Abdallah Uba Adamu: Meet Nigerian Academic With Double Professorship in Different Fields

Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu

Abdallah Uba Adamu: Meet Nigerian Academic With Double Professorship in Different Fields

Abdalla Uba Adamu
Department of Information and Media Studies
Bayero University Kano, Nigeria

Pilot: The journey, the chrysalis
Right, it is time to address this issue. I am blessed and honored to have variously been acknowledged and hailed as ‘double professor’, ‘dual professor’, the only one from northern Nigeria, etc. How’s that even possible?

The first professorship was in 1997 (Science Education and Comparative Higher Education, to give it its full title), and the second one was in 2012 (Media and Cultural Communication). Two totally different disciplines. I delivered an inaugural lecture for each in 2004 and 2014 respectively. Further, I am both a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Education (MNAE) and a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (MNAL) – a cross-over that is quite rare in Nigeria. A close friend says I am nuts to have two professorships. It’s okay; we used to call him nuts too when we were kids. I admit, though, it does take a bit of nuttiness.

However, the whole ‘double professor’ thing came about by happenstance, thanks to the innovative, courageous, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, Vice-Chancellor, Bayero University Kano from 2010 to 2015, and now Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission from 2016. Here is the full backstory to the opera in one season of three episodes!

S01EP01: Liftoff
As a senior high school student, I had a target: to become professor by 40. Given that I was born in 1956, that gave me up to 1996 to do my gig and exit stage left and hopefully seek new directions. Right from elementary school, I had wanted to work in a university, after a visit to the house of then Mal. Sani Zahradeen in 1966 in the old campus of Bayero University. Awed by the splendor of the house (and quite frankly, the wonderful breakfast I was offered), I decided right there and then the University will be my abode. I was ten at the time.

After going through the grind of schooling and finishing at Ahmadu Bello University, a degree in Science Education (Biology/Physiology) saw me getting employed as a Graduate Assistant in July 1980 at Bayero University Kano. The clock had started ticking – I have seventeen years to contact. I felt like I was in a cryogenic sleep capsule bound for a planet in Betelgeuse star system, a mere 500 light-years from Earth. A confession, though. Education was not my preferred choice of Faculty at employment. It was the Faculty of Science. Made attractive by a blind ambition to become a research scientist – not a teacher. Plus, a lot of the topnotch teachers from the Department of Biological Sciences, ABU, my alma mater, had migrated to BUK in the period and I wanted to continue being their students because of their brilliance (fondly remembered included Dr. Shotter). But as fate would have it, I was employed in the Department of Education.

I did all the things necessary to progress though the system, getting a DPhil at Sussex (courtesy of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission), and a Fulbright Senior Scholar residency at University of California, Berkeley, US. Along the line I also became Resident Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center near Lake Como in Italy. Beautiful view, wonderful neighborhood, made only grisly by the fact that the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1925 to 1945) and his wife (or was it mistress?) Claretta Petacci were executed at Dongo, near the Lake in 1945. A gruesome tourist attraction whose grimness does not take away the timeless beauty of the area.

Finally, after submitting all the necessary papers for assessment, I was conferred with, first Associate Professor of Science Education and Comparative Higher Education in 1994, and with more publications, full tenured Professor of Science Education in 1997. I was 41. Missed the mark by a year. Due to the weird BUK politics at the time, the professorship was only announced in 2001, but suitably backdated to its proper date, October 1997. I immediately wanted to give my inaugural lecture, but I was asked ‘join the line’ of others who were to present – all six of them. Eventually, after three years, I was asked to come and give mine. I did so on 24th April 2004. It was the seventh in the university. I had wanted it on my birthday, but considering that 25th April 2004 was a Sunday, I settled for Saturday.

When I reached the point of being promoted and awaiting results back in 1996, I found myself interrogating the rest of my life. At that time, university lecturers retire at the age of 65. So that meant I had about 25 years to retire in 2021 – a futuristic date then. I had also crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s in Education, at least as far as I could see. I found myself deeply involved in alphabet soup agencies – you know, USAID, DFID, UNICEF, NPEC, UBEC, WB, etc., mostly talking loudly and saying nothing. I simply can’t see myself day in and day out enmeshed in this process of eventually recommending things to government through reports nobody bothered to read. If I don’t find something to do, there was every chance of me becoming truly nuts.

