TECHDIGEST – The Management of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU Zaria, has refuted a claim that it threatened to withdraw the degree certificate of the Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, over comments on the integrity tests for UTAS, a platform developed by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

In a statement by the university’s spokesperson, Auwalu Umar, the university said Mr Kashifu never attended ABU for any academic program.

Kashifu Inuwa holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi State, (ATBU) and is a recipient of multiple executive certifications in leadership, innovation, telecommunications, service management, networking and solutions design. Some of certification were obtained from top-notch universities, including Harvard University, University of Cambridge and Oxford University. He is also an MIT-Sloan strategist trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Meanwhile in clearing the misconception, the statement from ABU spokesperson reads: “The attention of Management of Ahmadu Bello University has been drawn to a media report alleging that the institution had in March 2022 threatened to withdraw the Bachelor degree of Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), over comments on the integrity tests for UTAS, a payment platform developed by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

READ ALSO: Pantami, Kashifu Among International Guests at GITEX 2022 in Dubai

“Accordingly, the University Management wishes to state categorically that at no time did ABU issue such a threat. After all, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, from records available, never attended Ahmadu Bello University for any academic programme, be it undergraduate, graduate or sub-degree.

It would be recalled that a group of people claiming to speak on behalf of ATBU Management had threatened to withdraw the Kashifu’s degree certificate.

It was later discovered that the threat was actually issued by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), ATBU Branch and signed by one Ibrahim Inuwa and Muhammad Muhammad over UTAS platform.

In their statement, ASUU members threatened that unless the DG NITDA retracted his comments on the UTAS they would be forced to initiate the process of withdrawing his degree certificate as an alumnus of the university.

They said they were embarrassed that after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on March 9th, 2022, Kashifu had implied that the UTAS had failed integrity test, vulnerability test (security integrity), User Acceptance Test (UAT) and stress load test, as well as the hardware requirements.

While the management of ATBU distanced itself from the threat, other groups lambasted ASUU for overstepping it boundary.

Speaking on the issue the spokesperson of the Network of Advocates for Digital Reporting (NADIR), Bello Shehu had described the ASUU’s move as “laughable and ill-advised”, wondering why the official was being targeted “for discharging his duties”

“In a desperate bid to blackmail a public official into lowering the bars of his mandate and succumbing to selfish inclinations, ASUU have resorted to threats.

“Has the union now usurped the mandate of University Senate in awarding degree certificates?

“Is there a legally recognised marriage of convenience between labour unionism and award of degree certificates in ATBU?

“Isn’t ASUU overstepping its boundaries and arrogating to itself an authority outside its jurisdiction?” NADIR spokesperson concluded.

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TECHDIGEST – The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Branch, has threatened to initiate the process of withdrawing the degree certificate of the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, as an alumnus of the university.

This withdrawal, the union said, was been considered after Inuwa’s submission that “the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, had failed integrity test, vulnerability test (security integrity), User Acceptance Test and stress load test, as well as the hardware requirements.”

The union described his submission, which it claimed, was made on March 9th, 2022, after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the prompting of his boss the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as an “unguarded statement”.

In a press release, on Thursday, titled: UTAS AND NITDA’S LIES, which was read to journalists by the ASUU ATBU Branch Chairperson, Ibrahim Inuwa, the union advised the NITDA boss to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence.

READ ALSO : Finally, NITDA Reacts to ASUU Over UTAS Platform

Failure to align with academic excellence and the path of truth for which the university had awarded him a degree, the union said, it will be left with no option than to carry out its threats.

According to the union, we are not surprised at the calculated attempt by agents of government particularly the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and DG, NITDA to kill UTAS.

The statement read in part, “They both have demonstrated severe nationalism deficiency syndrome in their dealings and handling of critical issues as it concerns their offices and positions in government, revealing how ill-equipped they are with the current status of public Universities in Nigeria.

“The Union views the comments of the DG NITDA as highly misleading, unwarranted and totally unacceptable, it is a deliberate act to frustrate the deployment of UTAS. We observe that at the time the DG NITDA was making such statements (i.e on the 9th March 2022), he was aware of a joint test of the UTAS application by the ASUU Technical Team and NITDA to iron out discrepancies in the initial NITDA report.

“The current test was arranged at a meeting involving NITDA, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. To put the record straight, we are obliged to enlighten the public that UTAS was applauded and received positive commendations at different levels of government during its presentation to the leadership of the National Assembly, Joint Committee of NITDA, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Vice-Chancellors and Bursars of Federal Universities (end users), to say the least, UTAS has gone through seven different presentations, reports from the previous test by NITDA scored UTAS 85% in User Acceptance Test.

“ASUU, therefore, wonders why agents of government are insisting on an IPPIS in spite of its obvious weaknesses, maybe this will allow them to continue to steal public funds. We will therefore no longer tolerate the delay tactics of NITDA Technical Team and their collaborators for the endless test on UTAS,” it warned.

“ASUU ATBU Bauchi is particularly sad that both the Minister of Communications Isa Ali Pantami and DG, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa are products of our prestigious University, known for its high standards of learning and discipline.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy should be able to separate his official responsibility from his personal interest. It is our hope that there is no attempt by the Minister and his agents to frustrate UTAS due to ASUUS’ principled stand on the failure of his appointment as a Professor by Federal University of Technology Owerri to satisfy the laid down rules and regulations governing such appointments of the University.

