Why Our Lecturers Can’t Teach

By

John Igoli

igolij@yahoo.com

It is common knowledge that Nigerian universities performed poorly in the last World/African ranking of Universities. Several reasons were adduced for this: (a) The rankings were based on online presence and since most of our universities were not online, their performance could not be assessed (b) Nigerian academics publish most of their papers in local Journals and assessments were based on publications in International Journals (c) Our academic programmes are disrupted by strikes by those who are supposed to run and benefit from the system. (d) Most of our lecturers do not have doctorate degrees or grant aided research experience (e) research carried out in our universities do not translate into viable products nor patented or adopted by Industries. The reasons were as many as the commentators but it made a mess of all the reforms, grandstanding, stiff-neckedness to the demands of ASUU and the statement ‘this government has done much more for the universities compared to previous administrations’. In the last strike by ASUU the message was simply ‘with the situation in our universities, the lecturers can’t teach!’ This was greeted by public outcry, comments for and largely against the strike, call for understanding (with who?), dialogue, salary stoppage and finally ASUU was given a placebo and the lecturers returned to class to continue lecturing but still unable to teach. In Nigeria lecturing can best be defined as the transfer of a lecturer’s notes to the students without knowledge gained or imparted. Classroom lectures have become ardours and time wasting therefore handouts, photocopies and compulsory textbooks are now the fastest means of transfer.

 The lack of teaching in our universities is why some of our university administrators and professors, political office holders and the rich have their children abroad for their university education especially postgraduate studies. On the lecturers’ side it has led to the brain drain as lecturers go abroad and into our political sectors or the non-teaching segments of our Education Ministry.  Our postgraduate programmes take thrice the number of years required to graduate. Our Master’s degree programmes are so full of ill that it expires as soon as it is awarded thus many young academics do not have their PhDs and are battling with their terminal Masters Degrees. In Nigeria today, to obtain a PhD at age 40 is news and to obtain a PhD in the sciences (and maybe in the arts) without a research sojourn abroad is to be awarded a stillborn degree. So why are the lecturers not teaching or unable to teach? As this was the true yardstick by which the universities were ranked.

Teaching is the sharing of experience. This is shown by our artisans who do not use lecture notes, textbooks and other lecturing gadgets but train young and illiterate apprentices to become masters of their professions. Students are apprentices of lecturers and can only be truly trained by sharing experiences not downloading lecture notes and available literature materials. Academic experience can only be gained through research. Teaching stopped the very day research died in our universities and that was twenty years ago. Our graduates were bereft of practical experience and gradually teaching drifted from the practical to the alternative to practical. Chemistry is now being taught without chemicals, Theatre arts without theatres, Computer science without computers, Mass communication without communication gadgets/media, Microbiology without microscopes etc. The number of topics and curriculum covered decreases daily, such that when young lecturers are faced with a course synopsis they are to teach, they realise they have learnt nothing! Mentoring which is the standard way young academics learn from the older ones has become extinct. The young academics do not see what they have to gain from the older ones (except perhaps as referees when applying for admissions and jobs) while the older ones are still shocked that their students who could not hardly pass any examination is now a co-lecturer! So they part ways; the younger ones looking for better jobs and scheming to go abroad and the older ones for political appointments and university administrative positions. The only benefit of research in Nigeria now is to become a professor. So it is simply research, publish, accumulate papers and then wait or hustle to be made a professor and research ends. When donor agencies who wish to sponsor research in Nigeria see what is on ground they escape quickly with their funds. It seems the only thing we can teach in Nigeria is how to become a professor!

