The road to a successful completion of a doctoral degree programme is lined with thorns, intrigues, intimidation, harassment, and sometimes open threats. It is a tough terrain to navigate. Some supervisors have the bizarre understanding that their skills are measured by their capacity to fail students, including the ability to be callous, mean-spirited, and malicious. They believe their competence is defined by how much they frustrate their PhD candidates or how difficult and insurmountable they present the programme to their students.
The archetypal unsophisticated supervisor cuts the image of an arrogant, snobbish, dictatorial, and conceited academic staff who enjoys undeserved adoration and respect by students. But this misleading veneer of toughness operates only at the surface level. When you probe deeper, you will find that those character traits are used by the vacuous and old-fashioned supervisors to mask their academic and personal inadequacies’ this is a n excerpt from Levi Obijiofors letter bomb to supervisors in (and) public university in Nigeria (The weird ways of university supervisors, The Sun, 19/11/19).
I have “known” Levi Obijiofor for a long while, even though I have not met him in the flesh. He might also have known me in a similar manner. Our people say that a person who dances in the public square cannot remain anonymous. The only new thing I did after reading his recent outburst against weird university supervisors, has been to find out what he does for a living. And behold, he is a lecturer of the professorial cadre in a foreign university. And I thought: but snakes do not swallow snakes and witches do not bewitch their fellow witches! How can one of us look all of us in the face and publicly write us off and in such harsh and uncharitable phrases and sentences? However, on a second thought, I believe that it is a sign of maturity and integrity for somebody to publicly condemn his colleagues and ask them, in harsh tones to “repent” of their “evil” ways.
In July 2018, I had commented on a wave of “examination of conscience” in the academia. That was when Ikenna Onyido, publicly blamed the drastic drop in quality in Nigerian universities, on internet or China Professors, who plagiarised their way up the promotion ladder in an absurd situation in which traditional rulers and men of influence lead delegations to Vice-Chancellors, in order to plead for their son or daughter to be made a professor. He also bemoaned the increasing churning out of “counterfeit PhDs,” which he believed posed a greater threat to the country than Boko Haram and herdsmen, in the long run. Strong words indeed! It was also around that time that Lagos State University did a sting operation and caught one of their own pants-down in a sexual harassment case while Obafemi Awolowo University acted with enviable dispatch in the case of sexual harassment involving one of their professors. (The academia: a season of examination of conscience; Ik Muo, 27/7/18 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/268737/the-academia-a-season-for-the-examination-of-conscience.html)
So, Obijiofor should be commended for calling attention to the failure and failings of the PhD process, especially as it relates to supervisors and supervision. However, I note that he excluded himself and his ilk from this call for repentance because he directed it at Nigerian Public Universities. Because he teaches in a foreign private university, he was in effect, “giving it to them”, excluding himself and others like him. But he is one of us.
Some supervisors have the bizarre understanding that their skills are measured by their capacity to fail students, including the ability to be callous, mean-spirited, and malicious
However, while Obijiofor attempted to discuss a handshake, he picturesquely concentrated on only one of the hands. And we all know that a hand cannot shake itself; handshake is not possible without two hands. How can he write on the sorry-state of our PhD programmes, especially as it affects supervision, without making any reference to the students? Obijiofor had his PhD at the University of Queensland. So, he was not writing about his own experiences. He must have enumerated what he heard from people, what he observed or the outcome of a research. So, in all fairness, I also expect him to write on the contribution of the doctoral students to this messy situation. When he has done so, the equation will become a little bit balanced and one can then make a balanced comment on the mater.
Between 1980 and 2014, I wrote 4.5 projects (the half refers to one I wrote but not for a degree). I have been supervising PG projects in the past 25 years and presently, I am a PG coordinator in a PUBLIC University. So, I am experienced in these matters and as soon as he completes his thesis, I will SURELY, make my own inputs. But any day we meet at the online staff-club, I will ask him why he gave us such an uppercut!
As for the totality of what he wrote, my mouth is too holy to repeat them here. Just go and read them yourself!
Other matters: Manufacturers fraud; for the attention of EFCC
Our people say that when you commend somebody for his heroic works, he is encouraged to do even more while it is generally said that the chief reward for hard work is more work. EFCC has been working really HARD, notwithstanding that its chairman is the longest acting appointee in our 70-year history! The track record of EFCC in recent times has been awesome. Last week they arrested Issa Abdulrahman, the Vice Principal of Government Day Secondary School, Ote in Eiye-Nkorin Area of Kwara State, and two other teachers for collecting money from students to aid and abet cheating in the NECO examination. They have declared an all-out war against all yahoo-yahoo boys, which is one of the reasons why any young person with a phone or laptop is now an endangered species on our roads. They have succeeded in proving that the gap between chief and thief is not always wide by throwing one of our chiefs into prison, and confiscated the properties of the other. They have also notified the Sun Newspapers of impending “akshon”.
I am therefore commending them, and as a patriotic Nigerian, I wish to draw their attention to the packaging fraud being perpetrated by some of our manufacturers. Sometimes ago, I bought a tin of powdered milk, opened it and found out that it was half-empty! I cried foul but one of my “pikins” assured me that they were not selling the tin but the content. And when I asked, why they did not make the size of tin to be equal to its content, he had no answer. Not long after that, I bought a bucket of 2kg S.O.J Custard and discovered to my chagrin, that the content was just 33 percent of the container. I have kept the bucket, as an evidence because I have the intention of measuring the content to ensure that it is up to 2kg!
On Sunday, 15/12/19, I bought two sachets of FanIce vanilla ice-cream. I used to enjoy its sweet taste when I was in the world but now that I am in the spirit, I have to give it up. My beloved raised alarm that she put the thing into her mouth, and as she was preparing to savour the creamy taste, it had “vanished”. We then inspected the second one and the content was about 25 percent of the sachet. The content may or may not be up to the advertised 150 ml but I believe that it is deceptive to pack a small content in a large container and I believe that these manufacturers do so because the containers are opaque. Who will buy a bottle of soft drink, beer or water if it were 70 percent empty? I know that this may fall within the domain of Standards Organisation of Nigeria but I am calling the attention of the ever active EFCC to this new type of fraud. I have done my own, as a patriotic citizen!
IK MUO
