{"id":2798,"date":"2019-08-17T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2019-08-26T16:10:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T15:10:34","slug":"was-a-nigerian-lecturer-awarded-the-world-championship-in-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/was-a-nigerian-lecturer-awarded-the-world-championship-in-physics\/","title":{"rendered":"Was A Nigerian Lecturer Awarded The World Championship In Physics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLAIM: <\/strong>A viral post claims that a Nigerian, Yakubu Nura, has won the \u201cbiggest tournament on earth in Physics\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION: <\/strong>MISLEADING, while the lecturer did win an award, the awarding institution (IASR) is not credible!<\/p>\n\n\n

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FULL TEXT:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The news<\/a> of a Nigerian lecturer from the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Yakubu Nura, winning the \u201cbiggest tournament on earth in Physics\u201d, has trickled into the nation\u2019s media space<\/a>, and has gained wide reportage<\/a> and celebrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although, smelling a rat, a number of outlets, including Voice of Nigeria<\/a> (VON), have pulled down the story.<\/p>\n

This came on the heel of a pushback at the story by Farooq Kperogi<\/a> and Tolu Ogunlesi<\/a>, both of whom faulted the award\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n

The award was conferred on Yakubu Nura by the International Agency for Standards and Ratings (IASR). He was dubbed<\/a> the \u201cworld champion in physics world cup\u201d\u00a0for his research work on Einstein\u2019s Planetary Equation \u2014 a feat he achieved by seeing off competition from 5,720 others from 97 countries.<\/p>\n

Nura has not replied Dubawa\u2019s request to know how he feels about the award and the publication that landed him the award. But how plausible \u2014 and credible \u2014 is this landmark?<\/p>\n

VERIFICATION OF CLAIM:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

First, that no known credible foreign media ran a reportage of the acclaimed international award is a taint to its credibility. More than that, credible local media outlets did not publish the news; and even some of those who earlier reported it, pulled it down.<\/p>\n

Also, a search<\/a> of the keyword \u201cworld championship in physics\u201d did not yield any meaningful result aside news stories of the award. The only similar competition of such is the International Young Physicists\u2019 Tournament<\/a> (IYPT),\u00a0a week-long physics competition that currently pitches about 150 international pre-university contestants on 17 non-examination research problems that are annually published in late July.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

IASR Has An Obscure Identity<\/h4>\n

Aside not having pronounced international recognition and clear online footprint, the International Agency for Standards and Ratings (IASR) has no unique website in its own name. Its about page<\/a> where it describes itself as \u201cworld\u2019s prominent developer of standards and ratings for products, services and good practices towards ease and efficiency\u201d is contained on a free-hosted blog \u2014 one of the services offered by Google<\/a>. For an organisation that claims to award such a significant honour, one would expect more. In fact, there was no response from the organization when we asked why the institution does not have a self hosted website.<\/p>\n

Abba Gumel, a US-based professor of mathematics and fellow of both the African Academy of Sciences and Nigerian Academy of Science says IASR \u201cis certainly never an arbiter for excellence in physics or any other sciences\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are well known scientific agencies that rank excellence in physics…and the International Agency for Standards and Ratings is not one of them<\/em>,\u201d Gumel adds.<\/p>\n

He identifies Max Planck Institute for Physics, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Nobel Committee as some of the world\u2019s credible platforms that possibly would have administered the conferment of any such award as \u201cworld championship of or in physics…if it ever existed\u201d.<\/p>\n

One Too Many<\/h4>\n

Nura\u2019s daunting award by IASR is not in isolation. Kaywood Leizou, a lecturer of Niger Delta University (NDU), Bayelsa State, reportedly<\/a> \u201cwon the 2018 World Chemical Sciences (Metal Speciation in Sediment) Championship\u201d, beating \u201c5,845 others from 89 countries\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the same year<\/a>, the same platform pronounced\u00a0Shuaib Idris Mohammed \u201cWorld Champion in Agricultural Extension (Credit Facilities)\u201d. But save the local media report of the news, there was no credible source to tie the news to.<\/p>\n

Similarly in 2015, a Nigerian mathematician, Opeyemi Enoch, was reported<\/a> by foremost British media\u00a0to have clinched a\u00a0$1<\/span>\u00a0million prize for solving the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis \u2014 a 156-year-old mathematical problem, and one of the seven Millennium problems prized by the US-based Clay Mathematics Institute at\u00a0$1<\/span> million for solving each one. However, further digging<\/a> showed that only one of the seven \u2014\u00a0 Poincar\u00e9 Conjecture\u00a0\u2014 was earmarked solved, by Grigoriy Perelman in 2003.<\/p>\n

On a number of occasions, too, the claim<\/a> that Philip Emeagwali, an Nigerian-American computer scientist was the creator of the internet has hung in the online media airspace. However, quoting a two-part investigation by the rested Next Magazine, Dubawa showed<\/a>\u00a0that the claim is false. Rather, it was a self-promotion stunt pulled by Philip Emeagwali as his biggest achievement was winning the\u00a0$1,000<\/span>\u00a0Gordon Bell Prize in 1989.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We rate this claim as MISLEADING because the lecturer did win an award but the awarding institution (IASR) is not credible and has shown over time to award honours that it does not seem to have authority to give.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bolaji Aluko, a professor of chemical engineering, and a quondam Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, sums up the reason we believe this story must have gone viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Nigerians bear burden of so much negative news about us that we grope for every good news to counter that. But we must be very careful not to inadvertently worsen that image by making preposterous claims that bring us to into ridicule in the international comity of academics<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Nigerians bear burden of so much negative news about us that we grope for every good news to counter that. But we must be very careful not to inadvertently worsen that image by making preposterous claims that bring us to into ridicule in the international comity of academics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[123],"tags":[347],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[880],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mainstream","tag-featured"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-J8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":880,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"yusuf-akinpelu","display_name":"Yusuf Akinpelu","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b809f751eeab15a98b7d6d37846ad6b403b48db479e0f0c6bc2b578721a57a3?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Akinpelu","first_name":"Yusuf","job_title":"","description":"Yusuf Akinpelu<\/strong> loves stories and he tells them for DUBAWA, having tested them against available facts. He is a graduate of Statistics from the University of Ibadan, where he won the 2019 Youth Digest Campus Journalism Award of the Best News Writer, and 2018 UCJUI Award for Campus Journalist of the year. Occasionally, he writes satires. He has interest in human rights and believes in the Nigerian Project."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/unimaid-lecturer-defeats-5720-others-to-win-world-physics-competition.jpg?fit=1000%2C600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}