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Tag: academia

  • Academia should lead national change, says don

    Academia should lead national change, says don

    Professor of  Political Science and former Secretary-General of the African Association of Political Science, Prof. Adele Jinadu, has called on the academia to be at the forefront of sustaining democracy and fostering positive change in the nation.

    Jinadu was the keynote speaker at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) School of Postgraduate Studies Masters of Diplomacy and Strategic Studies Annual Lectures Series which had as theme: Setting foreign policy content of the renewed hope agenda.

    The event held on campus in Akoka, Lagos.

    The don stressed the need for the university to take up the important role of effecting change in the nation, adding that intellectuals need to re-examine and reflect on government  policies.

    “The university is a place for nurturing cosmopolitan ideas, it  should be at the forefront of sustaining democracy, it  has an important role to change the nation. The political class should not  turn the university to its appendage, the university is a place  for thinking,” he said.

    Jinadu said youths should be given a chance in government, but, according to him, they are too materialistic.

    He said: “Our youths too are materialistic, they rush for money and opportunities, hence, the university system must also reassess itself, the political class has been able to demolish institution that should bring about public oriented individuals. The university must begin proper orientation for the future.

    “There is a decline in our domestic politics, there is a recolonisation of our country…we are in a dire situation, though all hope is not lost.

    “If our domestic politics is wrong, then we are going back to pre-1960 arrangement. We are being recolonised. Foreign policy is dependent on domestic politics and federalism seems to be failing because of ethnic sentiments. Poverty is deepening. Money is being mismanaged by politicians.”

    An international relations expert/ military strategist, Prof.Yomi Akinteye, said the country needed to review its ‘Afrocentric’ foreign policy because it was not getting benefits in return.

    “At independence, Nigeria said Africa would be the focus of her foreign policy. It was apposite for Nigeria to do that because other African nations were still under colonial rule.

    “Nigeria contributed to the eradication of apartheid based on its Afrocentricism, despite all that, African countries saw Nigeria as a threat, hence, there was review of the policy by the Ibrahim Babangida  regime, with economic diplomacy. But it still showed commitment to its Afrocentricism ideals and the countries didn’t show gratitude to Nigeria, for instance, Liberia and Angola. The nation should take a second look at its Afrocentric policy,” he said.

    On how the country can review its  foreign policy which, Akinteye stressed the need to go into meaningful partnership for increased commercial activities.

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    His words: “Countries should assist one another to boost industrialisation. They  should partner with Nigeria to build refinery and enhance trade. The country should improve its relationship with the Francophone countries. It should also ask  for some consideration,reciprocity of favours  from African countries.”

    Director, Institute of Diaspora and African Studies at UNILAG, Prof.Muyiwa Falaiye, said a  strong economy, viable military must  underline a strong and effective foreign policy.

    “Foreign policy is as old as civil societies. Nations have created foreign policies based largely on principle of reciprocity. No foreign policy can do well without a sound domestic policy, and a strong economy.

    “You must have citizens who are selflesss, have national interest at heart, we don’t have all these. We have spent much money in trying to buy respect and international recognition, what have we gained?” he asked.

    The Consul-General of India in Lagos, Amb. Chandramouli Kumar Kern, reiterated the determination of his country to partner Nigeria on economic development and technology.

    He said: “Nigeria and India have a strategic relationship. Since 1958, our relationship with Nigeria has been very strong. We are ready to partner Nigeria on technology,among others. Nigeria and India have to work together for sustainable development.”

  • Don seeks academia, industry synergy

    Don seeks academia, industry synergy

    Professor of  Mechanical Engineering at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Oluseyi Ajayi has called for a synergy between the academia and manufacturing sector for sustainable research need to  boost the economy.

     He noted there are indigenous solutions to the nation’s industrial challenges, adding they are cheaper and come with product and process improvements.

     “No one can solve our problems to our benefit. The manufacturing sector is encouraged to trust the academia for research needs. It is cheaper and comes with ease of product and process improvements,” he said.

     He delivered the 30th Inaugural Lecture: “Sustainable energy and production technology: panacea for the development we want.”

     The don urged the Federal Government to refocus the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan of 2014 to include ways to ensure a reduction in export of raw materials.

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     This, he said, would reduce unemployment, improve GDP, standard of living and higher value currency.

