After WikkiTimes reported in June that the doctorate of Yakubu Adamu, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate in Bauchi State, came from an institution Cameroon says cannot award one, his camp and the university pointed to foreign partnerships. In this second-part investigation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the body that received IUB’s London affiliation claim they have no record of it. Cardinal Stritch University closed in 2023. American Central University, which IUB mentioned as a partner, is an unaccredited school that US regulators have linked to a diploma mill. Further reporting found that Adamu’s thesis was supervised within 40 days by a polytechnic non-teaching bursary office. 

By Haruna Mohammed Salisu

On Albarka Radio in Bauchi, days after WikkiTimes published its investigation into the doctoral credentials of Yakubu Adamu, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate, a man who introduced himself as the candidate’s spokesperson, Daure David spoke in defence of the degree. Daure did not produce Adamu’s certificate but said the International University of Bamenda is a credible institution because it has partnerships with reputable institutions abroad, including the University of Wisconsin in the United States and a chartered body in London.

Wisconsin, London College deny Daure, IUB’s partnership claims

Two of the foreign institutions cited on the radio as proof that Yakubu Adamu’s Cameroonian doctorate is genuine say they have no record of any relationship.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States, and the Chartered College of Teaching, London, have said they have no record of any international agreement, affiliation or relationship with the International University of Bamenda (IUB), Cameroon, the private institution that awarded a doctorate to Yakubu Adamu.

Both institutions responded to WikkiTimes in June and July. 

The IUB website lists its foreign partners as the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Cardinal Stritch University, Wisconsin; University of Wisconsin-Stout; American Central University, Japan; Institute of Chartered Accountants and Administrators, London; and the Center for College of Preceptors, London.

WikkiTimes wrote to the institutions named. Of those that replied, none confirmed a partnership.

The Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, John Lucas, said in an email on July 2 that the American institution has no ties to the Cameroonian school.

“In answer to your questions, we have no record of any international agreement, affiliation or relationship with the International University of Bamenda,” Lucas said. “We have no information about IUB.”

Lucas said the university had past agreements with the University of Buea between 1998 and 2001 and a memorandum of understanding with the University of Dschang between 2012 and 2015.

“At this time, we have no active agreements in Cameroon,” he said.

Responding to the claim carried on the Cameroonian university’s website, Lucas said: “We see the mention of the University of Wisconsin (sp) and will be reaching out to Bamenda to have that statement removed from its website.”

The Chartered College of Teaching, London, the body that succeeded the Center for College of Preceptors, London, also denied the partnership.

Dawn Dullaway of its Membership Operations Team said in an email on 22 June: “I’m afraid we do not have a record of this partnership.”

Dullaway said in an earlier message that the college does not hold all the records of the College of Preceptors and directed WikkiTimes to the archives department of University College London, which she said holds more of them. A thorough examination of the archives found no evidence of ties with IUB.

Cardinal Stritch University, Wisconsin, which IUB still lists on its website as a partner, was a private Catholic university founded in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, according to public records.

The university closed in May 2023 due to financial difficulties and declining enrolment. Its 40-acre campus was sold in July 2023 to the Ramirez Family Foundation for a K-12 school project, and 80 per cent of its buildings were being demolished as of May 2024.

American Central University, listed by IUB as being in Japan, was an unaccredited, for-profit distance learning school licensed by the state of Wyoming, United States, in 2004, according to public records.

The school was investigated for offering students false degrees through online courses. United States regulators found that its owner, Adalat Khan, was linked to an online school in Hawaii that offered illegal medical degrees and was later shut down by a judge.

The Oregon Office of Degree Authorisation described a website called International DETC, which emerged as part of American Central University, as a “fraudulent attempt to hijack the genuine DETC name” to advance the goals of a diploma mill.

IUB’s website, updated after WikkiTimes’ publication

After the first investigation was published, IUB updated its homepage to advertise a “Legacy of Excellence” spanning 36 years. Its old website is archived here.

The new page states that the university was established in 1990 as the first English-speaking university in Cameroon and that its doctoral programmes began in 2001 through a technical partnership with the University of Wisconsin, United States.

The updated page also states: “IUB is international and not a national university that is restricted like other indigenous universities in Cameroon. It has spread abroad.”

The site further states that the European Union only recognises universities that offer master’s and doctoral degree programmes like IUB, and that universities like Universiti Malaysia can only do postgraduate exchange programmes with IUB in Cameroon.

Under its Latest News heading, the site states that IUB networked with the University of Douala to integrate with public universities in obedience to a new law in Cameroon.

WikkiTimes had earlier reported that Cameroon’s Ministry of Higher Education, the National Association of Private Higher Education Institutions of Cameroon (ANIPES) and the National Commission for Private Higher Education (CNESP) have all stated that no private institution in the country, including IUB, is authorised to train students at the doctoral level.

In a press release dated 13 April 2026, signed by the Minister of State for Higher Education, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, and published by the Ministry of Higher Education, the ministry said no private higher education institution in Cameroon is authorised to deliver training at the doctorate level, no offshore doctoral programme is authorised anywhere on Cameroonian territory, and that certificates resulting from such programmes cannot be recognised in Cameroon.

CNESP sanctioned IUB at its 30th session on 28 August 2024. Cameroon Tribune, the state-owned daily, reported on 3 September 2024 that the university was sanctioned for the “issuance of false diplomas and the refusal to compensate a learner” and was closed for three years. The Guardian Post, an English-language Cameroonian newspaper, reported the same action on 5 September 2024.

Networked harassment and airtime for insults

What appeared to be a coordinated campaign of harassment followed the publication of the investigation. During a radio programme, Daure David, Adamu’s spokesperson, and Almustapha Haji Sufi, who identified himself as an analyst, offered listeners ₦3,000 in airtime to call in and criticise WikkiTimes’ publication. During the broadcast, Daure David also directed verbal insults at the publisher before the programme’s anchor intervened and compelled him to withdraw the remarks.

A second surrogate with no formal role in the matter, Jamauddeen Inuwa, popularly known as Babugirma, used a series of online broadcasts to dismiss WikkiTimes’ reporting, describing it as unfounded. Babugirma falsely claimed that the investigation relied on unofficial sources, telephone conversations, and online searches rather than formal responses from the institutions concerned. He further argued that credible reporting on academic credentials requires official documentation from the universities named in the report. Recordings of some of these broadcasts, available here, here, here, and here, were widely circulated by social media pages sympathetic to the Bauchi State government.

The NUC and the Ministry of Education

In the first investigation, WikkiTimes filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the National Universities Commission (NUC). It was not answered. The commission’s spokesperson, Okoronkwo Ogbonnaya, directed the newsroom to a separate email address, and the request was resubmitted there.

WikkiTimes reported at the time that the commission had not responded. On further enquiries, Ogbonnaya directed the reporter to the head of the Servicom Unit, Iliyasu Musa, saying that he was away from his workstation.

Musa, a Deputy Director in charge of Servicom, spoke by telephone and asked not to be quoted. WikkiTimes informed him that his account would be attributed to him in the absence of an official written response from the NUC. It is reported here because he was the official the commission designated to handle the request, and no written response was provided.

“We are in charge of Nigerian universities, not universities outside the shores of Nigeria,” Musa said.

Musa said the verification of foreign institutions is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Education.

“If you write to the Ministry of Education, giving them the name of the university, the Ministry of Education has a complete list of all universities in the world,” Musa said.

Musa read from a Federal Ministry of Education letter dated 29 November 2017, written to a Nigerian university, which he said confirmed that IUB is on the ministry’s accredited list in Cameroon.

“I am further directed to inform you that the bachelor’s degree certificate awarded by the university is evaluated and is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree awarded by any Nigerian university in a similar field of study,” the letter Musa read, said.

The letter did not mention master’s or doctoral awards.

Musa then advanced the argument on which the commission’s confidence rested: that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) had sponsored Nigerian lecturers to study at IUB and had sent teams to inspect it, and that this sponsorship was itself evidence of the university’s standing.

“TETFund sent people there. TETFund sent its own team. So, the university must be recognised to start with,” Musa said.

He declined to release either the inspection letter or the Ministry of Education correspondence, citing an “oath of secrecy when working.” Pressed on whether that oath covered the documents in question, he did not identify any provision that did.

