Beloved Temmy

A PhD is the highest academic qualification you can ever get. There is nothing above it. It is earned from writing and defending a thesis that makes a novel contribution to an academic field. A holder can use it for life because it is not tied to any academic institution. It is a portable award. A professorship is a rank. A title for being an active teacher and researcher. In the US, any teacher in higher education can be called a professor. It is merely a descriptive term. But there is Chair Professorship that denotes an official academic rank for senior academics who rose to the top. They often go through Assistant Professorship and Associate Professorship ranks for many years. These rank holders have held multiple research grants, are running research labs, have diverse academic affiliations with other institutions and the industry, shape opinion in the field through constant research publications, and contribute to active teaching. But a professorship is not a lifetime title. When people retire, they become former professors. Those who maintain some level of teaching and research engagement in retirement become Professor Emeritus/Emerita. It is just like being a Senior Engineer, or Managing Director. You can't retire and be calling yourself an MD, GM, or Director. You drop it when you retire or move elsewhere. Nigerians worship titles even if they are acquired fraudulently. It is a political hook to use in fishing for political appointments and unnecessary respect from people who think the holder is operating at the top of knowledge hierarchy. Some of them are extremely good and their records remain respectable. Many of them are fishermen, fishing for opportunities that cannot be squared with their claimed academic experience. I know real professors and I will accord them the full recognition that they deserve even after retirement. That respect will continue especially when they don't shove it in our faces. I personally do not want to be a professor because the value of that prestigious title has been eroded in Nigeria.