     The Chancellor, Bishop David Oyedepo, who was represented by a  Pastor, Mr Niyi Beecroft said unity was imperative to address the nation’s  challenges.

    “We know the problems, don’t tell the problems we must unite and come up with solutions. We unite our efforts to make things work,” he said.

      Vice Chancellor, Prof Abiodun Adebayo bemoaned Nigeria’s rising  greenhouse gas emissions  with its environmental and health challenges, adding that the cost of energy generation, distribution and consumption continue to increase.

     Adebayo lamented that with the high cost of electricity in the country, a large number of the population remain in darkness, lacking access to energy.

  • Academia sans academics?

    •ASUU and the government must partner to banish this horror and save the university system

    The news coming from the Nigerian academic front is dire — that less than four out of 10 teachers, needed to power the university system, is available. That short-fall of six, going to seven, is a national emergency. How can it be rectified, so the Nigerian university system doesn’t entirely collapse?

    That is the save our soul (SOS) message from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    According to Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president, a 2012 Federal Government-commissioned needs assessment, of the Nigerian university system, showed that all the public universities had 37, 504 lecturers. That was barely more than half of the manpower requirement, at that time.

    To show a consistent manpower shortfall, over the years, the ASUU president also quoted an earlier survey, by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), the regulatory agency for the university segment, of Nigeria’s tertiary education. That came up with a 60, 000 university lecturer needs. Yet, at that time, only a third, 20, 000, were on the universities’ pay roll — 40, 000 short.

    Now, with a slew of private universities, it only shows, on teaching manpower needs alone, the Nigerian university system is in dire straits. If you add the near barren operating environment, coupled with the poor record of research, the soul of universities worldwide, due to acute shortage of funding, the sorry state of Nigerian universities comes out in bold relief.

    Yet, it is no time for umpteenth lamentation and trading of blames, which suggest the Nigerian case is beyond redemption. It is not. No situation, no matter how critical, is ever beyond redemption for a thinking mind. So, it is time to wail less and think more.

    Such critical thinking should emanate from ASUU itself. For too long, it has been a bout of finger-pointing, for the other side to conjure magic. No magic would come from anywhere. Indeed, no solution would come without a correct analysis of the problem. So, it is time for effective ASUU-government partnership.

    ASUU, with its intimate knowledge, can come out with a comprehensive breakdown. Is it that universities lack the capacity to employ because their pay cannot compete with other sectors? If that were so, the problem might not be shortage per se. That means there could be qualified hands, but the universities are too poor to hire. That is lack of funding — and in what creative ways can this challenge be scaled?

    It could also be that, even with funds available, some expertise are just not available for hire. If so, why not poach overseas? But if overseas recruitment is expensive and not feasible for now, what can be done to chart the curriculum towards producing and filling such shortfalls? ASUU can at least produce a document in that direction; and partner with the government to implement its suggestions. If both sides work hard at it, the gaps could be filled, even in record time.

    But even if ASUU does its own part, successive Nigerian governments have been legitimately accused of deafness and blindness on the education question. This attitude is not good enough.  Nor the argument, that education and training should contend with other sectors, cogent enough.  Human infrastructure must be priority. That makes all the difference between progress and backwardness.

    So, the governments (federal and state) must collaborate with ASUU to put in a solid process to correct this dire teaching manpower problem. We could start by working policies that give the current crop of students and fresh graduates incentives to choose an academic career. But here, it is moot point that such a policy can’t fly without boosting the culture of research, radically improving the academic work environment and imbuing, in the Nigerian academic, renewed pride and sense of self-worth, through renewed scholarship and welfare.

    Employing 100, 000 university teachers, in a country of 180 million people, shouldn’t really be a Herculean task, if serious thinking is put into it. That is why ASUU and the governments must partner, to save the university system.

  • When the grim reaper tore into the Nigerian academia

    I have in mind here, Professors Enitan Bababunmi, Tunde Osotimehin and Abiola Irele, not forgetting my good friend, Dr Femi Adebanjo

    Barring the solemnity of today’s topic, and my having indicated publicly, elsewhere, that it would be the column’s menu today, I should have been writing about the Peoples’ Democratic Party.  It is a great surprise, and pity too, that the party has, rather unreflectingly, permitted itself to be seized by an un-explainable joy, arising they claim, from the Supreme Court judgment which, for me, is more of an elixir to the entire Nigerian political system than to the PDP as it neatly exorcised from the system, an unmistakable rabble rouser who has been nothing more than a political nuisance.  Senator Modu Sheriff’s not exactly gentlemanly parting from the APC, not to mention his alleged, though yet unproven, links to Boko Haram, ought to have warned any serious political party off him. But then, even former President Goodluck Jonathan thought nothing of having him on his entourage to a neighbouring country in his then half hearted effort to rein in Boko Haram.

