Addressing Animosities In Nigerian Varsities

I can say boldly that if the university system is exposed in its ramifications, it could be worse than the government we criticise – Prof. Timothy Awoniyi (Newswatch March 7, 1994).

The time has come when honest Nigerians, especially those well acquainted with the university system, must speak up so that the process of nation-cleansing can be a holistic rather than a one-sided affair. There was a time when a professor’s salary of less than N10,000 a month could rarely suffice to cater for his family during the month. That was a time when honest lecturers would shop in “Belgum” market for old dresses for themselves and their children. They were not ashamed to do so.
Then came a time when the “fight for salary structure” and improved conditions of service made the university system to be associated with strikes, “sorting” and other professional malpractices. That was a time when lecturers saw their former students, known to be leaders of cultists, become honourable national leaders and politicians. Then followed internal animosities, with fight for deanship and lobby for positions in government, dividing the academia to the extent that Ph.D degree became an acronym for “Pull him down” syndrome.
The growing rot in the university system came in tandem with growing devaluation of the nation’s currency – the Naira. Without going into the possible causes of the drastic devaluation of the Nigerian monetary system, one can say that its widespread effects forced many Nigerian lecturers to move out of the country for job satisfaction. The phenomenon of leaving Nigeria for countries with stable economy was not peculiar to university lecturers alone, because medical doctors and other professionals also did similar things.
It became increasingly glaring that Nigeria’s reward system had been grossly faulty for a long time. Between 1972 and 1982, the situation took shape gradually, characterized largely by the phenomenon of getting or grabbing what one can, without giving back anything of equivalent value. Productivity and integrity became rare qualities in Nigeria, as personal success was judged by myopic and measurable indices. Cult phenomenon became a common practise in universities, of which some highly placed people in the society where patrons.
One would not shy away from pointing fingers at the military for its role, among other malfeasance, of infecting the psyche of Nigerian youths with a culture of brashness and impunity. Politeness and courtesy became alien qualities among Nigerian youths. Let it be pointed out that a majority of the youths who were cultists and of crude temperament were largely children of the affluent class, especially children brought up in barracks. This assertion can hardly be dislodged effectively.
The university system, being a mirror-image of the society where it exists, would definitely reflect the wider culture and goings-on in the society. Therefore, there is no prank or trend in a society that cannot manifest in university campuses. It would be necessary to state that the introduction of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) contributed in no small measure to put Nigerian universities in the condition that we find ourselves currently – a situation where people fake what they can’t make.
Whatever the justifications and reasons for the unification of admissions process in the university system, the abuses which that policy sought to eradicate, obviously became worse. When each university conducted its own admissions and screening processes, there was no way that some radical and die-hard people of integrity in the committee would all give into malpractices. It is doubtful if such robust process of checks and balances can feature in an impersonal body as JAMB, with electronic systems that can be manipulated.
Background of animosities in universities.
When it became a policy that professors would retire with their full salaries and other benefits, then came an era of rat race. Again it was made a condition that no lecturer without a Ph.D would become a professor; no matter how highly experienced. The result was that becoming a professor was characterised by fraud, chicanery, duplicity, etc.
While in world-class universities highly experienced and dedicated lecturers could become professors even with first degree certificates, in Nigeria a lorry-load of certificates would be needed for the purpose. The result of this trend is that world-class lecturers soon saw their former students become professors with less than eleven years of teaching and research experiences.
Coupled with this trend is the fact that close to seventy percent of the academic staff of Nigerian universities are either private consultants, business men and women, pastors or politicians. They often have the support and patronage of close friends in government, including former students who are highly placed in the public or private sectors of the economy. A situation where a lecturer who would hardly be in the lecture hall to teach his students, but always in the corridors in power, becomes a professor, his colleagues would soon throw dedication to duty to the wind.
It is quite human that nobody would want to slave himself to death for a system which does not reward diligent dedication to duty. What we find in Nigeria is that militancy, confrontation and noise-making attract attention, rather than follow slow, due process in a gentle way. Consequently, those who succeed in dealing with the establishment are those who resort to confrontation and crude ways of getting what they want.
