Nigeria Has over 9,000 Professors in Varsity System, Says NUC
Kuni Tyessi
In the face of approximately 190 million Nigerians and with a youthful population of over 60 per cent , only about 9,000 professors abound so far in the Nigerian university system as revealed by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Out of the total number, as recorded in the commission’s database of professors, it discovered that despite the alarmingly low number, there were duplication of names due to sabbaticals and other engagements, while some who had been sent abroad as professors were in the actual fact not professors.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, who disclosed this, recently, during the Council of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian (CVCN) retreat in Abuja, said the era of lecturers promoting themselves to the status of professors must come to an end as the commission is committed to curbing the tide of fake professorship.
He lamented the embarrassment that fake professors have caused the commission and the nation at large after being discovered by foreign institutions who had accepted letters of recommendation from it, saying that a compilation of the database will be reviewed on an annual basis and with the correct and updated figure made public.
According to him, “Our record shows that there are over 9,000 professors in the Nigerian university system and we have discovered that there are several duplications, you might see the same name in Bayero University as well as in Ahmadu Bello University.
“Some institutions abroad have called us to say that the professors we sent to them are actually not professors. To some extent, you will not blame such people. Sometimes the students are responsible for this. By the time the lecturer stays for too long in the university, the students begin to call him professor. Within the first year, he feels uncomfortable but from the second year, he accepts the name and begins to address himself as professor and to the extent of been bold enough to write to us with claims that they are professors.
“A directorate of full professorship is very important. A list of all the professors in each university will be compiled on every vice chancellor and the vice chancellors must ensure that the right list is used for confirmation.”
He decried the abuse of con- vocation ceremonies saying that it has been turned into jamboree and mere pageantry especially when honorary degrees are been awarded.
He called on vice chancellors to ensure discipline in their institutions and learn to do that which is globally accepted.
“Universities must take convocation ceremonies very seriously. It has been abused in Nigeria and this must be addressed. It is not a time for giving gifts and reciting lengthy recitation.