How Nigerian University Lecturers Stifle Intellectual Growth

 How Nigerian University Lecturers stifle Intellectual Growth

By Obi Trice Emeka 

I think our university system needs to improve and inculcate intellectual rigour amongst students. On close observation, you would notice that the greatest weakness of a large population of Nigerian graduates is the absence of intellectual rigour. Brilliant graduates, yes but not skilled in intellectualism.

Our university system prioritises rote learning, and the sustained employment of mediocres over time has ensured that our universities are bereft of intellectual depth. Lecturing ought to be an intellectual job. However, we have reduced it to a regimented routine: go to class, dictate notes, conduct quizzes and exams, and repeat the next session. Lecturing should be more than that  it should challenge the intellectual imagination of the students and encourage intellectual confrontation. 

In most Western universities, their intellectuals are on campus challenging ideas and abnormalities in their societies especially as it relates to economics, sociology, gender relations, and freedom. In our case, the very system that ought to be the centre of such intellectual engagements often restricts them. Whenever I go on YouTube, I watch how Western intellectuals engage university students and the counter-arguments that come from the students in an ambient environment free of bullying and threats.

I think Nigerian lecturers, especially those in economics, ought to do more in challenging the thought processes of students on the various economic systems. You can see the lack of intellectual rigour in the quality of discourse all over social media. Just yesterday, I read someone quarrelling about the energy tariff for Band A areas and the dollar exchange rate, arguing that both were too high. I was tempted to ask him: at what rate does he think GENCOS and DISCOs would break even and attract the investment needed to expand capacity? Or, at what naira-dollar rate does he think forex would become readily available for everyone, anytime?

The lack of intellectual rigour has led many Nigerians to believe that eliminating corruption is the magic wand that everything will automatically become alright overnight. Many equate cheap prices with economic growth. I wish they could study Argentina, which appears to have fulfilled the Nigerian dream. Growth is no magic. It is painful and tiring. Again, in governance, there are no perfect solutions  only trade-offs. Solving one problem almost always creates another.

Nigerians must learn to debate. Debate intelligently on everything. Sadly, freedom to opinion would soon be a thing of the past in Nigeria.

Our university system must learn to promote intellectual confrontatios. Lecturers in UniMaid, ABU, and other northern universities should be holding talks on the almajiri system and population growth, where data is the only ground for disagreement. Likewise, lecturers in the Southeast should be having serious conversations on the economy of secession and other related matters.

I am a firm believer that behind every great society is an army of intellectuals.