{"id":15850,"date":"2024-01-28T11:18:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T10:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/?p=15850"},"modified":"2024-01-28T11:20:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T10:20:08","slug":"industrious-nigerian-professor-bilal-who-makes-more-money-welding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/industrious-nigerian-professor-bilal-who-makes-more-money-welding\/","title":{"rendered":"Industrious Nigerian professor, Bilal, who makes more money welding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kabir Abu Bilal is not your regular Nigerian university professor – he has a second job working as a welder in the northern city of Zaria.<\/p>\n

Welding is widely seen as a menial job across Nigeria and he has shocked many – especially his colleagues – by opening up his own welding workshop.<\/p>\n

“I am not ashamed that I work as a welder despite being a professor,” he tells the BBC<\/a>. “I make more money from welding.”<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old teaches and supervises research students at the faculty of engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria’s largest and one of its most prestigious universities.<\/p>\n

He has worked there for 18 years and published several books on physics and electrical engineering.<\/p>\n

His fellow academic, Prof Yusuf Jubril, explains that their colleagues find it strange: “Society make us think someone is too big for certain roles and it’s not true.<\/p>\n

“What he is doing is not humiliating but commendable, and I hope others learn from him.”<\/p>\n

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\"Professor
His income from welding has allowed the professor to buy a Mercedes-Benz<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Prof Abu Bilal agrees that people, especially graduates, need to be more open-minded about how they make their living.<\/p>\n

“Education shouldn’t stop one from doing jobs like this, I am surprised that there are people with first degrees who find a job like this degrading.”<\/p>\n

His words have resonance – as\u00a0according to Stutern’s Nigeria Graduate Report, more than 40% of graduates fail to get a job<\/a>\u00a0in Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous country.<\/p>\n

He opened up a mini workshop in Zaria around two decades ago.<\/p>\n

In 2022, a year after he was promoted to become a professor, he moved to larger premises having found plenty of business in the university town.<\/p>\n

This has allowed him to buy more equipment and take on bigger jobs, with customers asking him to make things such as metal door and window frames.<\/p>\n

“I collect the job no matter how small it is, even if it is one door I will weld it happily to get paid,” he says.<\/p>\n

Since he was a child, the professor says, he has always liked taking apart and putting back together gadgets and things like radios, which drew him to his career.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately I found out engineering here was more theoretically based and I needed a place to express myself,” he says.<\/p>\n

“That desire culminated in me starting this welding workshop.”<\/p>\n

Not only has the workshop satisfied his need to get his hands dirty, but it has really helped him on the financial front.<\/p>\n

Academics in Nigeria have long struggled on modest salaries, most earning between 350,000 naira ($390; \u00a3305) and 500,000 ($555; \u00a3435) a month – and there are often long battles with the government to get a pay increase.<\/p>\n

Prof Abu Bilal says his welding job has allowed him to be more self-sufficient and he has even been able to buy a more reliable car – a Mercedes.<\/p>\n

In leaner times, he has even helped those who frowned on his joint career.<\/p>\n

“When university lecturers went on strike for eight months in 2022 and we weren’t paid, I always had money because of this job and a few colleagues came to me for help.”<\/p>\n

Prof Abu Bilal hopes to inspire other people to take on jobs like the one he does.<\/p>\n

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\"Apprentices
The apprentices tend to stay at the workshop for about a year<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

He has 10 apprentices – aged between 12 and 20 – at the workshop where he is teaching them the skills of the trade.<\/p>\n

Those who are not at school during the day take care of the workshop when he is away at university.<\/p>\n

The apprenticeship tends to take about a year – and then when they have the skills they can go off and set up their own businesses.<\/p>\n

“I have learnt so much being at the workshop, I can weld many items together now,” 18-year-old Jibril Adam said.<\/p>\n

“Even as apprentices, he gives us 10,000 naira every month and a daily stipend for food.”<\/p>\n

The academic is also determined that his five children do not become academic snobs: “I bring them here most weekends to see how it is done. I want them to learn it so that one day they’ll be able to do it.”<\/p>\n

For Prof Abu Bilal his joint career suits him perfectly, as he is able to embrace his teaching role on both fronts: “I love to impart knowledge.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kabir Abu Bilal is not your regular Nigerian university professor – he has a second job working as a welder in the northern city of Zaria. 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