By Saidu Idris
365Daily– The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) has is set to sanction the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), over the conferment of a professorship on Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy.
This is just as it declared the Professor of Cybersecurity granted the Minister as illegal.
ASUU’s National Executive Council made these known at a press conference in Lagos on Monday, February 14, 2022.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed that the union will also “sanction ASUU members involved in his promotion and the VC of FUTO.”
He added: “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. Pantami should not be treated as a professor.”
Recall that ASUU rejected its Owerri, Imo State chapter report on the appointment of Pantami as a professor by the FUTO management.
“ASUU NEC members, like many other concerned Nigerians, did not accept the report of the ASUU FUTO congress. There are serious doubts and unanswered questions bordering on the qualification of Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) for the position. The FUTO Branch Committee’s report failed to justify Dr. Isah Ali Ibrahim’s (Pantami’s) appointment to professor on the basis of requisite experience, professional suitability, and antecedents at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (ATBU),” Osodeke had told journalists in Abuja in November 2021.
In September, 2021, FUTO Alumni Association National Executive Council queried the university’s management over the minister’s promotion.
The association had requested “the records of the proceedings of the University Governing Council meeting at which this appointment was made”, as well as the “Details of the academic publications by Mr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on which basis he was examined and offered this appointment.”