Opinion

Re-No Research in Nigerian Universities: A Rejoinder to Professor Maqari

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Babayo Sule

<p><&excl;-- BEGIN THEIA POST SLIDER --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"EduXcixo" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>By Babayo Sule &lpar;PhD&rpar;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"nAHiYHHF" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>To start with&comma; I respect Professor Ibrahim Maqari much and if u are keenly following his submissions he is being considered fair and honest in most of his engagements&period; Besides&comma; he has the constitutional power to express his views and narrate his experience of his academic journey&period; We all know that no Nigerian system is working properly as it should&period; But to his this particular view&comma; I have a contrary one with some fundamental issues raised as follows&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If research is not undertaken in Nigerian universities&comma; does he agree that he became a Professor without doing any meaningful research&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Research is carried out in Nigerian universities now more than any period in Nigerian history&period; The emergence of TETfund scholarship training to young academics provides the opportunity for Nigerian scholars to attend world class universities&comma; exposed to rigours of modern scientific research and advanced research techniques which they are now applying at home&period; The quality of journals and publishers that the Nigerian scholars are now penetrating is unprecedented&period; To confirm this&comma; just make a simple Google search on subject of interest and see wonders&period;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"tskQsH0r" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;" &NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"6550225277"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Nigerian scholars are now accessing international grants more than ever and these grants are research driven and research oriented&period; In just Gombe State here between FUK and GSU&comma; I can list more than 50 scholars with international grants running in thousands of dollars for research&period; What if u exapand and search all Nigerian tertiary institutions&quest; Amazing&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad5" id&equals;"quads-ad5" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Young Nigerian scholars are now publishing in Q1 journals and other Clavarite Analytics ISI&sol;Scopus indexed journals which are universally testified to publish only ground breaking research and not any copy and paste or literature review or theoretical postulations&period; In some universities like UNN&comma; u will never become a Professor until you published in this class of journals and publishers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He may be talking of himself&comma; his likes and his experiences and this regard&comma; he is right&period; Then&comma; u may ask him how he became a Professor&period; Surprisingly&comma; I checked his profile in the internet but I was utterly shocked and confused to discover his total absence in all global academia forum or any SINGLE visible academic contribution&period; He is not present in Google Scholar&comma; Research gate&comma; Academia&period;edu&comma; Semantic Scholar&comma; Mendeley&comma; talk less of Scopus ID and ORCID&period; Only his Facebook page and tafsirs are visible as a Professor&period; In contemporary academic world even in the neighbourhood of African countries&comma; he will never ever be a Professor forever without a presence in these global academic forum&period; In essence&comma; countries like Malaysia&comma; Taiwan&comma; India and even South Africa will never promote an academic that is not publishing in Scopus and other Clavarite Analytics ISI indexed journals and articles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Additionally&comma; how can he expect a genuine research from the Nigerian academics who are not catered adequately&period; Just in 2021&comma; the US Government awarded Harvard University a grant of &dollar;500 million&comma; a university now privately run to undertake research&period; In Nigeria&comma; what is the government providing for research&quest; A TETfund IBR research grant of N800000 for academics to carry a ground breaking research&period; Laughable&excl; Isn&&num;8217&semi;t it&quest; Even decent salaries to the academics is now a taboo&period; Yet&comma; with this condition&comma; check world first class reputable journals and publishers such as Springer&comma; Sage&comma; Palgrave Macmillan&comma; Routledge&comma; Zed Books&comma; Rowman and Littlefield&comma; etc etc and see how Nigerian academics are publishing there frequently&period; Are all these not evidence of research&quest; Do these publishers published a joke or low quality research&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Besides&comma; all of us&comma; i repeat&comma; all are products of Nigerian universities and academics&comma; we are working in various fields of human endeavour and you can testify to the role of academics in training our younger ones in research&period; Graduates of Nigerian universities despite the poor condition of learning and instructions always excel in world class universities in the US&comma; Europe and Asia why&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Perhaps&comma; Prof was regurgitating his past experience during his analog days in Nigerian universities that he had not been frequenting during his working days&period; No one&comma; may be&comma; cares to enlighten the Prof that we are now in digital age where various softwares introduced such as Turnitin&comma; ithenticate and other amti-plagiariam softwares compelled Nigerian universities&&num;8217&semi; academics to embark on research with originality&comma; contribution and practical policy implications&period; This is confirmed in Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s recent Scimago ranking where Nigerian academics emerged 3rd after South Africa and Egypt in Africa amidst a wretched and miserable working conditions&period; In other words&comma; Prof is obsolete to know that the era of copy&sol;cut and paste is now a history for aspiring academics globally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More reasonably&comma; Prof might have been understood if he limits his unguarded utterances and advertisement of out-of-touch reality to himself and his likes&period; Of course&comma; I agree with him&comma; some Nigerian academics are truant&comma; unproductive&comma; inconsequential and can only work if they are closely supervised and compelled with threats of dismissal to work&period; Otherwise&comma; they may easily bastardise the so-called academic freedom&comma; stationed themselves stationary in places like Abuja and operate from there&period; These few deviants should not be considered as the yardstick of measuring the productivity of the Nigerian academics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In essence&comma; what is bemusing with the submission by Prof is what exactly is he trying to achieve&quest; Blackmail his colleagues&quest; Denigrate them&quest; Diminish the sympathy they enjoy from the public for their father&&num;8217&semi;s land sacrifice&quest; Buy sympathy and support to the government that prove to be notorious in reneging against all promises or what&quest; Nigerian academics&comma; for Prof&&num;8217&semi;s consent&comma; are highly respected globally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The likes of Maqari could not even mentor the younger ones academically since he believed they don&&num;8217&semi;t know research&period; Well&comma; he is a missing gap in what the Nigerian academic community wasted for unproductive venture&period; This is my little take&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;-- END THEIA POST SLIDER -->&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"autorelaxed" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1004305389"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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