₦airaland Forum

Ugosample:
hmmm
but a masters in Britain takes one year
And in University of Lagos, between 12 months and 18 months depending

asuustrike1:
This is what I received from someone so I don't know who to believe.
Copied:
I just read, with shock, that a University of Ibadan lecturer in Mathematics Dept. has taken his life, primarily because he had spent 22 years on his PhD programme without a headway, because his professors were insensitive and saw the delay as normal. This is the practice in most public universities, my alma mater, UI being no exception.

My office roommate back in UI (thankfully, now a professor) was on his PhD for 11 years before finally bagging the elusive degree. He was ready long before the time, but the system (particularly his supervisor) wasn't ready for him. He had aged a bit before eventually earning this feat.

This irresponsible practice takes no one, no where. It shortchanges the student, department and university. It shortchanges the supervisor too, as he ends up having low or no credits in his PhD supervision experience or production of PhDs. No one wins when PhD students are unduly delayed. In the process of keeping students on their PhD programme for too long, for no tangible reason, other than "that's the culture", or for them to "mature", or to go through what they, the older professors had gone through as doctoral students during their time, the whole university system remains and suffers at a mediocre level.

I strongly condemn the process that led to the sad incident at UI. I belong to the generation of senior scholars that will support every hardworking PhD student to make rapid and legitimate progress. We celebrate people's progress and success here. Let every professor leading their students to suicide by their unethical and wicked act of delaying them in their academic programme learn from this regrettable Ibadan episode and do their job professionally and with the fear of God.

Prof Sheriff Folarin
Covenant University

ishowdotgmail:
My boss

patwilly:
Which university of Lagos? The one I know or another one... Taahh!!

asuustrike1:
Minimum is 3 years maximum 5 years

Tomide007:
He taught me algebra in 200level ...and I can say for a fact that he is the smartest lecturer in maths department... Better than those profs ...there were so many conspiracies against that guy.......If you're a genius please don't join Nigeria academia. ....there is also a genetic scientist in zoology department of ui.. But ui refused to recognise his PhD because he didn't receive his PhD from ui but from UK......the reason is dt he had to convert his PhD to ui standard... This said man is about the best geneticist in Nigeria.

sacajawea:
Was he a Practicing Muslim?

kayroc:
That man is depriving this world of his talents. If the guy should relocate to South Africa there he will make impacts and will have more funding for research.

People should remember that time in this life is limited and should abandon pride and misplaced dedication. How can you dedicate your life to an institution that is dedicated to your frustrations? It makes no sense.

Excuzeme:
When a sitting President and his Vice (Obasanjo and Atiku) super-intended over an 18month strike of ASUU, (wherein students were left at home for 18months) , did nothing about the strike for 18months but used the Period to loot our money, acquire University licenses for themselves and both built personal and private universities for themselves (Bells University and ABTKU ), then we should all know that the destruction of public universities was a deliberate policy of those in Power and Authority, so as to foster the profitability of their own private university since they dont want competition.

If l were Buhari, l will SEIZE any Private university owned and built by anyone who occupied Public office in the last twenty years and convert it to public use, apart from massive funding of the existing, public universities

Tomide007:
deep... really deep

Martinez39:
But why didn't he leave? Why would a genius who can find employment elsewhere endure such suffering?

Excuzeme:
Are you sure of the above bolded statements?

I did my own Masters almost two decades ago at Unilag and it took me exactly TWO Semesters (one Academic Year) and that is what it takes everyone to do a 'Masters by Coursework', except if you failed one or more courses and you had to repeat the semester(s).

I have to confess that one of the reasons l swore never to do a PhD program in Nigeria was because of this same "Dobale" culture where your Supervisor holds you to ransom and would only "release you" from his grip, whenever he chooses to, irrespective of whether you had completed your dissertation or not.
I have seen many cases where "Prof.' gave all the courses that he is being paid to teach, to his Doctoral student and the PhD student just labors for the Supervisor year-in, year-out. Some of these PhD supervisors are nothing for the worst sadists that ever existed.

WRT the case of Mr. Zubair, my opinion is that his death was as a result of many frustrating situations and eventual murder:

1.) he was likely depressed from his unending Doctoral pursuit. that Ayoola saying rubbish up there is a bogus liar. His statements are so stupendous and silly, they dont deserve any response. Under no circumstance should anyone be subjected to the horor this guy was subjected to! 22yrs pursuing a PhD and registering for the same program , over and over again? This is sheer wickedness and inhuman.
And from testimonies of his former students, he is mentally sound, sane and honest so what is it that makes him 'register and register, over and over again, for 22yrs?

2.) A Judge had decided to make his life miserable by appropriating a large chunk of his salary to his estranged wife such that the man sees himself and working for someone else and at the same time, his PhD was not attainable. This is an obvious casualty of feminism and insane laws that emasculate the husband, due to a family break-up.