SE01EP02: Deep Space: The Apotheosis
Like a bolt of lightning, a key to open the freedom door dropped literally on my lap through the radio. In 1996 the government of Kano (Nigeria) where I live was battling with Hausa creative fiction and public morals. One after the other, Islamic sheiks came on the radio and condemn newly emerging Hausa creative fiction writers as being responsible for both poor attention span in schools (and subsequent poor grades) and immorality. They did not indicate how many of the novels they had read, though. Their condemnations caught my attention, for it seems there was a reading culture among Hausa youth – something public culture kept lamenting as lacking among youth.

Reading culture is, of course, an environment where reading is championed, valued, respected, and encouraged. BUT it seems that reading culture in Kano meant reading school textbooks (if available) and passing examinations. Reading culture? James Hadley Chase, Harold Robbins, Irvin Wallace, Agatha Christie, Denise Robbins, Nick Carter, Joan Collins, Wilbur Smith, et. al., anyone? So why not Ado Ahmad, Balaraba Ramat, Ɗan Azumi Baba, Bilkisu Salisu Ahmed Funtuwa? All the objections against Hausa literature were based on the baseless Media Effects Theory which believes that mass media influences the attitudes and perceptions of audiences. I therefore decided to delve into this ‘problem’ further. It was to be a bridge between cultural studies (popular culture) and education (reading culture).

I eventually traced the production of Hausa novels to City Business Center in the city of Kano under the proprietorship of Alhaji Abba Lawan Maiunguwa, a childhood friend. This led to Ado Ahmed Gidan Dabino, unarguably the most successful of Hausa novelists, and the forging of a life-long friendship based on respect. I spent about two years in the field, talking, recording, unarchiving writers, critics and fans of the Hausa creative fiction. The writers included Ahmad Mahmood Zahradden Yakasai, Yusuf Muhammad Adamu, Ibrahim Saleh Gumel, Ɗan Azimi Babba Cheɗiyar Ƴan Gurasa, Aminu Abdu Na’inna, Badamasi Shu’aibu Burji, Hamisu Bature, Aminu Hassan Yakasai, Abdullahi Yahaya Mai Zare, Bala Muhammad Makosa, Bashir Sanda Gusau, Bala Anas Babinlata. Female authors of the period included Hauwa Aminu, Talatu Wada, Zuwaira Isa, Safiya A. Tijjani, Binta Bello Ɗanbatta, Binta Maiwada, Jummai Mohammed Argungu Karima Abdu D/Tofa, Bilkisu S. Ahmed, and the most outstanding of them all, Balaraba Ramat Yakubu.
Along the line, I developed the Hausa hooked glottal sound characters (Ƙ, ƙ, Ɗ, ɗ, Ɓ, ɓ) to help in proper Hausa writing on computer word processing programs using Fontographer software. But that is a story for another day.

Next, I went to my dad, Muhammadu Uba Adamu (Kantoma), discussed with him my new found direction and sought his blessings. He readily approved. Not surprising considering he had always been a radical on his right. Further, my early contact with literature was from his library, as he studied Political History with English Literature as a minor. His approval, and even later, endorsement, gave me courage.

Finally, I summoned up enough nerve (remember, it was not my field, and I was aware those ‘in the field’ jealously guard their turf) to write an article and sent it to Ibrahim Sheme of New Nigerian Weekly newspaper. It was titled “Hausa Literature in the 1990s”. It was published in their April 24 and May 1, 1999 issues. It created a tsunami of a reaction.

Unbeknownst to me, the debate about the merits (or lack of) of Hausa creative fiction had run its course in various Hausa language newspapers and magazines. The first salvo was fired by Hawwa Ibrahim Sherif in an interview with Ibrahim Sheme, published in Nasiha, 6 September 1991 (some eight years before my own article).

