University Education

By Abdelghaffar Amoka

I travelled home in 2012 after my PhD and one of my older cousins asked when I would become a Professor. I laughed and told him it would still take some years, and I jokingly told him I was not keen on becoming a Professor. He became angry at my response and said I should get the Professor for them even if I didn’t want it. After I left him, I began to wonder what is in that rank that some people want at all costs.

I can still remember the huge congratulatory messages I received after my friend and colleague shared on Facebook the news of my promotion to that rank. Sometimes I reflect on those messages and imagine how rich I would have been if those congratulatory messages could be transformed into cash. Here we are struggling, and some of us can’t even drive our cars any longer.

The Nigerian Professor

Becoming a Professor, the peak in academia, is something most academics look forward to. The title still comes with some prestige and perceived false benefits attached to it by outsiders. I once read a post on Facebook that said professors are stingy. Poor professors and the public want them to spend the money they don’t have. I went to buy a seat cover for my car a few years ago and the seller said lecturers have money but refused to spend it. I asked how much he thinks a professor is earning, and he said it can’t be less than N700,000. I laughed very hard.

I have written a lot on the remuneration of academics in Nigerian public universities, but many still don’t believe the figures. Yeah! Too bad to be true as compared with their perception. I had a discussion with one of our PG students, who is a lecturer in a state polytechnic, about salary disparity in the Nigerian public sector yesterday, and the salaries of university lecturers came into the discussion. I told him the figures, and the smile on his face showed that he didn’t believe it but couldn’t say I was lying. So, I logged in to the university portal and showed him my payslip. The gross, the deduction, and the net. We met again today, and he said that until yesterday, he never believed that a Professor on step 4 was earning less than N600,000.

Again this is the salary of academics in any federal government university in Nigeria. The quoted value is for step 2, the rank:

~The Assistant Lecturer’s net salary with all his allowances is N118,279 (105 USD).

~Lecturer II’s net salary with all his allowances is N129,724 (115 USD).

~Lecturer I net salary with all his allowances is: N160,809 (142 USD)

~Senior Lecturer’s net salary with all his allowances is: N222,229 (197 USD)

~Reader (Associate Professor) net salary with all his allowances is: N277,179 (245 USD)

~The professor’s net salary with all his allowances is N332,833 (294 USD).

The University workers are perhaps the only federal government workers whose salary is yet to be reviewed since 2009, that is for 14 years despite inflation. Those who were already professors in 2009 are still receiving the same salary since then. Your comfort is key to your output.

Aside from the academic work and the research and publication work that forms the bulk of your promotion criteria, you are loaded with administrative responsibilities without responsibility allowance. They call it ‘community services’. You can be denied promotion if you don’t have enough of the said “community services”.

If you happen to travel outside the University for a conference and you are lucky to be funded, the travel allowance is as follows:

~Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for the professorial cadre is N16,000 per night.

~Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for Senior Lecturer cadre and below is N12,000 per night.

~The transportation allowance is N20 per km.

If a Professor is to travel 200 km for an assignment that lasts for a day, he will get a DTA of N32,000 for 2 nights for his hotel accommodation for 2 nights and feeding and N8,000 for transportation. That is a total of N40,000. Despite the fact that FG has approved a new DTA for public service in September 2022, the universities can’t afford the new rate a year later. I applaud the patience of my colleagues, but the patient dogs are dying of hunger.

Meanwhile, education is said to be key to national development.

Dear prospective academics, I love academia. For me, it is not a job but a way of life. However, ask questions before you wish to join academia and become a Professor. The job as it is at the moment can’t pay your bills for a decent life.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD, wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached via aaabdelmalik@gmail.com.

By Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka

A part of the activities of the university professors is serving as external examiners to universities other than theirs. The appointment of external examiners is a worldwide practice for quality control. Professors can be external examiners for undergraduate or postgraduate programs. While the external examiner for a postgraduate program can be for a day if it involves just a student, appointment as an external examiner for an undergraduate program lasts for a whole academic year.

The external examiner is required to moderate the question papers and marking schemes of all the final-year examinations for the first and second semesters of the program. The Examinations Officer will travel to the university of the External Examiner with the question papers and marking schemes for the Examiner to moderate for each semester. I travelled to Kano for that exercise as an Examination Officer between 2006 and 2008. At the end of the academic year, the External Examiner is required to travel to the university to examine the students’ final-year project and also to moderate the answer booklets and results.

I was recently appointed as an External Examiner for the physics department of a Federal University about 210 km from my university. I moderated the question papers and marking schemes for both semesters. At the end of the session in October 2023, I was invited to the external examination of the students’ projects. While planning to go there, I inquired about the number of students to be examined, and I was told they were a bit above eighty (80). I was like, wow! The funny thing is that you do this job, especially as a first-timer, without knowing how much you will be paid for it.

