Professor what!

​Early last year, in distress, I called Dr. Samson Ijaola from Glorious University to ask him a question that kept me awake: why the "big boys" are they asking me for money? It is unusual for them to do so as they are generally financially successful. I often visit the "big boys" in their homes in different parts of the country with two or three cars parked outside. When those in the United States and Europe brag about their homes and offices, I laugh at them saying they live in "boys' quarters" and wooden shacks with bricks stuck on them. Nigerian teachers are among those whom I affectionately call the “big boys”. Whenever we hang out they don't want me to buy drinks or pepper soup because they want to entertain me. They are generous. They even transport food and drink to my hotel room, providing one person with what could feed a dozen. Drivers are happy to transport rice, swallow and protein. I like the names given to our rich organic foods. I like it even more when I replace the swallow with ororo, the elegantly creative name given to brandy and whiskey.

I hadn't seen enough. I asked my question too early, counting my harvest before the locust invasion. Then came the long strike of 2022, and many more were begging, this time not for large amounts but even for small ones, as in N10,000. I would give as asked but cry afterwards. I was emotionally tormented. Should teachers beg for money? Not at all. Never ! Should teachers be rich? No, not based on wages earned from their regular jobs. They can use their extra time to do other things, like professors do in my part of the world, where many end up as associates and run small businesses. Should they be comfortable with the country's economic productivity? Yes. An occupation of such scope should not reduce professionals to beggars. Nothing can be more depressing.

Then came other calls to leave the country. Japa! Any job will do, even driving a cab in Chicago. A country should not end up in this kind of mess. The public may be angry at the incessant strikes as they affect the lives of millions of young men and women who need to be in school to lay the foundations for their future success. The terms of service need to improve and the narrative needs to be rebranded. I'm not saying that one job is better than another, and that all citizens render equally important services. I do not treat professors as the exception but as worthy citizens whose occupations create multiplier effects.

Rather than being the recipients of gratitude, teachers are looked down upon and ridiculed on different levels. Negotiations are neither respectful nor cordial at the federal government level. I was part of a small group who went to bow down to politicians who were not qualified to enroll in my classes to appeal to Aso Rock to seek all means to end the last strike . Those who steal billions of naira in Abuja now see themselves as fellow thieves, as well as teacher-administrators who steal peanuts. I don't justify the theft. Teachers shouldn't steal, but a career label doesn't define a thief. A transgression by one teacher is extended to all teachers as if the criminal had no name. Name the criminal, but don't tarnish all the innocents who are honest and diligent. Parents who offer bribes to secure the admission of their children and wards do not see themselves contributing to the rot of the system. They can bribe today to be admitted to rewarding professional courses and tomorrow shout that their children are not in school.

Demotivated students who see no future for themselves blame it on innocent lecturers who are not responsible for planning the nation's economy and politics. Universities do not create jobs but enable environments and human capacities. Those who elevated vice-chancellors to CEOs through political calculations and co-optation fail to realize the danger of creating hierarchies in the system. You cannot create an emperor and avoid ruthless clerks and tax collectors. You cannot bribe your CEOs when they receive their allowances and ask them not to give largesse.

If people are underpaid, won't they look for ways to raise their wages? Is it thinkable that a taxi driver in New York, who fled Nigeria because he failed all high school exams and couldn't get admission to any Nigerian university, is now bragging that he is better than a professor of zoology at the University of Ibadan? Former students graduating from Nigerian universities are now tarnishing the image of their former professors, proclaiming their intellectual superiority over those older than their parents. As the ridicule continues, a lecturer from the University of Ibadan, with the motto "The first and the best", may be invited to come and...