WikkiTimes put a precedent for Musa. In the same period, the NUC had publicly withdrawn recognition of qualifications from Mid-Ocean University in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. The commission took that step after the UAE’s regulator de-licensed the institution and after the Federal Ministry of Education relayed the notification to the NUC. Mid-Ocean’s qualifications had been treated as valid in Nigeria until that reversal.

Musa confirmed the mechanism. He said the commission was not delisting the university itself but announcing that its qualifications would no longer be accepted because the home regulator had withdrawn the license.

“We’re only saying every qualification that comes from that university will not be accepted by us in Nigeria, because the university in question is being de-licensed by the UAE,” Musa said.

The Mid-Ocean case answers the argument Musa built on TETFund. If a foreign university can be recognised in Nigeria, draw Nigerian students and public funds, and then be reversed once its home regulator acts, then prior recognition is not proof of standing. It is a status that holds only until the home regulator says otherwise. Asked whether Nigerian institutions, including the Ministry of Education, could recognise a foreign university in error, Musa agreed that they could and that verification of a foreign institution ultimately depends on the regulator in the country where it operates.

For IUB, the regulator is Cameroon. Cameroon’s higher education authorities bar private universities from awarding degrees above the bachelor’s level, on the grounds that the postgraduate credentials in this investigation fail. WikkiTimes has documented that Cameroonian authorities sanctioned IUB and other private institutions for issuing false diplomas.

That TETFund sponsored scholars to a school Cameroon has sanctioned is not evidence that the school is credible. It is evidence that the same recognition machinery that failed on Mid-Ocean has not yet been applied to IUB. When WikkiTimes pressed for a firm date by which the NUC would respond to the renewed FOI, Musa said no reply was likely soon because the commission was hosting the registrars of all Nigerian universities and had a management meeting the following day. The reporter offered to wait until the following week. Musa did not reply.

WikkiTimes encountered a similar response from the Federal Ministry of Education. On 23 June, the newspaper submitted a follow-up Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Ministry seeking clarification on the status of the International University of Bamenda (IUB) and the recognition of qualifications obtained from the institution.

As of the time of filing this report, the Ministry had not responded to the request.

In a subsequent telephone conversation, the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mrs Boriowo Folasade, explained that since the letter was addressed to the Minister, “the Minister should be the one to give any feedback on the matter.”

Mrs Folasade did not specify when a response might be forthcoming, and the Ministry has yet to issue any official position on the matter.

How the Doctorate was supervised and what the regulations say

A letter dated 18 May 2020 shows that the International University of Bamenda (IUB) appointed Dr Kawu Gana to supervise Yakubu Adamu for a PhD in Business Management.

“I am pleased to convey to you the decision of the Governing Council of the International University, Bamenda, Cameroon to offer you an appointment as a Supervisor to Yakubu Adamu, PhD candidate in Business Management,” the appointment letter stated.

The letter further indicated that the university would pay Gana a supervision fee of 50,000 FCFA upon completion of the exercise and requested that he submit his curriculum vitae and a letter of acceptance within two weeks.

Documents reviewed by WikkiTimes show that Gana certified the thesis on 29 June 2020, just 42 days after the date of his appointment letter. Counting the period between the two documents and excluding the dates on which they were signed, WikkiTimes found that the supervision process was completed within a 40-day window.

The founder of IUB, Professor Patrick Chefu Fusi, served as the external examiner for Adamu’s thesis, a document that has not been made publicly available.

Sources at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, told WikkiTimes that Gana was not an academic staff member of the institution but an official in its bursary department.

WikkiTimes had earlier reported that Gana appears on IUB’s published roster as a doctoral student under registration number IUB/2014/2015/AKG/001, having himself obtained a doctorate from the institution.

However, he does not appear in the roster’s column of discussants and is not identified anywhere in the document as a discussant, examiner, or supervisor in relation to any doctoral defence.

Responding to questions from WikkiTimes, Gana said he supervised Adamu’s thesis “in accordance with the arrangements and academic procedures communicated to me by the institution.” He added that he was unaware of any regulatory finding, sanction, or official declaration against IUB at the time and requested that journalists send no further correspondence.

What Cameroonian regulations say

Cameroon’s doctoral education system is regulated by the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP), which sets out the qualifications and conditions required for supervising doctoral candidates.

