NIGERIA: Lecturers without PhDs to lose their jobs

Public and private universities in Nigeria were recently reminded by Professor Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, that by 2009 all lecturers must possess a doctoral degree - or lose their jobs. This directive, supported by the federal government, has generated a great deal of controversy in and outside higher education. But both supporters and opponents of the idea are unanimous about one thing - to prevent instability and uncertainty in the fragile university system, the qualifications deadline should be extended to allow affected academics to obtain their PhDs.

In an address to the Association and Committee of Vice Chancellors, the NUC's Okojie referred to a regulation called the Benchmark Minimum Academics Standard, or BMAS, which relates to the basic qualification a university teacher must possess. He said :

"If you don't have a PhD, you cannot teach. It has been an old regulation in the university system. If you graduate with a first class or second class upper, we take you as a graduate assistant. You are a trainee fellow. You are not a lecturer. When you earn your masters, you become an assistant lecturer. You are still not a lecturer.

"A lecturer is an examiner. The day you obtain your PhD, even if you have never worked before, your first appointment is lecturer grade two. What has happened in the past is that because of the dearth of PhD holders, universities employed those with mature masters as a lecturer grade two." However, Okojie added, an academic without a PhD is not an examiner and is excluded, among other things, from board of examiners' meetings.

Critics of the latest directive of the NUC boss argue that for 20 years in Nigeria, postgraduate programmes were undermined to the point of collapse by the deliberate policy of the military junta that ruled the country to deny the university system adequate funding.

Dr Benedicta Okon, a lecturer in the department of microbiology at Niger Delta University, Bayelsa, pointed out that between 1983 and 1999, when the military ruled Nigeria, crude oil - the mainstay of the economy - earned substantial foreign exchange: "There was enough money to fund, equip and encourage postgraduate programs in Nigerian universities."

"Since the generals considered university teachers and students as real centres of opposition to perpetual military rule, there was a consistent policy to reduce drastically the amount of money meant for universities. Professors in charge of postgraduate programmes migrated in their droves to greener pastures abroad," he explained.

"Today, about a third of university teachers in Nigeria do not have doctorate degrees." The NUC's Okojie has these facts and figures, Okon argued, and should therefore extend the obligatory PhD deadline beyond next year. "With improvements in the working and living conditions of lecturers with PhDs, they will be in a position to train their colleagues with masters degrees."

Akin Oyebode, professor of jurisprudence at the University of Lagos, applauded the move as a welcome development. However, he does not believe that the 2009 target can be met: "We don't have capable hands to supervise doctorate candidates. We have a ridiculous situation where non-PhD holders who are not professors are supervising PhD candidates. What an abnormality," he exclaimed.

Opponents of the directive are also concerned that the application of the directive might force brilliant lecturers without PhDs to quite the system - citing the examples of Chunua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, Nigeria's leading creative writers, who became professors without PhDs at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Obafemi Awolowo University respectively.

In the words of Felix Adenaike, a newspaper columnist on higher education in Nigeria: "Such a position can only amount to a drowning man holding onto a straw. Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are rare whiz kids. And they do not abound in the same generation and they don't come cheap."

The Nigerian government is currently working on a scheme to fund postgraduate programmes in 'first generation' universities where there are professors deeply committed to training PhD candidates. Part of the scheme would involve paying substantial amounts of money to professors engaged in training postgraduate students, with the latter receiving bursaries and scholarships.

COMMENT:

There are always exceptions to rules. There have been some brilliant Professors without PhDs (Professor Anao of Uniben is one such example) who have very ably guided their junior colleagues to PhD awards. There is nothing wrong with this. Rules should be implemented, but not in a hurry because in these hard times losing jobs is not a very pretty thing. Five years from now should be enough for most academics to have their PhDs if it is to be a must. Remember, a vast majority of universities in Nigeria (especially in the field of Physics) have no research facilities whatever to do any viable PhD work, not to mention the availability of up-to-date research journals. So Professor Okojie should take it a bit easy and do first things first and that is to provide research facilities in science-based departments for the academics to get cracking with their PhDs.
Professor V C Sharma PhD., FInstP (London)
(Retired Professor of Physics, Uniben)