The Nation Newspaper

Category: Campus Life

  • Soyinka’s Nobel Prize at 27

    Soyinka’s Nobel Prize at 27

    The immortal words of Elbert Hubbard aptly describe the literary liberation of a country and continent reputed to be an habitat for illiteracy. Hubbard said: “The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”

    Prof Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka won the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature in October 1986. Thus, he became the first African and Nigerian to be awarded the much-respected prize.

    Soyinka had his first play, A Dance of the Forest, published in the late 1950s and since then he has been engraving the yet-to-be-mined African literary treasury on the pages of world literature. With his grey beard and hair, Soyinka’s literary prominence soars like a bizarre hunter, becoming the giant of creative minds in our history.

    The prize was a glorious dawn, especially at a time in Africa when fate was being worshiped as a god and failure was seen as the compulsory cover page of any book coming out of the African literary and arts factory. The Abeokuta-born playwright confirms the words of George Bernard Shaw, who said: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Soyinka’s feat has motivated Africa’s upcoming writers.

    However, celebrating Soyinka’s Nobel Prize at 27 when our campuses are shut because of strike seems to be not-so-good news for Nigeria. Do we know how many Soyinkas Nigeria could have produced had its education system functioned properly?

    Singapore education system has been described as one of the best in the world. Surprisingly, one would have expected bulky curricula like we have in Nigeria but no. According to the homepage of the Singaporean Ministry of Education, the country has been moving in towards a system that is flexible and diverse. The aim is to provide students with greater choice to meet the current reality. Being able to choose what and how they learn will encourage their students to be more knowledgeable. But we are lagging behind.

    Joseph Addision says: “Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave.” Without education, what would become of a man? He would be a slave of knowledge; his reasoning would be savagery.

    But in Nigeria, we seem to be seeing opportunity in illiteracy. For four months, the lecturers have gone on strike. Students are complaining, parents are not happy but government and lecturers seem not concerned. Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) boasts of four-month strike, but can we, undergraduates, boast of four-months of individual intellectual development?

    Four months of having not reading any books. Four months of being out of the classroom. Four months of having not attending life-changing seminars. Four months of waste in our education system. Four months of not thinking big ideas! When the strike is eventually called off, are we not going to celebrate four months of academic indolence?

    But out of this, we should be hopeful with the feat of the likes of Soyinka whose achievements have continued to inspire right-thinking youths. May God continue to spare his life and make him an inspiration to the next generation of writers that will take the country to high places.

    To every aspiring writer, match your inspiration with necessary perspiration, for inspiration without perspiration is a daydream; perspiration without inspiration is a night mare. A greater Soyinka is in you; but are you willing to pay a greater price than Soyinka paid?

     

    •Opeoluwa, 400-Level Law, OAU Ile-Ife

     

  • UNILORIN students seek end to strike

    UNILORIN students seek end to strike

    Students of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) have appealed to the Federal Government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to consider the plight of students and end the ongoing strike.

    The students, who recently resumed for the 2013/2014 academic session, said they were not happy with the strike, stressing that their colleagues had stayed idle at home for more than three months.

    Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, the students bemoaned the lackadaisical attitude of the government to education, urging it to re-negotiate with the striking lecturers and find a way to end the strike in the interest of students.

    “I am not happy with the way the Federal Government is handling this matter. It appears our leaders do not care about the plight of students because their children are either in private universities or studying abroad. That is why they cannot understand the havoc they are causing to our education system. I appeal to both sides to resume negotiations and find ways to end this strike,’’ said Sirajdeen Alabede, a 400-Level student of Geography and Environmental Management.

    Wasiu Alarape, 400-Level Agricultural Science, said no nation can develop with a bad education system, saying it remains the only viable option to a prosperous society.

    He said: “I am not happy to see my friends in other schools staying hopelessly at home due to the irresponsibility of our government. A nation that fails to educate its people will be unsafe. The federal government should meet the demands of ASUU for the good of our education and in the interest of the country.’’

