Who Is Really a Professor? What the Anthony Kila Investigation Teaches Security Leaders About Fake Credentials
The bottom line comes first: the title "professor" is earned through a long, documented, and externally reviewed process inside a university. It cannot be purchased or self-awarded. Yet on October 3, 2026, Premium Times reported that the man chairing the governing council of a Nigerian university has called himself a professor for years without ever being awarded the rank. For anyone who vets people, grants access, or relies on expert advice, his story is a case study in how unverified credentials walk through the front door.
A Pro-Chancellor Without a Professorship
Anthony Kila was appointed pro-chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU) in Delta State in August 2025. The pro-chancellor chairs the governing council, which controls a university's administration, finances, and assets. For years, newspapers and television networks introduced him as "Professor Anthony Kila" and as a "Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development."
Premium Times reporter Qosim Suleiman set out to find who awarded the title:
Mr. Kila said a body called the European Centre for Advanced and Professional Studies in Cambridge made him a professor in 2016. The newspaper found no trace of it in the UK Companies House, Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission, or anywhere online.
The European agency that administers the Jean Monnet program said he has never appeared as a project coordinator in its records. Mr. Kila himself confirmed he is not associated with the program.
Nine of the 22 works on his Google Scholar page were written by other people. None of the rest could be confirmed as peer-reviewed research in a reputable journal.
The qualifications he gave the reporter contradicted those on his own institute's website, which went offline after he was confronted.
A university spokesperson responded that MCIU "has no evidence" that Mr. Kila is not a professor. That answer reverses the burden of proof, which always rests on the person claiming the title.
The title of professor is earned by promotion inside a university. It cannot be purchased, self-conferred, or awarded by an institution that does not exist.
What Actually Makes Someone a Professor
The word varies by country, but every legitimate system shares three features: an accredited institution confers the rank, outside experts review the candidate's research, and the process is documented.
Nigeria. The National Universities Commission sets the minimum standard. A candidate needs a doctorate, then roughly three years at each of four ranks (Lecturer II, Lecturer I, Senior Lecturer, and Associate Professor), which adds up to about 12 years of university teaching and research. Publications are sent to three external professors, and at least two must return positive assessments before the university's promotion committee and governing council confirm the rank.
The United States. "Professor" is a rank on a ladder: assistant, associate, and full professor. An accredited college or university hires the person, and promotion depends on peer-reviewed publications, teaching evaluations, external letters, and service. Tenure follows a multi-year review. A person who teaches nowhere cannot hold the rank.
The United Kingdom. The ladder runs from lecturer to senior lecturer, reader, and professor. The final step is a competitive promotion or an appointment to a chair, judged on research grants, publication quality, and international standing. The title belongs to the post, not the person.
Continental Europe. Germany requires a second post-doctoral qualification, the habilitation, before a candidate can compete for a chair. In France, a national council must certify a candidate before a university may appoint them.
Honorary, visiting, emeritus, and "of practice" professorships are legitimate but narrower. In every case, a named, accredited institution issues the title and will confirm it on request.
Title Inflation From Beijing to Facebook
Mr. Kila is not alone.
Jiang Xueqin, the Chinese-Canadian creator of the YouTube channel Predictive History, became an internet celebrity after his 2024 lecture predicted Donald Trump's return to office and a war with Iran. Millions know him as "Professor Jiang." He is a high school history and philosophy teacher at Moonshot Academy in Beijing and has never held a university post. Challenged by interviewer Mehdi Hasan, he said he adopted the title only after fans began using it. A nickname from an audience is not a credential.
In Nigeria, the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, named Isa Pantami, then a sitting minister under President Muhammadu Buhari, a Professor of Cybersecurity in 2021. The university's local ASUU chapter said due process was followed. The national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities rejected that finding, called the appointment illegal, and said Mr. Pantami should not be treated as a professor. When a title is contested by the profession that confers it, it should not be used without qualification.
Social media has produced its own class of self-styled academics. Sandra Chidinma Duru, known to her large Facebook audience as "Prof. Mgbeke," is the activist at the center of the Akpabio recordings controversy and was earlier accused of paying a media producer to doctor audio against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Her own biography repays close reading. She began using "Dr." in 2013 after a conferment from a body calling itself the UN Academy of Universal Global Peace, which is not a university. A second "doctorate" followed in 2014 from an entity called European American University. Her profile says she was "appointed Professor" at International American University, a small for-profit school in Los Angeles, in 2023, and that she completed a PhD at an "African American University" in 2025. A professorship that arrives two years before the doctorate reverses the order every legitimate system follows. I was unable to locate her on any faculty directory, to identify an accredited American institution by the name of the PhD-granting school, or to find the dissertation in any public repository. None of this proves the claims are false. It proves that no one outside her own websites has confirmed them, and that is the point.
The pattern is widespread enough that regulators have moved. In November 2025, the National Universities Commission barred Nigerian universities from conferring honorary doctorates on serving political office holders, and its executive secretary said some recipients pay tens of millions of naira for honorary degrees they then parade as "Dr." The Committee of Vice-Chancellors has described people with doctorates and part-time teaching who simply "wake up one morning" and announce themselves as professors.
Why Fake Credentials Are a Security Problem
For military, intelligence, and law enforcement professionals, this is a story about vetting, not vanity.
Access follows titles. A "professor" is invited to advise ministries, sit on boards, and brief officers. Each invitation grants influence and sometimes access to sensitive discussions.
Fabrication is a predictor. A person who invents an institution to support a title has already shown a willingness to deceive, the first indicator personnel security reviewers are trained to weigh.
Newsrooms amplify the error. Respected outlets repeated the title for years without checking. The same dynamic lets fake experts shape public opinion during a crisis.
Every unverified title in a position of trust is an open door. The person who walks through it may be harmless. The next one may not be.
An Analyst's View: How to Verify a Professor in Ten Minutes
Ask which institution conferred the rank and when. A genuine professor answers instantly.
Check that institution's staff directory or registrar. No website, address, or alumni means no institution.
Look for a doctoral record and peer-reviewed publications under the person's own name.
Treat honorary, visiting, and "of practice" titles as separate categories, and confirm the dates.
If a national academic union or regulator contests the title, note it in your file.
The Bottom Line
A real professorship is a public record. It names an institution, a date, and a body of work that outside experts have reviewed. Anything less is a claim, not a credential. The Kila investigation shows how long a claim can survive when no one asks for the record. The Jiang, Pantami, and Mgbeke cases show how far the title can be stretched by audiences, by politics, and by social media.
OSRS can help. OGUN Security Research and Strategic Consulting provides credential verification, background investigations, and due diligence research for government agencies, universities, boards, and private-sector leaders who need to know that the people advising them are who they say they are. Contact us to schedule a briefing or a verification review for your organization.
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About the Author
Dr. Sunday Oludare Ogunlana is the Founder and CEO of OGUN Security Research and Strategic Consulting LLC, a Professor of Cybersecurity, a national security scholar, and a television commentator. He advises government, academic, and private-sector organizations on security strategy, intelligence, and emerging technology threats.
Intelligence. Protection. Strategy. www.ogunsecurity.com
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