Kano State Governor, Dr. Umar Ganduje has said that the East Carolina University, in the United States actually sent a letter to him, appointing him a visiting professor to the university, but later turned out to be fake, even as he is now demanding an unreserved apology from the Institution for embarrassing him and the people of Kano State.
Several Nigerian newspapers had recently reported that Governor Ganduje was appointed as a Senior Mentoring Scholar and Visiting Full Professor of e-governance and International Affairs by the university.
But days after the circulation of the report, the America-based University distanced itself from the appointment in a letter to the Governor. The letter was issued from the office of the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the university.
It was gathered that Ganduje’s appointment was conveyed to him by one Victor Mbarika, a lecturer in International Center for IT and Development at the university. The university had said that it did not authorize the letter.
Reacting to the new development, Governor Ganduje said that he was “shocked” by the fake appointment and therefore demanded that the university’s management punished Mabarika and issued an “unequivocal apology” to him.
In a statement by the Secretary to the Kano State Government (SSG), Usman Alhaji, Governor Ganduje said that the fake appointment, “stirred up controversy which attempted to embarrass” him and the people of Kano.
The statement said: “…while the governor or any of official of his government has no any reason to doubt the veracity of the letter sent by one of its faculty members, which was communicated using the university’s instrument of office, it equally did not at any time solicit for such appointment.
‘’We are deeply saddened by the uproar stirred up by this controversial appointment that attempted to embarrass the person of the governor and the good people of Kano state.“
According to the statement, Governor Ganduje, being an academician of repute, would be the last person on earth to have neither solicited nor accepted fraudulently appointment into academic position in any university or institution of higher learning within and outside Nigeria.”