    A 300-Level Law student, who does not want her name in print, said that President Goodluck Jonathan should be reminded that he was once a lecturer before he joined politics. ‘’If a country that has a former university lecturer as president still receives poor attention, especially in the education sector, it means the country is in danger. If something is not done about it, we are telling the world that we are not ready to compete in the global market,’’ she added.

    Other students who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE said the government should fashion out modalities of resolving the crisis and restore confidence in the nation’s educational system.

  • What is Jonathan’s priority?

    What is Jonathan’s priority?

    President Goodluck Jonathan won’t cease to amaze me. The former university teacher seems more to be concerned with the steady implosion in his party- the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – than any other state matter. The PDP distraction has since taken most of his attention and that of his lieutenants. It appears that the undoing of his party has overshadowed other pressing matters of state.

    If it is not, why has there not been marathon efforts, like the ones we saw in resolving PDP’s internal crises, to resolve the avalanche of challenges besetting the nation? Of particular mention is the current lockdown of our supposedly ivory towers.

    For more than 110 days, state and federal universities have been shut and students sent away to engage in all forms of activities due to the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    According to ASUU, the strike became necessary because of the inability of the Federal Government to honour the agreement it reached with the body for the revitalisation of our university education. Also, the strike seems to be the last option for the body to press home its demands.

    Issues in the controversial pact include the injection of more funds to improve infrastructure in the schools; Federal Government’s assistance to state universities; payment of earned allowances to lecturers; and progressive increment in the budgetary allocation to education to 26 per cent as recommended by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) amongst others.

    Has anyone observed how President Jonathan and his minders are fighting tooth and nail to reshape his party? The president and other PDP chieftains have been having series of meetings and consultations to resolve the crises because of his perceived ambition to seek re-election in 2015. He seems more interested in saving his political future which seems shaky at the moment. For Mr. President, the PDP crises deserve all the attention it can get than the ASUU strike.

    President Jonathan has been personally presiding over meetings with the aggrieved members of his party, why has he not made such sacrifice in the ASUU matter? He has since left negotiations in the hands of government officials as he has not for once attended a parley with the ASUU. If he can personally see to the resolution of the crises in his party, what stops him from personally meeting his former colleagues to go back to class?

    Ordinarily, the President may not head the government’s negotiation team, but his personal presence in the PDP peace meeting show that he is more interested in 2015 than any issue as weighty as the ASUU strike.

    In fact, the first time we heard that the president held a meeting with some key officials of his cabinet and directed that the impasse be resolved, the ASUU-FG talks collapsed and up till now, the crisis seems intractable as both parties have withdrawn from negotiations. But Dr. Jonathan has been holding meetings all in a bid to resolve the rather self-serving ambition of some party men.

    During his last Presidential Media Chat, Dr Jonathan disappointed us by offering no workable plan to resolve the strike. From the way he spoke, he clearly hinted that his administration is not in a haste to make the students return to classroom soon. Instead, he said the strike was “politicised”. Besides the president’s comments on the strike was his first since the strike began on July 1.

    Is it not paradoxical that Dr Jonathan, who is a former lecturer, seems to be averse to matters relating to his professional constituency? Though the government has started on a good note by releasing N100 billion for infrastructure and N30 billion for the lecturers’ earned allowances, the fear of many is that if the lecturers suspend the strike, the government may renege on its promises as it has done in the last four years.

    Though ASUU is demanding the full implementation of the 2009 agreement, but methinks if Mr. President can make the kind of effort he is giving PDP crises, the crisis would be resolved.

    Truth is that Mr. President can cause ASUU to call off the strike within hours. ASUU’s demands are not extraordinary. The funds, if released and utilized well, will revamp our universities. The government must learn to respect agreements. It does not matter which administration entered into agreement with the lecturer.

    Besides, President Jonathan was the Vice President when the agreement was reached. Also, the agreement was reviewed just last year with Dr. Jonathan as the president. It is very unfortunate that Jonathan has described those that negotiated the agreement as incompetent.

