Dr Aisha Balarabe Bawa is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
History Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Recently, the Kenyatta
University in Kenya reportedly revoked a PhD awarded to one of its
lecturers Amos Ngaruiya and sacked him, having been found guilty of
plagiarising Dr Aisha’s thesis. In this interview, Aisha Bawa, who won
the best graduating student 1997 B.A History Award, reveals how she
discovered the academic fraud, how the issue was handled, among others.
Your thesis was reportedly plagiarised by a Kenyan lecturer. How did you find out?
On the14th March last year around midnight, I couldn’t sleep, so I
decided to surf the net for materials to read particularly on the area
which I want to specialize on, Nigerian first ladies. As a specialist on
gender history with particular focus on Nigerian first ladies, that was
the area I wrote my thesis on.
So I came across a work titled, ‘The Transformation of the
Institution of First Ladies in Kenya’, written by Amos Kariuki Ngaruiya
from the Department of History, Kenyatta University, Kenya.
I was impressed knowing that Kenya also acknowledges that this area
hasn’t been developed. This area of study is new, looking at the
composition of first ladies and perception of people on why write about a
woman whose power is based on her husband’s, but her position is just
because her husband assumed a position of power.
This area has been developed in America for a very long time. There
are professors, scholars who specialize in presidential history and
under that, they also study the wives of the president. But here in
Africa, the area has not been developed and that is why I went into that
area in Nigeria. I was so impressed and opened his work. It is a
complete dissertation that was awarded to him in July 2018 so it was a
new thesis.
However, I noticed his acknowledgement page was exactly like mine.
The only difference was that he acknowledged different people from mine
but it was the only difference. I went ahead to open the abstract
section and again, noticed the same language I used, I now went into the
table of content similar structures, but where I put Nigeria, it would
be replaced with Kenya.
Though you know what we mean by plagiarism, it is not a complete
adaptation of the work but any idea, which translates to intellectual
fraud, for someone to take the idea of another author without
acknowledging. Most of the materials I used, he used them without
acknowledging the sources and when I checked the references, I found out
that a lot of materials which I got – interviews, for example with Mrs
Maryam Abacha. I had the opportunity in the course of my research to
stay with Mrs Maryam Abacha for almost a week at her house. She gave me
lots of documents which she had in her possession for me to use.
I also interacted with a lot of people that she worked with during
her tenure as First Lady. All those documents reflected in his
references which I very well knew he couldn’t have had access to except
through my work. I got worried, so when I got to the office the next
day, I discussed it with a colleague, Dr Murtala Rufai. He was
frightened, even more, stating that if Mr Amos had published his work
before mine it will be evident that I was the one who plagiarised it,
however, if I published before him with my copyright, he would be the
one to be accused of plagiarizing my work.
Can you shed more light on your work and his?
The title of my work is ‘Women in the Corridor of Power: A History
of Nigerian First Ladies in Governance 1966-2015, I started with the era
of General Yakubu Gowon and ended with the tenure of the late President
Umaru Musa Yar’adua with Turai Yar’adua being a very powerful First
Lady at that time. That was the terminating period of my work while
Amos’ work is titled,‘Transformation of the Institution of First Ladies
in Kenya 1953-2015.
When we finished in 2014, the university uploaded our dissertation
and thesis online. That was 2015 and his admission number shows that he
got admitted for his PhD in 2015 while I finished in 2014. But we
submitted it in early 2015 that was the time the university uploaded it
on the internet.
What steps did you take?
With the help of my colleague, Dr Murtala, we got the email address
of the Dean Graduate School and the Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta
University but I decided not to go to the Vice-Chancellor first. I
instead emailed the Dean Graduate School in the person of Professor
Elishiba Kimani on the 15th March 2018, explaining my findings regarding
my thesis being plagiarised in his Faculty by Ngaruiya Kariuki Amos and
also attached my thesis so that he could verify and get the matter
sorted. I didn’t receive any response until 18th, that is three days
later. She responded indicating that their university takes seriously
the issue of plagiarism and that she is going to discuss with the
Vice-Chancellor on the matter. She promised to get back to me.
