THE UNRAVELLING OF ANTHONY KILA: A CASE STUDY IN ACADEMIC FRAUD

For years, Anthony Kila was addressed in Nigerian newspapers and on television as “professor.”

He was introduced as a professor of political science in some publications. In others, he was the “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development.”

His profiles on the websites of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU) and the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), an organisation he founded, identified him as “Prof. Anthony Kila.

“In August 2025, he was appointed pro-chancellor of MCIU. In Nigerian universities, the pro-chancellor chairs the governing council, which exercises general control and supervision over the administration, policy implementation, finance and assets of the institution.

It was a position of immense responsibility. And it was built on a title that, as Premium Times would discover, never existed.

That is where the first part of the story ends. What follows is the second discovery, the one that matters more.

THE SECOND DISCOVERY: A UNIVERSITY THAT EXISTS ONLY IN ONE MAN’S PROFILE

When Premium Times confronted Mr Kila with its findings, he offered a defence: the European Centre for Advanced and Professional Studies (ECAPS), based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, awarded him the professorship in 2016.

The newspaper went looking for ECAPS. It searched the UK Companies House. Nothing.It searched Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission. Nothing. It conducted a general online search. No website. No social media handles. No physical address. No alumni. No staff. No records of any kind.

ECAPS exists in exactly one place on earth: Anthony Kila’s profile.

The institution closest in name, the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS), was established by the University of Glasgow and Leuphana University.

When contacted, its Academic Director, James Conroy, was categorical: “The European Centre for Advanced Studies has no knowledge of this person (Mr Kila).”

This is the second discovery, and it is far more serious than a single man’s embellished CV.

A non-existent institution was used to confer a professorial title on a man who now chairs the governing council of a Nigerian university. The question is no longer whether Anthony Kila is a professor.

The question is how many other people, institutions and records were built on the same phantom.

THE THIRD LAYER: THE JEAN MONNET FABRICATION

Mr Kila did not stop at claiming a professorship. He claimed a specific, prestigious variant: “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development.”

The Jean Monnet title is not decorative. It is associated with the European Union’s Jean Monnet Actions, a programme established to promote teaching, research and debate on European Union integration.

It is awarded through a competitive, documented process and is publicly recorded. Premium Times contacted the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), which administers the programme. The response was unambiguous. The Jean Monnet team said Mr Kila “does not appear as a Jean Monnet project coordinator for any project, based on information accessible in its directory.”

“In other words, within the period for which coordinator data are publicly available, Mr Kila has not been listed as holding the role of Jean Monnet project coordinator since 2015.”

The newspaper also contacted Jean-Marc Trouille, a professor and co-chair of the AfriquEurope Jean Monnet Network, and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on the EU and Regional Integration in the East African Community.

Mr Trouille described Mr Kila’s claimed status as “highly unlikely.” “First, I think it is highly unlikely that Prof. Kila would hold a Jean Monnet Chair award,” he wrote. He added that the only Jean Monnet module in Nigeria he was aware of was at the University of Lagos, and Mr Kila did not appear on that team.

Mr Kila himself confirmed to Premium Times that he was not associated with the Jean Monnet actions. He could not explain how he began calling himself a Jean Monnet professor.

THE PUBLICATION RECORD: 22 WORKS, NINE OF THEM NOT HIS

The investigation then turned to the evidence that ordinarily justifies a professorship: scholarly output. Mr Kila’s Google Scholar page listed 22 works, books, journal articles, book chapters and other outputs.

Premium Times found that nine of the 22 records were not authored by Mr Kila at all. Of the works genuinely attributed to him, none could be independently established as a peer-reviewed article in a reputable academic journal.

Three entries were listed as published in the CIAPS Journal, a publication associated with an organisation Mr Kila himself created. In other words, the journal was his, and so were the entries.

On ResearchGate, where he identified himself as a “full professor,” he listed no publications whatsoever.

THE QUALIFICATIONS: A STORY THAT CHANGED MID-CONVERSATION

Premium Times requested Mr Kila’s comprehensive Curriculum Vitae, the document that would show where he studied, what he earned, where he taught, and where his professorship was conferred.

His first response: “I don’t really have a CV handy. I will find time to send you something.” He later provided a list of qualifications:

· Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Classic Studies, Università per Stranieri, Italy, 1989

· Master of Arts in European Studies, same institution, 1991

· Postgraduate Diploma in Media and Communication, University of Essex, 1992

· Master of Science in International Banking and Finance, City University London, 1994

· Doctor of Philosophy in Political Economy, University of Perugia, 1997

· Master of Business Administration, Aston University, Birmingham, 2002

· Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, Cambridge, 2006

· Master of Laws, Cambridge, 2009

But this list contradicted his own published profiles. On the CIAPS website, and repeated on the MCIU website, he claimed he “graduated with a first-class degree in political economy and later specialised in political anthropology.

“His brief resume to Premium Times told a different story: his first degree, he said, was in Classical Studies. Two official profiles. Two different academic histories. One man.

Premium Times said it is continuing to investigate the qualification claims, with verification slowed by pending responses from the institutions he named.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT: THE WEBSITE THAT DISAPPEARED

Here is where the story turns from fraud to something closer to concealment.

The CIAPS website, the platform through which Mr Kila published his suspicious claims about himself, his professorship and his qualifications, became unreachable in the days following Premium Times’ confrontation with him.

The sequence is documented:

1. Premium Times put its findings to Mr Kila.

2. The CIAPS website was repeatedly edited.

3. His misleading profile was initially removed.

4. The website was eventually taken offline entirely.

A profile can be corrected. An institution cannot be deleted. But a website can be, and it was, after the questions started.

The investigation also established what one commentator described as a “threefold lie”:

· He was not a professor — no recognised institution awarded him the title.

· The institution he claimed awarded it, ECAPS, does not exist.

· His publication record does not support the rank he claimed, and his self-published journal supplied some of his own “scholarship.”

THE UNIVERSITY’S RESPONSE: “WE DON’T DEBATE ISSUES”

Premium Times approached MCIU for comment. A former Registrar, Thomas Kolo, passed the phone to a man who identified himself as the spokesperson but declined to give his name.

“We don’t debate issues,” the spokesperson said. “You can go up with whatever you are going up with. If there’s a need to respond, we will respond when we see the article.”

Pressed on whether the university had any evidence that Mr Kila is not a professor as he claimed, the institution offered none.

WHY THIS IS THE REAL STORY

The fake professorship is the headline. The second discovery is the scandal. Nigeria’s universities are regulated by the National Universities Commission.

Professorial rank is not an honourary decoration; it is a promotion earned through a doctorate in a field, roughly twelve years of teaching and research experience across Lecturer II, Lecturer I, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor, external assessment by three senior professors in the candidate’s field, and two positive responses.

There is no evidence Mr Kila taught at any university. There is no evidence he was ever assessed. There is no evidence the institution that supposedly conferred the title has ever existed.

Yet he chairs the governing council of a university.That is not a personal failing alone. It is a systems failure, in vetting, in governance, in the willingness of institutions to ask obvious questions before handing over power.

ValidViewNetwork reports that Mr Kila remains pro-chancellor of MCIU. Premium Times says its investigation into his qualifications continues.