    The spokesman of the Kawu Baraje-led faction of the PDP, Chukwuemeka Eze, issued a statement condemning the Jonathan’s administration for its failure to resolve the ASUU strike. The faction went further to declare national fasting by both the Christians and Muslims for its resolution. I doubt the sincerity of these men. I even wonder if the so-called new PDP members observed the fasting. It is clear enough that there are no differences between the old PDP and the new PDP.

    Elsewhere, issues relating to the education of a country are not treated with kid gloves as we are witnessing in Nigeria. The patience of Nigerian students and youths should not be taken as cowardice. The future of the country cannot be left at the mercy of politics. Politicians have so far demonstrated that their selfish ambitions matter most. Who occupies the position next is what matters to them. Universities can forever be shut.

     

    •Stanley, a postgraduate student, writes from UI

     

     

  • Memorable Independence week at AUN

    Memorable Independence week at AUN

    Students of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa, were thrilled by New York-based Nigerian artiste at a ceremony to mark the nation’s independence. EBUKA UKOH (Communication and Multimedia Studies) reports.

    For five days, the American University of Nigeria (AUN) bubbled as New York-based Nigerian artiste and choreographer Adesola Osakalumi thrilled students at an event organised by the institution to mark Nigeria’s independence.

    Students who aspired to be artistes also had a chance to showcase their talents at an audition supervised by the actor. The students had a two-day rehearsal with the artiste with whom they also performed on the stage.

    The live-on stage performance with the artiste on October 1, was an experience the students would never forget. Those who performed with Osakalumi were surprised that they could pull off such a performance on short notice.

    Before the show, Osakalumi had a session with the students on how best to deliver a stage performance and acting. The session continued after the Independence Day performance when he talked about vocal arts in Africa and evolution of African dance and choreography. He told the audience to be persistent in anything they do, advising that through persistence success could be assured.

    Osakalumi described AUN students as talented, encouraging them to be focused. “The talent here is comparable to anywhere, especially New York. Before coming here, I was not sure what to expect. But your reaction and willingness to share what you know has been very supportive,” he said.

    He told them to collaborate with him to showcase their works to the world and to keep themselves motivated and growing.

    While growing up, Osakalumi dreamt to be one of the best poppers and lockers. Popping and locking are forms of urban social dance that originated from hip-hop culture but have African roots. The artiste’s wishes came true when he was selected to be a part of Rhythm Technicians – a dance crew made up of hip hop artistes. The group gained popularity in New York by performing regularly.

    Osakalumi is today known for his roles in the award-winning Broadway musical Fela, an African song. It won three Tony Awards for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Design. “I never stopped trying to improve on myself. I started getting better and meeting people that were better than me. As artists, we are always affecting others and inspired by others. Identify what you love. If you love something, it is easy to focus on it. Do not stop, no matter what people say. Pursue your dreams; those things that excite you. Support each other and it will be amazing what you can do,” he advised.

    Ebiuwairo Uwagboe, a fresher studying International and Comparative Politics, who attended the audition said: “Dancing was more of a hobby for me but now I am inspired to start thinking of pursuing it as a career.”

  • Open letter to Governor Orji

    Open letter to Governor Orji

    Your Excellency, I feel honoured to write you this letter. I guess you are having a nice time in the Government House or in any of the exquisite suites located in highbrow areas of Abuja. I would not have made this letter an open one but for some obvious reasons. I was at your office recently to present an issue to you, but I was informed you were in Abuja for a “peace meeting” following the recent move by members of your party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    I called your Press Secretary and he told me he was not around too. I would have dropped the letter with him. But I changed my mind, knowing full well that dropping it with any of those your aides because of the sensitive nature of the issues contained in the letter, which I am sure may not be pleasant to some of them.

    Firstly, I want to commend you for the laudable achievements of your administration, especially in the education sector. Every effort you have put forward to change the face of education in the state is commendable.

