UI most brilliant lecturer took his own life

“Ina lilahi Wahina Ilaehi Rojihun”. From Allah we came and to him, we shall return. Death is inevitable, every mortal at some point in life, will give up the ghost and return to the ancestors. This is sad but it is the honest truth. When a loved one with special qualities departs this sinful world “prematurely” the grief in the heart of the bereaved usually result in more agony as if they never knew death was constant.

This is synonymous to the case of A.O Subair, the deceased mathematics lecturer from the University of Ibadan who took his own life by himself. He was described as the “most brilliant” in the department and was said to have been on his PhD for 22 years without confirmation.

How can the most brilliant lecturer in a mathematics department take his own life?? Was he under spell? Was he choked to death as a result of the inferno in the school campus as reported? Was it depression?

In my own opinion, I will conclude it was as a result of depression that he took his own life. He was said to have resigned from the department in 2018 but the head of the department allegedly did not process his resignation. One can say this led to psychological issues which we learnt he transferred to his family before separation sets in. It was also gathered that he would lock himself inside his office and will not allow anybody to enter.

A non-academic member of staff of the university told the cable that the deceased was suspected to have committed suicide at senior staff quarters, Phillipson Road, inside the university.

“His room was the only part not engulfed in the fire… there were no fire burns on his body but there’s a possibility that he might have poisoned himself,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.

Since we are yet to get a post mortem analysis of the primary cause of his death, we won’t stop apportioning blames to the senior lecturer’s in his department, apparently, they aided in the depression that took Zubair’s life.

If a supposed brilliant lecturer can battle a PhD degree for 22 years, it implies such brilliance has so many contradictions attached to it. It is usually a norm in most of Nigeria public universities for lecturers to ensure their students go through what they went through or even more without any basis or justification for such actions. It is the height of mediocrity, students would adopt and practice the same when they are in a position of authority in the academic industry.

We are in a digital age, things are generally evolving with the advent of technologies that were absent in those days. We don’t need to spend 22 years or more before a brilliant student can be qualified for a PhD degree, a 22-year-old student in other climes already has a PhD.

What makes a Nigerian student/lecturer that bagged his PhD degree at age 50 better than a 22 years old PhD holder in other climes? Or why do we need to spend more years in Nigeria universities for a PhD degree?