Following on from her views (and she was a writer herself), two camps emerged – those who do not see any merit in the novels, and those who believed in them, the latter, perhaps understandably, was made up of mainly authors themselves, such as Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, Yusuf Adamu, Kabiru Assada, etc. In 1998, Novian Whitsitt, an American student, even submitted a PhD thesis on Hausa creative fiction with a focus on Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu. His thesis was titled The Literature of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu and the Emerging Genre of Littattafai na Soyayya: A Prognostic of Change for Women in Hausa Society.” It was submitted to the African Studies Program University of Wisconsin-Madison.

You could therefore imagine the fire I came under. An Educationist venturing into Hausa literary studies. Some accused me of being an ignoramus who knows nothing about Hausa literature (true), others accused me of encouraging immorality (not true).

To get rid of my accused ignorance, I adopted two methods – both facilitated by my being a true believer in science and its methods. The first was rooted in ethnology of Hausa cultural production. This approach was based on Victor Turner’s exposition of the ‘anthropology of experience’, itself based on Wilhelm Dilthey’s conception of ‘what has been lived through’. The approach enables the exploring of how people actually experience their culture and how those experiences are expressed in forms as varied as narrative, literary work, theater, carnival, ritual, reminiscence, and life review. To get a closer look at the cultural production, it was necessary to be embedded in the process.

I started by identifying what was more or less a Bohemian cluster of Hausa fiction writers hanging out at City Business Center, Daneji, Kano city along Sabon Titi. I embedded myself into their cluster and observed what they were doing – inspiration for their stories, discussing plots for stories, typing, artwork, printing, marketing, etc. This went on for almost five years from 1998. I gained deep insights into their creativity and concerns. I also read quite a few of the fiction they produced to gain a more immersive experience. In this process, I did not rely on secondary data, but became primary data gatherer myself. This came in good stead much later when I submitted a paper to a journal based in France. The editor wanted me to provide references for some of narrative encounters. I pointed out that I was the reference, and used Turner’s field study framework as a basis because I was there. The editor accepted and eventually the paper was published.

For the second method, I launched myself into a self-study of Critical Theory, from the roots: to reflect and critique the society through literature. There were four varieties of such theory: new criticism, poststructuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, and Marxist theory. I delved into the first two, deeming that the other two do not apply to the data I have. I became a student of Jürgen Habermas and his “Structural Transformation of Public Sphere”, in which I see Islamicateness in this expounding of the boundaries of public sphere. Stuart Hall and his critical works in cultural studies provided another roadmap to understanding reception of media texts. Marshall Hodgson’s essay on the idea of “Islamicate” societies seemed to mesh perfectly well with my own sites of contestation of media production, distribution and consumption. Anthony Giddens and his Structuration provided an excellent introduction to Agency.
I thus refused to cage myself within Nigerian Hausaist (for which I am not one) delineation of Hausa studies into, apparently mutually incompatible divisions of Literature (Adabi), Language (Harshe) and Culture (Al’ada). I said ‘apparently mutually incompatible’ because if you are versed or specialized in one, you are not expected to know much about the other. In other words, you should ‘stay behind the yellow line’!

And so, the battlelines were drawn, and for almost five years to 2004, the pages of New Nigerian Weekly and Weekly Trust were awash with what Ibrahim Sheme referred to as The Great Soyayya Debate. I was in the thick of it. Since the debates were on pages of newspapers, and therefore meant for general readership, I focused attention on simply defending the right to write, rather than the morals of the contents (for which, in my opinion, show cleanliness) or the grammatical sophistication of the writers. They have a right to write, and thus write the rites to right the wrongs they perceive in society – after all, the genre is referred to as ‘adabi’ (reflection).
Only six people in Bayero University believed in what I was doing. Isma’ila Abubakar Tsiga, Sa’idu Ahmad Babura, Abubakar Adamu Rasheed and Ibrahim Bello-Kano – all from the Department of English and European Languages. Bayero University Kano. Then Yusuf Adamu (who actually led me to Kano Branch of Nigerian Association of Authors) of the Department of Geography, and Umar Faruk Jibril of the Department of Mass Communication.