I was wondering how I will examine 80 students in two days. The university is about 210 km from Zaria, and I need to analyse the economics of the trip. If I am to drive my car, I will spend about N40,000 on fuel for the round trip. But my instinct was telling me that using my car would cost more than I would be paid. So, I joined a public transport, and it cost me about N4,500 to get to the University.

Four passengers, including myself, were squeezed like sardines in a pack in the vehicle’s passenger seat.

I got there, examined the 80 students, and moderated the answer booklets of their final-year students for two full days. I examined 40 students each day. I was exhausted and needed enough space to relax, returning to Zaria. So, I paid for two seats, which cost me about N9,000. This made us three on the passenger seat to Zaria.

Just a few days ago, I received an alert of the payment for the one-year job. I got an alert of N138,920 six weeks after the job. My breakdown shows that I was paid N80,000 honorarium for the one-year job as an External Examiner for the university, N50,000 for accommodation for two nights to examine 80 students (25,000 per night), and N8,920 for transportation from Zaria to the university and back to Zaria (223km x 2 x 20 naira per kilometre). Payment for two nights implies that it was assumed that the job was done in one day. Yes, the university management assumed that I examined 80 students in one day.

At the end of the day, and even without using my car, I spent more on transportation than I was paid. For the moderation and examination of the students for an academic session, I was paid N1,000 per student for the exam moderation, reading of the project work, and oral examination of the students.

However, there was a circular in 2022 that reviewed duty tour allowance (DTA) and transport allowance per kilometre for public service. According to the circular, a Professor is meant to get N37,500 per night as DTA and N75 per kilometre for mileage. While it is in operation at every other MDA, under the current fuel subsidy removal regime, university professors are expected to travel at N20 per kilometre and can’t lodge in a hotel that costs more than N25,000 per night.

While the political class has subjected academics to abject poverty, the managements of our universities are still expecting us to travel with N20 per kilometre, lodge in a hotel that is not more than N25,000 per night, and then do oral examinations for 80 students in one day. They possibly felt that we could manage it. After all, we are already used to poverty. It’s sad that the political class does not regard us. We have lost respect in society and don’t seem to have regard for ourselves within the university system.

At least this university paid even though what was paid was ridiculous. I also got a nice reception from the department. For over a year, the other university has yet to pay the N50,000 for the professorial assessment of their staff and refund the N2,500 postage charges to send the assessment report. That is Nigerian academia.

Dear public university managers, why do we find it challenging to spend money on academic activities, the main activities of the universities? Does it still cost you 20 naira per kilometre to travel to Abuja for an official engagement on behalf of the university? The excuse is always that the university has no money. Then, why do we pretend that all is well when it is not? Why do we window-dress our programs for accreditation when we can’t adequately fund the programs? Why should we be expected to drain our blood to keep public universities open?

External moderation and examination are requirements for the award of degrees, and they should be properly funded. Otherwise, It should be suspended till there are enough funds to execute that component. If we want to make progress, we must stop the window-dressing approach and tell ourselves the truth.

Dear senior colleagues, I greatly respect your sacrifices and the risk of travelling between states these years on our bad roads for external examinations at this ridiculous honorarium and allowances. I don’t want to blame you for the sustenance of this slavery. But this treatment continued because you accepted it and MILT for these years. Even as teachers, we need a proper reward here on earth as we all strive for heavenly rewards.

Our old senior colleagues are already used to it. But to the new professors who will be taking up external assessment responsibilities, before going out for any external assignment, the supposed community service, to other universities, you need to be sure that the transport allowance will take you to the place to do the job and that the night allowance can afford decent accommodation.

Don’t be enslaved by the words “community service”. There is no free meal anywhere in the world. Somebody must pay for anything called a free meal.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD, wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached via aaabdelmalik@gmail.com.

By Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, Ph.D.

Since 2018, when Nigeria’s public universities started announcing hikes in school charges or what is popularly known as service charges, the survival of indigent students in these universities has become threatened. Public universities are the last hope for children from poor backgrounds. According to Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, over 70% of youths from poor backgrounds attend these universities. Therefore, denying these institutions funding is a direct declaration of war on Nigerian youths.

While it becomes necessary for public universities to increase the shortfall in government funding, the increase in school fees means millions of youths will be denied the opportunity to acquire a university education. To say that Nigerian public universities are underfunded is an understatement. That our public universities are in serious crisis is a fact. That universities are unable to achieve the goals of contributing to national development is sadly true.

Two schools of thought exist on this issue. On one hand is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which opposed increasing school fees. Their argument is quite simple: increased school fees automatically mean denying the children of the poor the opportunity to acquire a university education. They argue that there is a need for more citizens to have a university education. The logic is simple: more people with university education in the population automatically translate to positive economic growth, social development, and political cohesion.

To show their seriousness in what they believe in, ASUU had to go on strike several times for several years, starving their members to push forward with this idea. However, there are people who believe education should be removed from social services. They argue that since students are the direct beneficiaries, then the funding of universities should be shifted “from society to the students who are the beneficiaries of the higher incomes their degrees will provide.” These are the advocates of “commodification of university education.”

