduje was appointed as a Senior Mentoring Scholar and Visiting Full Professor of e-governance and International Affairs by the university. 

But days after circulation of the report, the America-based university distanced itself from the appointment in a letter to the Kano Governor. The letter was issued  from the office of the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the university. 

It was gathered that Ganduje’s appointment was conveyed to him by one Victor Mbarika, a lecturer of International Center for IT and Development at the university. The university had said that it did not authorise the letter. 

But apparently embarrassed by the university’s denial of the well-circulated report, Governor Ganduje said he was “shocked” by the fake appointment and therefore demanded that the university’s management punished Mabarika and issued an “unequivocal apology” to him. 

The governor made the demand in a statement by the Secretary to the Kano State Government (SSG), Usman Alhaji. 

Ganduje said the fake appointment, “stirred up controversy which attempted to embarrass” him and the people of Kano. 

The statement said, “…while the governor or any of official of his government has no any reason to doubt the veracity of the letter sent by one of its faculty members, which was communicated using the university’s instrument of office, it equally did not at any time solicit for such appointment.

‘’We are deeply saddened by the uproar stirred up by this controversial appointment that attempted to embarrass the person of the governor and the good people of Kano state,“ the statement added.   

According to Alhaji, Ganduje, being an academician of repute, “would be the last person on earth to have neither solicit (sic) nor accept fraudulently appointment into academic position in any university or institution of higher learning within and outside Nigeria.”