The National Universities Commission refuted on Monday that it had discovered 100 fake professors in various universities around the country.
Some media organisations (excluding Newsclick Nigeria) had listed some universities as part of the institutions indicted by the NUC for having fake professors.
However, the NUC stated in a statement posted on Monday that while it began a verification procedure for academics in Nigerian universities in 2019, it did not produce a list of fraudulent professors in 2024.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the commission can confirm that it initiated in 2019 a laudable project, with the intent of compiling and publishing a list of full Professors in the Nigerian Universities System through the use of an online portal to collate the requisite data. During the exercise, the NUC found anomalies, such as Associate Professors being listed as full Professors.
“It is essential to also state clearly that the Commission as a responsible Federal Government Agency, does not engage in half-baked exercises capable of tarnishing the image of Nigeria and the NUS.
“That was why the Commission deemed it necessary to share the collated data with the Nigerian Universities for authentication by the competent authorities as to who qualifies to be a full professor”, the regulatory agency said in the statement.
The media space has been taken awash by reports of the alleged fake professors with Nigerians raising questions regarding the qualifications of academics in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
So far, some of the universities listed as allegedly having fake Professors on their payrolls such as the University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin, Babcock University and Covenant University among others, have issued rebuttals and called for calm.