It's quite frequent in most universities across the globe.I recall one female lecturer who failed the whole class and graded only one student simply because she was coming from the same region as her.We ended up missing the first class with a margin of 0.02 due to unfair grading.
This was the reason I didn’t want to be noticed during my bachelor’s program. I wanted to “hide” until graduation, but my answer sheets exposed me.
I had just joined the department as a new Direct Entry student from a polytechnic, and my first year was 200L.
The professors didn’t know me. Having taught and graded the students for a year already, they were familiar with everyone’s capabilities.
So a quiet guy shows up in 200L, writes his first exams, and boom, almost every lecturer was looking for me.
When the results came out in early second semester, one lecturer walked into class and the first thing he said was, “Who is Ugochukwu in this class?”
I was like, “Have I done anything wrong?”
[Intrapersonal communication]
I didn’t want to respond, but some students turned and looked in my direction in a uniform manner that suggested, “That’s him.” So I raised my hand.
He asked, “Were you here last year?”
I responded, “No, sir. I’m a DE student.”
He said, “No wonder. I have graded this class three times, and when I came across your script, I thought it was a postgraduate script that had been mistakenly mixed up with the undergraduate ones. You don’t write like an undergraduate.”
He then turned to the class and started telling them how my script was the best he had ever graded in a long while and how I write like a scholar, with citations and all, and he encouraged me to keep it up.
That day, my cover was blown. Although it sounded like a public commendation, I knew my trouble started that day.
This open commendation was coming from the department’s toughest grader and most dreaded professor.
The next day in class, a professor asked a question and no one knew the answer. For a second-year class, he expected us to know it because it would help us better understand the concept he wanted to introduce. He was disappointed and frustrated, and in that moment, I raised my hand and he froze. He gestured for me to speak.
I quickly explained the concept with two practical examples, and immediately I finished talking, he said, “You must be Ugochukwu Madu.”
And I replied, “Yes, I am.”
He reacted in a way that said, “I knew it,” or “No wonder.”
He paused the lecture and started telling the class how he couldn’t believe his eyes while grading my script. In his words: “He writes so well. He doesn’t miss a punctuation. He cites authors from textbooks to support his answers and arguments. He writes Queen’s English.”
Like the other professor, he encouraged me to keep it up and to share my knowledge with classmates who were willing to learn. That was how I started creating study groups and teaching my classmates, especially for difficult courses and concepts.
Again, I knew I was cooked. I just wanted to get good grades quietly and disappear after graduation, but my answer sheets betrayed me.
News of the department’s finest professors praising me openly in class spread among students and professors, and just like that, some professors vowed not to allow me graduate with a First Class CGPA, and the witch-hunting began.
My academic performance attracted envy, even from my course mates. After submitting assignments to my final-year course rep, he would not submit them to the professors: a problem that would have been easily avoided if the university used a digital course management system.
I later learned that some lecturers fought me because they feared I would be retained by the department if I graduated with a First Class, thereby becoming a competitor. I was seen as a potential threat that needed to be stopped.
I fought that battle and won. I walked away with a well-deserved First Class.
Little did they know I was already thinking GLOBAL at the time. I wanted to compete on a global stage, and God + my hard work earned me six fully funded master’s and PhD offers from top R1 universities in the United States.
Today, I’m in the fourth year of my PhD and discussing graduation plans.
God is not a man, and no man can play God.
I have requested our brother, Director Trevor, to forgive and support our sister, Eve Mungai. The past is gone; they should now focus on the present and future by nurturing and supporting one another.
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