It was on a day like this, seven years ago that a certain professor stood up in an academic staff meeting of a federal university and said, “Just look outside, everywhere is jeep jeep! I know how long I have been in this university without affording a jeep. The one I’m driving now, one of my children in America sent it to me.”

I still remember the veins popping up from the side of his head, his eyes darting where some of us young lecturers sat, as he carried on with his mundane rant. “There are reports of extortion, the young lecturers don’t want to take things easy, just look outside – jeep jeep.”

His words, his accusatory tone, the vibrations of his dark, lanky frame jolted me.

I had heard on resumption in the Uni that academic staff meetings can be this way, a public sphere where ego, ageism and sectional interest dominate discussions. Research excellence and staff welfare often took the backseat. But I had elected in the spirit of intellectual curiosity to give it a fair chance. After all, in instances like this, one cannot possibly judge what they have not encountered.

And so, as the professor strolled back to his seat after what seemed like the most petty and mundane rant I’ve encountered in any academic setting in the world, I began to process what had just happened.

A part of me wanted to laugh at the incredulity of it all; but a side of me was worried over how such petty stuff, so-called young lecturers owning an SUV dominated the consciousness of this professor.

This condescension for one’s colleagues—however younger they were registered awfully with me.

But then, I calmly sought to unpack what was really at play here and think through the provenance of the man’s seeming bitterness.

None of it made sense.

First, when you hear him annoyed over the abundance of “jeep jeep” being driven by younger lecturers, you’d think they’re some awesome cars. Of the so-called young lecturers driving the jeep, three of these were 2004 Toyota Highlanders. And then mine, which was a 2001 ML Benz.

I mean, we were driving SUVs produced 12-15 years ago and someone had thought this was a sort of luxury or a status symbol. South eastern roads were plainly impassable in rainy seasons. Mud patches and craters form around potholes. As the rains pile into it, your sedan car begins a journey to trauma land. So Jeep-Jeep was necessary in certain periods of the year or you rely on public transport.

I still recall the day I made the decision to buy a SUV alias “Jeep Jeep”, I was stuck on a lonely axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway on my way to a book reading. I heard my bottom plate hit the tip of a crater and watched my transmission oil leak out of my car before me. Stranded and waiting for Chucks, my mechanic who was coming from 18km away, I said a quiet prayer to God that I wanted to save enough money for an SUV a.k.a “Jeep-Jeep”.

Eight months later, with the privilege of earning research consultancy gigs, it happened.

So, you could imagine that a professor did not have the conceptual facilities to imagine young lecturers can leverage their skills beyond the classroom to earn enough income to buy Jeep-Jeep.

Frankly though, it isn’t unfounded that some lecturers extort students but there was no evidence that this act was exclusive to younger lecturers, or that only people who bought “jeep-jeep” engaged in it.

Moreover, extortion is a serious infraction according to the university’s code of conduct, so those who are accused are to be served queries. It was neither right nor fair to use the podium of the staff meeting to throw blanket accusations at junior colleagues.

The second point of reflection over the professor’s rant was his own insistence in the supremacy of his personal experience. That life was some supremely ordained hardship Olympics everyone was condemned to partake in.

Understandably, it’ll be near-impossible to acquire a good SUV if you were to rely exclusively on your salary as a lecturer in Nigeria.

But lecturers cannot be limited to their base salaries only (it’s particularly paltry in 🇳🇬). Even in the West where they are much better-paid, academics still leverage their expertise to derive external income.

Professors chase after grants, receive offers from academic publishers for their own books or edited anthologies. They receive thousands of dollars in book advances, invitations to deliver lectures in different forums.

Lecturers/Professors depending on how distinguished are commissioned by international organizations to work on research projects, produce training manuals etc.

I knew about all of these as a Master’s student in the UK even before returning to Nigeria and found a teaching job. So, I was startled by the crisis of imagination that propelled the professor into his indecorous rant.

Being in Nigeria is not in itself a complete handicap in pivoting towards cognate income sources relating to your profession.

I know few academics in Nigeria who still win grants and execute them. I knew a brilliant young lecturer who actually won enough grants and stipends to acquire properties. But not only that, he consistently enlisted the help of research assistants whom he paid from these grants. He was lucky to have a mentor who put him through on how these things work and how to optimise his talents.

These are some of the ways older academics can encourage, collaborate and co-create value and even draw in forex for the helpless CBN.

Not the ageist nonsense that breeds rancour and disinclination to academic work.

In one part of the world, staff meetings can be about AI and academic integrity, or about funding new research trajectories.

In the home of the so-called giant of Africa, it could be about tearing pants over “Jeep-Jeep”.

Written by Dr. Mitterrand Okorie.