By Matthew Don
Trouble is not over yet for the embattled Dr. Joshua Olusegun Bolarinwa, a Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos who is enmeshed in forgery scandal to assume the status of an associate professor.
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) was instrumental to blowing the whistle that exposed Bolarinwa, Head of Country Studies at NIIA, and part-time lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU) and the NOUN.
It was the issue of alleged plagiarism involving three postgraduate students of the NOUN supervised by Bolarinwa and whom he awarded marks they did not deserve that led to the school looking closely at his credentials.
An experienced external examiner hired by NOUN gave a damning report that Bolarinwa’s grade to the postgraduate students was suspicious and did not suggest he is an associate professor.
In his response to the query by his authorities, Bolarinwa claimed that two former senior members of the institute – Prof Charles Dokubo who is currently the Presidential Adviser on Amnesty and Prof Oche Ogaba (now late) signed the document he was allegedly parading as an associate professor.
While Dokubo has denied signing such document, Ogaba is late.
Armadanews investigation has revealed more alleged shady things associated with Bolarinwa. This time around, it is on multiple date of birth.
According to our findings, the NIIA senior research fellow is allegedly parading three different dates in the documents he uses for official dealings, depending on the office where he presents it and his needs.
From our findings, Bolarinwa claims to have been born on February 19, 1973 and February 19, 1974 in his document to the NOUN, and also on February 19, 1978 in his document with the NIIA.
A source at the NOUN said “such a claim by someone who works at a place like the NIIA that is supposed to project the image of the country as a reputable government agency is quite unfortunate and exudes fraud.”
Management of the NOUN while confirming their relationship with Bolarinwa said: “He is a staff of the NIIA. We recruit hundreds of academics that we call facilitators. You know that Open University is not where students sit in a classroom setting.
“We recruit facilitators to take care of that kind of teaching arrangement. Facilitators are part-time contractors and are paid.
“He was a facilitator at the political science department but when the university discovered anomalies about his claim of academic attainment, the university asked him to provide the proof of his claim which he never did.”
Ibrahim Sheme, NOUN director of publicity and media told TheNiche that Bolarinwa was a facilitator in the NOUN, not an employee, and therefore not subject to the same employment procedure that NOUN staff undergo.
“We could have used his services because he has a PhD. But when you make a false claim of higher attainment, it is like falsifying your academic qualifications,” Sheme said.
TheNiche had also reported that Dokubo had explained to the NIIA on being contacted that Bolarinwa linked him to the forged signature he was parading that the said signature does not belong to him.
When Armadanews.com contacted Bolarinwa on Wednesday on the alleged three dates of birth linked to him he neither took his calls nor responded to text message sent to him.