“The DG of NITDA is requested to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence for which the University had awarded him a degree, failure of which the Union will be left with no option but to initiates the process of withdrawal of his degree certificate as an alumnus of ATBU, Bauchi.”

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TECHDIGEST – Authorities of the Federal University of Technology, (FUTO), Owerri, have explained why the university made the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, a professor, saying the name he gave to the university was Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim before his appointment.

FUTO also insisted that the appointment of the minister to the position of professor “followed required due process.”

Pantami was recently elevated to the academic rank of a professor by FUTO along with some other lecturers of the university.

The minister’s elevation has generated controversy, with many faulting FUTO on the promotion of the minister, who has never been on the teaching roll of the university and whose highest academic attainment was just a lecturer before he ventured into politics.

Speaking with Saturday Tribune on the issue, the Registrar of FUTO, Mr John Nnabuihe, said: “The university knows him as Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim based on the documents in his file submitted,” adding that he was assessed alongside other internal members who were also appointed as professors. Nnabuihe defended the promotion as deserving, saying it was “based on his qualification which he merited through long years of research works.”

Nnabuihe said Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim was not “promoted” as reported in some quarters but was “appointed” because he was a Reader.

The FUTO Registrar said “the only reason why it looks like it is a promotion is because he was a Reader and has not attained such position before. So, he is appointed into a higher position than where he was before.”

He said: “Somebody who is not your staff, you cannot promote him.” Nnabuihe said that after Dr Ibrahim graduated in Computer Science, he started as a lecturer at the Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University. Professor Ibrahim, according to him, later went to another university in Saudi Arabia and was thereafter appointed as an “Associate Professor,” which was where he stayed for some time until he was appointed as the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) which he said was “like a research institute.”

According to him, in such a research institute, somebody could be there and at the same time would be publishing papers that could make him qualify. He said based on that, a particular university “could decide to appoint someone as a professor.”

The FUTO Registrar told Saturday Tribune that in September 2020, FUTO advertised for the position of professor and lecturers in different disciplines in the institution and Professor Ibrahim applied.

He said: “If an associate professor is in a particular university and another university wants him and after assessing him he is qualified based on his research works and credentials, such a person could be appointed as professor by that university.”

On when Professor Ibrahim would be available to take up his new job in the university, the Registrar said that “is his business,” saying “he applied and FUTO has assessed and appointed him, it’s not my business” (when he would take up the position). On whether FUTO has cyber security as a course, the Registrar said the institution has a Department of Cybersecurity under its School of Information and Communications Technology.

ASUU orders probe

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has launched an investigation into the appointment and has directed its FUTO chapter to look into the circumstances under which Pantami was promoted to the highest academic rank in the institution.

Reacting to the development, the chairman of ASUU, FUTO branch, Mr Christopher Echereobia, told Saturday Tribune that the union was aware of the development, adding that the union was already investigating the issue.

Echereobia said the national secretariat of ASUU had directed that “the issue should be investigated to ascertain the true position of the matter.”

He explained that the union held its zonal meeting on Wednesday and the issue was discussed.

The FUTO ASUU chairman said investigation was ongoing and as soon as the inquiry was concluded, the union would come out with its position. He said ASUU members in the institution had been given two weeks to investigate the matter and come up with their findings.

Echereobia said: “I just came back from Awka. We have been meeting and we want to get to the root of the matter.”

The ASUU chief said already, the union had contacted ASUU at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Univeristy (ATBU) because they learnt that Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim was a one-time staff member there before he went for a PhD and later went to Medina.

He added that the union was also trying to reach the Saudi institution to ascertain the true position, whether he was “associate professor” there or not.

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TECH DIGEST – Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi has commissioned Huawei Information communication and technology (ICT) academy Laboratory, for training of entrepreneurs in the institution.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Mohammed Abdulazeez, at the commissioning ceremony in Bauchi said the establishment of the ICT lab academy would build the skills capacity of students on entrepreneurship.

He said ATBU and Huawei Technology company Nigeria limited have signed an agreement of establishing ICT laboratory academy in the institution to facilitate students entrepreneurship.

Abdulazeez commended Huawei Technologies Company for enlisting the university in their initiative and its contribution to technology innovation and advancement.

He said the ICT academy laboratory would provide the students with qualitative hands-on practical telecommunications and ICT training in line with the building functional skills of the students.

“This is especially given that the development of the skilled workforce across all sectors of the economy has become national priority.

“We are aware that there is a global shift from natural resources as a basis for national competitiveness to human resources with that students would achieve rapid and sustained economic growth and to become employers.,” he said.

Also speaking, Huawei Channel Training Manager, Mr Kenneth Igwe, said said the establishment of Huawei ICT Academy would help students to align with industry requirements by mastering the latest ICT technologies.

“The training offers an internationally recognized certification which equips the students with global standard skills that qualifies them for ICT jobs anywhere in the world”.

“Huawei has collaborated with several universities and colleges in Nigeria to build ICT academies, which provide training for more students annually.

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