Unfortunately Nigerians are becoming simultaneously impatient and complacent; trying to explain the situation in our universities has become a mission impossible. The leaders and critics in our educational sector even though are graduates or benefiting from graduates around them, seem to have forgotten the golden years of university education in Nigeria or maybe never experienced it.  If so, let them go and ask. A few things that marked that era were: The university cafeteria served foods in quantities and qualities that were next to that of five star hotels.  Workers and urban elites go to the campus to eat “a good meal”. This is still the case in developed countries but no longer in Nigeria where university cafeteria are now called “cholera joints!” Many “well to do Nigerians” today are surviving based on the ideas and ideals they imbibed while they were on campus as students. These were directly or indirectly obtained from their lecturers. Some others are living based on the commercialisation or extrapolation of their research project work into their businesses/jobs but today there are no more viable project works. In developed countries companies are keenly interested in the research work going on in the Universities and viable ones are purchased or commercialised outright but here companies only know that graduates exist when the NYSC sends corpers to them or when a vacancy exists in their establishments, whereby they invite one thousand graduates per vacancy and then play the game of a satiated predator with helpless preys in its domain. The fact that there are no jobs for our students to graduate into has made them hopeless and the need to study and learn is no longer there. They are rather busy handling the businesses and projects of rich parents and uncles who occupy political positions. To this group of students reading or attending lectures is a waste of time; they will rather bribe or entice lecturers to pass. To most students today, a good meal is much better than a good book or lecture! Hence they confidently vacate their schools in search of money and food. Prostitution for the girls and crime for the boys have become irresistible.

A University was once described as being a “country of its own”.  This is to capture the distinction between the “town” and the ‘‘gown’’. They had a symbiotic relationship akin to that of a husband and wife.  They come together to produce children, nature and groom them for the future but today the town has totally corrupted and tarnished the gown.  The gown in so tattered that it can no longer cover the nakedness of the campuses and those who wear it hence like a lunatic on the street, every person or passer-by can freely pass comments on how bad private and academic issues in the universities are knowing fully well that theirs is the same or worse. It is news when a male lecturer is caught harassing a female student but it is not news that an indigent student has worked hard to make a first class. Lecturers who fight examination malpractices are hated both within and without.

This is why every Tom, Dick and Harry picks up his pen and begins to comment on academic matters and the universities without first understanding what a university is, who or what an academic staff is or represents in a university system, what students are supposed to acquire in going through a university or even contemplating how they can contribute positively to the university system. These critics just throw stones and walk away without realising the damage they have done. A university academic staff position is a universal one. You don’t expect an academic to be retrained when he visits or goes to a research unit or laboratory akin to the one in which he works in his home university.  Hence research articles for publication are peer reviewed and such articles are sent to our university academics from abroad!  It is expected that universities all over the world should conform to certain minimum standards. Rather than aim for this, we want to ostracise the Nigerian Universities. Little wonder that foreigners do not seek scholarships to come and study here while on the contrary Nigerians are paying through their nose to educate their children or themselves abroad. Without the political will or support of our leaders and the society no reform or intervention in the educational sector will work. Unfortunately our politicians and lecturers do not agree much. Hence it is nearly impossible for our politicians to sponsor a motion in favour of our lecturers. Our leaders should give room for the universities to do their own thing else overbearing regulations on the system will erode academic freedom and at best we’ll be running glorified secondary schools. The politicians should be fully prepared to implement the outcome of the ongoing negotiation between the Government and ASUU else all the efforts and issues involved will come to nought. It is kudos to the Government that for once negotiations are going on without the union being on strike. It is certainly a departure from the past and a beacon of hope. Our president should be thanked for that.

The perspective in which you view or see a problem is directly proportional to the distance you are from it.  Those who are presently far away from the universities should stop painting horrible pictures and dimensions of the issues at stake. Not surprising, many people including some lecturers are “very far” from the system even though they may be academic staff of the universities. It is time we distinguish between comments by those who passed through the university and those who were or are being passed through it. The demands by ASUU are what they know it takes to teach and bring our universities back to international recognition. Our leaders and Nigerians in general should give the lecturers a chance and see what our universities will be in the not too distant future. For certainly our lecturers can still teach. Ask our students who are studying abroad; they encounter Nigerian lecturers in all fields of study and expertise.