PERIPATETIC DANCE OF PROF MAMOUD YAKUBU — From Quota Professor to Quota Presidential Election Result

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD
Odogwu of Ibusa & Combatant Political Historian
Research Fellow@Exile, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
International Coordinator, Nigerian Diaspora Council for Defence of Democracy
Email: [email protected]

Leisa Goodman of the Church of Scientology wrote:

“A person who wears the label of “professor” assumes certain responsibilities. Foremost is that his work will be thorough, fair and honest, and free from preconceptions offered as conclusions. One can hardly imagine a scholar writing about Judaism, but not speaking to any Jews. Or doing a dissertation on the Lutherans, but never attending one of their services. What would you think of someone who claimed a close knowledge of Catholicism based on his conversations with
ex-communicates?”

The appointment of a Professor in any University is based on the discretional quality standard of the appointing University. In other words, there is no universal standard for the appointment of a professor. It is not necessarily based on one’s intelligence quotient but cognitive intelligence which is one’s ability to convert his intelligence quotient to functional creative intelligence defined by research output, which is further subject to the academic standard of a given university and in some instances the degree of political impunity that envelops the given university. In other words, appointment of a Professor could also be based on quota sytem as in the case of Professor Mamoud Yakubu.

One can make a first-class through his intelligence quotient, just as a little child can memorize the thirty-six States of the Federation and Abuja with their Capitals cities, yet lacks creative intelligence. Professors Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui and Ngugi wa Thiong’ O did not make first-class in their first degrees. Except Ali Mazrui, none of the other iconic literary authors had master’s or doctorate degrees; yet thousands of doctorate degrees and professors have been made through the study of their works. Thus people like Prof Mamoud Yakubu should not proudly adorn themselves with the title of a professor, parade degrees from Cambridge and Oxford, because they cannot be defined as Professors by the letter of its intellectual and scholarly qualities. At best they could be defined quota professors and that’s what Mamoud Yakubu represents.

The concept of Quota Professor was first formulated by the renowned Nuclear Physicist and erstwhile Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Frank Ndili, when he described the then Minister of Education under General Ibrahim Babangida, Professor Jibrin Aminu, as a Quota Professor. It is predicated on the Northern policy of Fulanization of the higher echelon of the academic profession as a way of not only correcting the perturbing educational imbalance between the north and South but creating a special elite Fulani academic vanguard to take up sensitive positions at the Federal level and by extension checkmate the dominance of Southern intellectual elite.

Prof Ishaya Audu, the then Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University and Minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria was the pioneer leader of this elite academic class but because he was a core Hausa man from Zaria with no single pint of Fulani blood and a Christian trained by Christian Missionaries, he was not only looked at with scorn be never trusted by Fulani ruling class. He was later succeeded by Prof Jibril Aminu who was described as a thorough-breed elite Fulani herdsman. It should be noted that Prof Jibril Aminu ran away from University of Ibadan as a Senior Lecturer to become a Professor with only one article publication at University of Maiduguri.

Still with one publication Jibril Aminu became the Vice Chancellor of University of Maiduguri where he incongruously determined who was qualified to be appointed a Professor. With one publication he was appointed Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission where he determined the course and quality of Nigeria’s university system. Again, with that one publication he became Nigeria’s Minister of Education. With that kind of square peg in a round hole how does one expect the Nigerian educational system to develop in a positive note?

With Prof Jibril Aminu retiring into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria emerged Prof Mamoud Yakubu the acclaimed first-class history degree material from Usumanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto and whose father migrated from Cameroon in 1953 as one of the foreign militants recruited by Ahmadu Bello. This explains why his first name “Mamoud” is spelt in French style This was how Nigerian educational system, particularly the public university system got to its present state of cancerous abandonment— a quota professor declaring quota Presidential election result to Nigerians, thereby toying with the destiny of Nigerians and their nation.

