Prof Olabisi Ugbebor is the first woman to be a Professor of Mathematics from the University of Ibadan, her alma mater. Born in Lagos and educated at Queen’s College, she gained admission to study Mathematics in 1969 at the University of Ibadan. The university later sponsored her to the University of London for a PhD, which she got in 1976 at the age of 25. In this interview with Kofoworola Belo-Osagie, she speaks about how the three institutions prepared her to compete in a male-dominated field and how Mathematics can be made attractive to both teachers and students.
How come you love mathematics as a woman?
When I was in school, there was a policy. The government was very wise that if you were equally good at the Arts and at the Sciences you must take the sciences because we needed science and technology to develop. They were really looking at a development plan that would take Nigeria far. I got A1 in French, A1 in CRK, beautiful grades in the Arts, beautiful grades in the Sciences; but because of that policy of the then minister of education, which I think was wise because if we are going to develop technologically, we must give a quota. You know some states were given a quota to catch up. To catch up with the Western world, everything is important. But whatever they used to make it, we have to give it a special quota.
I wasn’t bitter; but my teachers were. My French teacher was bitter. She said, ‘you must come and do A Level French’. But I still speak French today; I can read research papers in French, so her work is not lost. So, automatically if you were equally good you went to the sciences. But I loved mathematics – from primary to secondary school. In my primary school I used to get everything.
Moreover, why did I choose to teach mathematics? Many of my classmates who could not understand geometry and things like that, after school hours – because Queen’s College is a boarding school – they would come; they were humble. They would ask ‘how did you see all those lines and graphs because we didn’t see anything?’ So I would stand at the board after school hours and explain it to them.
At the University of London, when I took my PhD, they called all of us, they said, ‘how many of you are going back to the university level to teach?’ I raised my hand. So, there was a special workshop that was arranged. They said which is the driest subject that people find difficult to understand at that level? That is Algebra. So they assembled some random people who hated algebra to the core and said I should teach them the concept. They all passed, so they said I can teach at all levels; not only the university, that I must teach at all levels since I have the gift of imparting knowledge.
When I came to UI, I was the only female student in my class of seven.
But there is still the challenge of teaching mathematics in schools today
Do you know why there is a challenge? We use letters, figures, diagrams, graphs, and these things look strange to many people. They don’t make it exciting; that is why. They make it like rote learning. When you give the background, you make it exciting. You give room for questions – you explain it over and over again, then you see that mathematics is a lively subject which everybody should do up to a particular level because we all use it directly and indirectly.
If they are not properly introduced to what these symbols are, it is like we are in a secret society. But it is not that difficult. (Mathematics) is abstract; that is why people run away from it. Before going to the abstract, you start from the concrete.
You settled for university education, have you taught at other levels?
Informally, I have been called to all kinds of places to motivate their teachers. There was a school that asked me to motivate their teachers recently. They hate hearing matrices. I started with oranges and bananas before I went into matrices. They started running to the board to find inverse. They said we didn’t know matrices was our friend. You know when you go there you write row and column and start multiplying in a funny way. Then they say, “e gba mi” (wow!); but I started with oranges and bananas. We did some simple ones. Then, I showed them why if we were using that simple method for a larger collection, we would be there all day. So, I showed them how the matrices are now their friend to help them jump over (the long process). They loved it. People who know me that I have a gift and talent, they invite me to motivate their teachers. And all my students usually say I am going to use mama’s method when I return. They have all changed their method of teaching mathematics because they saw the impact on their lives.
Another thing is, I don’t lecture; I teach. The first rule in my class is you must not laugh at any question. This is so that they can ask questions that are burning in their hearts. To you, it may be stupid but to him if he does not cross that hurdle, I have lost him. If you are absent from my class once, you feel it because every question that was asked is part of your knowledge.
When you are not well prepared that is when you are afraid to answer questions. When you are well prepared and you have your students’ welfare at heart, any question means any question and nobody must laugh or say why are you asking such a stupid question? I will never say that since I have forbidden them from saying that.
Mathematics is such an important subject. But we still have challenges with it. Do you think there should be a special programme in place to groom mathematics teachers?
There was some research that was done recently – an inter-departmental research – and one of the findings was that many girls lost interest in mathematics by primary four. Is that not a disaster? One of the problems is that if you have a class teacher teaching all subjects, she is not a specialist in mathematics, she probably hates mathematics, she will regurgitate the way it was taught her without explanation and they will lose interest. So, I am suggesting that mathematics majors should teach mathematics from primary school. The reason is if you choose mathematics as a subject you love, you are enthusiastic about it. And we need that enthusiasm. Mathematics can be abstract but let a mathematics major teach from primary school level so that he or she can fire their imagination. But once you lose them from primary four, just forget it. You need someone who can go to the board and show them why, not just how. Why is this? When students ask why, you should be able to explain to them. Then they would want to know more. I believe that using a general subject for all subject teachers would not help to solve that problem.