    You recently approved bursary for Abia State students in tertiary institutions. That was a good gesture, which has continued to generate bubbles of excitement among students. It has been like the long-awaited manna from heaven which comes at the right time. It was seen a pipe dream but we are happy that it has become a reality.

    Well, I am not bothered about the timing of the bursary. As a student, I never enjoyed it. When I was in the hostel, I heard my colleagues from other states such as Lagos, Delta and Edo who were always excited each time they got bursary payment from their states’ governments. Then, we would hear rumour that Abia State would soon commence its payment. But it never came. That is by the way.

    When I heard the news that the bursary had been released, I sensed something shady. According to the announcement, the bursary would be paid using on a particular “database” of students. I ask: when was the “database” generated? Who generated the list? Does the state government have a list of all the Abia State students schooling in Nigeria and foreign institutions?

    I am sure you may have assigned the task of paying the bursary to some people working for your administration. That is expected. But we must realise that a good meal could be rendered distasteful at the point of serving. It is not enough to give instructions but the instructions must be properly monitored to ensure compliance. It will not be good if you allow this sweet meal to get repulsive in the hands of unscrupulous messengers, denting the good image your administration has created in the state.

    I recall that the last time a database was created for bursary in 2007. That was the last time bursary was paid to Abia State students, too. If I may ask, is it the 2007 bursary database that will be used for the current present payment? It is obvious that those who were in school then would have graduated by now. All of them have ceased to be students.

    Some may have even married by now, who knows? The present undergraduates were in secondary schools in 2007 when the said list was created. So, how did they find their names in a list that was created before their admission into tertiary institutions?

    His Excellency, I think there is more to the so-called “database” than meets the eye. Has the list been generated or about to be generated? If the list has been generated, who is behind the “database”? Where did it originate from? If it is the 2007 database that will be used, it means there is something wrong somewhere. It will be totally unacceptable, unjust and deceptive.

    Abia State is “God’s own state” and we are God’s own people. That is the creed that binds us together as one indivisible community. It will be unkind for the government to work with a list that is outdated. It should not be done at all in a democratic society like ours.

    I don’t want your good name to be dragged in the mud. You should know that it is not everybody around you that have the same passion you have for the state. Some of your aides may have a different agenda. They may appear to be saints, scrambling to outsmart one another in a sycophantic manner. I advise you to watch very well.

    If the state government wants to pay bursary to students, it should not be now that schools are on strike. The body responsible for paying the bursary should partner with the different institutions in Nigeria to make the project credible. The students should be asked to register in Students’ Affairs Division in their various schools to get the updated list of beneficiaries.

    Bursary is not a closed-door affair. It is my interest that you continue to succeed. I request that you look into the bursary payment process and take urgent action to save your good name. Thank you sir for your time.

     

    •Emmanuel, recently graduated from Political Science, UNICAL

  • SUG sworn in

    SUG sworn in

    The management of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) Lagos has inaugurated new members of the Students’ Union Government (SUG).

    The new executive council is led by Babajide Salvador as President, David Adebisi, Vice-President I and Samson Anisere, Vice-President II.

    Others are Olaitan Shekoni, General Secretary; Kehinde Kassim, Assistant Secretary-General; Onyekachi Nwauzor, Financial Director; Tega Emmanuel, Director of Socials; Olayiwola Lawal, Director of Sports; Oladimeji Owolabi , Public Relations Officer and Christopher Johnson, Director of Welfare.

    Meanwhile, a new Chief Judge, Justice Adesina Mudasiru and the Speaker, Joshua Akinjayeju and 65 parliamentarians were also sworn in as members of the legislative arm.

    The immediate president, Babalola Afeez, expressed gratitude to the management for supporting his administration.

    In his acceptance speech, Babajide said his administration was committed to promoting the welfare of students. He called on every student to work with his team to achieve the objectives of the institution.

    Dean, Students’ Affairs, Dr O.T. Raheem congratulated the new leaders and charged them to see their victory as an act of God, saying that they should always represent the interests of the students that elected them.