    But that is even by the way. Were PDP leaders reflective enough, they would have engaged in far less back slapping and there obviously would have been no reason, whatever, to head to any ecumenical centre for any so-called thanksgiving.  Was it that  they did not see, at  about that same time,  the  putrid expose on Diezani, their once upon a time poster girl, showing  how, in cahoots with her oil gang, Nigeria  was fleeced  of over  6 Billion dollars? I was speechless reading former President Jonathan exude about those he claimed telephoned to congratulate him.  Was he too unaware of that devastating testimonial to his administration?  If the answer is yes, then he should go read the article:  “Kola Aluko …His Style, Mansions and More” in The Nation of Monday, July 17.  He should afterwards be able to answer the most popular question in Nigeria today, namely: Is President Jonathan complicit or was he sleeping on duty?

    I digress.

    In the preamble to last week article while posting it on my Face book wall, I wrote as follows:

    WHEN THE GRIM REAPER TORE INTO THE NIGERIAN ACADEMIA.

    “These, indeed, are very sad days, days when some of our best and brightest academics, who I was privileged to have come across during my memorable tour of duty at the universities of Ife, Ibadan and Ilorin, men who not only proved themselves within the Nigerian academia but were, indeed, revered internationally, in very quick and depressing rapidity, translated to higher glory, joining the Saints Triumphant.

    I have in mind here, Professors Enitan Bababunmi, Tunde Osotimehin and Abiola Irele, not forgetting my good friend, Dr Femi Adebanjo, all of who I should have been celebrating here today had I not promised a feedback on the recent article on Afenifere. These were men who glamorised our universities at a time when rampart militarism ruled the roust in Nigeria and when General Ibrahim Babangida missed the historic opportunity to leverage on his personal charm and charisma, to positively impact the course of Nigerian history.

    Notwithstanding the near bestiality of the anti-intellectual wing of the Nigerian military on the university system then, the ‘70s and the ‘80s must, without a scintilla of doubt, reckon as the golden age of tertiary education in Nigeria; a time, and this is no curse,  that can hardly ever be re-invented in the Nigerian university system, ever again. That was when, God be praised, I was privileged to have been linked with the three universities mentioned above. Sans Ife, my alma mata, I was lucky to have been specially invited to join the other two, right from their topmost echelon.

    The well deserved encomium already showered on Professor Abiola Irele  by Professors Ojo-Ade and Biodun Jeyifo can only be mildly improved upon as was beautifully done by the deceased’s  family  which, in an obituary advert this past week, aptly  described the erudite professor as a “Renaissance Man and cosmopolitan scholar”. Professor Irele was literally the non pareil: a cosmopolitan scholar, suave, and with a unique dress sense, mostly in his French safari’s. They are no longer made like that.

    Diligently studious, rather self-effacing and permanently simply, but very well dressed, Tunde Osotimehin was always rooted to his Chemical Pathology laboratory which he shared with another of our  friends, Yinka Sogbesan, P.HD,  both of who were then  graduate students with the delectable Professor Osunkoya as Head of Department. That was at the UCH where the Faculty of Medicine was located with almost as many rarefied professors as you would find at the university’s main campus – a thoroughly engaging, and stimulating environment. I can remember now, he never stopped admiring, but teasing me on my telltale, tall chubby checker boots.

    Femi Adebanjo, I still can’t believe has left us. With the likes of Professors Femi Otubanjo, Bright Aishiku, late Dr Kola Alli and a few other friends, it will be extremely difficult to recapture the gregarious life we lived at Ife. Dainty, also ever nattily dressed, and with an unmatchable gift of the garb, Femi was simply winsome. He would very easily have outfoxed Michael Jackson at his own dance steps. Femi was as sociable as he was brilliant and years after he had quit lecturing, he still radiated around him, an unmistakable intellectual aura.

