Being a university lecturer in Nigeria is no longer sustainable. Every day is a struggle just to eat, pay rent, and survive. Teaching is what I know and love, but the financial strain is making it impossible to do my job effectively.
When I started teaching over seven years ago, I could afford to drive to school daily in a family vintage fuel efficient car that I subtly colonized, pick up colleagues from their homes, and never asked for fuel money. Today, I can barely afford public transport to work. I now go to work twice a week, if I manage.
Government officials say prices are coming down. Yes, I completely agree. But do we have money to buy it? No. Before, while growing up in a middle-income family, my parents stocked food at home, beans, yam, okpa etc. at these times. Now, you can’t even afford to buy when prices drop. Survival is day to day.
One illness in the family and you plunge into poverty. Rent increases annually. Inflation is destroying us, but the government pretends not to notice. No policies protect ordinary Nigerians. It’s hardship upon hardship.
I once considered sleeping in my office like he said to save transport costs, but senior colleagues warned me. If anything happens, I could find myself explaining things I shouldn’t have to. So, I keep struggling, like many others.
We are so understaffed that I teach five courses in a semester. But the real tragedy? The students. They are not being taught. Some barely see a lecturer thrice in a semester. Their degrees are losing value because the system is collapsing.
I recently supervised an exam for 400-level students. Out of 145, about 60% are on student loans. They are paying, but are they getting their money’s worth? No. They graduate with certificates but without knowledge.
HODs come to work once a week. Deans, principal officers, same thing or at most trice. Those who come Monday won’t come Tuesday. Those who come Tuesday won’t come Wednesday. Academic efficiency is dead. But who do you blame? They all have families
A three-unit course that should have three hours weekly barely gets one hour in two or three weeks. I teach five courses so how do I cover my syllabus? You want to teach 400-level students, but they don’t know 300-level material and as much as I pity them, I can only confuse them the more.
After the eight-month strike, owed salaries were paid in bits, spread over months. Inflation wiped out what little we had. Most other service rendering profession adjusted by adjusting their prices. Lecturers can’t. If they take money for textbooks, handouts or worse, grades, it’s a scandal.
We are churning out graduates who are with all due respect, educated illiterates. In 20 years, this country will be in crisis because of it. The government must act now. This is not about lecturers alone, it is about the future of Nigeria.
I asked my students how many wants to be lecturers. None. They don’t want to be like me. They see no dignity, no reward, no future in teaching. Universities should attract the best, but now, teaching is a last resort.
Once, first-class students were happy to be retained. Now, even if you force them at gunpoint, they won’t stay. Those who do are mocked for “lacking ambition.” This is the death of academia in Nigeria.
Some lecturers now earn more from side businesses than from teaching. When that happens, even if salaries were to ever increase, they won’t return to full-time teaching and give their best to research. A generation of lecturers is being lost.
Nigerians are paying the price for necessary government reforms, but not everyone is affected equally. Some are shielded. Meanwhile, the government ignores the suffering of its people. Rent hikes (which state governments should tackle), inflation, job losses, no protection.
16/ This is me joining the #30daysrantchallenge against both the federal and state governments: feel the pulse of the people. University education is collapsing. If we continue like this, the damage will be irreversible.
W.Salaam
● This material was randomly picked from the social media.