Not all mathematics teachers are as enthusiastic as you are or know enough. What kind of measures can be made to fill in the gap in their knowledge?
First of all, there should be incentives. When I was a student, mathematics teachers and science teachers were not paid the same as other teachers. Because you have to discriminate positively, they have to do more. It is hard. It is not that you are discriminating against some subjects but you know that you have a problem in this area.
I believe that the era of a commissioner for education or minister of education setting up panels is over. If I were the minister of education, I would go there and show them how to do it. I believe that we should teach by example. Many of these teachers are not motivated because they too were not properly taught.
In other climes you do research and solve your problems. There are people who are gifted. Look at the late Prof Ayodele Awojobi; when he was teaching at UNILAG, he was teaching my husband at CMS Grammar School. Many of them went to UNILAG to study engineering and they are some of the greatest engineers today. Let me tell you, I never met Prof Awojobi, but when I was doing my research at the University of London, I was having problems with my research work and I went to the University of London library. I just saw Lagos, Nigeria. I ran to the showcase: Prof Awojobi, the youngest DSC London. Why? The research work that his supervisor gave him when he came over as a PhD student that they had abandoned for many decades, he did research on it; wrote papers on it and after he left that to go and do something else, nobody could add to it until he came back. They said this is worthy of a DSC. I am telling you Iwuri wa (there is inspiration). I never met him; my husband met him and said, ‘bring anything, he will sit down and teach you.’ He was always reading. But he was cut short.
How can we encourage girls to enjoy mathematics? Boys seem to dominate.
It is not only at that level. Even in the United Kingdom, only about six per cent of professors of mathematics are women. That is very bad; and it is the same story all over the world. Do you know why? There are stereotypes. When I entered the UI, I was the only girl in class. And the lecturer said, ‘who can solve this?’ I went to the board and solved it. The boys said: “We are here, how dare you?” I said, ‘Look, I came from Queen’s College, we used to compete among ourselves so, you have to change your dirty and negative orientation. You cannot stop me.” What if it was somebody who could be intimidated? That would have been the end. I told them, “I am not used to that kind of thinking because where I come from we are all equals. And we all compete on top of the table, no cheating, so don’t come and cheat me.” They took me for who I was and respected me. So you have to encourage people by first of all putting down that stereotype.
One of the ways of putting down the stereotype is to bring women who have done it. If you say this thing can be done but they have never seen anyone who has done it, it is in the realm of theory. But when they see that somebody has done it, they say, I am going to do it.
Secondly, there is something that used to be in our culture. That if you were too poor to train all your children, you should train the boys because the girl is going to be in the kitchen and you will lose your name. My parents did not pay any fees for me even though they were able to from primary one to PhD. I had scholarships throughout. I started with the Awolowo school, which was free. It was the year I entered Queen’s College that the foreign firm my father was a manager at instituted a scholarship among the children of staff. I was the only girl among three, and I came first. They paid my fees at Queen’s College. It was supposed to be up to O Level. So, after O Level, when they saw my result, they extended it for me only up to HSC. The government can help women or girls by saying any girl that wants to go further and is talented, we are ready to fund. So that old thing about if you (parents) have to choose, let the government take up the girls so we don’t leave them behind; because you can’t change culture easily. But you can circumvent it. If the scholarship is there, and you are good, who is there to stop you? Nobody! So, we can also circumvent that.
Another reason is that many people cannot combine marriage and career, being the woman. To be equal, to be at the same level with the men, you have to work twice as hard. I thank God that my parents were hard working and they taught me hard work. Work is good.
Another thing is we have advantages in Africa we should not throw away. We should not allow people to ride roughshod on the culture. There are certain bad aspects of the culture. But one good aspect is that the entire extended families raise the children. It is not me, my wife and three children. So that if for instance, when I was doing my PhD in London, my first two sons were born there. Suddenly, they reacted to the weather. And my mother said “send them home.” I could have lost them. In many cultures you can’t do that.
Many girls have their education truncated because they get themselves into trouble. Again, the African culture comes into play. It is only nowadays that they are doing otherwise, copying terrible things from abroad. Even if a girl gets into trouble, there is usually a member of the extended family that says, ‘you have done wrong.’ They can even slap her or beat her or talk to her, take the baby and say, ‘Okay, go back to school. You know what has happened to you so you have to work harder.’ That way, her life is not truncated because she made a mistake or something bad happened to her. Sometimes it is not even the fault of the girl. We are saying let’s garner all that is good in us to push women forward.
Another thing is having a stable home. I have been married for over 40 years. And by the grace of God we are still together. So, women should be given enough maternity leave, at least one year, first to recuperate – with full pay – and then to get back to your subject. You are washing nappies, you are breastfeeding; they say we should be doing baby friendly. It is good, but it takes your time – waking up at night and so on. Even after people can carry the baby for you, you still have to get back inside that research; you have to run after them because the thing is moving at a high speed.
