Professor Farooq Kperogi has once again attempted to hoodwink us with his very well written grammar which does sway certain people into believing a lot of the things he reels out, including me, at some times back then. I have lately chosen to attempt to engage some of his opinions, especially when they touch on some very important fabrics. In this latest one, he attempted to insinuate that Pantami’s award of professorship by the prestigious FUT, Owerri was unmerited and I beg to disagree with such conclusions.
He felt that Pantami had not written enough publications to merit being a professor and I wonder if truly just write ups should be the reason for awarding professorship even when they don’t impact anything to the society nor the academic environment. Let me give an example of some of us who were not the ones carrying first in class owing to the fact that we don’t cram to write exams and that forms what most teachers and lecturers prefer around here.
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Fast forward to today, majority of those crammers are today finding it hard to understand the workings of the street nor integrate properly into a progressive venture. All of their humongous write ups are gathering dust wherever they are and have not made any impact on the individuals or the society. Why should Professor Farooq not think towards contributing to the advancement of the criteria for award of professorship as against sticking to an old method that has in many cases not turned out progressive.
In view of the foregoing, let me attempt to evaluate why I feel Prof. Isa Ali Pantami merits more than being a professor. Firstly, he did obtain his PhD through proper academic participation at the Robert Gordon University and he had been lecturing at ATBU, Bauchi before proceeding to the UK. He also left UK to the University in Madina, Saudi Arabia to lecture and while doing that Prof Kperogi stated in one of his write ups how they had been exchanging notes with Prof. Pantami. The man did not leave lecturing because he didn’t like it or was tired, he left because his credentials had been admired by a government which thought it could utilize it for the good of the nation.
Ever since the appointment was made, the sector which Nigeria and its government never exploited or knew existed in terms of harnessing it, has been brought forth by this man to the extent that it has become the most functional and promising sector in the country’s economy.
Consequently, I’ll exit this session by concluding that Prof Pantami’s intellectual contribution to the society more than merits a professorship award just as Prof Kperogi has equally made enough contributions regardless of how controversial to merit his professorship award.
Hashim Suleiman [email protected]
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