There are broadly three sources of funding for public universities in Nigeria, as identified by Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, the former Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University. These are government grants or subsidies, student/parent contributions (charges fees or allied non-instructional fees) and the income derived by the institution from commercial or quasi-commercial ventures or services, investments, donations, and endowments.

With overpopulation, teeming unemployed graduates, falling standard of university education, corruption in the management of university education and the shift from a mixed economy to a neoliberal economic system since 1986, Nigerian universities are left struggling to survive. Also, the attitude of the people’s government towards education since democracy’s return in 1999 has combined to suffocate the system already in the ICU.

However, in 2017, the universities came to grapple with a very hostile regime under President Buhari. The regime not only cut funding to public universities but imposed an embargo on the recruitment of academic staff in the universities. For over six years now, universities have not employed any fresh staff. Where they are employed, they are imposed on Vice Chancellors from Abuja. Departments no longer have the power to recommend to the VC to retain the best-graduating students in the departments. IPPIS was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Departments are short-staffed, and IPPIS stopped universities from engaging contract staff, visiting and adjunct lectures and sabbatical staff.

These are the issues that Nigerians need to look at holistically. As it is now, most people have realised the mistake of not supporting ASUU to force the government to investigate the crises of the public universities. The reality clearly shows that indigent students or children from poor backgrounds cannot afford university education. While many analysts gave ASUU strikes the Boko Haram Logic interpretation, no one sees the onslaught on public universities by government agents as “bokoharamisation” of the university education. It is a disservice to Nigeria to remain silent about the current crises confronting the Nigerian public universities and find our voices when ASUU declares strike. This is succumbing to Boko Haram’s wishes. Already, our public primary and secondary schools are in ruins, and it will take the grace of God to resuscitate them. We are now confronted with the collapse of the public university system.

What is the way forward?

Addressing the current crises requires all stakeholders in the Nigerian Educational System. This is a matter of saving Nigeria from collapse. Already, parents have taken 60% of the burden of educating their children in the university. Parents now pay from N50,000 to 250,000 a year for service charges for their children. They provide for their upkeep – accommodation, feeding, laundry, clothing and, of course, purchase of textbooks. Added to that, they take the burden of transporting their children to and from the schools every now and then when the need arises, which can be weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Already, they are involved in funding their children’s education at the university.

The government is supporting universities with infrastructure payments of staff salaries (both academic and non-academic). The government also pays a fraction of the running cost to the universities. TETFUND will not be counted as government funding because it comes from 2% education tax contributions. People in government are leveraging on this and using funding as a weapon of control, as we saw in 2022 when ASUU members were starved for eight months for declaring an industrial dispute with their employer.

Industrial disputes should not be seen as confrontations or a narrow material interest of “greedy lecturers” or “Boko haram logic” of denying Nigerians the opportunity to acquire a university education. It should be seen as a patriotic intervention to salvage a collapsed system.

The commodification of university education in developing nations like ours is never a solution to the lingering crises in the public university system. Commodification destroys “the value of intellectual challenge and exploration by reducing knowledge to quantifiable, job-oriented results”. In fact, commodification is what derives the idea of a “skills rather than degree” gang promoted by a former minister.

I deliberately ignored the push by the present regime of education banks that will serve as lending institutions for university students because it is deceptive, unrealistic, and impracticable in a country like ours. What we need is an acceptable cost-sharing formula that is realistic and acceptable to all stakeholders. And this can come only through negotiation and mutual agreements between university unions, parents, and the government. We need to start this conversation to save our public universities.

By Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been in a battle with the Federal Government of Nigeria over the funding of the public universities. The facilities that made our universities to still have a semblance of a university were products of ASUU strike. ASUU was so passionate over public universities funding to the point that the public began to think that such funds, when released, are paid into ASUU’s account. Even some journalists that are supposed to be properly informed shared in the ignorance or misinformation.

You read headlines like “FG releases 2 billion naira to ASUU for university funding”. ASUU pursued funding at the expense of its members’ welfare. The battle has been on funding to an extent that the younger generation of academics began to wonder why their welfare is not at the top of the union’s demands. The consoling words from our veterans have always been: You get true fulfillment when you have an ideal working environment.

The battle took a new dimension last year, during the reign of the ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, who had no agenda for education aside from establishing more universities without funding plans. Yeah! Buhari came to re-write the story of our university system. The number of the underfunded new tertiary institutions were listed as his major achievements. A strike on funding and the renegotiation of conditions of service that should not have lasted for more than four weeks, if sincerely handled, was dragged on for eight months and the lecturers starved. A few died and many survived and are still surviving but not an item on the demands on the needs of the universities was treated.

