“God forbid all of you pass my course, I bet you, no one can score 16 in my test.” “It is not easy to get an ‘E’ in my course.” “As far as I’m concerned, I am you god in this course.”
The above phrases are a few expressions of many Nigerian lecturers who derive joy in bragging and instilling unnecessary fear in their students for reasons best known to them.
This trend must cease, say some undergraduates that spoke with The Guardian, about the unpleasant remarks.
They ought to be our mentor, one of the students who did not want her name in print stated.
“Lecturers to the best of my knowledge are teachers who mentor their students in all spheres of life, not only academically. They are people who should guide us on the path to succeed in life, labour market and beyond and not advocates of failure. What we have in our institutions are proud and arrogant individuals, constantly reminding us that our future lies in their hands.
“This is not the case in developed climes. Our lecturers should emulate their counterparts in developed nations, who are a source of motivation to their students. A good lecturer will tell his/her students, ‘I have been teaching students for over two decades; the worst student scores a C in my course.
“But this is not the case in Nigeria, where a lecturer will tell you that ‘ever since I have been in this field, the best student in my course hardly scored a D.’”
Another student from Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State, said most lecturers see themselves as “god.” “Their word is law. If they say you will fail, you will surely fail. Sadly, they rarely wish you success. They intentionally do that to intimidate students, females especially so that when they come for you, you will be left with no option. If they have a crush on you and you refused, that is the beginning of your nightmares.
“To back up their wicked intention, they show unserious attitude to lecture hours and they rarely attend classes, even when they do, they spent few minutes to distribute handouts.
From Lagos State University (LASU), another student said, “Lecturers instilling fear in their students is the number one factor of students’ failure. An undergraduate student who has a mindset that a particular course is difficult and that no one has ever had distinction may fall victim by not paying enough attention as he or she does to other courses.”
For Esther an undergraduate from the University of Ibadan, ‘‘Some lecturers fail students allegedly because if those students graduate with good grades, they may likely retain them, thereby making them colleagues. Most lecturers would not want this hence they make things difficult for the students.
