Some loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari have been accused of impersonating some professors in the United States in a bid to give more credibility to the APC-led government.

The loyalists who are members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) whose names have not been revealed have allegedly been using “Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora” to drum support for the Buhari-led government.

The name, “Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora” has been used severally online to attack those who are critics of Buhari’s government and his policies.

This was made known by an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University, Georgia, US, Dr. Farooq Kperogi, in a statement published on USA Africa Dialogue Series a few hours ago.

The latest scandal was the use of NextLevel logo adopted by the campaign team of APC in 2018, which was also exposed by Dr Kperogi as plagiarism.

It was discovered back then that the NEXT LEVEL logo used by the President’s campaign team is similar to that of a project by the United States-based Winthrop University, also tagged NExT LEVEL.

Dr. Kperogi, who said several people have contacted him accused the administration of illegality.

Read the statement below: 

Several people on Twitter called my attention to the existence of a politically partisan, morally compromised, pro-government association that calls itself the Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora [sic].”

The people who contacted me on Twitter wanted to know if I’m a member of the association– or if I have any familiarity with its existence and work.

The reason people reached out to me was that the association issued a controversial statement today supporting/commending the reappointment of CBN governor Emefiele and urging Buhari to retain his incompetent service chiefs even in the face of the escalating loss of lives and the deepening and widening of the theatre of insecurity throughout Nigeria.

I had never heard of the association and have never met anyone who says he has. So my curiosity was piqued. It turned out that the statement was signed by Professor Bitrus Gwamna, who is a member of this list.

My friend Moses Ochonu and I met Professor Gwamna last year in Columbia, Missouri, during the annual Zumunta Convention, I and have also read about him. I know him to be an honourable man who would not be associated with this sort of dishonourable gamesmanship. Was his name fraudulently used by government agents to legitimize unpopular government policies?

A search on Google yielded another disgracefully pro-regime propaganda signed by Professor Gwamna and Professor Pita Agbese (another fine gentleman I had the privilege to meet last year in Missouri) on behalf of the “Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora [sic].” Titled “Diasporan Nigerian Scholars Fault US Report on Corruption, Insecurity,” the report quoted “Bitrus Gwamna” and “Pita Agbese” as describing the 2018 human rights report on Nigeria, which every clearheaded Nigerian knows to be factual and accurate, as “legitimizing the criminal activities of terrorists and extremists in Nigeria.”

Click the link above to read the other utterly ridiculous and indefensibly pedestrian, not to mention willfully mendacious, farrago of nonsense attributed to these fine scholars for whom I have the utmost respect.

Here is yet another embarrassingly error-ridden, cringe-worthy, pro-Buhari screed the “association” wrote in the aftermath of the postponement of the presidential and national assembly elections in February this year: “OBASANJO’S STRANGE ALLEGATIONS AND CONSPIRACY TO COMPROMISE THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS By Association of Nigerian scholars in diaspora.USA.”

There at least four reasons why we should be concerned. First, my search shows that no association by the name of “Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora” has been registered anywhere in the US.

So it’s obviously not a legal entity; just a fly-by-night operation probably set up by pro-regime propagandists in Nigeria to scam the Nigerian public.

Second, this fraudulent association issues mortifyingly illiterate pro-regime twaddle on behalf of “Nigerian scholars in the diaspora” (the duplicitous dolts aren’t even smart enough to know that an article often precedes the word “diaspora”).

No Nigerian scholar I’ve spoken to before writing this post is aware that such an organization exists. Third, the organization uses the real names of honourable people in the Nigerian diaspora to perpetrate its duplicity.

Most crucially, though, a lot of Nigerians at home and abroad are being misled into believing that “Nigerian scholars in the diaspora” as a collective have been recruited and bribed to lend scholarly imprimatur to Buhari’s corrupt, duplicitous, and fascist monocracy.

This is unfair to the rest of us who have a heightened moral conscience, whose intellect isn’t for sale, who cherish decency, and who are intensely aware of the inexorable perdition Buhari is pigheadedly leading Nigeria to.

I urge Professors Gwamna and Agbese to publicly dissociate themselves from this unscrupulous group if their names are being fraudulently used for pro-regime propaganda without their permission.

I might write about this shady, non-existent association in my Nigerian Tribune column this week–and share it in my social media feeds– so the world will know the truth about it.

A quick search by our reporter shows that the name has been used several times to draw support for the administration of President Buhari.

At the time of this report, APC has not responded to the allegation.

Let’s know your thoughts about this