While ASUU was fighting for adequate funding, the FG had a hidden plan. It publicly declared that the universities will have to generate their money to partly fund themselves. The public couldn’t see the implication of the statement. The statement received support from some Nigerians whose education was funded from primary to PhD with public funds. However, besides this declaration, they are also seeing the universities as revenue generation institutions rather than institutions to be funded. They were wondering why they should keep funding these institutions when they are supposed to be generating revenue for the government.

Having conceived the idea to make federal universities an internally generated revenue (IGR) source for FG, their challenge was how to make these institutions generate revenue for FG without backlash. The only obstacle to the plan is ASUU that is always using strikes to force to unwillingly release some funds for the universities. ASUU was on strike again. They find their trouble annoying and something must be done. They engaged their friends that are former union leaders to develop the strategy to clip ASUU. Hunger strategy was found most effective and that was deployed and the rest was history.

From the experience of the last strike, call for a referendum on strike today and the members will tell you that if they will lose their salary for a one day strike, they won’t join. They are still paying their debt. So, they began starving the universities of funds.

Universities like Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and Unilag, whose electricity bills are around 120 million naira per month, are given about 150 million naira per annum for operational expenses. How they pay their bills was left as their business. So, to keep up with the bills, the universities began to review the service charges. The universities estimated what can run the universities and appropriate charges were put together as fees for students. There were outcries on the fee increment. Some called it tuition and that got FG worried.

FG had to come out with a press release. They acknowledged the increment but that FG has not introduced tuition. The increase in fees as announced by various universities was to reflect the current economic reality; mission accomplished. However, the FG didn’t see these increased fees as service charges, they saw them as IGR by the universities and hence became interested.

As the universities were busy announcing the revised fees, the Minister of Finance suddenly remembered that there was a circular FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021 dated December 20, 2021 that said all partially funded FG Agencies should remit 40% of their IGR to FG. Universities are currently expected to remit 40% of the fees collected from the students to FG as revenue generation. These service charges in the universities are referred to as Gross Internally Generated Revenue. The deduction is effective from November 2023.

This means that if a student is charged N2,000 for an ID card, the university will give N800 out of it to the FG. It doesn’t matter to the FG if the cost of the ID card is truly N2,000. If a student is charged N10,000 as laboratory charges for chemicals and consumable, the university will give N4,000 out of it to the FG as revenue. If every student is charged N30,000 for electricity, water and sanitation bills, the FG will enjoy N12,000 out of it as revenue. It doesn’t matter if the remaining amount is not enough to pay those bills. If a student is charged N15,000 for a field trip or SIWES, the FG will take N6,000 out of it. If a student pay N5,000 as examination fee, the FG will take N2,000 from it as IGR for the FG. etc.

The insensitivity of the government to the needs of the people has gotten that bad. Public universities are the government’s new revenue generating agencies. This 40% revenue is expected to be paid by kids whose parents are earning less than N100,000 per month from the same FG. As they are milking the people dry, they have refused to cut off the cost of governance. The NASS members that were supposed to drive a car of 7 – 8 million naira by law got 160 million naira cars as against the law.

The bad thing is that the government will deduct 40% from the money as it is paid. It is auto-deduction. They will take their share before the universities even have access to the money. The announced fees were calculated to barely take care of the basic needs of the universities. So, how will the universities be run without the 40%?

My opinion…

Dear parents, tight your seat belt and the revised fees of your kids in any federal higher institution increased by 40%, thanks to FG quest for IGR. ASUU has done its bit for us Nigerians. It should not be a major discussion at the ongoing NEC. Nigerians should be allowed to fight their fight. The fight should now be left for the students and their parents. If they are willing to fight, ASUU members can join as parents. If they are not ready, we all MILT and move on as usual. After all, we are used to suffering and smiling.

The university managements, Senates, and Councils should find an appropriate way to introduce the 40% FG IGR from the universities into the fees. The universities that are yet to announce their revised fees should add the FG 40% university IGR to their fees. It should be separated from the university charges. It can be called “40% FG IGR charge” as a separate item. So that the students and parents will know what they are paying for. They need to know that rather than FG funding the education of their kids, something ASUU has fought for and prosecuted over, FG is now generating revenue from them as they pay their kids fees.

©Amoka

By Sulaiman Maijama’a

Seeing some photographs yesterday that we took in 2019 when we were leaving Sa’adu Zungur Hall of the Bayero University, Kano, as we finished level 200, I remembered several events, particularly during my stay in the hostel. I was filled with mixed feelings of nostalgia, reminiscing about my BUK days, the good and bad experiences, and the culture shock I had to contend with as a fresh university student.

In 2018, when we secured admission, my friend Shamsuddeen insisted that we stay off campus. I did not like the idea, so I reported him to our teacher and mentor, Mallam Abdul Ahmad Burra, to be a judge, knowing that Mallam would be on my side. Mallam Abdul directed that we live in the hostel, saying, “The experience you have when you live in the hostel is another degree in itself. Never miss that.”