    The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Registrar, Mr Gabriel Adewale; Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Mr Prince Adegbuyi; representative of the Director of Works, Mr S.A. Ige and students.

     

     

  • Poly distributes cars to staff

    Poly distributes cars to staff

    The Rector of the Rivers State Polytechnic (RIVPOLY), Bori, Rivers State, Obianko Nwolu, Elechi, has donated 10 new cars to senior staff of the institution.

    He said management was determined to provide vehicles to deserving members of staff, saying that the second phase of the donation was in the offing.

    Nwolu-Elechi called on the beneficiaries to use them with care. He condemned the culture of some people treating government property with a care-free attitude, warning that the management may be forced to take disciplinary measures against members who misuse the vehicles.

    He urged the staff to see the gesture as management’s way of motivating them for improved performance, adding that the gift should spur the staff to be committed to their responsibilities.

    Speaking on behalf of other beneficiaries, the Director of School of Engineering, Abbey Olakada, thanked the Rector for the gesture. He praised the management for fulfilling its promises to staff, saying the donation would motivate them to add value to the institution.

    He assured the Rector that the cars would be used responsibly, adding that the gesture has boosted his morale.

    High Point of the ceremony was the handing over of the keys to the affected staff and the test-driving of the cars by the Rector.

  • Nigeria’s lost and jobless generation (I)

    Nigeria’s lost and jobless generation (I)

    I watched a documentary on Cable News Network (CNN) about three years ago where one of their correspondents posed as an undercover economic migrant seeking to enter Europe from Africa. The migrants he hobnobbed with were unaware he wasn’t one of them. Whenever he runs into a hitch, he will let the viewer’s know his journey would have ended there assuming he was a genuine economic migrant. He chronicled their lives in the bush struggling to make it to Europe. He took a keen interest on a Nigerian graduate from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. He wanted to know why, with his degree, he chose this dangerous and treacherous route to Europe.

    What actually caught my attention in the documentary was one of the immigrants who finally made it to Britain hanging under a trailer! When the surprised undercover correspondent saw him on the street on London, he asked him one simple question; “Now that you’re in London, what next?” The befuddled immigrant looked at him forlornly and said: “I don’t know”. That sums up the dilemma of youths bent on going to Europe or the United States at all cost.

    Recollect that only a few days ago, more than 300 African migrants from Eritrea drowned when the boat they were travelling in sank off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy. Close to 20 also died a few days after that incident. Since the identity of many of them could not be ascertained, they were buried and referred to by unique numbers! The irony of the whole situation is that Africa has been seen as the rising continent where there has been steady economic growth for the last three years at a time Europe and most part of the west is struggling. But unfortunately, this growth has not translated to a better life for its citizens.

    I met a former university course mate last week and after exchanging pleasantries and catching up with old times I inquired how things were with him. “You cannot believe that I’ve not worked in a structured place since we graduated” was his reply. It turned out he had taught in a couple of private secondary schools and worked in what he termed “unorganized private sector”. The sad part of his story was when he finally got a break and was about to be offered a job, but was told “you’re too old for the job”. Then he was just 32 years old. Another sad part of his story was that it also affected his two other brothers who graduated six and eight years after he did.

    I’ve heard such tales from the generation before mine and the present generation. Prof Wole Soyinka at a point referred to his generation as “the wasted generation”; Prof Pat Utomi referred to his as “the generation that left town” and I want to refer to mine as the lost and jobless generation.

    The term “lost generation” is not a recent coinage; it originated with Gertrude Stein, a noted American art collector of seminal modernist paintings and an experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays who, after being unimpressed by the skills of a young car mechanic, asked the garage owner where the young man had been trained. The garage owner told her that while young men were easy to train, it was those in their mid-20s to 30s, the men who had been through World War I, whom he considered a “lost generation”. In essence, the years that could have been used to train and properly equip them were wasted during the war years.