Ibrahim Bello-Kano, or IBK as he is popularly referred to, was the Seminar coordinator in the Department of English and European Languages in 2001. He invited me to present a paper at their Departmental Seminar, which I agreed to do so and presented in January 2001. It was the first academic presentation of my research. I was, understandably nervous because I was presenting something on a new terrain, to people fully trained and versed in it. However, the title of the paper, Tarbiyar Bahaushe, Mutumin Kirki and Hausa Prose Fiction: Towards an Analytical Framework introduced something to the polemics besides just moral indignation.

However, soon enough, the huge success recorded by Hausa fiction authors (despite scathing criticism from academic and public culture) emboldened them enough to migrate to the emergent Hausa video film industry. If there is one person to be credited with creating the Hausa film industry, it was a writer, late Aminu Hassan Yakasai. He was both a novelist, a script writer as well as a Hausa soap opera star. He, together with his collaborators such as Bashir Mudi Yakasai and Salisu Galadanci were able to launch the first Hausa video film, Turmin Danya, in March 1990. This predated Nollywood’s Living in Bondage in 1992. Sunusi Burhan Shehu, a novelist, established a Hausa film magazine, Tauraruwa, and in regular column in August 1999 created the term “Kanywood” to refer to the Hausa film industry. It is the first reference to a film industry in Africa, and predated “Nollywood” which was coined in 2002 by Norimitsu Onishi in a New York Times report.

In 1999 Sarauniya Films Kano released the catalytic video film that literally shaped the direction of the industry. It was Sangaya. It was, like most Hausa youth literature, mainly a love story. It was not the story that was significant about the film, however, but its soundtrack with catchy song and dance routine backed by a synthesized sound samples of traditional Hausa instruments such as kalangu (talking drum), bandiri (frame drum) and sarewa (flute). The effect was electric on a youth audience seeking alternative and globalized—essentially modern—means of being entertained than the traditional music genre which seemed aimed at either rural audience or older urbanites. It became an instant hit. Indeed, the success Sangaya was as momentous in the history of the Hausa video film industry as Living in Bondage was for the southern Nigerian video films. The Hausa video films that subsequently emerged were predominantly based on cloning Bollywood films and production characteristics – love triangles, gender rivalry, and choreographic song and dance routines. At least up to 2007 when the system crashed after the leakage of a private steamy sex video of a popular actress. The entire entry was labeled bad, just like the literature industry. A new censorship regime was instituted that made film production difficult.

Internet became widely available late 1990s and by 2000 it had become affordable. Prior to that, we had to rely on switchbacks through the National Universities Commission (NUC) to access it. When Nitel started offering it, we jumped on. Yahoo! Groups was launched in early 2001. It was a series of discussion boards that formed the earliest reiteration of social networks, predating Facebook which was created in 2004, but became available only in 2009 to us. Seizing the opportunity to create lively discussions, I formed three groups on the Yahoo! Groups platform: Finafinan Hausa, Littattafan Hausa, Mawaƙan Hausa, from 31st August to 15th November 2001. Finafinan Hausa was by far the liveliest. By 2009 when the discussions whittled away, there were almost 25,000 postings on the board. Other boards did not fare too well. Further, between 2000 to 2009, I chaired thirteen Hausa video film award ceremonies, four of which were organized by Yahoo! Groups. The discussion board really popularized many of the Hausa video film stars. The University of Frankfurt in Germany even dedicated a Library Officer to join the groups and harvest all the comments as examples of public discourse on Hausa popular culture.

All these did not prevent me from participating in educational alphabet soup agency activities, so I was still rooted in Education. Criss-crossing the north, training education officials, writing reports no one read, and working out the next activity. Along the process, I became Head of Department of Education – rather reluctantly for I was enjoying fieldwork in both cultural production and educational alphabet soup interventions (the latter which helped to put additional plates on the table!).