    For the second time, I felt extremely miserable recently missing out on the obsequies of a close friend and egbon. The first was that of the Ven Ibukun Falope (UP SCHOOL!) a few years ago, and now some three weeks ago, that of egbon (Prof) Enitan Abisogun Bababunmi, a quintessential gentleman, if ever there was one. It pains, even now because Tinu and I had called and promised Abox that we would be joining the family to pay our last respects. On both occasions, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was the culprit.  First time, it was a no go area a result of the then permanent gridlock on the road. I had, therefore, headed towards Ota en route Ibadan via Abeokuta but even on that other road, nobody needed tell me to turn back when after two hours I had not left Ota. Remember that never, never bridge that inspired some political fisticuffs a little later? Yes, that was the turning point. This time around, it rained all night and continued in the morning and since I knew that the express road would have become an ‘ocean’, I just sat back, moaning.

    I met Professor Bababunmi at the Ibadan Faculty of Medicine and he just took to liking me. A very respected faculty member and protégé of the very powerful Professor Olumbe Bassir, we would become much closer in Lagos after he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University. Before his appointment, I had been quite close to the university being a regular visitor to Yomi Lawanson (Great!), Professor and inaugural dean of Science at the university, and I could literally write a book on the politics within the university. Professor Bababunmi marvelled when I ‘lectured’ him during my first visit to his office. He left for the U.S soon after his tenure, designated as a Permanent Resident – a U. S Recognised Alien of Extraordinary ability, 3203 (B) (1) (A) INA.

    Founder & President of ENHICA-Research International, Inc, he focused largely on mitochondrial bioenergetics and calcium uptake, cancer and toxicological studies among other medical issues and contributed to the work of International Programmes on Chemical Safety and the World Health Organisation. His magnum opus must, however, be his U.S approved Patent  on EPIGENETIC TECHNOLOGIES for the treatment of  human diseases – HIV and AIDS,  Cancer, Prostrate, Heart Failure etc. Nothing would have interested him more than having Lagos state – his state –  buy into, and maximize the benefits of this Patent and for this purpose he held many meetings with the state’s relevant officials which were all futile. I partnered with him in trying to market it, even writing to a present member of the President Buhari cabinet, suggesting what innovation this would mean for both government and country. Good news, however, was he told me at our last meeting in 2016,that test runs were already being carried out at the UCH, Ibadan.

    May the beautiful souls of these our wonderful compatriots rest in perfect peace.

  • Danbatta tasks academia on solutions to challenges in ICT

    Danbatta tasks academia on solutions to challenges in ICT

    Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged the academia to research and come up with solutions to challenges plaguing the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

    Danbatta gave this charge on Thursday in a paper entitled: “The Place of Academia in the Telecoms Ecosystem’’ at the first Stakeholders Consultative Forum with Academia in Abuja.

    According to him, the academia should be able to go into research and find solution to issues such as channel congestion that had been hampering smooth communication by subscribers.

    He said that there seemed to be disconnections between the academia and the life on the streets as well as the daily expectations of the ordinary man.

    “The academia is not living up to our expectations when its expertise is not wired into the experience of the kind of market we are speaking about.

    “The academia should be at the vanguard of translating the technicality of technology to suit the needs of those who use them thereby making life easy for society.

    “It is the responsibility of the academia to reclaim its expected role by ensuring that research activities of its members will enhance and re-orient the market needs of the consumers and they will benefit from it.

    “The academia must attune itself to the reality on the street and search for solutions that can enhance life and businesses; it must contribute to the real world,’’ Danbatta said.

    The NCC boss said that the forum was important because the commission aimed to use it to help the academia to impact life and businesses with their research and scholarships.

    “The Nigerian Communications Act 2003, among others encourages the development of communications manufacturing and supply sector within the Nigerian economy.

    “It also mandates the promotion of effective research and development efforts by all communications industry partners,’’ he said.

    Danbatta therefore called on the academia to play a more productive role in the telecommunications industry with their researches having in focus the Buhari administrations change agenda of fighting corruption, providing employment and security.

    The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed called for strategic partnership among all stakeholders.

    “We need to work together to develop a list of competences and competences indicators to bridge the job gaps relevant in the telecom sector.

    “We need to equip most of our lecturers to be in tune with the global trend in technological advancement, lecturers must be competent in building the capacity of our students.

