Re: ‘Mathematical Enoch Opeyemi & the making of another Nigerian intellectual 419ner’

Readers of this column weighed in on last week’s column with the above title. Enjoy.

Thanks for yet another explosive expose on a Nigerian ‘intellectual’ who preyed on the gullibility of people to sell himself as a genius. Something else about this Enoch Opeyemi you didn’t mention is that the paper on his academia.edu page that claims to have proven the mathematical puzzle is actually plagiarised wholesale. That’s just beyond the pale. I don’t know if the plagiarised paper on this academia.edu profile is the ‘proof’ he presented at the fake conference in Vienna. If it is not, let us see his own proof, and let him tell us why he has someone’s paper as his on his academia.edu profile. I am no mathematician, but I know when someone is bullshitting. Like Philip Emeagwali, Gabriel Oyibo, Michael Atovigba, and others, this man is an embarrassment to the country. It is now difficult for people to believe true Nigerian genius when they see one because of these fakes who have exposed us to laughter and scorn.
Dele Tomori

I read and relish your article with the caption ‘Mathematical’ Opeyemi & the making of another Nigerian intellectual 419er. Would you please take the wool off our eyes as regards the internationality of a peer reviewed journal as most journals claim to be one? That will help to decipher the verisimilitude from the reality. Plus, is International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE) based in the US with branches elsewhere a reputable journal is published real? You can do more help to list the common bait-and-switch journals that budding academics who are wary of falling victim to intellectual scam. I thank you in advance.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen from Dutse, Jigawa State

Since the day I read the news in Nigerian media, I’ve been checking Clay Mathematics Institute’s website to see if they will change the status of the problem from unsolved to solved. Till now nothing has changed.
Najib Kabir

I confess he sucked me into it. I should have known better to cross check this fallacy with you before jumping on the celebratory train. I will now have to do an errata in my next write-up. Thank you for exposing these fake people for who they are. If he could go to this length to scam the world, God only knows if he truly earned a PhD. It’s certainly not over. Thanks for an excellent work, Dr. Kperogi.
Tunde Asaju

No mathematical centre worthy of note will have a gmail address.
Ibrahim Chindo
 
The international media’s laxity is increasingly becoming a source of concern.
Abdulkadir Mohammed

When the news broke, I performed my simple integrity test – I searched for non-Nigerian sources of the story (before the BBC wrote it) but couldn’t find any. A story with a global connection must have non-Nigerian sources. I therefore concluded it was suspicious.
Raji Bello

So sad! The classical media now compete with social media in churning out fabricated stories.
Ebele Chukwu

The interesting thing about stories like this is, as soon as I saw it, I went to Google. I figured if something so surprising had happened, it would be covered widely by more trusted media sources (I’m sorry to say, global – mostly ‘Western’ – media sources; including credible professional associations and their relevant journals, etc. There was nary a peep. It took me a few seconds and I knew it was a fake. Not that the copy within the report itself didn’t already raise serious doubts by itself.
Gogo Erekz

The first time I came across the story about Enoch Opeyemi’s “scientific breakthrough,” I embraced it with utmost reservation, not because Nigerians don’t have the capacity to achieve such feat, but mainly due to the fact that the news was first broken by a Nigerian media organisation. For God’s sake, Nigeria is a part of the globalised world and as such, a superlative scientific break-though such as that of Enoch Opeyemi, ought to have attracted the attention of major global news media because such news is about the world, and not about the origin of the ‘inventor.’ This is a big shame to the academic industry and the media. This is also proof that Nigerian media inundate their audiences with hoaxes, unsubstantiated facts, lies and half-truths. Kudos to Professor Farooq Kperogi, for demystifying this hoax of the year and shame to the originator of such news!!
Emmanuel Nathan Oguche

The most painful thing is these are the people teaching in our universities!!! They continue to produce fake graduates that might be doing what their teachers did. Fake teacher = fake student = fake graduate!!!
Muhammad Aminu Idris

We are never sincere with ourselves. Come to the technology field and you’ll weep for the country. We are steadily making backward progress, but on paper we are advancing.
Majeed Suleiman

A nice one! This is the more reason why you should remain there and expose these fraudsters. It is so unfortunate that even the academia is not spared this insatiable hoax. They believe everything goes as far as it adds to one’s income.
Yunusa Baba