This next (point) is being implemented already: there should be crèche, playgroup, close to where women are. You should be able to pop in and see your child; to see how he/she is doing impromptu so that you know whether they are treating that child well when you are not there and you have peace of mind to do your work. So things like these can be done to help women. And then conferences, seminars, workshops, they should have full sponsorship to such places.
You have produced many teachers
Yes, I have produced professors and one of them is now a deputy vice chancellor in a middle belt university, Prof Steven Ona. Then the late Prof. Okoroafor. They never knew about my field before they came to UI. But to the glory of God, they have gone far. I have co-supervised some other people who are lecturers now. I have reproduced myself several times. Even the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof Ayoola, told me I taught him. Even the director of works told me I taught him, the former deputy director general of the National Mathematical Centre said I taught him. They are the ones coming to me. I taught the Head of Department of the Federal University of Technology, Minna. I mentored him to write mathematics books for our students when the foreign exchange during some of these military regimes, they couldn’t afford textbooks. So I called them together; let’s do something. We wrote textbooks. We senior people cooperated with younger people, mentored them and we co-authored. And those books are standing till today. It is very difficult to write a book if you are going to do it properly. It is very time-consuming. You know, I thank God; I don’t like boasting about these things. My husband says I am too modest.
What is the current focus of your research?
Initially, I started with Measure Theory; that is analysis, very dry, very hard. Then, I applied it to some motions. I have done dry maths but I have also done applications. I have applied my mathematics to foreign exchange. You remember that I said our students could not afford textbooks. They have parents too and their parents could not afford it. So let’s find out what is happening with the foreign exchange. And we did research; I presented a paper at the University of Cape Town on that research in South Africa, and I was made a member of the African Economic Society after presenting that paper.
We discovered that the Federal Government was demonising the people at Sabo (Yaba) that they are bringing down the value of the naira, whereas they had the correct value of the naira. And that is why it is still subsisting till today. The naira was being made artificially strong so that the authorities would buy it cheap from the bank and go to Sabo to become millionaires. It was wicked. You are demonising someone that they don’t have the correct value of the naira. But when we did the calculation we saw that that was the actual strength of the naira. But they were playing the devil in that they would go and set up an artificial small currency equivalent, then they would go there, buy it and go and sell at the correct rate and become millionaires. So their own was artificial. It was just arbitrary, a military order. They did not go to the market. They did not do any research.
I did research on voting. My husband and I lived in England. Voting used to take place on a particular Thursday of the month. When you were going to work you would vote; by the time you are coming back the results were out. Are we animals? People will queue and queue but in the end everything will scatter. So, one of my postgraduate students doing a PhD with me who ran back from Holland, we published together. I sent him – we don’t cook figures because we publish it abroad. And they would want to know who you are because they know some people cook figures. When they saw who we were, they immediately published it because they know our standard in UI. We have standard in the Mathematics Department, which is known all over the world.
We did the research – we had to do extra work. If you know any research about queuing theory, the queue starts from time zero. If voting starts at 8am, they will start counting the queue at 8. Nobody had ever done research about people queuing at 4am. That is pre-queue. There is no queuing theory on pre-queue. There is already a queue before time zero. We had to do a research into that. Many challenges we had; but the beautiful thing is we translated it in such a way that somebody who is not a mathematician can just pick the result and improve our voting system.
Fortunately, one senator, I hinted him that the paper was out on the internet and he got hold of it. He said he took it to Prof Attahiru Jega that this is the type of research that can move us forward. I don’t know whether Prof Jega is interested in using it. There is no need for Nigerians to queue and queue and everything will scatter at the end of the day. We have done research on that. We put it in this way: if you do this and you do this, they will be out in so many hours. I hope they will use it.
Right now I am interested in population. The average rate at which our population is growing is alarming to the whole world; and a Nigerian has to do the research. I am on it now. I have done hard maths; I have also applied maths to current problems because what is the use of research if you cannot use part of it?
I am excited about using mathematics; we can use it to solve many problems. Do you know why I feel I must do it? If a European should come and say, look your population is rising, we will say they don’t want us to be many. The thing is sensitive; many people have run away from this research but I feel I should do it as a mother because when problems come, it is the mother who is left with the children at the end of the day.
We have to look at this thing and let me tell you, if we don’t do anything about growth rate, a time will come when there will not be enough water in this country to drink. Are we going to annex Chad and drink their water? India was told many decades ago that their population will so boom that they would all start eating one another. They went into science and technology; that is what saved them.
I am seeing things I do not like. Look at people who are kidnapping others. When caught, some of them say they are graduates of 10 years standing and have no jobs; no industry and yet the GDP is rising. What is the meaning of GDP to such people? Any GDP that doesn’t affect the average person is nonsense.
In this nation, there is no safety on the road, there is no electricity, there is no steady water supply. How do we attract all the millions of Nigerians who are helping them go to the moon back to Nigeria when there is no security; when 50 per cent of the revenue goes into paying one per cent and the rest of us have to share the rest? It is not done like that anywhere in the world. We must do something about population, controversial or not.