    The 1926 publication of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises further popularised the term, as Hemingway used it as an epigraph. The novel serves to epitomise the post-war expatriate generation. However, Hemingway himself later wrote to his editor Max Perkins that the “point of the book” was not so much about a generation being lost, but that “the earth abideth forever”; he believed the characters in The Sun Also Rises may have been “battered” but were not lost.

    Former late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was right on point when she made a profound statement in 1984, saying: “Young people ought not to be idle. It is very bad for them.” Though referring to the period when she was in power in Britain, anyone living in present day Nigeria cannot fault her submission; there are few worse things that society can do to its young than to leave them in limbo. Even “well-connected” individuals in Nigeria complain that they cannot find jobs for their wards.

    An instructive feature narrative on CNN about a month ago titled: ‘Europe’s lost generation’ depicts grippingly the plight of young European graduates between the ages of 19 and 26 with no jobs. As is well known, Europe is currently going through its worst youth unemployment crisis in its history resulting in 26 million youths without jobs. In worst hit countries such as Greece and Spain, youth unemployment rate is close to 60 per cent triggering a wave of migration to better off countries such as Germany. One report informs that most European graduates would have made 60 or more applications for a job before they finally get one and what they get maybe frustratingly below expectation as the majority of those employed do not have decent jobs.

    How about the United States, the land of ‘romantic dreams’ that most would give anything to settle in? It is a country in the throes of mass youth unemployment and underemployment as more than 10 million Americans under 25 are out of work. There is over 16 per cent unemployment rate affecting youths between 16 and 24; among Blacks and Latinos the rate moves up to 36 per cent and 28 per cent while in some cities such as Chicago, the youth unemployment rate among Blacks is 90 per cent.

    Described as an economic emergency, the desultory job market in the United States features many college (University) graduates in low skilled and low wage jobs such as serving tea or coffee while many have their careers frozen in internships with no remunerations. In other words, many youths in what is increasingly called the ‘generation jobless’ are not building up human capital assets either through experience at work or time spent in profitable study.

    What’s my point here? It’s simple; while these countries are passing through difficult times economically, they’re fully aware of their predicament and are doing everything possible to seek out solutions. But from what we have on ground and can visibly see, ours may not be on the front burner. In August, the Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), Dr. Christopher Kolade, said about 40 million Nigerians, translating to 23.9 per cent of the population, are unemployed.

    Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he added that one of the challenges of graduate unemployment is the “inability of the system to absorb the about 300,000 graduates churned out of our tertiary institutions.” He added that the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) of SURE-P aims to employ about 50,000 unemployed graduates in 36 states and FCT in one year. The scheme is targeted at improving the skills unemployed graduates through work placement in registered firms.

    Kolade lamented that only 35 per cent of 2,000 registered firms had met minimum requirement for participation, saying over 96,000 unemployed graduates have registered on the GIS portal. The big challenge with this scheme remains our weak and mono cultural economy. We simply do not have the industrial base to employ the army of unemployed that we have. Most firms that have signed into the programme also complain that its website is difficult to access with some looking at it as a scam to siphon public funds by corrupt officials.

    What is more, the programme is only a palliative as graduates who sign on are only expected to remain in a partner firm for only one year, and then they have to move on and give others the opportunity to be ‘employed’. In essence, they would be unemployed again after their one year stint.

    A deeper worry is that the business environment is going through a particularly dramatic period of ‘creative destruction’. New technology is unleashing a storm of “disruptive innovation” which is forcing firms to rethink their operations from the ground up. Companies are constantly redesigning work – for example they are separating routine tasks (which can be automated or contracted out) from skilled jobs. They are also constantly redesigning themselves by “upsizing”, “downsizing” and “contracting out”. The life expectancy of companies is,therefore, declining. Policymakers elsewhere are finding it more difficult to adapt to this new phase and are seeking out lee ways. Are ours thinking in this direction?

