Who is really a professor? The Kila case and the cost of unverified titles, By Sunday Ogunlana

When this newspaper reported last Saturday that the Pro-chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University has called himself a professor for years without ever being awarded the rank, the reaction online was shock that the claim had survived for so long. It should not have surprised anyone. A false title survives for exactly as long as no one asks for the record, and in Nigeria we have stopped asking.

I write as someone who has spent two decades inside universities and the security profession. From both vantage points, the Anthony Kila story is not an academic embarrassment. It is a vetting failure with national consequences, and it deserves a plain answer to a plain question: What actually makes someone a professor?

A Record, Not a Reputation

Every legitimate system in the world shares three features. An accredited institution confers the rank. Outside experts review the candidate’s research before it is conferred. The whole process leaves a paper trail that the institution will confirm on request.

In Nigeria, the National Universities Commission sets the floor. A candidate needs a doctorate, then roughly three years at each of four ranks, from Lecturer II to Associate Professor, which adds up to about 12 years of teaching, research, and supervision. The candidate’s publications go to three external professors, and at least two must return a positive assessment before the promotion committee and the governing council confirm the rank.

In the United States, the “professor” is a ladder with three rungs: assistant, associate, and full professor. An accredited college or university hires the person, and each promotion depends on peer-reviewed publications, teaching evaluations, external letters, and service. Tenure follows a separate multi-year review. A person who teaches nowhere cannot hold the rank.

In the United Kingdom, the ladder runs from lecturer to senior lecturer, reader, and professor. The final step is a competitive promotion or an appointment to a chair, judged on the basis of research grants, the quality of publications, and international standing. The title belongs to the post. When the post ends, so does the title.

In Germany, a candidate must complete a second post-doctoral qualification, the habilitation, before competing for a chair. In France, a national council certifies candidates before any university may appoint them.

Honorary, visiting, emeritus, and “of practice” professorships are legitimate but narrower. In every case, a named institution issues the title and can be asked to confirm it.

Measure Mr Kila against any of these systems and the result is the same. He named an institution that does not appear in the UK Companies House, the Corporate Affairs Commission, or anywhere online. The European agency that runs the Jean Monnet programme has no record of him. Nine of the 22 works on his Google Scholar page were written by other people. When confronted, his university said it “has no evidence” that he is not a professor. That sentence reverses the burden of proof. The burden always rests on the person claiming the title.

A Wider Pattern

Mr Kila is the clearest case, not the only one.

Jiang Xueqin, the Chinese-Canadian creator of the YouTube channel “Predictive History,” became famous after his 2024 lecture predicted Donald Trump’s return and a war with Iran. Millions call him “Professor Jiang.” He teaches history at a high school in Beijing and has never held a university post. Asked about the title, he said he adopted it after his fans began using it.

In 2021, the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, named a sitting federal minister a professor of Cybersecurity. The local ASUU chapter said due process was followed. The national leadership of ASUU rejected that finding, called the appointment illegal, and said the minister should not be treated as a professor. When the profession that confers a title contests it, the title should not be used without qualification.

Social media has added a third category: the self-appointed. One widely followed Nigerian activist has used “Dr” “Professor Mgbeke” since 2013 on the strength of a conferment from a body that is not a university, and her own biography says she was “appointed Professor” at a small for-profit American school two years before she completed a doctorate. No legitimate system works in that order. I could not find her on any faculty directory or locate her dissertation in any public repository. That does not prove the claims are false. It proves that no one outside her own websites has confirmed them.

The regulator has noticed. In November 2025, the NUC barred universities from conferring honorary doctorates on serving political office holders, and its executive secretary said some recipients pay tens of millions of naira for degrees, after which they then parade themselves as “Dr.” The Committee of Vice-Chancellors has described people with doctorates and part-time teaching who simply wake up one morning and announce themselves as professors.

Why Security Professionals Should Care

Access follows titles. A “professor” is invited to advise ministries, sit on governing councils, brief officers, and appear on television as an authority. Each invitation grants influence and sometimes access to sensitive discussions. A person who invents an institution to support a title has already demonstrated a willingness to deceive, and in personnel security that is the first indicator reviewers are trained to weigh.

Newsrooms are part of the problem. This newspaper documented that respected outlets introduced Mr Kila as a professor for years without checking. The same reflex lets unqualified commentators shape public opinion during a crisis.

The remedy is not complicated. Ask which institution conferred the rank and when; a genuine professor answers instantly. Check that institution’s staff directory. Look for a doctoral record and peer-reviewed publications under the person’s own name. Treat honorary and visiting titles as separate categories. If the national academic union or the regulator contests the title, note it.

A real professorship names an institution, a date, and a body of work that outside experts have reviewed. Anything less is a claim, not a credential. The Kila investigation shows how long a claim can last when no one asks for the record. The question for every editor, appointing authority, and governing council in the country is simple: why did no one ask?

Sunday Oludare Ogunlana is a national security scholar and Founder and CEO of OGUN Security Research and Strategic Consulting LLC, a Texas-licensed intelligence and security firm. He can be reached at [email protected].