Baring his title of Professor, let us look at how the cap of Professor rightly fits Prof Mamoud Yakubu’s head within Leisa Goodman’s intellectual calculus of the characteristics of a Professor, putting into consideration his claim of expertise in guerrilla warfare, terrorism and counter-terrorism, his scholarly publications as an academic and, his current responsibility as Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mamoud Yakubu brandishes a first class honors degree in History at Usumanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, proudly claiming to be the first of this type in Northern Nigerian to have a first class degree in History, a feat that subsequently granted him the privilege of Bauchi State Government Scholarship with our oil money to Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Outside this quota privilege, there is nothing intellectual and scholarly about Prof Mamod Yakubu. Of course a first class in Usumanu Dan Fodiyo University is no more no less equivalent to a third class in any Southern Nigerian University.

In my Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the first student to make a first class in History under the defunct and challenging three-term academic program was the present Prof Ayodele Olukoju of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Akoka, who incidentally was my PhD external examiner. Prof Olukoju proudly and stoutly maintained his glorious cap of first class in History all through his academic career to present. He was Head of Department, Dean of Faculty, and Vice Chancellor, all by the dint of merit and not by the contemptible privilege of the Fulani-driven quota system, as in the case of Mamoud Yakubu.

Therefore Mamoud Yakubu should not be brandishing his quota Professorship as a mark of intellectual virtue and destructive instrument of Nigeria’s democratic values because he did not merit it by right of academic scholarship, but through the ignoble quota system. I state this without an iota mistruth because if Professor Mamoud Yakubu were to be in such Universities as University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, and University of Benin, he would not have been nothing more than a Senior lecturer with his miserable academic publications which are even starkly at odds with his claimed areas of research expertise which he claims to be Guerrilla Warfare, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. The course he was even assigned to teach at the Department of History and War Studies, Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) was “War and Society in Pre-Colonial Africa”, which is nothing more than the study of Fulani jihads of 19th century. So in essence Prof Mamoud Yakubu is no more no less an expert in Fulani Jihad studies. This is the naked truth when considered in the light of even his available miserable publications.

Ironically most of these incongruous publications even came after he had become a Professor with most of them written by contracted scholars under the glorified name of joint authorship. In one of his online profiles Prof Mamoud Yakubu was said to have authored more than fifty scholarly publications. I searched for these more than fifty scholarly publications of Prof Mamoud Yakubu in reputable online search engines such as Google search, Google Scholars, Google books, Wordcart Identities, Researchgate and more, but could not find any. I hope interested Nigerians should help me to search more.
In his personal page in Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) website Prof Mamoud Yakubu parades a host of spurious and unrelated publications with his claimed areas of research expertise in Guerrilla warfare, Terrorism and Anti-terrorism and which cannot be accessed in any reputable online academic platform. Take for instance his three mainline books which are supposed to fundamentally define his academic areas of specialization; none of them allies with his claimed areas specialization. They are all on Fulani Jihad studies.

A.M. Yakubu (1996), an Aristocracy in Political Crisis: The End of Indirect Rule and the Emergence of Party Politics in the Emirates of Northern Nigeria, Aldershot: Avebury for the University of Warwick, “The Making of Modern Africa” Series

A.M. Yakubu, Sa’adu Zungur: An Anthology of His Social and Political Writings, Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd.

A.M. Yakubu and M.M. Jumare, (1997), Abdurrahman Mora: The Life and Legacy of a Great Teacher, Kaduna: Baraka Press 1997

These are the books that made Prof Mamoud Yakubu an expert in Guerilla warfare, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism. Is this not intellectual dishonesty and scam? These are his mainline journal articles:

“Coercing old Guard Emirs in Northern Nigeria: The Abdication of the Yakubu III of Bauchi 1954” African Affairs Vol. 92 No. 369 Oct. 1993, UK, pp593-604

“The Abdication of Yakubu III: A Reply” African Affairs Vol. 94 No.376, UK, July. 1995 pp407-409

Emirs and Soldiers: The Response of the Emirate Aristocracies of Northern Nigeria to the Coup d’état of 1966” Journal of the Arewa House Kaduna, Vol1. No.1

“Exploiting Administrative Indecision: The Succession of Mohammadu Sanusi to the Emirship of Kano Emirate (Northern Nigeria) 1953” FAIS Journal of Humanities, Bayero University Kano, Vol1. No.1

Even his three review articles all on one subject— “Gulf War”, were self-published through his Departmental journal “Defence Studies” and thus lack the requisite academic reference qualities:

“Airpower in the Gulf War: A Comment” Defence Studies Vol5. No.5 (July 1995), pp.119-124

“Land Power in the Gulf War: An Observation’’ Defence Studies Vol6. No.1, pp.128-132

“Sea Power in the Gulf War: An Overview” Defence Studies Vol. 7 July 1997

These are the intellectual credentials of a first class degree material in history from Usumanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto; postgraduate material from Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in United Kingdom; and a Professor of History and International Studies with expertise in Guerilla warfare, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. This is the man that has been entrusted over time with sensitive national responsibilities and Nigerians still expect the best from such a amn. This was the kind of Professor Leisa Goodman was talking about when he described what a true Professor should look like.

From Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) where billions of idle naira were put at his disposal and where he transformed himself into a demi-god worshipped by those he should be prostrating to in the academic kingdom, he soon metamorphosed into a god as Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) where he now posses the depraved audacity to toy with the destiny of the whole nation—an intellectual Lilliput controlling the best brains and further becoming a clay-footed giant leading the Nigerian nation into political Armageddon.

Think of the transfer of the developer of BVAS and INEC Director of Information and Communication Engr. Chidi Okafor to Enugu as Administrative Secretary because the young man refused to criminally join the planned manipulation of the Presidential result. Just tell me what concerns the vulture with the barber? What has an ICT expert to do with the position of an Administrative Secretary? This can only happen in a country like Nigeria where mediocrity is considered a virtue over and above meritocracy and where the qualification and quality of one’s roles and services to his nation are shamelessly considered by right of ethnic and religious identities, especially in such a sensitive agency as Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) disgustingly headed by a quota and intellectually handicapped Professor as Mamoud Yakubu. Indeed the case of Engr. Chidi Okafor was a melodramatic replay of the 2020 Kenyan Presidential election when the Chairman of Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (KIEBC) Wafula Chibukati transferred the Vice Chairman and Head of ICT Directorate Juliana Whonge Cherera to take charge of Welfare matters during the election. And Professor Mamoud Yakubu believes he will be free like Wafula Chibukati. Kenya is not Nigeria.

The indolent Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman Rotimi Oyekanmi wants Nigerians to believe that Engr. Chidi Okafor was not the developer of the BVAS. According to this slothful son of Odduduwa and shameless Fulani slave, the invention of the BVAS was the collective idea of the entire staff of INEC. Please Nigerians how can this be? Is Rotimi Oyekanmi telling Nigerians that even their Quota Professor Chairman Mamoud Yakubu contributed his addled brain idea to the development of the BVAS? Hear him:

“Having decided to invent the BVAS, the commission gave the assignment to the most relevant department within the commission, namely the ICT, to bring the idea into fruition. The ICT Department is populated by a sizeable number of brilliant Engineers and IT experts, who worked very hard as a team for several months to successfully actualize the commission’s idea. After completing the assignment of designing the BVAS, the ICT Department notified the commission.

Therefore, it is improper to insinuate that a former director of ICT or any other staff for the matter single-handedly designed the BVAS.”
Rotimi Oyekanmi tells Nigerians that the proposal or idea of BVAS did not emanate from a single individual before his Quota Professor invited the General Assemble of INEC to discuss and subsequently adopt the idea? Shameful! Isn’t it? Rotimi Oyekanmi as addle-brained as his Quota Professor boss could not separate an inventor from those tasked with the transformation of the inventor’s idea into tangible substance. Does Daimler Benz inventing Mercedes Benz car mean all his workers were equally inventors of the cars? Stupid man indeed, if I am compelled to say this without a single apology.

But who do I blame? If the cream of respected Nigerian academicians particularly the Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities did not undermine the intellectual dignity of their exalted office by allowing themselves to be appointed Returning Officers by a Quota Professor for a morsel of bread, definitely the blame of the moral calamity inflicted on Nigeria and Nigerians by Quota Professor Mamoud Yakubu should not have been inclusive of a class of the best brains in Nigeria.

In fact if the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities still wishes to maintain the dignity of the academic profession and respect of the University system in Nigeria, there must be the urgent need to ban its members from any further role assigned by INEC. Quota Prof Mamoud Yakubu has murdered the sleep of Nigerians and whether he would go free will be decided by Nigerians on one hand and God Almighty on the other in accordance with the provisions of Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act and Divine law of Vengeance.