Under MINESUP regulations, doctoral supervision is generally reserved for senior academics with the requisite research credentials and accreditation to supervise scholarly work.

The provisions, contained in Order No. 99/003/MINESUP/DDES of 23 December 1999 and subsequent amendments, state that thesis supervisors should be professors, associate professors, chief scientists, principal scientific officers, or researchers and lecturers accredited to supervise research in universities.

The framework reflects Cameroon’s French-inspired higher education system, under which doctoral supervision is ordinarily entrusted to experienced scholars with established research records and recognised academic standing.

Article 16(3) of the regulations further provides that at least one examiner participating in a doctoral assessment must be external to the university concerned.

What Nigerian regulations say

Academic experts consulted by WikkiTimes said the circumstances surrounding the supervision arrangement would be highly unusual within Nigeria’s university system.

Prof. Jide Jimoh, Dean of Communication at LASU, said that while universities may have different regulations governing doctoral supervision, certain minimum standards are generally expected. According to him, a PhD supervisor should have held a doctoral degree for at least three years, while a doctoral candidate is also expected to spend a minimum of three years completing the programme. He added that non-teaching staff are not qualified to supervise PhD candidates because doctoral supervision is strictly an academic responsibility.

“If a supervisor does not have a PhD, he cannot graduate a PhD. If a supervisor is not an academic staff, he cannot supervise because PhD is an academic matter. Nobody can give it out without proper authority following the guideline.”

Jimoh further noted that, within LASU’s system, doctoral supervisors are preferably appointed from the rank of Senior Lecturer upward, including Associate Professors and Professors. According to him, academic staff at the rank of Lecturer I or Lecturer II are not qualified to supervise PhD candidates.

Prof. Suleiman Yar’Adua of the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, described Kawu Gana’s appointment as Adamu’s supervisor as a serious violation of academic standards.

“This is academic fraud. It’s purely academic fraud,” he said.

He argued that a doctoral supervisor must possess both the qualifications and the expertise necessary to guide advanced research.

“You cannot give what you do not have,” he said.

Postgraduate regulations published by several Nigerian universities contain similar provisions.

The Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), for instance, stipulates that only academic staff who hold doctoral degrees and occupy the rank of Senior Lecturer or above may serve as principal supervisors of PhD candidates.

Similarly, Bayero University Kano’s postgraduate regulations require that supervision correspond with the supervisor’s qualifications and area of academic specialisation.

The regulations further emphasise that supervisors should possess expertise directly relevant to the student’s research topic.

Federal Polytechnic Bauchi Ignores WikkiTimes’ FOI Request

On 16 June, WikkiTimes sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, containing seven questions concerning Gana and Adejoh Apeh Mathew, an examination officer at the institution who appears on the International University of Bamenda (IUB) roster as a doctoral graduate in Business Management.

The request sought clarification on whether the Polytechnic had verified the doctoral qualifications, whether it was aware that both men appeared on the roster of an institution that Cameroonian regulators say is not authorised to offer doctoral training, and whether the Polytechnic permits non-academic staff to supervise students at other institutions. The Polytechnic did not respond to the questions.

Before the FOI request was submitted, the Polytechnic’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Malam Rabiu Wada, provided WikkiTimes with three official email addresses, including those of the Rector and Deputy Rector, for the submission of the request. He later advised the reporter to direct the letter to the Deputy Rector, saying it would “serve the purpose.” WikkiTimes complied with the instruction.

Mr Wada subsequently confirmed receipt of the request and asked the reporter to “kindly share with me the first publication where their names appeared to update my principals.” WikkiTimes later forwarded the published report to him.

In a follow-up WhatsApp message sent on 22 June, WikkiTimes asked whether there was any need to issue a reminder. In response, Mr Wada stated that the Registrar had received the FOI request and that the institution would “possibly reply within the week.”

However, as of the time of filing this report, no response had been received.

WikkiTimes also informed the PRO that several institutions contacted during the investigation, including universities in the United Kingdom and the United States, had responded to similar requests for clarification. Mr Wada did not reply to that message, and the Polytechnic has yet to issue any official response.

Editor’s Note: This story was produced with support from the WikkiTimes Media Foundation and Civic Media Lab. You can read the first version of the story here.