What do you get when a journalism professor abandons truth for clickbait, and a history professor trades collegiality for condescension? You get the toxic tag-team of Farooq Kperogi and Moses Ochonu – two self-styled public intellectuals whose antics have poisoned public discourse. In this polemical piece, we take off the gloves to decry the nefarious claims and behavior of the likes of Kperogi and Moses. One is a serial peddler of falsehoods; the other, a sneering diasporan academic who derides his home-based colleagues. Both deserve a searing spotlight on their hypocrisy and harm. Strap in for a dose of scathing truth-telling, laced with sarcastic humor, as we expose Kperogi’s lies and Moses’s hubris in equal measure.

Farooq Kperogi: Professor of Falsehoods

Farooq Kperogi – “Dr.” Kperogi as he loves to be known – has fashioned himself a champion of the downtrodden and a fierce critic of Nigeria’s leadership. But scratch the surface of his verbose columns and Facebook posts, and you find a professor of perfidy, a man disturbingly comfortable with fake news and baseless claims. As Adamu Tilde once put it, “Kperogi is a purveyor and enabler of fake news” who has a “consistent, recurring and habitual attitude” of concocting stories. Indeed, Kperogi’s relationship with facts is about as solid as quicksand – whenever reality doesn’t suit his narrative, he simply fabricates a new one. Below are just a few of Kperogi’s most infamous lies (drawn from documented instances) that illustrate his slippery grasp on truth:

• The Budget Lie (2016): Kperogi claimed, via an “impeccable source,” that the Aso Villa Clinic’s budget exceeded the combined budgets of all 16 Nigerian teaching hospitals. It was flat-out false – yet when corrected, Kperogi didn’t humbly retract. Instead, he doubled down and insulted those pointing out his error, even smearing the President’s spokesman (who happened to be his former teacher) as “incapable”. So much for respecting facts or mentors.
• £6 Million Ear Infection (2016): Not long after, Kperogi peddled a ridiculous rumor that President Buhari spent a whopping £6 million on treating an ear infection in London – a tale that was promptly debunked as a “barefaced lie.” Despite official clarification, the professor refused to recant or provide evidence. Apparently, no conspiracy theory was too absurd if it tarnished Buhari; truth be damned.
• Self-Made “Assassination” Scare (2019): In one of his more bizarre moves, Kperogi literally manufactured a threat against himself. He wrote a WhatsApp message to himself, then published it, claiming an unnamed security friend warned of a government “plot to assassinate” him. Of course, being safely ensconced in the U.S., Kperogi never bothered to report this supposed plot to the FBI – a hint that even he didn’t believe his own melodrama. The only thing in danger was his credibility (and that was long gone).
• Fake Videos and Blaming “Ignorance” (2019): Kperogi’s propensity for spreading unverified garbage hit a low during the 2019 elections. Caught twice sharing fake videos as “evidence” of electoral rigging, he was named and shamed by an investigative fact-check report. A normal journalist might apologize – but not Kperogi. Instead, he lashed out at the fact-checkers, deriding their work as “a tendentious, poorly written, inaccurate screed” filled with “malicious ignorance”. In other words, confronted with impeccable evidence of his falsehoods, Kperogi defaulted to insults and bluster. (Incredible! If Dr. Kperogi isn’t a purveyor of fake news, I don’t know who is.)

This pattern of sensational misinformation has defined Farooq Kperogi’s career. He revels in outrageous claims and toxic innuendo under the guise of “commentary.” Even when he ostensibly debunks a wild conspiracy, he cannot resist adding a poisonous twist. For example, during the absurd 2018 “Jibril from Sudan” rumor (which alleged Buhari died and was replaced by a double), Kperogi correctly called it “implausible absurdity” – but, in the same breath, sneered that Buhari “isn’t a clone, but a clown.” He blended fact with ridicule, turning a debunking into yet another jab. This has long been Kperogi’s style: any chance to mock or vilify, decency and decorum be damned.

Kperogi’s most recent and perhaps cruelest hoax came in 2025, proving that even out of office, Buhari couldn’t escape Kperogi’s obsession. On July 16, 2025, Kperogi broadcast a salacious claim that First Lady Aisha Buhari had been secretly divorced from President Buhari “before his death,” insinuating marital strife at the funeral. He cited no official source – only a vague anonymous tip and flimsy circumstantial “evidence” (e.g. travel timing). In reality, this was a hurtful fabrication against a grieving widow. Aisha Buhari publicly debunked the lie, affirming she remained married to Buhari till his final breath. Faced with public outrage – and the prospect of legal libel for defaming the former First Lady – Kperogi finally issued an apology for what he admitted was “one of the worst and cruelest lapses of judgment I have ever committed.” But note: this contrition came only after he was thoroughly called out. Until then, he was in attack mode, ridiculing critics who questioned his story and insisting they “didn’t pay attention” to his oh-so-brilliant scoop. In other words, he showed arrogance until accountability cornered him. As one commentator observed, Kperogi chose “sensationalism over integrity,” and his actions were “not just unethical – they were inhumane.”

Farooq Kperogi styles himself as a truth-teller speaking truth to power, but time and again he has only proven adept at speaking lies to the powerless, all while basking in the adulation of his social media echo chamber. He utterly failed the basic tenets of honesty and ethics that one would expect from a journalism professor – accuracy, verification, fairness – instead prioritizing his vendettas and ego. Little wonder that many Nigerians now ridicule and vilify him in return, having lost all respect for a man who so cavalierly flings falsehoods. Kperogi hates President Buhari – that much is obvious. But in giving free rein to his hate, he has sacrificed any claim to credibility or virtue. He has become the very thing he professes to despise: a merchant of misinformation, a peddler of toxic narratives that add no value to public discourse. Until Kperogi learns humility and embraces a “duty to the truth” – by ceasing his bogus claims and apologizing for the damage done – he will remain a tarnished figure, a cautionary tale of how hate and hubris can rot away one’s integrity.

Moses Ochonu: Arrogance and Condescension on Display

If Kperogi’s poison is lying, Moses Ochonu’s is loathing – a contemptuous loathing for the very academic community he hails from. Professor Moses E. Ochonu, a Nigerian historian teaching in the United States, has appointed himself a one-man tribunal to condemn Nigerian academia as a wasteland. In Ochonu’s worldview, virtually every Nigerian-based professor today is subpar, unethical, or “left behind” – and he doesn’t shy away from blanket insults. In a rejoinder to those defending Nigerian universities, Ochonu sneered that diaspora critics (like himself) are entirely justified because “the worst university in the US is light-years better than the best public university in Nigeria.” That jaw-dropping claim (which Kperogi himself echoed approvingly) is nothing less than a slap in the face to every hardworking scholar in Nigeria. According to this logic, unless you have an American or European stamp on your CV, you’re an intellectual non-entity – a second-class academic citizen in your own country.

Ochonu’s contempt goes beyond institutions and extends to his colleagues back home. In a widely circulated 2021 commentary, he painted Nigeria’s academic culture as “depressingly poor” and argued that since the 1990s, home-based scholars are “no longer even remotely capable” of producing globally relevant research or publishing in respectable journals. To Moses, the Nigerian university system is so dysfunctional that it has essentially killed the ability of its professors to compete – an overbroad indictment that tars thousands of dedicated academics with one brush. Yes, Nigerian higher education faces serious challenges – funding woes, brain drain, bureaucratic decay – but Ochonu’s approach is to take those real issues and drown them in derision and fatalism. He acts as though every Nigerian lecturer is a lazy, unethical caricature, and only the diaspora folks like him understand “true” scholarship. Such arrogance is rich, considering Ochonu earned his first degrees in Nigeria and was mentored by the same Nigerian professors he now belittles.

Even fellow academics have called out Moses Ochonu’s overgeneralizations and bile. Professor Ademola Dasylva of the University of Ibadan politely reminded Ochonu that, despite systemic problems, “there are still respected, responsive and responsible academics in Nigerian universities” who excel globally – scholars whose “excellent contributions do not deserve his insults.” Indeed, many Nigerian professors continue to win international grants, publish in top journals, and train outstanding students under challenging conditions. They do so without demanding Moses Ochonu’s approval – and certainly without needing to be smeared by his frustration-fueled tirades. Ochonu’s response? He grudgingly admitted exceptions exist, but blithely dismissed the need to “periodically announce” them since (he claims) any “fair reader” should assume he knows about a few good apples. In other words, he couldn’t be bothered to moderate his rhetoric or add nuance; doing so would dilute the thrilling rush of his blanket condemnation. He even doubled down that he is angry – and that anyone not as angry as him must be “complicit” in the rot. This is Moses’s modus operandi: posture as the righteous angry prophet, and if you object to his tone or generalizations, well, you’re just part of the problem.

To be clear, nobody is arguing that Nigeria’s universities are paragons of excellence at the moment. The system has serious flaws – many that insiders themselves decry. But Ochonu’s scathing assessments often cross the line from tough love into outright denigration. He appears to take a perverse elitist glee in cataloguing the failings of homeland institutions and highlighting the “inferiority” of anyone who didn’t enjoy the privileges he did later abroad. At times, he has verged on implying that Nigerian-based professors with only local training are simply lesser beings. For example, he emphasises that in the U.S., a PhD is required to teach, whereas in Nigeria many lecturers don’t have PhDs, ergo the quality is low. True or not, harping on this in absolutist terms ignores context and humiliates his colleagues. It’s the tone that rankles – a tone of unbridled superiority. Little wonder that critics accused him of “disdain for colleagues in Nigeria” and urged him to be “less acerbic” even when making valid points. Ochonu could have chosen to engage constructively – to urge reform while uplifting the efforts of those trying to make a difference on the ground. Instead, he opts for public scolding and smug pronouncements of Nigeria’s academic doom.

The irony is as thick as a textbook: Moses Ochonu and Farooq Kperogi both hail from the same academic fraternity they now scoff at, and both owe much of their early formation to Nigerian institutions. (Kperogi got his start in Nigerian newsrooms before moving abroad; Ochonu earned his B.A. at Bayero University Kano, studying under Nigerian professors.) Yet today, ensconced in America, they act as if geography = moral and intellectual superiority. Kperogi’s and Ochonu’s buddy-buddy relationship only amplifies this echo chamber of arrogance. In fact, when Kperogi faced backlash for his Aisha Buhari divorce fiasco, guess who rushed to write a labored defense of him? None other than Moses Ochonu. In a groveling response, Moses praised Kperogi’s “sincere, human, empathetic” apology and insisted his friend did nothing that terrible – essentially trying to whitewash Kperogi’s grave offense as an excusable lapse. The piece read, as I noted in another piece, “less like independent analysis and more like a character reference for a buddy.” Ochonu’s loyalty to his fellow diaspora loudmouth outweighed any loyalty to objective truth or the feelings of the bereaved First Lady. This you-scratch-my-back, I-scratch-yours dynamic reveals the depth of their intellectual incest: two peas in a pod, propping up each other’s narratives and ego, while dismissing any criticism as ignorant or “anti-intellectual.”

Conclusion: Calling Out the Hypocrisy

In sum, Farooq Kperogi and Moses Ochonu have morphed into a distasteful duo emblematic of everything wrong with certain self-anointed intellectuals. Kperogi thunders about holding power to account, yet routinely fails to hold himself to the simplest standard of truth. Moses Ochonu champions higher standards in academia, yet embodies the very hubris and incivility that degrade intellectual discourse. One spreads lies and refuses to truly apologize; the other spreads cynicism and refuses to acknowledge the dignity of his peers. Both cloak their bile in the language of “critique” and “patriotism,” but neither seems motivated by genuine goodwill or constructive solutions – only by ego and resentment.

It is high time we stop treating these two as brave truth-tellers. In reality, Kperogi and Ochonu are two sides of the same counterfeit coin: one side is stamped with Falsehood, the other with Arrogance. They thrive on the chaos and outrage they create. But Nigerians are not obliged to buy what they’re selling. We can reject Kperogi’s toxic misinformation and still demand better governance. We can refute Ochonu’s sneering generalizations and still pursue academic reform. In fact, calling out these men’s excesses is part of clearing the air for more sincere discourse.

At the end of the day, Farooq Kperogi needs to learn that lies have consequences and that being a professor doesn’t give one a free pass to peddle fiction as fact. Moses Ochonu needs to learn that criticism is not a license for condescension, and that rage is not a substitute for reason. Until they do, both will remain cautionary examples – the professor who lost his integrity to partisanship, and the scholar who lost his humility to self-righteousness. And we, the public, will be here, mercilessly fact-checking their claims and laughing at their pretensions, until they either reform or fade into irrelevance.

In the words of Adamu Tilde, “you don’t need to like [Buhari] to uphold facts – you just need to be a decent human being”. Likewise, you don’t need to study abroad to be a good scholar – you just need decency, diligence, and respect for truth. It’s a pity that Farooq Kperogi and Moses Ochonu, with all their education, have yet to learn these simple lessons. Enough is enough – the time for rising above hate, lies, and hubris is now, and the likes of Kperogi and Moses would do well to heed that call.

Sources:

• Adamu Tilde, “The seven times Farooq Kperogi fabricated lies.”
• Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi, “Farooq Kperogi’s false claims on Buhari: A moral and legal reckoning.”
• Moses E. Ochonu, “Misusing Falola to Justify a Dysfunctional Status Quo” (USA/Africa Dialogue Series, Jan 2021)
• Farooq Kperogi, “3 Fallacies in Falola’s ‘Diss’ of Diasporan Academics” (Notes From Atlanta, Jan 2021)
• Bukola Adeyemi, “A response to Moses Ochonu on Farooq Kperogi’s Aisha Buhari apology.”