3.) When he could not take it anymore, l guess he decided to end the "income" by resigning from his job. Since his salary was being deducted "at source", he decided to end the "slavery' by resigning because if he does not work and earn money, there would be nothing to deduct. Those who pay alimony or excessive child-support (its actually not about SUPPORTING the child because close to 90% of such money goes into buying frivolities and the "child" does not really benefit from it that much but "the law is what it is').
This si mostly why he resigned his appointment but like most "senior lecturers", you can still hang around in your official quarters for some years before being finally booted out if you dont find your way.

4.) What 'was alleged" to finally killed him was a fire-outbreak!
Now, that should be thoroughly investigated but unfortunately, we are in a country where intelligence is scarce among those who are saddled wit this kind of job. I would bet that he was murdered and/or then set on fire.
My "theory" is that those who initially were the beneficiaries of his income, organised his death since he has deprived them of such money.
if we can get good forensics on ground, it can easily be established first that the fire was deliberate arson and after that, it can be shown that it probably was not the fire that killed him or it was set deliberately to kill him (maybe locked inside to prevent escape so that he dies from asphyxiation). Recall that his body was not burnt!

In all, it is a sad end to a very hardworking and honest genius. The Nigerian system failed this man totally but Justice could still be served to his murderers..

Chukwuka16:
No sir. PhD takes different formats depending on the nature of research and institutional policies.

If you do the normal thesis style where you have to write up from abstract through succeeding chapters to conclusion then 6 semesters is usually common. You find this method in Nigeria and the UK.

The PhD by publication route can be 1 year or 2 years (or less) depending on the policy in play. The requirements are a number of excellent publications, an introduction/co-ordinating chapter, maybe a linking introduction to each paper (half a page) and a conclusion. You just bundle your papers and the introduction chapter and you submit. Mine followed that route and took me 17 months. This is common in South Africa and some countries in Europe. In the UK some universities offer this route too. The papers however must be top notch (high impact factors and well ranked using SJR/ABS). The assumption is that since the papers have been peer reviewed and accepted by the academic community, the candidate can be said to have been assessed.

For the UI issue, forget them. I visited Unilag recently and I cant just continue to thank Oluwa who lives in heaven for delivering me and my generation yet unborn from frustration. So I would have been a frustrated academic at this young age in a system that has decided within itself not to work? And it's so bad that in a short time you get lost in the useless culture they have created that you do not even realise after a while that time has gone. Imagine a department have 7 senior lecturers who have not been able to get promotion in at least 2-3 promotion cycles because they have mostly conference papers and now find it difficult churning out the required 18 journal papers. How will a young L1 hope to get promoted if his interviewers are still stagnant on SL? That is when you would hear something like "cant you see that your seniors are not moving? Go and respond to external advert."

I have seen students being bullied by lecturers. I have even seen lecturers being bullied by senior lecturers/profs. The system promotes mediocrity alot that the good eggs get suffocated. My advice to anyone joining the academic system in Nigeria - government or private is to be careful. Colleagues from both divides have stories of woes to tell. Ah, God I thank you that I didn't make that decision to go and perish in Nigeria. It would have been a disastrous one. Today, I appreciate what it means to be an academic and have what is called somebodiness. No one is there threatening me or exercising some jurisprudence over my career/future. How and when I progress is entirely my responsibility. I am respected for my achievements and given all the resources I need to function well.

It is only in Nigeria especially UI that a MSc student will write a paper and be third author. How will that paper ever count in his academic sojourn? It's only in that Nigeria that you would see students afraid to approach lecturers because they have turned themselves into tin gods. They thought I was a dead case. They didn't know I was a seed. When they buried me, I germinated. Today, I'm like that proverbial bone that cant be swallowed or vomited. They imagined that I would come begging cap in hand. Today I see their messages and just laugh. Kai, humans can be funny. Who do these lecturers think they are sef?

Look at Ayoola talking. If trumpet blows now baba knows that he will be on Express train to hell! Has he finished terrorising us to buy that his plagiarized textbook for ODE? Nonsense. Hypocrite of the highest order. And you have the efforntery to call God? Bloody hypocrite. If Zubair delayed his PhD, the late Payne also delayed his promotion too abi? Liars.

SunnyskyTG:
What is the essence of acquiring knowledge that can't be put to Use? Or we are only after Certification?

Yeah! I can confirm Knowledge have been replaced with Certification, most people now chase Certificate instead of true Knowledge.

Misplaced Priority.

kaorama:
I know someone will come here and start defending the contagious university system which in the first place may have engineered the late man's family problem. Shame to some Nigerian universities which at best can pass for burial ground for destinies.

themanderon:
The Nigerian university system just like what obtains in most government owned organizations is nothing to write home about. Most of those wicked and soulless lecturers are not after their students learning a thing but they just want to frustrate students and make their lives miserable.
It is also on record that even amongst the so called lecturers there are cult like groups that if you don't belong getting ahead in the system will be almost impossible. I remember a very intelligent lecturer then in my school who was a PhD holder for many many years but for reasons best known to the university they refused to make him a prof despite writing tons of books and I presume research papers. Nigeria is a rotten jungle where there are no laws whatsoever. A shame of a nation.