The experience began soon after we settled on the 18th of March, 2019, in our number D-56 room on the first floor of Sa’adu Zungur Hall. Six of us were the occupants. Kamal Abdulsalam, Shamsudden A Musa and I were in Mass Comm, Bashir Dalhat read Geography Education, Sirajo Basiru read Economics Education, and Abdul studied Political Science. All of us in the room were voracious readers, what people call “mayun Boko”.

Our room was almost always locked because we left for class or library day and night, and so, we were addressed and addressed each other as Prof. The trouble was, when someone said prof alone, we got confused as to whom he was referring to because we were all bearing the title. One day at the Vice Chancellor’s mosque, I loudly said “Prof. Kamal”, referring to my roommate Kamal Abdulsalam, when I caught the attention of Professor Aliyu Kamal of the English Department. To his surprise, he saw me approaching a student whom I  addressed as Prof.

Unlike other rooms, our bond had blossomed into becoming a family, sharing food and water and even requesting little money when needed. We soon realised that one of us was living a miserable life. In the morning, he would take Gari, water in the gallon, wear squeezed clothes and go to lectures. We all were concerned about his condition and began to talk about how we could help him. God had saved us when News later got to us that he was a millionaire in their village. We were all shocked and began to keep him under surveillance.

I once escorted him to the Eco Bank ATM to withdraw cash. He wanted  2k but mistakenly added a zero to the digits. When the ATM dispensed 20k, we looked each other in the eyes; I was surprised that he had such money in the account, and he was concerned that I saw his money. We had to enter the bank hall and redeposit the cash instantly, and he begged me not to tell anyone I saw that money.

We began to see real shege when we moved to our number D-40 room on the first floor of Idris Garba Hall on  20th January 2020. On the very first day, one of the room members said we were contributing money to buy padlocks, something that in our previous hostel, one of us would just buy and share the keys without asking a penny. D-room is usually allocated to 4 students, but each one could come with one squatter as is the tradition. In this instance, one person came with three settlers and himself (enough number to be allocated a complete room) and insisted they stay in the room. We called an urgent meeting in a small corner and chased away two.

There was one roommate who set an alarm ringing around 3:00 a.m. daily. The whole room would be disturbed and wake up, but the person who placed the alarm never woke up before 7 a.m. It was in level 300 when my young-looking face misled this person into thinking I was a small boy. In the morning, he would toss a Lipton at me and say, “Sulaiman, put tea for me”. He would ask, “Sulaiman, what is the time?, “Bring me sugar, “Bring me a mat, “Do this, do that”.

At the onset, I thought it was normal assistance between roommates, but later, when I realised that he had made me his Personal Assistant, I called it quits. This person would buy all the delicious things in this world; think about eggs, fish, meat, milk, etc., but would request the basic ones like sugar and Maggi from one of us.

In the same room, someone spent the whole night pressing his phone but would fall asleep just before dawn prayers, wake up around 10 a.m. and pray. He never attended 8 am lectures.  We also had two overnight debaters. These people returned to the room in the middle of the night and began to debate loudly until all the room members woke up. When they were scolded, they would humbly say they were sorry. We couldn’t fight further!

In our final session, when we stayed in number D-16 room on the ground floor of the same Idris Garba hall, beginning on November 1st, 2021, we were more mature and tolerant. But there was one character who would wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the light while everyone in the room was asleep. When we complained that he infringed on our rights, he said he turned on the light because he was pressing his phone and did not want the screen’s reflection, so turning on the light reduces the reflection. When he was out, we removed the bulb. Until we graduated, we did not have a bulb in our room.

Maijama’a wrote via sulaimanmaija@gmail.com.

By Bello Hussein Adoto

I am a microbiologist. A colleague asked recently in my set’s WhatsApp group if we are practising as a microbiologist, and another colleague replied: “Virtually everyone!” His reply was laced with sarcasm.

A common belief amongst Nigerians is that if you are told you can work anywhere with your course, you are probably studying one of the so-called useless courses. Microbiology falls into this category.

My colleague’s reply suggests that it doesn’t matter whether you are a banker, a tech bro, or a journalist. You’re a microbiologist regardless of what you do. After all, “you can work anywhere.”

Sarcasm aside, the idea of being able to work anywhere with the course you study should not be a source of mockery. Instead, it should be a testament to the transferable skills that university education should equip you with.

All courses are not created equal. Human Kinetics Education is not as lucrative as Medicine; neither is History and International Studies as prestigious as Law. At least, many don’t believe they are. Nevertheless, each course is a product of university education, which should count for more than a patronising line that “you can work anywhere.”

I don’t use my university degree certificate today, but the training I got for it has served me in multiple fora. The communication skills I acquired from my practicals, presentations, and assignments helped my work as a freelancer, student, and team lead.

My team-playing experience from lab work, time management from projects, independence, ruggedness, and the capacity to improvise, adapt, and evolve came mainly from my time studying at the University.

Of course, these are not part of the curricula. The training I received on writing came via GNS 111 and MCB 311, and they were not even thorough. I only did them in “partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of ” XYZ—the others I picked up ‘ear and dear’ as a student, without necessarily having to write exams. Still, I am not sure I could have picked all that without having the formal structure of a university to inspire and support me.

I’m not holding brief for courses that have probably outlived their usefulness and should be scrapped or those better as a six-month online course than a four-year classroom programme. Those courses should be reviewed and made more relevant now that education is more expensive and the labour market is more competitive.

Beyond universities and educators, students must reflect on who they want to be. The era of special courses that fetch cool jobs and fat salaries is fast coming to an end. It’s no longer just a matter of what you studied but who you are and what you can do. Some may add who you know, but that’s open to debate.

Besides, the usefulness of a course is also becoming a matter of perspective. Is studying medicine useless if you can earn more as a tech bro.? Is going to school even necessary when you can make a lawyer’s annual salary from creating videos on YouTube and TikTok? Students must find their answers early. Proper career guidance could help here.

We need people in various departments to practice in diverse fields. Not everyone will be a medical doctor or earn thousands of dollars from writing codes or doing affiliate marketing. We will still need farmers, teachers, and communications specialists in the future.

While studying a not-so-prestigious course and earning good money are not mutually exclusive, it’s better now, to begin with the end in mind so that you don’t get to the “top of the ladder and only then realise it was standing against the wrong wall,” as Stephen Covey wrote.

Meanwhile, if you are studying any of the so-called useless courses that allow you to work anywhere, immerse yourself in it. Make your time worth your while. Come out enriched with skills and experiences that can serve you anywhere and at any age.

Don’t fall for the condescension or pity yourself for wasting your time at the University. You are already studying the course, so it’s in your best interest to help yourself and make the most of the course. Who knows, you might graduate and realise the course is not useless after all.

Bell Hussein writes via bellohussein210@gmail.com.

By Abdulmumini Lawal

The fate of university students in Nigeria undergoes various hiccups and calamities. Among these are the frequent industrial actions by different Academic Unions and Non-Academic Unions, the probability of hike increment in school fees, uncertainty in life itself whether one will even graduate or not,  constant mutable thinking on what tomorrow might bring, and overall, the competitive race awaiting there in the labour market – life after graduation. Economic hardship is another phase of constraint students undergo towards pursuing their academic careers.

However, those above and other threats in academic space have been the main predicaments for Nigerian students and have to serve as a deterrent to one and evolve his perspective approach of who thinks the only way he can excel in life is by obtaining a degree and/or eventually securing a job (white collar one as many say). The limitation of thinking faculty in university students is expected to differ from layman’s, so he has to admit as such.

To my brothers and sisters, preferably those from low-income family backgrounds, I call upon your attention to erase the sense of thinking about when and why you will meet your desired expectations by the government in academia. You have many alternatives to make your life different; the agricultural sector is one of thousands. 

Initially, citing examples from my humble self and being a farmer for ten consecutive years, I decided to embark on farming activities last year. This was a result of the incessant ASUU strike. I vowed to utilise the time I had then positively. During the year, I realised I knew little or nothing among the bounties of opportunities therein. Meanwhile, my ten years of experience in the field is limited. It doesn’t widen the scope of the lucrative opportunities in the farming investment. I strived a lot, putting in the effort I could, most notably money and time, to achieve it.

Alas! So many blessings will never meet you openly but will surely reach you in disguise. To me, the ASUU strike was a blessing in disguise for every university student since this was coming purposely to divert from being affected by the trauma of the ASUU strike.

Subsequently, the outcome was favourable. To sum it up, despite the fertiliser price hike, when I calculated the profit, it multiplied the capital I invested by 4 – 5 times. That’s to say, the profit reached 400 – 500%. I accomplished my dream. I have learnt a lot. There are numerous opportunities there. Many have become what they are today not by the certs they obtained, but by those skills many university students understand. 

Moreover, today’s life is becoming more challenging every day. Today can’t be yesterday, just like tomorrow can’t be today. We see new changes every day, everywhere. It is supposed to be the turn of our parents and guardians to reap from what they have been investing in. Where does our thinking go? Okay, we think they will reap after we graduate and get employed. The uncertainty of securing a job after graduation is a constant gesture. The number of unemployed graduates keeps increasing. Universities keep producing. The white collar jobs are no longer to be found. 

Meanwhile, the incessant government’s negligence in line with education concerns many other threats that have nothing to do with your failure and could never be the reason behind your excellence. Whatever Allah decides for you is a blessing in disguise. It’s either you misuse it or unknowingly leave it untouched.

Let’s wake up! Thousands of opportunities are there waiting for us. Let the cert be the second priority. Strive fervently day and night. For the little chance you have, make use of it appropriately. 

I wish you a better tomorrow in all your endeavours!

