NUC: Blacklisted Foreign Universities, Fake Professors And Wave Of Disinformation

It all started with the investigative report of an undercover journalist, Umar Audu, on a certificate racketeering syndicate in neighbouring African countries like Benin Republic and Togo.

The investigative report published in the Daily Nigerian Newspaper titled “UNDERCOVER: How DAILY NIGERIAN reporter bagged Cotonou varsity degree in 6 weeks” chronicled how the reporter was able to purchase a degree certificate without setting foot in the Cotonou-based institution.

While the report resulted in the Federal Government suspension of evaluation and accreditation of degree certificates from tertiary institutions in Benin, Togo, it also heralded a barrage of misinformation and disinformation, all targeted at the National Universities Commission(NUC).

It started with some lists of banned Nigerian and foreign universities purported to have emanated from the Commission. These lists were circulated in the media causing panic to many Nigerians.

NUC through its Director, Public Relations, Mallam Haruna Ajo, in an interview with THE WHISTLER however explained that the Commission had not released any list of banned universities adding that the list did not emanate from them.

He however noted that one of the lists circulating might have been the list of Illegal Universities in the country which the Commission has constantly published in its weekly bulletin.

“We continuously put this list on our bulletin so that people will know that the universities are illegal,” he said.

THE WHISTLER gathered that the list with 58 Illegal Universities, has always been published in the bulletin even before the certificate saga report was published.

Ajo, who stated that many of the illegal universities have been closed down, noted that the continuous publishing of the names was to ensure that Nigerians do not fall prey to them any time they resurface.

However, many media platforms that published the report failed to enlighten their readers about the list, leading many to believe that the list was a recent one and a fall out with the investigative report.

Also, a viral report outlining that the NUC had uncovered about 100 fake professors in universities across the country has been circulating.

The viral list seen by contained some names of alleged fake professors in about 23 public and private universities in the country.

Checks by THE WHISTLER shows the report was published in December 2019 by Channels TV online platform but the report by the television station attached no list as the one being circulated.

The list which has been shared on social media platforms especially WhatsApp has many universities like the University of Ibadan(UI) Oyo State, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi and the University of Lagos (UNILAG) scrambling to debunk the story.

Also reacting to the development, NUC Acting Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki described the ‘Fake Professors’ story as ill-motivated and unfortunate, urging the public to disregard the report.

Maiyaki, who stated that the Commission did not blacklist any academic as fake professors, added that the list circulating was not from the NUC.

Maiyaki while calling on Nigerians to beware of fake news added that the Commission will soon issue a rebuttal on the development.

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