The honorable Minister of communications and Digital Economy, Sheik Isa Ali Ibrahim Patami who also doubles as a Muslim Cleric was a awarded the post of professor of cyber security in the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) by the school management.
This academic appointment since it was made public has been a very controversial one as many Nigerians, pressmen, writers, analysts, academicians, commentators etc have been clamoring that Sheik Isa Ali Pantami is not qualified to be appointed to occupy the position of a professor in any Nigerian University and that the appointment is illegal as it offends the government’s rule that you cannot occupy double position in two federal government parastatals, you will have to give up one; if the honorable minister wants a job of a lecturer in a federal university, he will have to first resign his current Ministerial job but he is only qualified to be appointed as a senior lecturer and not a professor; the award was a cause of money changing hands and his political influence.
The management of the awarding university in a series of press releases have defended the award of professorship to the honorable Minister, claiming that he is very much qualified to take up the job as a professor of cyber security in the institution.
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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) after executive council meeting held on Monday, the 14th of February, 2022 declared that the promotion of the Minister to the role of professorship is illegal and the the minister has no academic qualifications or certifications to be promoted to such a high cadre of academic position and cannot occupy different positions in two different federal government parastatals.
This position of ASUU was made known by the president of the body, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke at the press conference on Monday. He is quoted to have said, “You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality. Pantami has to quit as a minister and be tried for doing double jobs within the same federal system. He is not qualified to be a professor in any Nigeria’s higher institution of learning. Isa Ali Pantami should never be treated as a professor.”
The body also resolved to place sanctions on the Vice Chancellor and the entire management of Federal University of Technology (FUTO) that awarded the job of a professor to a man that is fully unqualified to occupy such a role and that he was only appointed because of his political influence.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Nnenna Oti, in response to the press release of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) on Monday, says the management has gone to court over the rejection of Sheik Isah Ali Ibrahim Pantami’s promotion to the rank as a professor of Cyber Security by the institution and that ASUU has no power and right to fault their appointment of any individual to occupy any position in the school. She claimed that the school is an independent body and has the power to appoint, fire or retire any individual in the institution.