By Professor Gani Joses Yoroms
Recently I joined all well-wishers to congratulate the new appointees into the enviable positions in the professorial cadre of the Department of Political Science, Bingham University, Karu, Nigeria. I have cause to advice the new appointees that professorial appointment is not a nametag; it is indeed a signature of integrity underscored by innovative research, working experiences, and community service
It’s a character personified. What others will do and get away with, you cannot. Your emotional intelligence defines your value as a Professor. It must check your ability to respond to issues. You do not talk for convenience and/ or to silence others. You reason before you talk (and of course write). Because the expectation of the public about you is now higher than you think. Your conversation should be professorially majestic in expression and reasonably impactful. Mute yourself when your audience are not listening. It is a lesson and a legacy for the public to acknowledge you.
We carry this professorial burden to the grave. As a professor, you must owe and own up where your knowledge is limited. There is no feeling of regret if you do not meet an expectation. Be humble to take responsibility for your limitations. A Professor is also human. He is not a spirit. Knowledge can be limited by the data at his disposal. Limitation itself is an element of knowledge.
Professorial knowledge is not a salad bowl but infinitesimal. The public is unaware of this. Most of our colleagues create an aural around themselves as jack of all knowledge in their field of study or research. To the extent that when they are called Professors of political Science it is assumed they know everything about it (or whatever profession they are endowed with).Whereas one could only be a specialist/ professor of one minute area of the main subject.
A Professor must have confidence in his area of specialization. A military general is always confident of his rank because it comes with bravery, given its kinetic nature. However, Professors only engage in conversation and dialogue in the fashion of the philosophers. Not in argumentation, debating and brawling with the public. The use of one’s brain and intellection defines a Professor’s courage and integrity.
The rank of a Professor is so heavy that it comes with; not only experience and the confidence of how one innovate knowledge and skills, but reckons with public trust. The society is our laboratory. It relies on Professors for solutions to societal problems. The society holds on to Professors (and other well Thinking Fellows) at its worst moment. Hence, they speak the truth and die by it, if all decide to give up. For those of us in social sciences it is heavier. The public expects of us, not only the solutions to societal problems but impactful anesthesia. How you navigate this, is also part of the challenge you will face.
There is no school for professors. Your experience and innovative knowledge makes the difference. How you address societal problems makes you a genius. It is not in vocabularical journalistic jargon but the humility of the choice of professional concepts/words that speaks to the moment, in truth of your research and discovery. This is what makes social science professors unique, the uniqueness for logical reasoning, scholarly articulations of facts and proven evidence of long periods of research and experiences. You grow your experience from the rank of Associate Professoriate by learning continuously from senior colleagues. You never arrives on becoming a Professor. It is the beginning of the journey.
You cannot ever arrive as a professor. The footmark of a Professor is to keep learning to remain impactful until death do we part. Professors do not retire; they only disengage from service. Two things that put a Professor on retirement are sickness and death; not even poverty. When I see senior colleagues well- advanced in aged still actively in the business of scholarly interrogations, dialoguing, engaging in intellectual conversations, and penciling, I feel I have not started. The vogue now is to make yourself feasible through piecemeal writings in daily newspapers, having one’s blogs and credible social media. However, journals and book publications are still relevant but public benefits, and policy derivatives from them are becoming too minimal and insignificant. They only serve our intellectual interests.
Professorial knowledge without experience makes your Professorial status less quintessential in the eyes of the public. Professorial knowledge is mutually reinforced with experience. Experience is learnt through humility and not by the pride of becoming, a Professor; because other Non-Professorial Thinking Fellows may sound more experienced than you. The difference is only that you are a bit scholarly. With experience and scholarliness, you do not need to convince anyone to accept your research output. Your critique will find it herculean to disapprove your exposé.
As the number of home grown/ in-house professorial students as well as the cadre of the Professoriate (this is happening in other universities) are expanding, it is incumbent on us to lubricate our postgraduate programmes to boost records of our academic programmes.
This is import as many experienced people in the public and private sectors would be commencing their MSC and PhD programs in our universities. They are coming with stark field experiences. We need to demonstrate some levels of teaching and scholarly research experiences and capacity that surpasses their own. The most we must do is to be grounded theoretically, in dialectics and logical polemics. This is where we would be valued with Professorial exceptionalism.
If not, our Professorial designation will only be a mere nametag, an identity of no consequentially .This, we must avoid. We must study to show ourselves approve as professors indeed; making the title of Professor weighty on the tag. We struggle, in spite of severe shortages of working materials in this dispensation. We must persist in innovating knowledge that influences. This what makes the Professorial title a signature of integrity and not a nametag.
As it is, the society is dependable on the ability of our professors to lead as philosopher-kings. This must come with an unassuming grace. This is my humble advice for us all, and to our young professors that have joined the Departmental Professorial cadre. Once again Congratulations!
Prof. Gani JosesYoroms is a
Professor of Political Science, National Defence College Nigeria, and Bingham University, Karu Nigeria