On March 29, I got a mail from Professor Micheal Gicheru, Dean
School of Pure and Applied Sciences, stating that an investigation
process has been instituted and he was the chairman of the committee. He
requested to ask me a few questions which would help the university to
probe the matter further.
I was also asked to shed more light on my
thesis. The letter also assured that once it is confirmed to be
plagiarised, the thesis will be taken down from the university’s
website. I responded by enquiring first from the library because when I
checked again when this investigation started, the soft copy of the
thesis was not online. So, I called the librarian here in our
university, who is also a friend and also undertaking her PhD in FUT
Minna. I told her about the plagiarism case which I was asked to prove
but could not find my thesis online, which I knew was online. She asked
me to inform them that a software known as D-Server crashed and since
then they were unable to upload it and that was why my thesis couldn’t
be found online, but it has been there. I then replied Professor Michael
based on what she told but sent him a soft copy of my thesis to verify.
For someone writing on Kenyan first ladies, I see no reason why Maryam
Abacha would appear in the dissertation.
What happened next after your response?
The last communication I had with them was on the 29th March 2019
and at a point I felt that they had abandoned the investigation. That
was why I tried to source for the fund and publish my thesis even though
it was not the complete thesis. I made it in the form of a book. I had
to rush to be able to publish my thesis in book form for fear of not
being accused of plagiarizing his work. But for anybody to look at the
period he graduated in 2018 while mine is 2015 can vividly see it, but
you know, I was scared; I didn’t want a situation that my work will be
looked at as that of Amos. That was what happened until August 2019 when
the issue came up. A lot of people particularly my colleagues who knew
that it was my thesis that was plagiarised, sent the write-up about the
outcome of the verdict from the university in Kenya for withdrawing the
PhD given to Amos as well as the work, he was also disengaged.
Was there a formal communication to you on the outcome of the probe?
No. I only saw it in the media. The very day the information came
was the week that I was thinking about if I should remind them as it had
taken long from March to August.
How did you feel after receiving the message on the outcome of the case?
I felt relieved in the sense that judgement has been passed, and
punishment has been given to this type of issue, academic fraud. I know
what I went through to be able to develop my thesis. I know how much
resources I used to get to these first ladies. More so the issue of
interviews in History, we conduct field interviews into rural areas. I
interviewed rural women. I interviewed elite women. Imagine women in the
legislative house, how do you get access to them? I stayed in Abuja in a
hotel, they would give you an appointment, and they would tell you that
they have one commitment or the other, so you have to wait. Imagine
people like Femi Falana; I was asked to interview him. I know what I
went through to see this type of people. So, for someone to steal my
hard-earned labour, I felt very relieved over the verdict given by the
Kenyatta University. It shows that universities are taking issues of
plagiarism very seriously and with that, it has served as a pointer to
others.
What do you think can assist the system in checking plagiarism?
Well, from what I have seen from the press, even the university had
a plagiarism checker, but he outsmarted them. He connived with a
colleague who was in charge of the software. Each university should have
that software. You can use it to check even write-ups. There are many
things that people do not know are acts of plagiarism. You can even
plagiarize your work in the academic circle if you take your work
without acknowledging even yourself as a source, it is plagiarism, it is
called self-plagiarism. Even if you have taken parts of the work, you
must cite where that work is from and mention the name and the title of
the work where it is coming from. We have been hearing about so many
universities where these cases are found and they have been punished.
They should take the issue seriously when the same case is found in
Nigerian universities. We have a union. It frowns at every act of
plagiarism. Majority of the universities are using it that is how they
check even the publication of journals where you plagiarize work of
somebody, it can easily be detected now. So, it is no longer business as
usual.
Culled from DailyTrust
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