Professor Nkechi Mercy Christopher a lecturer at the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics from University of Benin and a Master’s Degree and PhD from the University of Ibadan. She recently became the second woman to become a Professor in her department, twenty years after the first woman recorded the feat. In this interview by TAYO GESINDE and OLOLADE ALABI, she speaks about her career and the price she paid to be where she is today.
What informed your choice of career?
Most children in Nigeria grew up not knowing what they wanted to become; that was the case with me. For instance, I decided to study Linguistics because I thought it meant one would be able to speak many languages and was hoping I would work in an international company and be able to travel abroad. What I wanted to be wasn’t quite formed but it was circumstances that led me to what I eventually became. I was posted to Ibadan, Oyo State to do my youth service and then this department needed someone and I was taken as a youth corp member. Since then, I have been with the department and was able to do my Masters and PhD. My PhD was in Book Publishing in Nigeria.
What were the challenges you faced?
I finished as far back as 1987 and there were no jobs. So, I spent about nine years at home doing my PhD. That was during the era of June 12 when there was crisis in the country. To be candid, I never thought I would be a lecturer; otherwise those nine years shouldn’t have been spent at home. It was when I defended my PhD project that I was offered employment in the department. The major challenge I would say was that when I came into teaching, I found it a bit difficult because my background was in Linguistics whereas I was employed to teach Language Arts, they were two different things so it took me much effort and I was to engage in a lot of reading. Somehow, that has helped me; it made me to travel out a lot to conferences. By so doing I have become quite exposed to better ways of doing things. Another challenge I faced had to do with my professional advancement, specifically promotion. In 2007, I applied for promotion to the next level and was told one of my papers would not be accepted because the journal was not academic. I was distraught because I had no paper in the making. The future looked bleak and I started seeking ways to change university. To God be the glory, I was watching the video of a conference I had organised .In it, the president of the association was launching a journal containing the submissions from a conference I attended in Port Harcourt and mentioned that the date of publication was 2006. I was fortunate because I could have missed the opportunity to get promoted, having refused to pay for the journal during the conference. After overcoming this hurdle, I set out not to miss any more promotion due date and God helped me.
Today, you are a professor, what price did you pay to achieve this feat?
I wouldn’t say I paid any price, I will say it is just to the glory of God. Most women don’t have the support they ought to have from their husbands but my husband supported me. The only price I could say I paid was that I had to spend a lot of my money travelling. So you find out that where your colleagues are strong economically, you may not be there because you are spending your money travelling overseas to attend conferences.
How were you able to combine the home front with your career?
It can be tedious and very stressful. It makes you not to be able to control all your emotions as well as you ought to. It can be very difficult when you don’t have a good help because you can’t neglect your children, you can’t say because you are a teacher you won’t take care of your home. I must say it’s very tough. It is very tough for even the male how much more the women!. I just kept keeping a positive attitude, believing in God and working hard. Some women will say their children are growing so they can’t travel for conferences, when you say that, you already put a bar on yourself so when you see opportunities, you won’t pursue the opportunities. I have a friend who raised her children and didn’t slow down in her publication, she travelled abroad for conferences when she was pregnant, she never slowed down. Attitude is very important. If you limit yourself by the way you think things should be done, you will be really limited. But if you are determined that despite the situation you will meet the criteria and go higher, then God will make a way for you.
What is the most defining moment of your career?
God used the RAN conference I attended in Port Harcourt 2006 as a turning point in my career I delivered a paper there and I was appointed the Southwest Coordinator though I left before the election. Two other attendees from the zone didn’t want the post. The paper and the position both bore fruits. I was contacted by one of those I met there to assist a Nigerian in the UK to complete his study questionnaire. So, I seized the opportunity to request him to connect me with a lecturer I could collaborate with. Well, he connected me with someone beneath that capacity, but who invited me to participate in a conference in the UK under his Special Interest Group. That was how I started attending international conferences which made a whole lot of impact on my professional development. Secondly, in my capacity as South West Coordinator, I was able to initiate and coordinate workshops, projects and a conference which shot me into national and international limelight.
How did you feel when you became the second female professor in the history of your department?
Well, I feel we are just too few. We are really stretched in the department and I will prefer the situation where we have more professors. When I joined the department, I discovered that many lecturers were more concerned about teaching and don’t have time for other things. There is always one deadline after the other and if you don’t strategise, you won’t have papers. What I mean by strategising is this: if you don’t put yourself where you have to be going for conferences, because we as human are not very disciplined so we have to do things that will make you do certain things. If you don’t go to conferences maybe due to money factor, then you are going to be restricted and be limited with the extent you can really publish.
How can women in academics successfully juggle their career and home front?
Well, there is something called self satisfaction. You have to have that satisfaction, if you don’t work for it from the beginning, you won’t like it, both at home and at the work place, you won’t be satisfied. There is no way you are going to be an expert in anything. There is no way you can ever be the best mum on earth so you have to give and take, let everybody know that you need to do what you ought to do and do it from the beginning. You have taken the profession so, compete with your male colleagues to be the best because if you lose ground, you won’t like yourself eventually.
What advice do you have for young people?
Well, I am worried that most people don’t think. They want people to tell them what to believe. People must begin to think. When you think, you will want to discover more. You want your thoughts to be fertilised some more. You must think and have a vision. They must be disciplined in terms of performance. Most time people don’t think and they don’t read. If you don’t read, your imagination would be limited. Whatever you experience in your daily life is limited but when you read books and watch good movies then, you can think. Then you can begin to see life in a different light. Many young ones that misbehave do that because their brain is more or less empty. Yes, I won’t blame them totally; it is because of the kind of education that we have which is not quite what it should be.
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