The National Universities Commission (NUC) has denied a report trending online that it uncovered a total of 100 fake Professors in some universities across the country.
The Commission stated this in a statement released on Monday, signed by its Acting Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki.
He said that though it initiated a verification process in 2019 for academics in Nigerian universities, at no point did it release a list of fake 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.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the fake viral report forced virtually all the universities mentioned to issue rebuttals about the existence of fake Professors in their employ.