Empty pockets, podiums: Who will teach ‘Nigeria’s future’?

By: Adewale A. Adekunle

LAST week, a young lecturer told me something I have not forgotten. “My ex-student is working in a bank now,” he added. He has only been there for two years, yet every month he earns more than I do. He laughed after saying it, but there was nothing funny about the statement. That talk stuck with me. Not because either profession is to be preferred over the other. Raising the salaries of bankers is appropriate. Engineers should be paid a good wage. Be nice to doctors and give them good wages. That is another question. But the real tragedy is that those who are responsible for producing all these professionals are in a dilemma of living with dignity.

In Nigeria today, somewhere, a lecturer is teaching a class of three hundred students but worrying about unpaid rent. Another is always in a hurry from campus to campus because one salary is no longer sufficient. Another is filling out application forms for an escape from the country because knowledge is more valuable to a university thousands of kilometers away than it is to his own country. But each year we come together to gripe. Examination malpractice is a problem about which we complain. We gripe about “sorting”. We complain about the fact that far too many graduates are failing to be able to uphold the certificate they wear with pride. We complain about the lack of research. We talk about the brain drain. We complain about the dropping ranking of Nigerian universities in the world. But how many times do we ask our most important question? When teaching does not ensure a decent future, who will be teaching Nigeria’s future?

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The conversation on university education is soon talked about in terms of buildings, accreditation, rankings and technology. These are important. However, universities are not constructed of concrete. They are human made. The lecture theatre is nothing other than a large room with chairs if the lecturer is not motivated. There have been several announcements of salary reviews for university staff from governments. There is always hope for each announcement. After a few months, there is a rise in inflation. Eating costs rise. Transport costs rise. House rents climb. The lecturer who will write tomorrow’s lecture is doing a calculation on how to make ends meet until the month-end. Knowledge cannot flourish where survival has become the daily assignment. Many people think that lecturers are only at work when they stand in front of their students. They do not observe the hours a teacher spends to prepare a lecture, to mark papers, to supervise project work, to write recommendation letters, to research and publish papers for promotion. Many of these tasks are carried out out of sight, after hours.

The effects are starting to be hard to ignore. The most accomplished scholars can still be offered jobs overseas where their skills are more valued. Younger lecturers, who see their seniors facing difficulties after decades of service, start wondering if academia is worth it. Many of the best students who could have made excellent professors opt to go into other fields like banking, consulting, technology and elsewhere outside Nigeria. Today the university loses. Tomorrow the country will be the one that loses. There are many Nigerian lecturers who are still honest, and they deserve respect for their integrity amidst all the perils. Yet, it would be untrue to say that financial difficulties for a long time don’t tempt anyone. Persistent financial pressures can foster the conditions for bad behaviour, although weak enforcement and poor ethical decisions also have a role. The lecturer who is preoccupied with financial worries can never give his students the best of him. If a country does not invest in its human resources, it cannot hope to receive miracles from its human resources. That is why the welfare of lecturers is not just a ‘salary’ issue. It’s a matter of national development.

Maybe it’s time we refocused the discussion. We need to remember that the question we should be asking is not why our universities are falling but whether we have invested in the people that are supposed to keep them going. The fate of Nigeria will not be left in the hands of cabinet meetings or boardrooms. It is being formed day-by-day in lecture rooms, laboratories and classrooms where teachers train doctors, engineers, lawyers, economists, scientists, teachers and public servants. If the best minds continue to leave those classrooms, the results will not be confined to the University’s walls. They will ultimately be seen in our hospitals, courts, businesses and public institutions. Education is often said to be the bedrock of national development. But foundations do not strengthen themselves. They need purposeful investment. The biggest threat to Nigerian universities is not so much the physical threats as the subtle ones of discouragement. No classroom without a teacher, no nation without a future. Today, empty lecture halls, and tomorrow empty lecturers. When that day comes, it will be easy to replace the buildings. Replacing the people who should stand behind those podiums will not

•Adekunle is a PhD Student in the Department of Finance, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti.