By Emeka Nwokocha
A renowned scholar and former Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Professor Chinedum Uzoma Nwajiuba, has passionately called on Nigerian lecturers to jettison all acts and lures that tend to smear their image and revered profession, charging them to uphold the tenets of integrity, hard work and discipline.
He further charged the lecturers to ‘become an island of sanity in the midst of a wide ocean of insanity.’
Prof. Nwajuba, made the call on Friday, while delivering the 16th Convocation Lecture of the Delta State University, entitled, “Universities Leadership, Contemporary Challenges: Are Nigerian Universities Failing God And Man?”
Continuing, the professor of Agricultural Economics lamented the falling standard in Nigerian universities, a development he attributed to lack of quality teaching, laziness on the part of lecturers, including alien and demeaning practices that have become a norm in the university system such as receiving money from students for purpose of awarding unmerited marks to them during tests and examinations.
He said, “Absentee lecturers, including incompetent and lazy lecturers are a worrisome phenomenon in the universities.”
He stated, “It is an act of gross misconduct when any lecturer fails to show up at lecture,” saying, “Any lecturer who exhibit this character are not called for the job; they forced themselves into the profession.”
Professor Nwajuba, noted with dismay that some Professors churn out low quality researches, while some neither do research nor supervise researches.
Continuing, he said,
“There are also the unserious students in the university who are not interested in their studies, and oftentimes don’t return to school on time when school resumes for a new semester.”
Professor Nwajiuba, who is currently a visiting professor at National University Commission (UNC) Abuja, described University as an academic institution charged with the responsibility of impacting quality knowledge and good character to the students.
He noted that the continuous manifest of ‘alien’ and unpopular practices in the Nigerian universities has in no small measure eroded the honour society accorded lecturers in the past, especially the Professors.
He noted, “In the 1970s and ‘80s, university graduates were highly respected because the quality of lecturers that tutored them was topnotch, adding that the high standard for admission, the high standard of examination questions, coupled with the spartan lifestyle that lecturers portrayed in the past years were fundamental in raising the standard of university education in Nigeria.”
He submitted, “The University system in Nigeria has failed in sustaining the standard it was widely known to protect in the good old days.”
He said, “Until we go back to the old good days of the university system, quality graduates would continue to be a mirage.”
Professor Nwajuba stated, “The task of raising the University standard and ensure the requisite character and learning are impacted to the students is not the sole responsibility of the Vice- Chancellor,” adding that, “The Heads of Department, Deans of Faculties, and others also have a role to play to ensure the university achieves its desired goals.”
