This paper is a modified version of the presentation I made at an In-House Interactive Forum of the Faculty of Arts, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), on Monday, May 12, 2025, at the Faculty of Arts Theatre, University Headquarters, Jabi – Abuja FCT. The modification was prompted, a week after presentation, by the pathetic story of a former colleague at the University of Ibadan,Victor Anosa, a retired Professor of Veterinary Medicine. Professor Anosa’s regret was that in retirement, he– likemany of his other fellow retirees – was depending on his children for a living, “after 35-40 years of service to a most ungrateful and unthinking nation that disdains her geniuses and celebrates mediocrity” (Punch Newspaper, Thursday, May 23, 2025).

Professor Anosaisan acclaimed scholar, not known for trivial utterances. Therefore, he was not merely whining, but speaking seriously and truthfully about the agonising plight of tens of thousands of retired professors who live inabject poverty. I should say that the Professor is luckier than many of his colleagues who retired with absolutely nothing in hand, except old age – no money, no children to rely on, and no home to move into! Nonetheless, he was speaking for a category of men and women who are respected in other climes – and who were once treated with respect and dignity in Nigeria. The question is: Who are these men and women? Who is an academic and what does it take to be an academic?

Permit me to adopt a working definition here, which is that an academic is a person whose profession is to seek and propagate knowledge – normally, through research and teaching in an institution of higher learning. And, the highest position attainable in the career is professorship. The mission of the academic is to train young generations of men and women, equip them with knowledge and skills, and socialise them into society. This is done, by cleansing the individual of destructive instincts – greed, viciousness, aggression and so on – thereby, making the persona functional member of society.

From the onset, I should say that there is no one model that is the best model for an academic life. Nor, is there a manual that teaches young lecturers how to be a good academic because the circumstances of every individual are always unique to that individual. Also, the academic profession has been transformed over the years while institutional structures, programmes and goals have been changing from one generation to another.

It was Plato, the legendary Greek Philosopher, who, in 387 BC, established the first structured learning Institution in Athens, historically known as The Academy, conceived as an intellectual hub for knowledge dissemination, research and training of future leaders. This was the model inherited by early European Universities, such as Bologna, Paris, Oxford, etc., not only in structure but also in ideas, principles and goals. Needless to say that contemporary universities have changed remarkably from the original Greek model.

The universities imported from Europe to colonial Africa, had their structures close to the earlier models. Thus, the University College, Ibadan, established in 1948, was an institutional model copied from the University of London with traditional disciplines in the humanities, natural sciences, and medicine. For Ibadan, in those days, there were no professional or vocational courses such as journalism, banking, engineering, accountancy, etc., which were, at the time, seen as crafts better left for trade schools or technical institutions, certainly not for universities!

Today, all that has changed, with many universities – including even the most reputable of them – running skills-related programmes and vocational courses such as business administration, computer science, security studies, peace and conflict resolution, etc. Another major transformation in the university system has been in the method of instruction in which the traditional face-to-face lectures are rapidly being replaced by the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode.

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is a leading Institution in this transformation. Also, digital technology has transformed research and scholarship to a new level. As against huge manual libraries, with rolls of thousands of books in hardcopies, through which the researcher must sift – laboriously in search of data and information – whatever the researcher needs today is packed in a smart phone, accessible from anywhere.

There can be no doubt about the requirements for academic success in conventional Universities, especially in the humanities. They include intellectual creativity, critical thinking, discipline, resilience, dedication, and behavioural comportment. In contrast, an ODL institution would prioritise technical skills and the digital proficiency of a tech-savvy.

As young men in secondary schools, we used to think that there were certain background/socio-cultural qualities needed to succeed in the academic world; meaning criteria such as genetic inheritance, family background, material status, etc., there are no such laid-down requirements. In Nigeria, for instance, there are no rigid class divisions so much so that movement from one social category to another is fluid.

In other words, children of the poor can become rich based on their own efforts while those of the rich may turn out to be poor, if they fail to utilise their potential. Similarly, experience has shown that some children of the very famous, wealthy and highly influential persons in society, have turn out to be lazy, wayward, unserious and, therefore, absolute failures in life.

Many children of renowned scholars are known to have been academic failures while those of stark illiterates have achieved remarkable success in scholarship. Such is the fluidity of the Nigerian social structure.

Overall, the academic profession is not meant for every Tom, Dick and Harry. It is usually the preserve of the best in intellect, which explains the practice in many reputable Universities to restrict postgraduate admissions to only candidates with first class or second class (upper division) degrees who eventually join the academic fold.

And, if a candidate was not good enough, he or she went into other areas, including the armed forces, politics or business. That was the pecking order, at the time. The choice of discipline is, of course, entirely circumstantial, depending on the peculiarities of an individual’s background and experience.

As Plato made clear in his discussion of the division of labour in The Republic, being an academic demands intellectual rigour, determination and hard work. In the journey, there is no short- cut: what you sow is what you reap, and you cannot have your cake and eat it, meaning that the academic world is not for men and women who indulge in a life of leisure, and at the same time expect to accomplish goals that require seriousness, dedication and hard work.

In the public space, there are many misconceptions about the academic profession, for instance, that: the academic is always a poor man or woman; that the scholar – especially at the professorial level – is always untidy, unkempt or weird in look, or that academicsare stingy people. These characterisations of the academic are not true; indeed, many of them are the unfounded creations of the human imagination, especially among Nigerians.

The claim, for instance, that the academic is always a poor person, is a misapplication of terms which, unfortunately, some Nigerian academics themselves suffer from. The plight of Nigerian academics is not whether they are rich or poor; it is simply that they are not adequately remunerated to cater for their basic necessities. Herein lies the major difference between Nigerian academics and their counterparts elsewhere in the world where academics are paid enough to cater for their basic needs. In fact, a successful academic is he who, by training, has been able to curb the raw instinct to acquire things that are not needed.

It is, therefore, an aberration to think of an academic amassing, for instance, billions of naira, fleets of cars or mansions. Indeed, any young man who joins the academic career, with the mindset of living the best of two worlds – being academically productive and simultaneously acquiring wealth –has missed his way?
To be continued tomorrow.
Sogolo is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, at the University of Ibadan and the National Open University of Nigeria.