In 1993 the late Prof. Mike Egbon of the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano visited my office and asked me to help supervise a PhD student of his who was working on transfer of communication education curriculum from US to Nigeria. Between 1991 to 1992 I was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkley. My work focused on the transnational transfer of education from US to Nigeria, and resulted in a book published in 1994 in New York. It was titled Living on a Credit Line: Reform and Adaptation in Nigerian University Curricula. It was my work in the US which I had been discussing at various places within the campus that attracted Mike Egbon and he appointed me as co-supervisor and internal examiner to his student. Mike Egbon, then, was the one who opened the door for me to enter Mass Communication department.

While all this was going on, a conference on Hausa video films was held in one of the northern Universities. The conference condemned the films, just as earlier on the writers of Hausa fiction were also condemned. Many of these writers, using the cheap availability of video cameras, had made the transition from Hausa fiction to Hausa films, and in the process, attracted a lot of mainly non-indigenous Hausa into the industry. But because these elements use the Hausa language in their films and rely virtually exclusively on cloning Hindi cinema, all Hausa films were tarred with the same paintbrush. The focus of the conference held somewhere in the north was to confirm how bad the films were from cultural perspectives.

However, in August 2002 a group of academicians and members of the Hausa entertainment industry in Kano got together to discuss the state of research on Hausa popular culture and media technologies, with particular reference to the Hausa films. It was meant to be a brainstorming session with various inputs from members overshadowed by the then current crisis in the non-marketability of Hausa films due to condemnations from the public culture. Further, it was noted that there had been no systematic study of the phenomena from academic perspectives, at least by the practitioners themselves. A strong observation at this meeting was the increasing role of media technologies in popular culture and how Hausa urban communities are refining the concept of entertainment among the Hausa.

The group noted with concern lack of local input into the systematized researches showing the relationship between Hausa culture and popular media as a vehicle of cultural preservation and transmission. In this regard, it was noted that some of the most significant advances in this area were made by our foreign Hausaist colleagues. All these researchers have published extensively on Hausa culture and language, and their works are heralded as authoritative accounts of Hausa popular media. Thus, while the group acknowledged the immense contributions made by these foreign researchers, it saw these researches as challenges to stimulating local scholars into exploring other terrains of popular culture among the Hausa. As a result of these observations, the group suggested a series of activities aimed at creating collaborative opportunities for research between local researchers, practitioners of popular culture (literature, music, film, indigenous knowledge etc.) and international partners. A committee was formed to articulate all these into a conference, and I was made the Chairman of the Committee. Eventually, on 3rd to 5th August 2003, we held the first ever international conference on Hausa films in Kano, with the theme of Hausa Home Videos: Technology, Economy and Society. It was hugely successful, attracting presentations from US and Germany in additional to both local film practitioners and academicians. I, Yusuf Adamu and Umar Faruk Jibril edited the papers and a book with the same title as the conference was published in Kano in 2004. The resolution of the conference was to establish a Center for Hausa Cultural Studies. This was meant to be a thinktank that will hold monthly events to promote Hausa cultural production in the age of the internet.

Later, tired of the constant criticisms against me from the film industry despite all efforts (they believed that by focusing on culture, I was disparaging their art), I shifted my ethnographic focus to music, with particular focus on the Rap genre which was trending at the time. This community of cultural producers – K-Boyz, Kano Riders, Lil’ TeAxy, BMERI, ClassiQ, Dr Pure, G-Fresh, Haddy, K-Arrowz, late Lil’ Amir, etc. – proved more welcoming than filmmakers.

By 2004 I had attracted the attention of some colleagues overseas, particularly Brian Larkin in the US, Graham Furniss in the UK and Heike Behrend in Germany. I even wrote a visa approval letter for Heike Behrend, then Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany, to come to Nigeria and conduct a field work on Hausa films. Heike Behrend was to later “adopt” me as her son. She is a brilliant ethnologist, with a field experience in Kenya and Uganda, as detailed in her excellent book, Incarnation of an Ape. An autobiography of ethnographic research” (2020) which itself is a textbook on the anthropology of experience. As she stated in a YouTube introduction to the book, “it was about reversing the perspective and showing how those I meant to ethnograph ethnographed me.”

