In this episode you'll hear Paul Gadi, who is a faculty member in the Department of Business Administration and Management at Plateau State Polytechnic in Barkin Ladi, Nigeria.

This week is about polytechnics, which sits at the intersection between vocational and academic education and could play a key role in upskilling Nigeria's working population. Dr. Gadi tells us about the bad and the good of these important institutions and shares what he would do if he were rector at the Plapoly, the consequences of Nigerian academia becoming a family affair, and the differences between Malaysian and Nigerian academia

Hajiya Halima Ben Umar is a Nigerian public intellectual and the Executive Director at Women in Media Communication Initiative. She is based in Kano, northern Nigeria, where she also co-anchors the popular TV programme Mata A Yau, Women Today in Hausa, that you will also hear discussed in the conversation. Ben Umar speaks with Gaddafi about fighting for the rights of women in Islam while being a working mother of seven; her tensions and collaborations with Islamic scholars; her Islamically-inspired engagement with a range of social problems such as drug use, mental health, and teenage pregnancies; and the importance of educating young girls - and what happens if a society fails to do so.

In this episode, Henry speaks with Dr Julie Sanda, a political scientist and the director general of the Plateau Peace Building Agency in Jos. In a very open and frank conversation, they explore the ethics of international partnerships, the impact of the difficulties of life on Nigerian academics, the importance of storytelling in science, being a “pocket psychologist”, and what the Nigerian academy looks like when it is intellectually vibrant and exciting.