BUSTED: Nigerian Varsity Pro-Chancellor Exposed As Fake Professor

● Anthony Kila’s Cambridge, Jean Monnet Titles Vanish Under Probe

● From TV Studio to University Council: How Nigerian Media Crowned A Fake Professor + The Non-Existent UK University That Made Anthony Kila A Professor

The highest chair in any university is meant for scholars who have spent over a decade teaching, researching and publishing. But at Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, that chair was occupied by a man who never earned it.

Anthony Kila, appointed Pro-Chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU) in August 2025, has for years paraded himself as a Professor and a “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development” on television, in newspapers and on official websites.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation has now punctured that reputation, revealing that Mr Kila was never awarded the academic rank of professor by any recognised university in Nigeria or abroad.

The Pro-Chancellor is not a ceremonial title. He chairs the Governing Council that controls the administration, policy, finance and assets of a university. It is a position that demands unquestionable integrity.

NOP NIGERIA reports that for years, Nigerian newsrooms fell for his polish. Arise TV, newspapers and conference hosts introduced him as Professor, some as Professor of Political Science, others as Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development. He granted interviews as an authority.

But when confronted, PREMIUM TIMES said Mr. Kila claimed that his professorship was awarded in 2016 by the European Centre for Advanced and Professional Studies, ECAPS, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

This newspaper searched the UK Companies House, Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission, Google, academic directories and alumni databases. ECAPS does not exist anywhere — except in Mr Kila’s own profiles.

He also claimed ECAPS made him a “Jean Monnet Professor.” The European Education and Culture Executive Agency, EACEA, which administers the EU’s Jean Monnet programme, said its records show Mr Kila has never been listed as a Jean Monnet project coordinator since 2015.

Professor Jean-Marc Trouille, Co-chair of the AfriquEurope Jean Monnet Network and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in East Africa, was even blunter. He said Kila’s claim is “highly unlikely,” noting the only Jean Monnet module he knows of in Nigeria is at University of Lagos, where Kila was never on the team.

How does one become a professor? The National Universities Commission says you must have a PhD, spend at least three years each as Lecturer II, Lecturer I, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor, publish extensively, supervise postgraduates and pass external assessment by three high-ranking professors.

There is no evidence Mr Kila ever taught in any university, supervised a student, or authored a peer-reviewed journal article in a reputable journal. His Google Scholar page lists 22 works, but nine were not even his. The rest were mostly articles in CIAPS Journal — a publication owned by an organisation he created himself. His ResearchGate page where he calls himself “full professor” lists zero publications.

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His academic biography is just as foggy. His websites say he studied in Cambridge, London, Perugia and Suffolk and graduated with a first-class in political economy. The CV he later sent to PREMIUM TIMES says something else — a BA in Classic Studies in Italy in 1989. When pressed for a full CV, he said: “I don’t really have a CV handy. I will find time to send you something.”

The European Centre for Advanced Studies, ECAS, established by the University of Glasgow and Leuphana University and closest in name to his ECAPS, told PREMIUM TIMES: “The European Centre for Advanced Studies has no knowledge of this person.”

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted MCIU, the response was dismissive. A man who identified himself as spokesperson but refused to give his name said: “We don’t debate issues. You can go up with whatever you are going up with.” The university said it has no evidence that Mr Kila is not a professor.

Days after the reporter confronted him, the website of his Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies, CIAPS, where many of the false claims lived, was edited, his profile removed, then the entire site taken offline.

For now, one fact is established — the man chairing the council of a Nigerian university is a fake professor. PREMIUM TIMES says its probe into his string of degrees — LLM, MBA, MSc, PhD, PGCE from Cambridge, Perugia, Essex and Aston — continues as it awaits responses from the institutions.

NOP NIGERIA