Thus, when Graham Furniss was asked to nominate participants for a “Seminar on Media in Africa” in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by the International African Institute for August 2004, he nominated my name and I was accepted. Again, in the same year, he was invited to Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (plainly referred to as the University of Mainz) to participate at the 8th International Janheinz Jahn Symposium, “Creative Writing in African Languages: Production, Mediation, Reception”. It was to be held at the Centre for Research on African Literatures, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 17-20 November 2004. Graham had too many engagements for the period, and suggested to the organizers that I should be invited – something they accepted and I received an invitation to participate at the conference.

At the first event in Nairobi, I met Heike Behrend who was also invited, and during an off-conference interactions over a cup of expresso (her favorite rendering of coffee!!) I informed her of my coming trip to Mainz for a conference. She immediately extended an invitation for me to come to the University of Cologne on my way to Mainz and present a seminar to doctoral students on any topic I like. This I did, on 15th November 2004, and presented a paper to the students. It was titled “Enter the Dragon: Sharī’ah, Popular Culture and Film Censorship in northern Nigeria”

When I returned to Nigeria, I met Dr. Gausu Ahmad, then Head of Department of Mass Communication BUK who insisted on the paper being presented at their own Departmental Seminar. Prior to that, I was already teaching Advanced Research Methods to postgraduate students, as well as Online Journalism at all levels. Further, I was already working with a doctoral student in the Department. Unknown to me, Dr. Gausu had already recommended my employment as a Part-Time lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication. A letter to that effect was eventually sent to me in November 2005. Earlier, the Department had requested my transfer from Education, but the Vice-Chancellor at the time refused.
The visit to Germany in 2004 was the beginning of a series of travels to various universities as a visiting lecturer/professor/guest speaker etc. in media and cultural production. These included the US (University of Florida, Gainesville; Rutgers State University of New Jersey; Barnard College, Columbia University), UK (School of African and Oriental Studies), Switzerland (University of Basel), Germany (Freie University, Berlin; University of Mainz; University of Freiburg; University of Cologne, University of Hamburg; Humboldt University), South Africa (University the Witwatersrand), and Cameroon (University of Yaoundé).

In November 2008 I was once more invited to Germany for an event. After my event at the University of Hamburg, one of the participants, Nina Pawlak from the Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland, approached me and asked if I would like to visit Poland for three months as a Visiting Professor. I delightfully accepted. The funding was to come from the European Union under the program of The Modern University – a comprehensive support program for doctoral students and teaching staff of the University of Warsaw as part of Sub-measure 4.1.1 “Enhancing the educational capacity of a higher education institution” of the Human Capital Operational Programme, of the EU.

After all the paper work was done, I was eventually offered the Visiting Professor position at the Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland from 1st March to 31st May 2012 I taught two courses: Transnationalism and Identity in African Popular Culture, and Oral Traditions in Local and Global Contexts.

S01EP03: Betelgeuse Star System Touchdown
On my return in April 2012, I reported to my Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed. In a moment of radical inspiration, he asked me to submit every publication and activity in communication to the Head of Department of Mass Communication, the late Dr. Balarabe Maikaba for possible recommendation as a professor of Media and Cultural communication. In the meantime, a position for a professor was created in the Department of Mass Communication to accommodate my presence.

I was surprised at this as I thought once you are a professor, you stay that way without any addition! The then Dean of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Prof. Adamu Idris Tanko, also welcomed the idea. Dr. Balarabe Maikaba, wrote a supporting letter. I put in the application and submitted all the papers I had in the new area for external assessment.

In January 2013, I received a phone call from my Vice-Chancellor informing me that assessments of my publications sent out months earlier have returned positive and I have been appointed professor of Information and Media Studies with effect from October 2012. There was only one wonderful caveat: I was to relocate to the Department of Mass Communication from the Department of Science and Technology Education where I was then the Head of Department. This relocation was the most significant move in my academic career. The day I received that letter counted as one of the happiest in my entire life. I suddenly realized that my earlier desire to be in the Faculty of Science was to become a research scientist. Now, 32 years later, I had become a research social scientist, while still retaining my scientific focus. Truly blessed by Allah. The journey to the first professorship took 17 years (1980-1997), while the second took 15 years (1997 to 2012).