     

  • ASUU strike: NUT meets Thursday

    ASUU strike: NUT meets Thursday

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) is to hold a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday to decide its next line of action over the lingering strike by university teachers.

    The NUT President, Mr. Michael Alogba-Olukoya, said this in a telephone chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

    The union had on September 26 given a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government and the lecturers to resolve their differences and end the strike or face nationwide strike by NUT members.

    The lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on the nationwide strike on July 1.

    The lecturers described the strike as “comprehensive, total and indefinite.”

    Alogba-Olukoya told NAN that the union extended the ultimatum following appeals from well-meaning Nigerians.

    He, however, noted that the extension would end on Tuesday.

    “Since we gave the ultimatum, well meaning Nigerians have been pleading with us.

    “In order not to cry more than the bereaved, we gave them till October 22. The NEC members will meet on Thursday to decide our next line of action, “he said.

    NAN reports that the university teachers are protesting non-implementation of an agreement they signed with the Federal Government in 2009 on improved funding of universities and payment of allowances to ASUU members, among others issues.

     

     

  • Tertiary education at the crossroads (II)

    There should, by now, be no doubt in anyone’s mind that tertiary education in Nigeria is at the crossroads. And just like every crossroad, it is often a point of deep reflections where important decisions must be made. Since a crossroad is an intersection where two or more roads meet leading to various destinations, a wrong turn can lead to a wrong destination. With over 100 days wasted already due to the ongoing ASUU strike, it appears there are no visible signs that the end is near in this prolonged action. Though Prof. Julius Okogie, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) would want us to believe that just “like a husband and wife, the government and ASUU are talking behind closed doors”.

    Since the strike began on July 1, there has been series of negotiations. It started from the ASUU/FGN negotiation with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), which included former Minister of Education, Prof Rufai; and then the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led Committee took over. It failed to make impact after claims and counter claims between Suswam and the lecturers on who was responsible for the deadlock. The baton was later passed on to Vice President Namadi Sambo. After looking each other eyeball to eyeball, ASUU refused to budge holding on to its position that this is the strike that will end all strikes, hence the crossroads. The polytechnics are not faring better either as ASUP resumed its earlier suspended strike action.

    As the deadlock continues, one aspect that is not on the front burner is the implication of the strike on the education sector and the country. But before I discuss some of these implication, there is the need to really understand what the bone of contention is to give us a clearer picture of how things are now.

    This is necessary to distinguish facts from emotion and gerrymandering.

    Simply put, the main point of contention of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement is the level of implementation. According to ASUU, the level of implementation is “unsatisfactory”. The FGN, on the other hand maintained that they have abided and are implementing all the terms of the 2009 Agreement which they have met “substantially”.

    I need to point out here that there are seven items covered by the agreement on the level of implementation, they are: funding, progressive increase of yearly budgetary allocation to 26 per cent by 2020, earned academic allowances, establishment of pension fund administrator, university governing councils, transfer of landed property to the universities and budget monitoring.

    In the Monday, August 20, 2013 meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government Team led by the SGF and Governor Suswam, the 10th according to Dr. Nasir Fagge, Chairman of ASUU; government declared that it will not implement the agreed massive injection of fund to revitalise the public universities which was the outcome of the NEEDS committee it set up. Rather, it made a political statement of supporting some universities with N100 billion. The parties were also at daggers drawn over the earned allowances, which accumulated from 2009 to 2013. The government later provided N30 billion to assist various Governing Councils of Federal Universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion owed to all categories of staff in the university system.

    ASUU immediately rejected this intervention, which it described as “‘take it, or leave it’ threat of grab-the-crumbs or starve-to-death”! To show its determination to resolve the issues at stake early in the strike, the union met with the Education Committees of the National Assembly on how to resolve the crisis. Unfortunately, this did not yield meaningful results, which, according to ASUU, were “mainly due to the government’s acts of deception and insincerity. Subsequent meetings have also failed to address the outstanding issues about the agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in ways that would suggest that the government is seriously committed to arresting the further decline of the already appalling state of our public universities”.

