The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared the promotion of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, to a professorship position as “illegal”.

Pantami’s professorship was declared illegal by the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, at a press conference he addressed in Lagos on Monday.

“You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality.

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“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,” Osodeke declared.

Federal University of Technology, Owerri, had in September 2021 promoted Pantami and seven others to the position of a professorship at the council’s 186th meeting.

The promotion of the minister thereafter generated controversy as a cross-section of Nigerians lashed out at FUTO for promoting Pantami, who was not teaching in the university and whose highest academic attainment was reportedly a lecturer before he ventured into politics.

ASUU later announced that it had set up an independent panel to probe Pantami’s appointment as a Professor of Cyber Security.

Details later…

TheStar