The Vice-Chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU), Delta State, Prof. Ibiyinka Fuwape, has said the institution will respond after internal consultations to questions raised by a PREMIUM TIMES investigation challenging the professorial status of the university’s Pro-Chancellor, Anthony Kila.
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Fuwape’s remarks are the first formal acknowledgement from the university’s leadership since the investigation was published on October 3, 2026, alleging that no recognised academic institution could be found to have conferred the rank of professor on Kila despite his longstanding public presentation as “Prof. Anthony Kila” and, in some profiles, as a “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development.”
More than 24 hours after publication of the investigation, the university had not issued a substantive statement addressing the findings or explaining how Kila’s academic rank was verified before he was identified as a professor in institutional materials.
PREMIUM TIMES said it made several attempts to obtain the university’s response. A general enquiry number listed on the university’s website did not connect, one registry number rang without being answered, while another number listed for the registry was answered by a person who said it was a private line and had no connection with the institution.
The newspaper eventually reached Fuwape, a Professor of Physics, who said the matter would first be considered internally.
“We will reply you very soon. The PRO will get in touch with you. The council is yet to meet. I can’t give you any information other than that,” she said.
Asked when the public should expect the university’s response, the vice-chancellor declined to give a date, adding: “I can’t divulge that information to you. The PRO will get across to you.”
Her comments shift the matter to the university’s Governing Council, which is now expected to consider the allegations surrounding the academic designation of its own chairman.
Kila was appointed Pro-Chancellor of MCIU in August 2025. As Pro-Chancellor, he chairs the university’s Governing Council, the body responsible for broad oversight of the institution’s administration, policy, finances and assets.
The controversy began after PREMIUM TIMES published an investigation alleging that Kila had never been awarded a professorial rank by a recognised university.
The newspaper reported that Kila told it that the European Centre for Advanced and Professional Studies, which he said was based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, awarded him a professorship in 2016.
However, the publication said searches of the United Kingdom Companies House, Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission and publicly available records did not reveal an institution matching the body described by Kila. It also contacted the European Centre for Advanced Studies, a similarly named institution established by the University of Glasgow and Leuphana University, whose Academic Director, James Conroy, told the newspaper that the institution had no knowledge of Kila.
The investigation also examined Kila’s description as a “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development.”
According to PREMIUM TIMES, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, which administers the European Union’s Jean Monnet programme, said Kila did not appear in its available directory as a Jean Monnet project coordinator.
The newspaper further reported that Kila acknowledged that he was not associated with the Jean Monnet Actions, but did not explain how he came to use the title “Jean Monnet Professor.”
Questions were also raised about aspects of his wider academic profile.
PREMIUM TIMES said Kila’s Google Scholar page listed 22 works, nine of which it found were not authored by him. Of the works it attributed to Kila, the newspaper said it could not independently establish any as peer-reviewed articles published in a reputable academic journal.
It also reported that Kila’s ResearchGate profile, where he described himself as a “full professor,” contained no listed publications.
The newspaper said Kila subsequently supplied it with a list of academic qualifications, including degrees he said he obtained from institutions in Italy and the United Kingdom, but noted differences between that list and profiles previously published about him.
PREMIUM TIMES stressed that its investigation into those wider academic qualifications was continuing and that the principal conclusion it had reached related specifically to his claim to professorial rank.
Before publication of the investigation, MCIU had taken a different preliminary position.
The newspaper said it contacted Thomas Kolo, a former Registrar of the institution, who passed the phone to a person identifying himself as the university’s spokesperson but who declined to give his name.
That person said the university had no evidence showing that Kila was not a professor.
“We don’t debate issues. You can go up with whatever you are going up with. If there’s a need to respond, we will respond when we see the article,” he said.
The vice-chancellor’s latest intervention now indicates that the institution will reconsider the matter at council level before issuing a formal response.
The pending response is expected to address a central question arising from the investigation: whether MCIU independently verified Kila’s claimed professorial rank before appointing him Pro-Chancellor and publicly associating him with the title.
It may also clarify what documentation, if any, was supplied to the institution regarding the award of the professorship and whether the university intends to conduct a fresh verification of the credentials attributed to the chairman of its Governing Council.
The matter has attracted wider public attention because universities are expected to maintain rigorous standards of academic integrity and credential verification, particularly for persons occupying senior governance positions.
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