    “We need to enhance teachers’ quality, funding and have the correct focus for the funds.

    “There must be a well articulated plan on what funds should be used for and the time-frame when such objectives must be achieved,’’ Rasheed said.

    Rasheed said that the role of the commission was to leverage on adequate curriculum development and accreditation that would eventually lead to output management of best ICT products.

    Mrs Abigail Sholanke, the Director, Research and Development of NCC said the academia had its extensive relevance in contributing to growing knowledge to address concerns in the society.

    Sholanke represented by Mr Henry Okenwa, said research  was of great importance in the telecommunications industry as the level of competition and products of innovations were rapidly increasing.

    “The commission therefore is poised to consolidate its collaboration with the academia and chart new courses for the development of new models or modules of products in the telecommunications sector.

    “This will be done in conjunction with technical experts and the academia, the commission will also provide research grants for approved prototypes and research works,’’ he said.

    Sholanke said that the academia would be more effective if properly funded and structured, this he added could impact positively on business and society.

    “This was why the NCC wanted among other things to create a partnership with the academia,’’ she said.

  • Sleepy academia in the era of change

    It is a fact that no nation can genuinely grow beyond the resourcefulness of its ivory towers in as much as nobody ever gives what he or she hasn’t got. It is therefore going to be an indispensable strategy to first straighten, strengthen and revitalize our opaque, morally weak and developmentally disoriented academia, the ivory towers as they are so-called, if this regime of change actually meant business. I say this out of altruistic belief that we are truly ready for development and changes for the better as a country.

    Universities, polytechnics and colleges all over the world are purpose-driven and tailor made to meet and suit the developmental needs of the society and cater for the architectural peculiarities of such a nation. Whether our universities, polytechnics and colleges in Nigeria particularly the public-funded institutions meet this test particularly in contemporary time is very difficult to be answered in the positive. The philosophy behind the establishment of the first generation universities which was essentially to produce replacement for the white administrative officers after independence has remained largely stagnant in reality even when we pay lip service to educational advancement through policy changes. Rather than allow our academia to drive our development, we have allowed our cheap oil money to drive our taste and hence leave behind our academic institutions. In our acquisitive tendencies, we have shifted emphasis from knowledge-driven economy to material taste and ostentatious lifestyles which leads to no other destination than perdition. We buy and acquire all manners of gadgets, cars, and electronics and yet lack the most basic maintenance capability and culture to service and maintain them. Ostensibly, our lush tail wags our dog directionlessly.

    In reality, we have ivory towers that exude neglect and have over time become dejected and disoriented. The lecturers who are supposed to be the drivers of the development locomotive, whether ASUU or ASSUP or COEASU are as dysfunctional and disoriented as the system that engage them. They have become more popular for everything else but academic excellence: incessant strikes, unhealthy union rivalry, cultism, sexual harassment, financial malfeasance; all have found their fertile grounds on the soil of our campuses  and replaced the core academic values of old. Our academia therefore really needed a change and indeed a real surgical operation. If anything will ever truly change in our system and sustainably, then it must start from these ivory towers.

    With the exception of the universities of Ilorin and Lagos which just got their axes together recently, I doubt if any other public university in Nigeria have a predictable academic calendar as I write. Students only know the date they are admitted while their completion date is in the hand of God and this has continued now for more than two decades in all our public tertiary institutions. How then can a nation expect to produce serious future leaders through this kind of a ridiculous system? Little wonder why every Nigerian of means have now helplessly adopted the fashion of sending their wards for schooling abroad and allowed our own institutions at home to slip into decrepit conditions while successive governments pretend that all is well with our nation educationally.

    In a recent interaction with some parents whose children graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife within the last two decades, it was discovered that it took an average of between six to seven years to graduate from four or five session courses. If you are in for courses like medicine, then you can hope for a decade.

    Our universities and polytechnics needed to be reworked, straightened and fixed for excellence in character and learning. For what character can be said to be in institutions with no predictable academic calendar, no predictable culture, no predictable developmental strategy, no predictable dos and don’ts. In terms of learning, the best way to assess the situation is to look at the lips of ASUU or ASUUP. It is ever complaints about remuneration packages and how theirs compare not too favourably with that of a senator. With the advent of private universities, it will seem very reasonable to conclude that ASUU regularly go on strike now to allow its members time to go and attend to their private contracts with the private universities while they come back at the end of the day to collect salaries for work they never did despite the injustice done to their own students and the educational system. To worsen the situation in a compounding manner, when ASUU gets back to work, either SSANU or NASU must go on strike in a manner that will make academic work impossible on the campuses. And one after the other, everybody that have the means “legit or illegit” turns their back at our public higher institutions while our government looks on helplessly.

