Soludo: el-Rufai’s book is intellectual fraud – ITREALMS

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Although there is no single definition of fraud, the online definitions that come to mind as one reads Nasir el-Rufai’s book (The Accidental Public Servant) is “fraud as course of deception, an intentional concealment, omission, or perversion of truth”, or “an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual”.

Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, former CBN governor

I know el-Rufai as a brilliant fellow and I certainly expected a definitive book. His stated objective was to “tell the story of my public service years…” but it turned out a very bad example of how to write a memoir. It is more of wild concoctions and commentaries on imagined events outside of his “public service years”.

Pantami’s fake professorship joins other intellectual frauds by Farooq Kperogi - ITREALMS

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"Pantami is not qualified to be promoted to the rank of professor in the two universities he has some associations with. Most importantly, though, he is not qualified to be appointed professor by and at any university in the world because he does not teach, research, or render service at any university now" - Farooq Kperogi.

It emerged late last week that Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami (or his agents) possibly instructed Zamfara State governor Bello Muhammad Mutawalle to place an advertorial in the Daily Trust to congratulate Pantami on his “promotion to the Rank of Full Professor of Cybersecurity” by an unnamed university.

... Isa Pantami displaying an award

(In the advertorial, Mutawalle repeated the dishonestly hyperbolized claims Pantami cherishes and promotes, such as the claim that he has over 160 publications—which don’t show up in any scholarly repository—and that he was trained at Harvard, MIT, and Oxford even though he only attended a few days’ workshops there while in government. He used the American English “full professor” that the Islamic University of Madinah where Pantami taught also uses to describe what is simply called “professor” in British and Nigerian terminology. Since Mutawalle isn’t an academic, it’s obvious that Pantami wrote the advertorial for him.)

Glamour, intellectual feast as winners emerge in @2018 NiOMA - ITREALMS Online

ITREALMS:

It was a of fun, glamour and intellectual feast as the maiden edition of the Nigerian Online Merit Award (NiOMA) held Friday night, July 13, at the Function Suite of Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, reports ITRealms.

The event, chaired by former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, drew a full house to the main hall of the upscale hotel.

About a dozen outstanding players in Nigeria’s online space were honoured at the event spiced up with comedy and musical performances. They include Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, who emerged the e-Governor of the Year, and Africa’s Serial Digital Entrepreneur, Leo Stan Ekeh, who was honoured as ICT Icon of the Year. 

Other winners included Akwa Ibom State (Best State Website) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which won the MDA of the Year award. Three winners emerged in the banking category, namely, Zenith (Platinum), Fidelity (Gold) and Access (Silver). 

Similarly, there were three winners in the newspaper category – Vanguard (Platinum), The Guardian (Silver) and Daily Trust (Silver).

Anchoring the intellectual aspect of the event, Leo Stan Ekeh and Dr. Ernest Ndukwe held the audience spell-bound as they critically X-rayed topical ICT issues facing the Nigerian nation and highlighted how the online revolution could be leveraged to leapfrog the country’s development.

The night, which opened with a welcome address by NiOMA Organising Committee Chairman, Mr. Lanre Alabi, also witnessed the debut of the all-gloss NIOMA Infotech Trends, an annual magazine.

Among dignitaries that graced the event were Governor Ambode, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan; Publisher of The Guardian, Mrs. Maiden Ibru; former Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Wale Omole, and Vanguard Editor, Mr. Eze Anaba, among others.

A brainchild of Nigeria’s leading daily online newspaper, News Express Nigeria, NiOMA is designed to celebrate outstanding individuals and corporates driving the Nigerian online revolution.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Pix: Some of the winners of the 2018 NiOMA . . . Friday night at Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja.