In 2008, AEEA co-hosted the ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) Global Colloquium on Engineering Education in Cape Town, South Africa. Prof. Wu Qidi, the Former Minister, Ministry of Education,China was in attendance. Three principal members of AEEA (Dr. Mbaguta, Prof. Duncan and Prof. Falade) met and discussedwith her on capacity building in Africa.We agreed that Zola should follow-up while Prof. Duncan and Prof. Falade took charge of other areas. One of the outcomes of the hosting was the AEEA-China project of which Dr. Zola Mbaguta was appointed the desk officer. Since that time, Dr. Mbaguta has showed himself as a pathological liar, a person of high moral decadence and a fraudster. These attributes are captured in his activities below:
- AEEA-CHINA Project
Notwithstanding the fact that AEEA-China project was a direct outcome of the hosting of ASEE Global Colloquium in Cape Town,South Africa, Dr. Mbaguta made the AEEA Executive Committee to believe that it was the South African Government that signed an agreement with Chinese government on behalf of AEEA (Attachment 1 item 1).Under the project, 21 delegates from ten African countries travelled to China for a 3-week workshop in 2009. The acknowledgement of South Africa Government for the purportedly signed agreement that never existed wascontained in the welcome speech that the President of AEEA, Prof. Falade presented at the opening ceremony of the 3-week workshop in Beijing to the participants and the people of China. In 2010, at the Executive meeting in Cameroon, after a lot of pressure was mounted on Dr. Mbaguta to tell the truth, he confessed that South African Government did not sign any agreement on behalf of AEEA. However, he claimed that he tried to persuade the South African government to adopt the project as a presidential project (Attachment 2 item 1).
1.1In Beijing
While in Beijing, Dr. Mbaguta, one of the perceived leaders of the delegates to China, was the odd man out. He went out of hotel at odd timesin breach of security despite an expressed warning by our host not to do so. He noted that South Africa was worse than China on issues of safety to lives and properties. The door to his room was forced open by the Hotel Management on our approval to do so, because we thought that something terrible had happened to him because with heavy bangs onthe door of his hotel room, there was no sign that any human being was in the room. On breaking through the door, he was found dead drunk with a lady, strange to our group from Africa. The truth is that Dr. Zola Mbaguta by his actions misrepresented his country and the continent at large in China.
1.2Demand for Administrative Fee
In Beijing, at a meeting with our host, Dr. Mbaguta demanded moneyto run his office in South Africa which he tagged ‘Cost of running AEEA office’.They told us that it was not in their practice to fund the running of the home offices of their partners but Zola remained adamant in his demands.
On arrival in South Africa from China, after the programme, Dr. Mbaguta wrote to Prof. Wu Qidi that he must be paid the cost of running his office in South Africa (Attachment 3 items 10, 11 and 12) noting that TsinghuaUniversity collected money from Chinese Government but refused to give our share to us. The AEEA Executive members frowned at the content of his letter to Prof. Wu Qidi. He was scolded and advised to withdraw his letter and never to write on behalf of AEEA again without the approval of the President. Not only did he refuse to withdraw the letter, he called members of the executive committee ‘names’ for daring to caution him (Attachment 4 items 45) and abused the Chinese people for attempting to display their imperialistic tendency andtrying to enslave us through the programmes (Attachment 5 item 4 and Attachment 6 items 4, 5 and 8). AEEA members are completely opposed to Dr. Mbaguta’s outburst and his use of uncouth words against the Chinese people who have demonstrated genuine interest in capacity building in Africa and have spent a lot of resources to train 21 Africans in Beijing for three weeks and still paid stipend to all participants under China-AEEA project. It is not in our character to dine and wine with our benefactor(s) and still go ahead and stab him (them) at the back as Zola had done.
Dr. Mbaguta’s mail of the 15th Feb, 2011 contained a picture that he took with a white man that he called a ‘Chinese’, where he claimed that a cheque for a certain amount of money was paid to him by the Chinese government as the required administrative fee under the China-AEEA project.(Attachment 7 item 1). The notes below the picture demonstrated high level of vulgarness that characterized Zola’s life.
2.0REGISTRATION OF AEEA
At the inauguration of AEEA in Pretoria, South Africa, it was decided that the Association should be registered in South Africa. In 2010, Dr. Mbaguta informed the Executive members that he had registered AEEA in South Africa. But he never did.His non-registration of AEEA was further confirmed by UK National Commission for UNESCO.In 2010, there was a ‘Call for an Expression of Interest’ for the improvement of Engineering Education in Sub-Sahara Africa by the United Kingdom (UK) National Commission for UNESCO. We (AEEA) responded to the call but lost out because our organization was not registered in South Africa as claimed by Dr. Mbaguta. This was because in our submission, we indicated that the official office of AEEA was in South Africa but on the basis of its non-registration in South Africa, UK National Commission for UNESCO dropped AEEA from the project. (Attached 8 item 2)
3.0AFRICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN LIBYA (ARCEE 2010)
Dr. Mbaguta single handedly frustrated the hosting of the above conference which was scheduled to hold in Libya in October, 2010. He lied about the registration of the organization in South Africa, the certificate was required by the Libyan Government to approve and provide support for the hosting of the conference. It dawned on us very late that Zola lied.