Tareq1105:
He shouldn't have done what he did. He should have explored foreign opportunities opened to him for his PhD.

I don't want to blame the university totally afterall we're told he was allowed to stay in his apartment after resignation 2 yrs ago.

To me he should have travelled out.

What he did was wrong even in the sight of God. I suspect his family crisis was responsible.

Cumpel1615:
This just defines the useless University system we have in Nigeria, I started masters at University of Ilorin in 2012, passed all my course work, no reset whatsoever, many of us made As and Bs but our thesis na problem, you need to know a strong lecturer that will back you up during your seminar or else they will rubbish your work. Me I have moved on with my life, I can't come and kill myself, let them eat it. Nigeria is bleeped

Chukwuka16:
No sir. PhD takes different formats depending on the nature of research and institutional policies.

If you do the normal thesis style where you have to write up from abstract through succeeding chapters to conclusion then 6 semesters is usually common. You find this method in Nigeria and the UK.

The PhD by publication route can be 1 year or 2 years (or less) depending on the policy in play. The requirements are a number of excellent publications, an introduction/co-ordinating chapter, maybe a linking introduction to each paper (half a page) and a conclusion. You just bundle your papers and the introduction chapter and you submit. Mine followed that route and took me 17 months. This is common in South Africa and some countries in Europe. In the UK some universities offer this route too. The papers however must be top notch (high impact factors and well ranked using SJR/ABS). The assumption is that since the papers have been peer reviewed and accepted by the academic community, the candidate can be said to have been assessed.

For the UI issue, forget them. I visited Unilag recently and I cant just continue to thank Oluwa who lives in heaven for delivering me and my generation yet unborn from frustration. So I would have been a frustrated academic at this young age in a system that has decided within itself not to work? And it's so bad that in a short time you get lost in the useless culture they have created that you do not even realise after a while that time has gone. Imagine a department have 7 senior lecturers who have not been able to get promotion in at least 2-3 promotion cycles because they have mostly conference papers and now find it difficult churning out the required 18 journal papers. How will a young L1 hope to get promoted if his interviewers are still stagnant on SL? That is when you would hear something like "cant you see that your seniors are not moving? Go and respond to external advert."

I have seen students being bullied by lecturers. I have even seen lecturers being bullied by senior lecturers/profs. The system promotes mediocrity alot that the good eggs get suffocated. My advice to anyone joining the academic system in Nigeria - government or private is to be careful. Colleagues from both divides have stories of woes to tell. Ah, God I thank you that I didn't make that decision to go and perish in Nigeria. It would have been a disastrous one. Today, I appreciate what it means to be an academic and have what is called somebodiness. No one is there threatening me or exercising some jurisprudence over my career/future. How and when I progress is entirely my responsibility. I am respected for my achievements and given all the resources I need to function well.

It is only in Nigeria especially UI that a MSc student will write a paper and be third author. How will that paper ever count in his academic sojourn? It's only in that Nigeria that you would see students afraid to approach lecturers because they have turned themselves into tin gods. They thought I was a dead case. They didn't know I was a seed. When they buried me, I germinated. Today, I'm like that proverbial bone that cant be swallowed or vomited. They imagined that I would come begging cap in hand. Today I see their messages and just laugh. Kai, humans can be funny. Who do these lecturers think they are sef?

Look at Ayoola talking. If trumpet blows now baba knows that he will be on Express train to hell! Has he finished terrorising us to buy that his plagiarized textbook for ODE? Nonsense. Hypocrite of the highest order. And you have the efforntery to call God? Bloody hypocrite. If Zubair delayed his PhD, the late Payne also delayed his promotion too abi? Liars.

CodeTemplar:
I hope the Payne you are referring to isn't the one that worked in CU around 2007 in Maths dept. If he is the one, then I really hope he changed his ways before anything bad happened.

Martinez39:
@Chukwuka16

Thank goodness you didn't do your post graduate study in Nigeria.

Jiang:
Ok, try accessing that tetfund with just ur ACADEMIC PROWESS & come back here to give us ur testimony. Please woh, I just want you to experience something

Akby:
A.O Zubair is the most brilliant person I've ever come across. He taught me Abstract Algebra in 200 level and Reimann Integral in 300 level. I never missed any of his classes because he made the most complex mathematics look like a piece of cake. UI really lost a rare gem. RIP AOZ!

sacajawea:
Was he a Practicing Muslim?

Tomide007:
He taught me algebra in 200level ...and I can say for a fact that he is the smartest lecturer in maths department... Better than those profs ...there were so many conspiracies against that guy.......If you're a genius please don't join Nigeria academia. ....there is also a genetic scientist in zoology department of ui.. But ui refused to recognise his PhD because he didn't receive his PhD from ui but from UK......the reason is dt he had to convert his PhD to ui standard... This said man is about the best geneticist in Nigeria.

advocate666:
No he won't. The aboki won't pass primary school exam over there.