Lecturing jobs in Nigeria are hectic and require a lot of skill and strength. This is because each lecturer at a university in Nigeria faces up to five hundred different students each year with different backgrounds and personalities. Amidst other mitigating factors of the Nigerian tertiary education’s environment, some lecturers give hell and others go through hell. Lecturing jobs in Nigerian polytechnics and universities are the same. It is not news to hear and read about lecturers’ strike, it is common in some federal institutions. Some will say that a lecturer’s salary is not much, however, that is their official salary, some bad eggs have unofficial salaries. From the biggest private universities in Nigeria down to the smallest university in Nigeria, Nigerian lecturers are all the same.
Here is a list of the types of lecturers you find in lecturing jobs in Nigeria.
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Strict ones
In every university in Nigeria, there are strict lecturers. It is either a no-nonsense man or woman. The strict lecturers are the ones who leave you pondering as to whether they are supernatural beings or evil spirits. They are so strict, they think they are perfect. The strict lecturers are not limited to universities in Nigeria, they are spread across polytechnics in Nigeria and colleges of education. If you are walking directly behind a strict lecturer, you may not enter his or her class once he or she has entered the lecture hall. You mustn’t make a noise, stutter, or anything that they will not like. Strict lecturers also have no sympathy, neither do they tamper justice with mercy.
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Pushovers
These lecturers are not common, but every department has at least one pushover. The pushover is that lecturer that is not respected by any student and commands no control of the class. He/she struggles to maintain decorum or a learning environment, hence, they are pushed over by every student and even their colleagues.
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‘A is for God, B is for me’
The difference between these lecturers and strict one is that strict lecturers give credit where it is due. The university lecturers called ‘A is for God’ are labelled as so because at the beginning of the semester, they do not fail to tell you that they will neither let you get an A nor a B grade. They do this by singing the familiar song ‘A is for God, B is for me and Ce is for?’. The lecturers in this category take pride in failing and making life difficult for students. They want to be feared and revered. They are also very sadistic.
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Latecomers
Everybody loves a latecomer, because the class still ends when it ends, although, there are two types of latecomers. The first subcategory of lecturers in universities in Nigeria, it the category of latecomers who do not lecture beyond the allotted time. Every student loves this lecturer because their class is almost a free period. The second subcategory is the lecturers who are always late and would still lecture beyond the allotted time. The lecturers in this category believe time belongs to them.
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Bookworms/readers
In every university in Nigeria, there will always be that one lecturer or more who reads straight from the book. Not to say that they do not prepare adequately for their lessons, it seems like they are just lazy and do not know any other way than the textbook way. Rather than teach you, they simply dictate the textbook right back to their students.
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Tales by moonlight
This is the worst and best of them all and they are usually professors. The lecturers you would call tales by moonlight are the ones who cannot go a topic sentence without narrating one of their life stories. They constantly take the class off course and onto little trips down memory lane. They are such storytellers. At first, they make you laugh as they share stories with you but as each exam comes, you begin to dislike them because you actually don’t learn. It leaves you without lecture notes in exam season because half of the syllabus is on stories.
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Spelling bee champions
Some lecturers can be silly, however, the lecturers in this category define the word ‘silly’. Such lecturers place their focus on the most trivial things. Everyone needs to know how to spell to an extent as it will make or mar their ability to transcribe a language. Written communication will also become a challenge. There are also ways to teach students how to spell, however, these lecturers base their class on the correct spelling of words as though they are spelling bee champions.
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Perverts
To talk about lecturers in universities in Nigeria without the mention of perverts is impossible. It is almost in-built. In every university in Nigeria, there are lecturers who are just big perverts. In Nigeria, the word is associated mostly with male lecturers, however, perverts can be female too. These lecturers always have something to say about your and attraction towards you. For reasons best known to them, it is better to invite you to their office at odd times, and they tell you to come alone most times, the invitation is after work hours. There are the ones who subtly threaten you, and others openly do it. There is also a joke they share with their counterparts that nobody else seems to find funny too.
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Young, Fun, Slay
These lecturers are the best and easily everyone’s favourite, however, there is always that one student who doesn’t like the fun lecturer. The young, fun and slay lecturers are the human ones who are kind, fine, fun and stern at the same time. They respect others and are highly respected, they teach and ensure the well being of every student. A lot of other lecturers undermine them, but they simply just get to know their students.
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Assignment ministers
University in Nigeria is not complete without a minister for assignment. This lecturer is a lover of assignments. Rather than answering valid questions in class, they would assign it to their students as take-home work. They enjoy giving numerous assignments including projects and they do not care if it’s all too much.