4.0FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST:
4.1AEEA PARTNERS
(i)Prof. Mona Dahms and Prof. Peter Achi
In 2009, Dr. Mbaguta accused Prof. Mona Dahms (Danish) that she colluded with Prof. Peter Achi (Nigerian) to convert for their personal use the money meant for his (Dr. Mbaguta’s) office to train one hundred (100) Africans (Attachment 9 items 4, 5 and 6). At the executive meeting in Libya, he was warned verbally and directed to apologize for his unfounded allegation against the duo but Dr. Mbaguta never apologized.
(ii)TsinghuaUniversity, Beijing
Dr. Mbaguta in his mail of accused TsinghuaUniversity of wrong doing. He noted “TsinghuaUniversity” received funding from the Chinese Ministry of commerce for our seminar in 2009 through a China-South Africa Bilateral Cooperation-Grant. Tsinghua took all the administrative and management fees meant for us for themselves (Attachment 3 item 10).
4.2AEEA EXECUTIVES MEMBERS
Dr. Mbaguta had at one time or the other accused the AEEA Executive members in general and the president in particular.
He accused the executive members of asking him to hand-over to the president the China-AEEA project.
He accused the President of stealing China-AEEA project because he endorsed the MOU on behalf of AEEA in Beijing. He noted that when the President was called upon to sign the MOU, that the president could have called him (Zola) to sign the MOU (Attachment 10item 12 and Attachment 11 items 1 and 3).
Dr. Mbaguta accused the president of collecting a huge sum of money from Denmark and used the money to train Nigerians whereas according to him the money was meant for his office to train Africans (Attachment 10 item 17).
4.3AEEA MEMBERS
He accused members that ventured to ask him questions about his wrong actions of conniving to steal AEEA from him (Dr. Mbaguta).
In general, Dr. Mbaguta finds it difficult to operate in a sane environment.
5.0RESULTS OF THE LLP ACADEMIC NETWORKS CANDIDATURES EVALUATION
On the 10thof July, 2012,Zola wrote a letter to AEEA members on the above subject matter claiming that he was working on an exchange programme with University of Florence, Italy.
He attached a letter purportedly endorsed by Prof. Claudio Borri.
The President of AEEA got in touch with Claudio for clarification because in 2010, on behalf of AEEA, he (President) co-signed a proposal for partnership with University of Florence.
Claudio indicated that he had never heard the name Dr. Zola Mbaguta. The desk officer for the proposal, Randi, also showed that he was never in touch with Zola and wondered how Zola got the referenced letter.
All the mails are herewith attached:
Attachment 12 – Zola’s letter to AEEA members
Attachment 12a – President of AEEA’s, (Funso’s) letter to Claudio
Attachment 12b – Claudio’s and Randi’s responses
Dr. Mbaguta deceived AEEA members in all his claims on projects and programmes by circulating fictitious mails to members on projects and programme that never existed.
6.0EXPULSIONOF DR. ZOLAMBAGUTA
The Executive Committee of AEEA came to a conclusion that the only thing that was certain about Dr. Mbaguta was the uncertainty that characterized his life as a member of AEEA. He is unpredictable, emotionally unstable, morally bankrupt and lies effortlessly. He has driven away some of our foreign colleagues because of his vulgarness. The Committee considered Zola’s consistent outbursts on anybody with contrary view(s) on issue(s) without any basis as ‘unfortunate’ for which he was given verbal warnings at Executive Committee meetings. He is considered unfit for a decent environment. On the strength of foregoing the Executive Committee reluctantly but dutifully expelled Dr. Mbaguta from AEEA (Attachment 13).
7.0AEEA MONIES
Dr. Mbaguta has been in the habit of collecting monies from both individual and institutional members without rendering account. In a letter dated 10th July, 2012, he was directed to render financial account of the Association (Attachment 14). His refusal to comply with the directive within the stipulated time frame necessitated the issuance of a reminderdated 24th July, 2012 (Attachment15) to him. He also refused to comply. This is an act of irresponsibility and could be a fraud in the making.
We request that you would use your good offices to help us recover the Association’s money from him (Zola).Nobody knows the extent to which he had used or still using AEEA name to acquire financial benefits.We shall appreciate your efforts towards uncovering this.
8.0UNAUTHORIZED USE OF AEEA NAME AND IMPERSONATION
After the expulsion of Dr. Mbaguta from AEEA, he was advised to desist from using AEEA’sname under any guise. However, Dr. Mbaguta still continued to use the name of the Association, this is evident from the letter written by him on 10th July, 2012 (Attachment12).
He has also started impersonating the AEEA President by addressing himself as the President of the Association (Attachment12 item 2).
9.0OUR REQUEST
We request that you help us in the following areas:
(i)Stop Dr. Mbaguta from circulating fictitious documents to members.
(ii)He should be mandated to render account of all the monies that he has collected on behalf of AEEA.
(iii)Investigate the false accusations against individual(s) and institutions
(iv)Stop him from using the name of AEEA for any form of transactions.
(v)Stop him from parading himself as the President of AEEA.
On behalf of the members of AEEA, I thank you for your anticipated support.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Prof. Funso Falade
President, AEEA
Cc: Honourable Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, Nigeria
Cc: All Members of AEEA
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