By Segun Ayobolu
The revival of Nigerian universities and other institutions of higher learning to transform them into flourishing centres of academic excellence, research and knowledge production is certainly a necessary condition for the country to transcend her humiliating condition of protracted underdevelopment. Walter Rodney, in his immortal ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, defined economic development as man’s continually increasing mastery of his environment which, he says, “is dependent on the extent to which they understand the laws of nature (science), the extent to which they put that understanding into practice by devising tools (technology) and on the manner in which work is organized”. Constant and never ending improvement in a polity’s mode of social organization, including her political structures and processes, as well as the underlying philosophical and moral values are critical to any country’s rate and level of development and the role of the intellectual is indispensable in this regard.
This is probably why the late economist and polyvalent scholar, Dr Jimanze Ego-Alowes, who died late last year at 62, in his 2018 book, ‘The University-Media Complex: (As Nigeria’s foremost Amusement Chain)’, vehemently disputed Professor Chinua Achebe’s 1983 thesis that the problem with Nigeria is squarely a failure of leadership. In Jimanze’s view, “…the failure of Nigeria as “a work in progress” is squarely a failure of her intellectualisms and not her leaderships…”. With characteristic bluntness, he writes, “By educated Nigerians, we mean just about any Nigerian with a B.SC/BA diploma degree. To this group, the leaders have failed Nigeria. However, we hold that this is not true. It is the Nigerian scholar who has failed the Nigerian nation the most”.
Although he refers to what he calls “the entire network of Nigeria’s intellectuals”, which does not exclude the media, for instance, Dr Ego-Alowes, is more focused on the academic scholar, whose place in the social stratification of labour is the production of new and original knowledge and path-breaking ideas. As he put it, “…our duty as scholars is to produce new culture and new knowledge; it is not to consume extant knowledge no matter how brilliantly”. Jimanze frowns at what he perceives as the penchant for Nigerian scholars to parrot received ideas and theories rather than breaking new frontiers of Knowledge and attainment in their areas of specialization declaring that “…it is a scandal that there are no economic theories made or manufactured in Nigeria and by Nigerians”.
Echoing Claude Ake’s ‘Social Science as Imperialism’, Dr Ego-Alowes, laments that “The education we were given is wrong, and we lack the gift and intrepidity to change it to suit us, to change it to the universal order. It is this failure of scholarship that has invariably led to other failures including those of leadership, so called”. Jimanze is disdainful of scholars who are more known for their political commentaries and activism in the media than breakthroughs in their fields of specialization. In the same way, he is not persuaded by the argument that lack of funds and the requisite equipment is responsible for the perceived lack of productivity on the part of Nigerian scholars as well as their failure to tackle real life problems in their spheres of expertise.
The issue of adequate funding of the country’s universities came up again when Professor Kayode Soremekun handed over to his successor on Thursday, February 11, 2021, at the end of his five-year tenure as Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, (FUOYE). He reiterated that the greatest challenge facing Nigeria’s public universities is inadequate funding. Paucity of funds, for instance, is at the root of the incessant strikes by aggrieved university workers’ unions and Professor Soremekun had his own share of brushes with the unions during his tenure. Yet, the significance of his tenure at FUOYE was that Professor Soremekun did not allow poor funding or trade union militancy to deter his administration from making impressive and indelible imprints in different spheres of the university’s life.
The most important factor in actualizing our universities’ potentials would thus appear to be effective, efficient and proactive leadership that utilizes available resources prudently and wins the support of critical stakeholders in the university system. Professor Soremekun readily admits that the landmarks recorded during his tenure could not have been possible without the support of the federal government, the senate and university management, teaching and non-teaching staff as well as students and the various unions.
FUOYE was established in 2011 along with eight other federal universities by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. This columnist was one of those who considered the establishment of these universities as essentially politically motivated and utterly unnecessary given the severe crisis of funding that had crippled Nigeria’s public university system. But then, if the strides taken at FUOYE during Professor Soremekun’s tenure are a yardstick, and if similar progress is being made in the other universities established at the same time, then the initiative is bearing fruit after all, whatever may have been the motive. Under Soremekun, no less than 81 infrastructural projects were completed at FUOYE thereby considerably boosting teaching, learning and the institution’s research capability.
The construction of an access road network linking FUOYE’s two campuses in Ikole and Oye, previously impassable, was one of the abandoned projects completed under Soremekun. Other inherited projects completed by the Soremekun administration include the Central Administrative Building and the institution’s main library complex. Projects initiated and completed during this period include the ultra-modern structures that house the Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Basic Sciences and the Faculty of Management Science as well as academic buildings for the Faculty of Sciences among others. This is in addition to a new fully equipped Multi-Media studio for the Faculty of Mass Communication. It is noteworthy that, under Soremekun, the university’s student population grew from about 6,000 to over 24,000 enrolled in various faculties, departments and programmes.
Other achievements of the Soremekun administration include connecting FUOYE to the National Grid to improve power supply to the institution, introduction and commencement of Distance Learning and online teaching programmes; partnership with some polytechnics across the country on various entrepreneurship and skill development programmes as well as the take- off of the university’s Law Faculty while full academic status was attained for all academic programmes of the university. Apart from the introduction of inaugural lectures, FUOYE was the first among its peers to establish its Postgraduate school.
Speaking on his tenure, Professor Soremekun enthused, “The university can presently boast of peaceful academic calendar, and introduction of new faculties such as pharmacy, Management Sciences, Basic Sciences, Law and Environmental studies, which were established to complement the existing faculties, which were less than seven when I assumed office. Besides, four years ago, FUOYE could not claim to have 50 per cent of the infrastructural and learning facilities that the university now enjoys in terms of well-equipped classrooms, offices, faculty buildings, sports complex, regular power supply, hostel accommodation for students and other social amenities, but today the bar of infrastructure of the university has been raised”.
After the country’s public university system was grounded for ten months last year as a result of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), most federal universities were paralyzed for about three weeks this year due to the strike by the non-academic staff unions, which were only called off on Thursday. At the root of the incessant strikes and union militancy in public universities is insufficiency of funds. While governments at all levels must prioritize university funding, Professor Soremekun has demonstrated that much can still be accomplished with prudent management of available resources.
It is heartwarming that his successor, Professor Abayome Fasina, a Professor of Soil Sciences, in his inaugural address, promised to enhance the wealth-creating capacity of the university through what he calls ‘Risk to Wealth Initiative’. To demonstrate his seriousness, he said two eminent professors of the university will be assigned the responsibility of attracting consultancy for the institution.
Dr Jimanze Ego-Alowes contention that the fundamental problem with Nigeria is more of a failure of intellectualism than a failure of leadership has much to recommend it. But even if those in leadership positions do not fall into the category of Plato’s philosopher-King ideal, they must at least respect intellectuals and enthusiastically court liberating knowledge and ideas. An organic linkage between those in power and the intellectual elite is thus a necessary condition for good governance and rapid development. It is no coincidence that Nigeria’s most result-oriented and impactful transformational leader so far, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, forged a close relationship with progressive intellectuals who shared his ideological worldview.
In a wide –ranging interview with the late eminent academic philosopher, Professor Moses Makinde, on Saturday, April 4, 1987, Awo said, “My respect for intellectuals, lies in their ability to see things differently and objectively, and comprehend salient details apart from their research capability”. As Professor Soremekun moves on after an outstanding tenure as Vice Chancellor of FUOYE, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, certainly deserves credit for the appointment of an academic and university administrator of the political scientist’s stature and pedigree as the institution’s third Vice Chancellor.
