The Tyrants in Our Classrooms: When Lecturers Become the First Wound Nigerian Students Must Survive

By [Dr. Anne Agi]

In a nation where education is sold as the ladder out of poverty, trauma is too often the only thing students climb.

The recent uproar surrounding the nomination of Dr. Yangien Ornguga, a law professor at Benue State University, for a commissioner role in Benue State, Nigeria, has peeled back the scabs of years of silent suffering in our universities.

What should have been a routine announcement has instead triggered a flood of disturbing testimonials, more than 200 and counting, from former students who say the Doctor did not teach but tormented; did not mentor, but mutilated academic destinies with cold precision.

These are not trivial grievances. They are heartbreaks with transcripts.

We read of Karen Bitto, a brilliant student with a first-class CGPA until she encountered Ornguga. Her ordeal wasn’t academic; it was surgical. Scripts withheld. Grades manipulated. A first-class turned into a second-class upper through the meticulous erasure of excellence. We read of a Yoruba student who couldn’t graduate for three years because his long essay was hidden, deliberately. We read of students who he failed just for not knowing his name! We read of students who were told, laughingly, “I will fail you and heaven will not fall.” Even more heartbreaking is the story of Shima Maureen Member, who has petitioned the Benue State House of Assembly. In her case, despite the intervention of the Faculty Dean and other lecturers, Omguga as examinations officer, simply refused to accept and work on her previously omitted results, leading to her withdrawal from the University!

If these narratives are true, then the questions are:

What kind of man derives joy from academic sabotage?

What kind of system allows such a man to thrive, be promoted, and be nominated for even higher office?

Sadly, Dr. Ornguga is not an anomaly. He is an archetype—one of many.

Across Nigerian campuses, too many students know this story. Some lived it. Others are still living it. Lecturers who are just plain sadists and refuse to upload students' results despite all entreaties to do so. Lecturers who ask for sex in exchange for marks. Lecturers who demand money before releasing results. Lecturers who punish dissent with carryovers, who mistake fear for respect, and who wield grades like machetes. Lecturers who as examination officers consider themselves demi-gods and weaponize the office to harrass students.

Let’s speak plainly. Many Nigerian lecturers are not educators. They are wounded egos with chalk.

Their cruelty is not accidental, it is systemic. It is often rewarded.

They fail the brightest to break their spirits. They withhold scripts to flex power. They ask for thighs to award grades. They boast about destroying futures. And then, when their victims speak, the system accuses the students of laziness, entitlement, or ingratitude.

But the silence is cracking. Slowly, courageously, students are speaking. And for the first time, they are not whispering in the dark but shouting in the daylight.

This moment is not just about Dr. Ornguga. It is about the urgent need for cultural exorcism in Nigerian academia.

Lecturers are supposed to be midwives of destiny, not undertakers of potential.

They are meant to be mentors, not monarchs. They are meant to model brilliance, not tyranny.

A university classroom should be a sanctuary for learning, not a theatre for trauma.

And any lecturer, regardless of title, who has built a reputation for cruelty has no business holding public office. Power must never reward those who abuse it.

But beyond the political dimensions of this specific case, Nigerian universities must undertake radical introspection. There must be systems of accountability that are student-centred. Anonymous reporting channels. Independent academic review boards. Disciplinary panels with student representation. Transparent grading policies. Real consequences for emotional abuse and sexual exploitation.

Let us be clear: Academic tyranny is violence. It is inhuman and degrading treatment. It is a breach of fundamental rights.

It breaks minds. It kills dreams. It scars generations.

And a nation cannot afford to keep feeding its future to the sadists it houses in classrooms.

For once, let the voice of the masses be heard. Dr. Ornguga’s nomination should be withdrawn, not out of vengeance, but as a signal that power must be tethered to compassion.

And as this storm rages, may other lecturers look in the mirror and ask:

'Am I building students up, or breaking them down'?

May they remember:

When you stand in front of a classroom, you are standing before a nation unborn.

What you do there echoes in eternity.

It is time for a new era in Nigerian academia, one defined not by fear, but by mentorship, excellence, and mercy.

Let the cruelty end. Let the healing begin.