By Azuoma Anugom, Esq (Adaejiagamba)
In a recent article, Farooq Kperogi issued a clarion call to rescue Nigeria’s scholars from the grip of systemic neglect. Referencing the evocative notion of the “idle class”—borrowed from Thorstein Veblen and reimagined to celebrate contemplative labor—Kperogi argued that Nigeria’s path to innovation depends on its ability to nourish minds, not just infrastructures.
But what good is intellectual contemplation when the contemplators must moonlight as market vendors? Enter Professor Nasir Hassan-Wagini, a respected academic in Katsina who sells tomatoes and soup ingredients in a rural market to supplement his university salary. His story, equal parts dignified and distressing, exposes the very marrow of Nigeria’s academic crisis.
Meanwhile, on campuses like Imo State University, the desperation caused by poor lecturer remuneration has mutated into unethical classroom economics. Students are compelled to purchase handouts—often overpriced and of questionable pedagogic value—as a condition for sitting exams or receiving grades. Despite past efforts to outlaw this practice, including a 2014 directive by Governor Rochas Okorocha, it remains deeply entrenched.
This isn’t just a story about underfunding—it’s a betrayal of the social contract between educators and society. It reflects a slow collapse of the intellectual covenant:
– 💰 When professors are underpaid, survival instincts override academic ethics.
– 📚 When students are coerced, education becomes transactional rather than transformational.
– 🧑🎓 When universities tolerate these practices, they normalize exploitation under the guise of pedagogy.
Tope Fasua’s recent rejoinder to Kperogi argues that scholarly remuneration should not be viewed through rose-colored comparisons with foreign models like Japan. He advocates a cultural shift that celebrates vocational resilience, citing Professor Hassan-Wagini’s market work as a model of self-reliance.
Yet Fasua’s framing, while well-intentioned, risks glamorizing the very symptoms of systemic failure. The ability to sell tomatoes is admirable—but the need to sell tomatoes as a university professor is a crisis.
The stakes are not merely academic; they’re existential. If Nigeria continues to undervalue intellectual labor, it risks handing out systemic failure disguised as educational policy. The handouts sold in lecture halls are no longer just printed notes—they’re metaphors for what we’ve handed out in place of dignity, rigor, and vision.
What must be done?
– 🔍 Reinforce zero-tolerance policies on coercive handout sales, especially in institutions like IMSU.
– 💼 Lobby for fair and livable remuneration for lecturers nationwide.
– 🧪 Invest in research infrastructure and professional development.
– 🗣️ Engage leadership—formally and informally—to restore the dignity of academia.
Yes, professors deserve fair compensation. But they must not reclaim dignity by undermining the dignity of those they teach. The notion that poor pay legitimizes unethical practices is deeply corrosive. It turns classrooms into markets and students into captive consumers.
To advocate for reform without accountability is to solve only half the problem. Nigeria’s academic renewal must be holistic: better pay, certainly—but also higher standards of ethics, pedagogy, and integrity.
Let us pay our scholars what they are due. But let us also ask of them what the profession demands. Anything less is a betrayal of both learning and legacy.