    Prior to the signing of the now contentious last year’s MoU, Government had assured ASUU that N100billion was available to immediately revitalise of public universities, once the priorities of the academic institutions were determined. This was what gave rise to the setting up of the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities (CNANU). The committee, headed by the erstwhile Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, submitted its report to the Federal Government in July, last year.

    But it need to be pointed out here that in the 2009 Agreement, the funding requirement provides that all Federal Universities would require a total sum of N1.5 trillion spread over three years (2009-2011) to address the rot and decay in the universities. If the state of universities in 2013 is anything to go by, then the three-year period lapsed without any serious efforts to implement the provision.

    Government also promised “to stimulate the process of revitalizing the university system with an initial sum of N100 billion” for 2012 which will be built up to a yearly sum of N400 billion “in the next three (3) years” (2013-2015) as intervention. But before doing this, it insisted that it will need to conduct a needs assessment to determine what exactly would be done with the fund. This is what gave birth to the Needs Assessment Committee which conducted the Exercise.

    It is quite instructive that the Technical Committee on the Needs Assessment Report (set up by the National Economic Council) also came up with about N800 billion as the estimated amount needed to revitalise Nigerian public universities in the short run of two years; translating into an annual intervention of N400 billion.

    Nigeria, no doubt is a paradox, it is in the sense that we have the tendency of trivialising serious issues and elevating issues that are of no relevance to prominence. I say this with all sense of trepidation because in all civilised countries, governments are usually concerned about the paralysing effects of any strike action on the nation’s economy and on the general welfare of the people. As such, they do all in their power to prevent it and strive to bring it to a speedy end when it inevitably occurs.

    But in our dear country, however, the government is selectively sensitive to strike actions, such as those by the NNPC staff, petrol tanker drivers, the NLC, and others because they are capable of having immediate and visible impact in just a few days. However, the disdain with which the strike by ASUU and medical doctors has always been treated confirms that they do not belong to the ‘privileged group’, that have ‘strategic importance’ to the government since the withdrawal of their services does not appear to have immediate economic or political consequences.

    Their impact, if any, can only be counted in terms of the ‘mere’ loss of some unfortunate human lives on which the government puts little or no premium interest. The ongoing ASUU strike, which apparently poses no immediate threat to human life or to any visible political or economic stability, also falls into this category. This is where we are as a society, glorifying mediocrity and looking at the intellectuals and professionals with disdain. Is this position correct?

    Absolutely not, what this does is to toy with the future of our youths and invariably, the country, though it may not be visible now. Have you sat or attended an interview session lately? If you have you’ll have noticed that most jobs these days are tied to age-limits; thus, graduates who have overstayed in tertiary institutions owing to no fault of theirs, become too old for jobs of their dream. Time, we should remember, is an exhaustible product that can never be regained. Even if the government chooses to retroactively honour all agreements with ASUU, which they will do anyway because of political calculation, can the time and opportunities lost by the students be refunded to them?

    What about the university system? We should not kid ourselves; we are losing – if we have not already lost – international credibility as a result of our unstable academic calendar. No serious institution overseas would want to enter into an academic agreement with a university that cannot safely predict, with pin-point accuracy, when it will be shut or open within an uninterrupted five-year span. Note also that we are gradually losing – if we have not lost – programmes which, in the past enriched the quality of teaching and learning, attracted overseas funding and endowments thereby enhancing the global ranking of our universities. Nigerian universities are not in contention anywhere because of our annual strike rituals.

    Finally, why is the government scared of an educated citizenry? I believe any intelligent and forward thinking Nigerian can answer that question. UNESCO’s prescription that at least a quarter of a nation’s resources should be expended on education is in recognition of the centrality of education to national development. Agreed, as a developing nation with competing infrastructural demands and challenges, we may not be able to afford that in one fell swoop yet; but can we start somewhere. Every sector of the economy needs education to thrive, when are we going to realise this?