By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) may be covering up for one of its own involved in alleged forgery, Dr Joshua Olusegun Bolarinwa.
Bolarinwa is a Senior Research Fellow at the institute and until he was exposed, a part-time lecturer at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
TheNiche first broke the forgery story on December 2, 2019, detailing how Bolarinwa’s problem started.
He had awarded 70 per cent grades to the plagiarised theses of three NOUN postgraduate students. An external supervisor detected the fraud and recommended that the NOUN should probe the credentials of Bolarinwa.
NOUN director of publicity and media, Ibrahim Sheme, confirmed to TheNiche that during the probe, the university discovered anomalies about Bolarinwa’s academic claim of being an associate professor at the NIIA whereas he was a senior research fellow. He was immediately fired and later blacklisted from ever teaching in the university.
Curiously, NIIA has yet to take any action against Bolarinwa, even when he was alleged to have procured a fake promotion from the institute to get the NOUN gig.
Bolarinwa was given the NOUN job on the strength of that claim and he backed up the lie with a document bearing the signatures of his colleagues; Professor Charles Dokubo, a director of research at the time but now coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme and late Professor Oche Ogaba, former director of research at NIIA.
Dokubo later distanced himself from the signature on the document after TheNiche contacted his spokesman, Murphy Ganagana.
NIIA director-general, Professor Bukar Bukarambe has refused to speak with TheNiche on the issue. He also ignored an SMS our reporter directly sent to his phone.
This newspaper also found that Bolarinwa is linked to triple dates of birth, a finding that has deepened the allegation against him.
In one of the claims on his date of birth, Bolarinwa said he was born on February 19, 1973. In another February 19, 1974, and yet another, on February 19, 1978.
On the organogram of the NIIA which is displayed on its website, Bolarinwa is listed as the most senior research fellow, the number 4th in the institute’s hierarchy.