By Babayo Sule (PhD)
To start with, 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. Besides, he has the constitutional power to express his views and narrate his experience of his academic journey. We all know that no Nigerian system is working properly as it should. But to his this particular view, I have a contrary one with some fundamental issues raised as follows.
If research is not undertaken in Nigerian universities, does he agree that he became a Professor without doing any meaningful research?
Research is carried out in Nigerian universities now more than any period in Nigerian history. The emergence of TETfund scholarship training to young academics provides the opportunity for Nigerian scholars to attend world class universities, exposed to rigours of modern scientific research and advanced research techniques which they are now applying at home. The quality of journals and publishers that the Nigerian scholars are now penetrating is unprecedented. To confirm this, just make a simple Google search on subject of interest and see wonders.
Nigerian scholars are now accessing international grants more than ever and these grants are research driven and research oriented. In just Gombe State here between FUK and GSU, I can list more than 50 scholars with international grants running in thousands of dollars for research. What if u exapand and search all Nigerian tertiary institutions? Amazing!
Young Nigerian scholars are now publishing in Q1 journals and other Clavarite Analytics ISI/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. In some universities like UNN, u will never become a Professor until you published in this class of journals and publishers.
He may be talking of himself, his likes and his experiences and this regard, he is right. Then, u may ask him how he became a Professor. Surprisingly, 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. He is not present in Google Scholar, Research gate, Academia.edu, Semantic Scholar, Mendeley, talk less of Scopus ID and ORCID. Only his Facebook page and tafsirs are visible as a Professor. In contemporary academic world even in the neighbourhood of African countries, he will never ever be a Professor forever without a presence in these global academic forum. In essence, countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, 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.
Additionally, how can he expect a genuine research from the Nigerian academics who are not catered adequately. Just in 2021, the US Government awarded Harvard University a grant of $500 million, a university now privately run to undertake research. In Nigeria, what is the government providing for research? A TETfund IBR research grant of N800000 for academics to carry a ground breaking research. Laughable! Isn’t it? Even decent salaries to the academics is now a taboo. Yet, with this condition, check world first class reputable journals and publishers such as Springer, Sage, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Zed Books, Rowman and Littlefield, etc etc and see how Nigerian academics are publishing there frequently. Are all these not evidence of research? Do these publishers published a joke or low quality research?
Besides, all of us, i repeat, all are products of Nigerian universities and academics, 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. Graduates of Nigerian universities despite the poor condition of learning and instructions always excel in world class universities in the US, Europe and Asia why?
Perhaps, Prof was regurgitating his past experience during his analog days in Nigerian universities that he had not been frequenting during his working days. No one, may be, cares to enlighten the Prof that we are now in digital age where various softwares introduced such as Turnitin, ithenticate and other amti-plagiariam softwares compelled Nigerian universities’ academics to embark on research with originality, contribution and practical policy implications. This is confirmed in Nigeria’s recent Scimago ranking where Nigerian academics emerged 3rd after South Africa and Egypt in Africa amidst a wretched and miserable working conditions. In other words, Prof is obsolete to know that the era of copy/cut and paste is now a history for aspiring academics globally.
More reasonably, Prof might have been understood if he limits his unguarded utterances and advertisement of out-of-touch reality to himself and his likes. Of course, I agree with him, some Nigerian academics are truant, unproductive, inconsequential and can only work if they are closely supervised and compelled with threats of dismissal to work. Otherwise, they may easily bastardise the so-called academic freedom, stationed themselves stationary in places like Abuja and operate from there. These few deviants should not be considered as the yardstick of measuring the productivity of the Nigerian academics.
In essence, what is bemusing with the submission by Prof is what exactly is he trying to achieve? Blackmail his colleagues? Denigrate them? Diminish the sympathy they enjoy from the public for their father’s land sacrifice? Buy sympathy and support to the government that prove to be notorious in reneging against all promises or what? Nigerian academics, for Prof’s consent, are highly respected globally.
The likes of Maqari could not even mentor the younger ones academically since he believed they don’t know research. Well, he is a missing gap in what the Nigerian academic community wasted for unproductive venture. This is my little take.