I handed over the Department of Science and Technology Education on 25th April 2013, symbolic to my birthday. My new Department and the Faculty overwhelmingly welcomed me when I formally reported on 26th April 2013. Even more wonderful, the Communication Studies fraternity also welcomed me – apparently they have been keenly following my what one calls ‘revolutionary forays’ in media studies. It was thus an honor to be made a member of the Governing Council of the Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON), as well as a member of the Association of Communication Scholars & Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN). It was humbling to be in the company of communication giants such as Idowu Akanbi Sobowale, Ralph Akinfeleye, Lai Oso, Umaru Pate, Nosa Owens-Ibie, Hyginus Ekwuazi , Victor Ayedun-Aluma, Umaru Pate, Eserinune McCarty Mojaye, Abiodun Adeniyi and many wonderful others. It was always a pleasure to meet at various conferences and workshops and appreciate each other.

I was given a huge sparkling brand-new office with all the frills! I had already been teaching Management Information Systems (MIS) in the Department of Business Administration of the Faculty for almost ten years. Additionally, I had been a ‘part-time’ staff of the Mass Communication Department for seven years, teaching and supervising students. So, I was not new to the faculty. Being in the Department of Mass Communication, for me, was the absolute way to chill out my career to retirement in 2026, inshaa Allah.

So, am I the only ‘double’ professor in Nigeria? Depends on the context. If you are referring to two professorships in two different disciplines (which is the actual context of a double professor), then yes, according to the NUC’s Directory of Full Professors in the Nigerian University System (2017), I am. Being a professor at two different universities does not count. The second professorship has to be qualified through external assessment of scientific works in the discipline, a process my Vice-Chancellor at the time and Chairman of the Appointment and Promotions Committee of the University rigorously followed.

Is this the same as Emeritus Professor (some have referred to me as such)? No. An Emeritus Professor is an honorary title given to a professor to show respect for a distinguished career, and who has retired (critical qualifier) from the university successfully and honorably. It is neither a right, nor automatic. It is a privilege (just like the professorship itself), given on the discretion of the university to an outstanding professor (mostly the university one is retiring from, although an appointment to such position could also be made to the retiring professor in a different university). One cannot be appointed an Emeritus until they have retired (whether before or at the age of retirement). It is usually conferred (at a ceremony) to those the university feel that despite retiring, they can still add value to the academic programs of the university, either through teaching, research, supervision or other leadership functions. It often attracts a token stipend (not salary) and the office the professor retired from. It is also for life – meaning he stops being an Emeritus when he shifts to the other side of the universe the James Webb Space Telescope would not be able to locate! Here is a list of Emeritus Professors in Nigeria (updating).

How common is double professorship generally? Rare. A limited discussion on this was held at Ouora where few examples from some American universities were cited. For instance, Andrew Gelman is a professor of statistics and of political science at Columbia and a professor of statistics at Harvard. He has no political science degree at all. His first degree was in physics and his graduate work in statistics. He has received the Outstanding Statistical Application award three times from the American Statistical Association, the award for best article published in the American Political Science Review, the Mitchell and DeGroot prizes from the International Society of Bayesian Analysis, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award. Have a look at this blog to know how he came to be occupying those two chairs.

This answers the question of whether I should be a professor in Mass Communication without a degree in Mass Communication. At professorial level, it is your output that matters. My own site might satisfy one’s curiosity about what the fuss is all about. As my Vice-Chancellor at the time, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed pointed out when my case was presented in 2012, if anyone is a professor of History and made enough contributions to the field of Physics, they can also apply and be assessed as a professor of Physics.
Oh, I almost forgot. Two professorships? Yes. Two salaries? Unfortunately, no! You get only one salary!!

Published in Daily Reality online newspaper in August 2022

 
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