Abdulmumini Lawal is a student of Mass Communication at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

By Abdussamad Yahya Sufi

My Literature teacher cautioned me in secondary school to avoid using Pidgin English during communication. Mr. Ibrahim Bello would always tell me that using pidgin in the infancy of learning English would affect my budding standard English. Since then, I have never used it and always try to avoid it in writing and speaking.

Now that I’m at university, I have met different people from southern Nigeria who always use pidgin. At first, I feared what would happen to my infant English. However, later, I realised that I could still maintain the standard since they all understood standard English; they just chose not to use it.

During my first days at university, the pidgin speakers in my hostel irritated me the most. Everyone used the language, and I didn’t understand 80% of it. When someone talked to me, especially my roommates, I would ask them to translate what they said.

After a few days, many of the guys in the hostel noticed me and began teasing me, thinking I simply chose not to speak the language until they understood that I didn’t understand it. They started calling me ‘English Man,’ which didn’t bother me as I had heard such names before.

Some invited me to their rooms to tell me stories, and I never rejected that opportunity. I knew it would help me improve my English skills. When I told them stories, they paid attention and asked questions in good English, not bad pidgin. 

Honestly, that helped me build my public speaking skills, and I appreciate the guys for understanding me then, unlike before. Even when I meet any of them on campus now, they introduce me as the ‘English Man.’ to their friends, and they all speak good English while exchanging greetings.

I don’t mind being silly while learning; I don’t hide myself when interacting with my schoolmates and friends. They are my laboratory, where I practise what I have learned. Even if they laugh at me or call me names, I use those experiences to practise my learning skills.

Abdussamad Yahya Sufi wrote via abdussamadsufi744@gmail.com.

By Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka

When I was an undergraduate student, one of my lecturers during a physics class told us that physics makes you think better than others. We were wondering how. He said we don’t have to pick up a physics job after graduation but that whatever we decide, the skills acquired while studying physics will lead us through. That I later found to be true when I look at my classmates and their different endeavours.

In another class, the lecturer told us we should learn not to compartmentalise our brains. Let all that we have in our heads work together. During my undergraduate days, we were constantly reminded that as we pass through the university, we must allow the university to pass through us.

I was passing by the Department of Mathematics this morning, and my eyes captured their sign oars. On the signboard was the motto: “Critical thought for a critical mind”. The department claimed to be a place to develop critical minds. I have seen critical minds from there that are bankers, entrepreneurs, etc.

We were discussing this morning, and a friend narrated to us how he got a job as a marketing officer, a position he never applied for. He applied for the position of Admin Officer, and to end the interview after responding to all the questions from the panel members, the DG asked him why he didn’t apply for the position of Marketing Officer. He answered that he did not study marketing and he felt that from his degree, he was only qualified to be Admin Officer. The DG then responded that with his communication skill and confidence, he would do well as a Marketing Officer and was hired as a Marketing Officer.

One of the top skills required from a graduate is communication skills, and your training in the university includes that. Graduates need to be able to effectively get the message across, including in verbal and written formats. It’s also about listening and understanding other views. Good command of languages for projecting a confident, professional image and for good communication with clients and colleagues. If you don’t have it, you should blame yourself, not your university.

Aside from your hard technical skills, the other skills expected from a graduate are Time management, flexibility or adaptability to respond to unexpected changes in circumstances or workload effectively. Ability to work in a team to take on the responsibility to ensure your team achieves its goals. Critical thinking and problem-solving skill to approach problems and resolve issues from different angles is also highly valued.

Interpersonal skills to build positive working relationships, good communication, persuasion, and negotiation. Being flexible in your thinking and being open-minded and curious, and creative thinking that will help in problem-solving and innovation. The ability to understand others towards finding solutions that allow both parties to achieve their goals or come out of a situation. Leadership, the ability to bring something extra to a team, is essential. You are required to have a basic knowledge of the field. And guess what? You should have learned all these skills in school.

These are embedded in some of the activities we ignored in school. Some of them look routing, but there are important lessons in them. Time management is ensuring you hand in your assignment or report at the due date and time. That lecturer who locks you out of the lecture room, because you are 10 minutes late to his class, has nothing to benefit from you missing the class. He is training you to respect the time and be punctual. They say time is money, and punctuality is the soul of business. Flexibility to handle unexpected workloads is managing your time to take extra lectures and extracurricular activities. The ability to work in a team ensures that your practical or presentation group achieves its goal within the specified time.

Giving a class assignment or exam questions that require a little thinking is building your critical thinking to deal with challenging situations. You have classmates with diverse beliefs and ideologies to develop interpersonal relationships with and get to understand them. You are made to have seminar presentations to develop your ability to present an idea to the public and defend it. You are meant to lead a practical or study group for a reason. You are learning to be a team leader. Campus associations and societies are not there just for fun. Some of the union leaders grow to become political leaders.

So, don’t let anyone discourages you from pursuing a degree program, except it’s your choice not to go for a degree. Pursue your degree and pay attention to the requisite skills for the degree.

