Education: Academics are really bad financial managers – Benjamin Adebisi

 

“Invariably, what information or research answers any academic will claim to have acquired or know could be possessed by just anyone without much stress; thus, looking worn-out or emaciated is never a function of how hard most lecturers have been working. So, what are the reasons for their less sophistication despite being well paid?”

PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | AUGUST 24, 2024

No capping, how many of you have ever seen any random lecturer and said, ” I really like this guy, I wanna be like him?” I doubt if there are many. And if you think I am just unnecessarily resentful, you could add the picture of any lecturer in the comment section or give his/her social media ID, so we could verify how well the lecturer lives.

Yet, you might be imagining where I am going. You could also try compare what a lecturer earns with any other profession outside teaching and see how the other folks look. The Yoruba people will say “ bi ile ba seri, awo lati mo” literally translating to ” the physical looks and skin of an individual show how well he is, perhaps financially.

Let me be explicit, an entry level in academics goes home with over 150,000 naira; even with the current Nigerian situation, that is a big money and compare any salary earning starting position in other fields or jobs with the same amount, you will see that such individual will look far better, dress very well and smell nicer than his compatriot, who teaches in the university.

While many will think academic work is stressful, I will strongly object to that; there is hardly anything stressful in academics compared to any other profession, as a matter of fact, academics is about gathering information and conveying them, and obviously, anybody of any age can have as much access to information and be able to convey them effectively, so no big deal.

For example, my late step-father and biological mother had so many books in their library that I read, and I have stood toe to toe with many professors in their fields, simply based on information I gathered.

My school mates will remember that I had gone to Deeper Life Church in Gbagada, Lagos, to challenge the Leader, Pastor William Kumuyi and his crew on the Bible knowledge, at age 19 basically because I had enough information on the word of God and I could simply challenge any obscurity in Christianity and teachings of the man of God, at a time.

Equally, I had seen kids, less than 7 years, answering anatomy questions faster than what I could beat in a foreign TV series.

Invariably, what information or research answers any academic will claim to have acquired or know could be possessed by just anyone without much stress; thus, looking worn-out or emaciated is never a function of how hard most lecturers have been working.

So, what are the reasons for their less sophistication despite being well paid?

Firstly, academics appear to be the only profession, where lecturers forget to understand that it is a business.

You see, when it comes to business, a good businessman must know how much of energy, resources and time he is investing and what should be expected in return; let us say the return on investment.

“Time is money”, so they say, so as a businessperson, what are your 24-hour plan investments and how much are they yielding?

An average lecturer will obtain a master’s degree and at least a number of publications involving capital intensive research and money to publish papers before landing a 1.8 million naira per annum job.

Now compare how much money spent for a 4-year bachelor’s degree course and another 2 year’s masters (let us just assume, there is no unnecessary additional wasted years); thereafter, pay and travel to execute research in about 4 to 5 topics and also want a high-quality journal to publish in, which most of the journals require fees to publish.

If I am not exaggerating, to get the entry level, an average lecturer has spent 7 to 10 million naira to get a job of less than 2 million per annum.

Without any inflation, silly deductions or taxes, that lecturer needs to get salary for the next 6 to 7 years to recuperate all his money invested on his education alone.

But no, the lecturer is not thinking about that rather, he foolishly forgets that he deserves profit and has decided to price himself low, deceiving himself that he has a reputable career.

While the academic training should earn a number of skills that should be traded for more money whether within or outside the institution, the academic is complacent and believes his salary is coming in monthly and he is a big boy, and it is okay.

Even in all these, the academics failed to realize his state of underemployment but keep registering for further postgraduate degree like PhD, publishing unrelated papers because of publish or perish phenomenology, travelling for conferences despite all, sitting and performing the same job function/role of teaching undergraduates or perhaps a repeat of the information for his postgraduate students.

Notably, all these money come from his salaries, because to the lecturer he wants to be promoted, productive and proceed to the next level not even considering what is it to lose or gain, just for the sake of job designation and titles.

Let us not also forget that this guy is growing old and has a wife and kids at home to cater for and we expect his integrity that he is not obtaining money from students, trading marks or stealing resources from his department or faculty to meet his financial obligations.

So, how sensible has all that been, where you keep investing on a job, even while your role of teaching or even research is not changing or getting upgraded; yet your income is not complementing? I do not think anyone needs degree in economics, accounting or mathematics to realize that all that do not add up.

Additionally, most stupidly is to sign bond with his institution in the name of TET-Fund, which should be Government support for the financial obligation in further training of academic staff normally; but the financially handicapped lecturer has to still sign bond and be responsible if the disbursed funds does not pay up by obtaining loans to complete the program, only to come back paying loans and staying another years with the institution because of the bond’s obligation.

Thus, enormous time and money are invested into a chore which does not bring equal money or gives rooms to consult for organizations and bring in more money. All these are unsurprisingly the reasons for the worn-out looks most Nigerian academics wear, and we just think they are doing too much and working so hard than other professions. In lieu of these, this is where I am driving at:

A degree in education could have educational outreaches for more income.
A degree in agricultural science or economics should have larger mechanized farms or provide logistic for ministry of agriculture.
A degree in Engineering should bring innovation and logistics to government and companies and money is rolling in.
A degree in microbiology should bring in more vaccination approach or pharmacological techniques to the ministry of health.
A degree in computer science has endless opportunities to cash out and smile to the bank.

And many more.

Of course, these are businesses where the academics have gotten skills and expertise, and they should be doing more and getting paid as much as possible. Notably, if no new idea, no need wasting money or time in research outcomes that can be easily gotten from the search engine, which most papers are, unfortunately.

Summarily, investment should produce profit monetarily and if what has been invested cannot be recuperated in a reasonable time, then it is all rubbish. According to Jesus Christ, you cannot want to build a house without weighing your cost.

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Editor’s Titbits: Silent Giggles Only!

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