Frankly, there are, among Nigerian university lecturers, the best that anyone can find anywhere else, with those longer in service having wider exposures and experiences. Unfortunately, there are also some in the system with the motive of making money fast, including some too with “Toronto certificates”. This would take us to the process of appointments and promotion of lecturers in the university system.
Appointments and Promotions in Universities.
The minimum requirement for appointment as an assistant lecturer in a university is Ph.D certificate, although some exceptionally brilliant candidates with less certificates can be employed as graduate assistants. There are some disciplines where expertise are rare, creating room for available candidates to be appointed. But there is a world of difference between a candidate having a certificate and the degree of diligent performance and personal character of the candidate.
For a number of years, the quality of diligence of Nigerian university students towards studies has been on the decline. Inspite of this phenomenon, there are students at all levels of university programmes who are exceptionally brilliant by nature. Since the Appointments and Promotions Committee in the university system hardly conducts aptitude or written tests for candidates, picking out the most brilliant candidates usually depends on oral performance during interview and the grade of certificate presented.
It is needful to remind the public also that the process of acquisition of university certificates is like anything else in Nigeria. The least that one can say is that a country which places higher reliance and value on certificates rather than practical competence, would encourage individuals to acquire fake and fraudulent certificates. Nigerians know ingenious ways of doing this.
One of the dangers we have in the Nigerian university system, which is also one of the causes of animosities therein, is the difficulty of differentiating the genuine from the fake. Especially in a situation where students who are the closest persons to lecturers and know the capability of each of them, do not make any input in lecturers’ assessments, promotions are bound to be faulty.
Animosities among the academia also arise from the peculiar politics of the university environment where ego, meanness, envy and pettiness predispose some staff towards using students to rubbish the reputation of their colleagues. Female lecturers and students are particularly handy tools in this game of calumny whereby accusations of sexual advances serve as the trump-card. Along with this malfeasance is the gossip connected with course allocations.
Roles of Vice-Chancellors
There are some university vice-chancellors who adopt divisive strategies as ready tools of administering the campus environment. Either they surround themselves with boot-lickers and table bearers, some factions of student-cultists, or members of their ethnic origin. This pattern is more common with VCs appointed from outside the regular staff of a university. It may be that being in a strong or new environment, the need for caution demands having to work with a clique that one can manipulate until one masters the environment properly.
The result has always been that the culture of collegiality gives way to paternalism and then to a possible witch-hunt of perceived or suspected rivals and “ill-disposed” staff. This phenomenon has been largely responsible for the estrangement, division and animosities in the university system, among various categories of staff. The situation is worse where some vice-chancellors delight in listening to gossips and operating a fascist system of administration.
Along with this divisive and fascist system of running a university system comes the issue of selective and unfair promotion of staff, where prejudices and animosities feature glaringly. When a university administration becomes a cult or political system, then bad faith and enmity are enthroned.
The purpose of this write- up is not to enumerate the woes besetting the university system in Nigeria, many of which are well known already to the public. Rather, apart from making a strong point that there has been a fall from the high pedestal of dignity to the abyss of disunity, there are animosities in the universities. Between the academic and non-academic staff there are animosities bordering on ego, salary structures and age of retirement, among other grouse.
Between the university administration and the entire campus community, all is not well, arising largely from legacies left behind by past university administrators. Student cultism thrives in such environment where battle for supremacy and patronage of the high and mighty play some role. Same division exists among students.
The most disturbing animosity is that which had been fostered among the academic staff, fuelled by various interest groups. To name such interest groups and the genesis of the trend may not be a polite thing to do. Let it suffice to say that promotion to professorship should be reviewed seriously, so that we do not continue to have “professor of Olularingology”, or “Quota professors”. Too many already!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

By: Bright Amirize