Although Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a labour union rather than a professional association, there is a pride and a reputation fit to be sustained. University lecturers are not only among the elite of any nation but they are also role models and moulders of character of the younger generation. It is no longer a secret that a professor had been bruised, brought low by a female student and also convicted by a court for official misconduct. The scandal has become a national embarrassment and also causing jubilation in some quarters.
For your retired older colleagues, the Professor Richard Akindele case is a deep wound which raises several issues. For those of us who know Akindele personally, it is with a bleeding heart that one sees him end his career in such a dusty manner. However, this letter is not for Professor Richard Akindele, but for the umbrella body of university lecturers, to which he belonged.
The kind of ridicule and funs that ill-disposed female students often make behind the back of their lecturers can be quite disturbing. Without enumerating them or defending such lecturers who become victims of students’ calumny, the purpose of this letter is to advise lecturers to be truly professional. It is a known fact that getting too close to people can lead to some contempt, especially when a highly-placed individual becomes “too simple” with sub-ordinates.
Obviously, not all the students that a lecturer deals with daily are well-brought up in their homes. There are also quite many of them that one would wonder how they ever got admission into the university. Therefore, while some lecturers would mean well towards their students and treat them as friends, there are those who would consider such good-natured lecturers as “too simple”. In the Nigerian context people who become too simple are usually looked down upon and exploited.
Students have been known to take loans from kind-hearted lecturers, and at the end of the day such kind gesture could result in unpleasant experiences. The kind of pranks which some students play on lecturers are better experienced personally than described. The consequence is that lecturers who want to keep their reputation intact, keep a social distance between themselves and their students. Prof. Akindele was too simple.
With regards to class attendance and examination issues, the regulation that a student must have 75% attendance in class to qualify to write an examination must be strictly observed. Let some minutes be spent in taking class attendance and let students who are 30 minutes late be barred from lectures for the day. Enforcement of these rules would force students to imbibe discipline.
The practice of having course representatives who act as liaison persons between lecturers and students must stop. Such “course-reps” have been known to do a number of ugly things in the name of innocent lecturers, such as asking students to contribute some money “to show appreciation” to lecturers. Many lecturers rarely know about these levies but their names would be smeared in scandals.
Academic staff union of universities should, as a body, insist on university autonomy in the appointment of vice-chancellors. The tradition is that from among the most senior professors, three should be nominated by colleagues and their names sent to the visitor to appoint one. What we have seen in Nigerian universities is a situation where such appointment becomes a political issue. Political lobbyists considered “indispensable” have been “planted” in universities who turn out to destroy the unity and collegiality among the staff.
Handling of examinations and results should follow due academic regulations. Questions set by lecturers as well as results are usually subject to scrutiny and vetting by an independent body. Marked scripts are meant to be submitted along with model answers and marking scheme for a committee to scrutinize. Students should be handled measure for measure; sans Monica!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

Bright Amirize