If you didn’t get these skills as you are graduating, stop arguing over skills vs “just” degree and blaming your university and lecturers for failing to acquire the skills during your study. You just passed through the university and did not allow the university to pass through you. Go and develop it; it is not late. Maybe you are the one that the book is referring to.

However, let me remind you that if you have these skills in Nigeria, it will be easier to use them to get a job outside than in the country. To get a job here, you may need the extra skill of knowing someone that knows somebody that knows another person to get a job. I learn some jobs are on sale. If you have the cash to buy one, I wonder if you need these skills.

An ex-aide to the Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission was reported to have confessed before a House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating job racketeering at ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). He said he had sold federal employment slots to job seekers at the directives of his former boss. According to him, some paid N1 million, others N1.5 million.

Finally, our problem is not skills or degrees; we have these in abundance and even export them abroad (the Japa phenomenon). Our problem is creating a system where the son of nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody. Our present system is not sustainable. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD, wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached via aaabdelmalik@gmail.com.

By Mubarak Shafiu

I joined the train of the Students’ Union right from day one at the university. My painstaking journey to the world of student activism has also fed me with sour, bitter and sweet experiences. Often, I feel nostalgic about the onerous struggles we underwent and the myriad of obstacles we encountered.

Being a passionate advocate for good governance, leadership and democracy, I was overwhelmingly compelled by nature to partake in the diversity-politics. My participation is solely to add my own quota and refine the university’s political atmosphere.

It is indeed sad seeing incompetent, incapable, self-centred and unpatriotic students take the leadership mantle and run the affairs of this vast student body.

Though my fundamental assignment is to study, acquire knowledge, experience, and skills, more importantly, earn my degree with colourful grades. Yet, I developed a burning desire to involve in the school’s extracurricular activities, more precisely- politics, intending to make sustainable reformation.

As a freshman, my initial preoccupation was to study and adequately understand my new environment. Being well-informed would assist me tremendously in making better decisions as events unfold.

Along the process, on many occasions, my parents called me to order and cautioned me to be steadfastly focused on my studies and not mingle with bad company. These cautionary words always crossed my mind, and I decided to keep myself away from anything that could interfere with my study.

Since then, I shunned anything apart from my study as the drumbeat of my parents’ cautionary remarks sounded louder and louder into my eardrums. This made my ambition of becoming a student leader a pipe dream, for naturally, I disliked betraying the parental confidence reposed in me.

As an obedient child, who always wanted to please his parents, I had never turned down every admonition. I just dispelled and dismissed anything that had nothing to do with my study. I attended classes, dug into research, engaged in group discussions and made the library my best friend. 

As the exam approached, I became consistent, determined and accelerated my efforts towards achieving my goal. Expectedly. I passed out with flying colours in my first-semester examination, as I made an “A” in the overall result.

Out of sheer joy, I presented the result to my parents to bless it, as they had been nursing the dream of seeing their son become a champion. 

After a short break from the first-semester examination, we all returned to our dear University, and academic and social activities began fully.

Students from various departments and faculties started expressing their interests in different positions, especially in the “Students’  Union Government” (SUG) and other associations like departmental, faculty and state associations.

Being sceptical and scared of my parent’s stance on not getting involved in school politics, I let my intention be latent and inexpressible. I was only debating whether to seek my dear parents’ approval.

Seeing how time flew, I just took the bull by the horn, shook off my phobia and sought permission to contest for a position that would not be infectious to my study.

 Surprisingly, my parents gave me the go-ahead to participate on the condition that I should not interfere with my academic performance. Having heard of this had gladdened my heart and brightened my spirit. 

Long story short, I vied for a senator representing my department in the “Students’ Representative Assembly (S.R.A), and I effortlessly made it. This assembly shared some things in common with the “National Assembly regarding greatness, corruption, unaccountability and many more.

Millions of funds were annually poured into the students’ union government account.

However, these funds were being mismanaged, misappropriated and stolen in collaboration with representatives of various departments.

The brainlessness and wickedness of the so-called student leaders tremendously moved me. This compelled me to resign and distance myself from the system. I recently retired from S.U.G to my state association, “The National Association of Kano State Students”. But you guess what? The Story was the same or even worse than that of S.U.G.

I contested for the presidential position under the bona fide umbrella of the association, and I won the election by a wider margin. To my dismay, under the watchful eyes of the students, some unscrupulous folks rubbed, snatched and ran with my mandate to one’s advantage.

Sadly, these corrupt individuals are the so-called leaders of tomorrow. Imagine an institution like a university where learning, character and discipline are inculcated. The university management should force such student-leaders to face punishment to deter others.

If we have not changed ourselves into better persons, we will continue to produce bad leaders in the country. Let’s desist from insulting, cursing, and condemning our leaders at all levels.

“Change begins with me”…….

Mubarak Shafiu wrote via mubarakshafiu596@gmail.com.