    The curriculum of our academic institutions has been stagnant, stinking and repulsive to modern development. For example, we have departments of accounting studies that cannot produce certified chartered accountants unless they go for an expensive post-qualification professional examination. One would have ordinarily thought that the reason for studying accountancy in a university or polytechnic is essentially to become a professionally certified accountant ditto for architecture and several other practising courses which leave the impression that our academic institutions are substandard by their curriculum.  Why can’t we have stockbroking or capital market management and administration as part of our university curriculum? The direct implication of all these is that our academia is less than the ivory tower.

    President Muhammadu Buhari in the national interest must give marching orders to the two ministers in the ministry of education to put in motion a wholesale ethical and intellectual re-orientation of the academia. Our institutions must have the right values if the society must have any. Funding must be liberalized with government restricting itself to infrastructure, tuition and research. Services like accommodation and other municipal services should be commercialized with protective controls. The universities and colleges should be encouraged to become centres of commercial and enterprise innovations where students could inculcate the culture of industry and look forward to being entrepreneurs in future rather mere centres of learning academic theories.

     

    • Ige, National Coordinator, Concern For Democracy & Good Governance in Nigeria contributed this piece from Abuja.

  • Academia should set pace for societal growth

    Former Chairman, Leventis Group, Chief Joseph Oke, has urged the academia to guide policy makers in fashioning true federalism. He said Nigeria was at a crossroad in her democratic experiment.

    Oke, who was the speaker at a discovery lecture series organised by the Centre for General Nigerian Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), said successive governments had not been honest to Nigerians.

    The topic of the lecture was: “Can Nigeria survive another century as a corporate entity?”

    He said in the midst of crisis, the public had always counted on the ivory tower to be the torchbearer. He, therefore, called on LASU to lead the quest for solutions to Nigeria’s political misadventure.

    Oke added that the institution comprised tested academics, whose qualities and academic records put them in a vantage position to research on how to manage the unfolding political developments.

    Oke said the country had lost some opportunities to tell itself the fundamental truth on how to live together and avoid her present trouble.

    He added: “In fact, if it is not an error of commission, it must be a deliberate omission that a review of the Nigerian union was not undertaken in 2014 when the country was 100 years old.

    “Unfortunately, our successive governments have not been truthful to the people and to themselves by stage managing two or three previous meaningless national conferences. Is this because we are afraid to tell ourselves the truth?”

    He added that the survival of the country for another century is feasible, if only it embraced the call for Sovereign National Conference, look at issues of true federalism and cut the cost of governance.

    The speaker noted that the agitations from different parts of the country suggested that there was injustice where some groups see themselves as better than the others.

    He blamed the military for the flaws in the country, noting that the politicians have not learnt their lessons.

    “On hindsight, could one not be right to say that the military incursion in January 1966 that brought corruption into our political life, when the fact says that the military seized power to stop corruption?

    “This singular error has stunted the growth of Nigeria to the extent that 100 years after amalgamation, we are still looking to workable constitution that will drive our economy and political life.

    “Rather than address the issue of the union with some seriousness, our leaders deliberately ignored the call for a Sovereign National Conference, which to my mind is like postponing the evil days.

    “It is a pity that successive governments have behaved like our colonialists, who in 1825 drew lines on the map of Africa to indicate the areas that belonged to each European country,” he said.

  • Doctors in academia challenged to be business savvy

    Doctors in academia challenged to be business savvy

    Medical practitioners in the academia have been challenged to step out of their ‘comfort zones’ and start thinking on how to commercialise their God-given endowments.

    They were urged by Dr Felix Ogedegbe, a consultant orthopedic surgeon and the Medical Director, CEDACREST Hospitals,  who spurred his colleagues at the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) to add more feathers to their caps by becoming medical entrepreneurs. This according to him, is lacking in Nigeria.

    “All through my time in medical practice, I have observed that Nigeria, especially, lacked medical entrepreneurs. Those in the academia often love to sit in their comfort zones and hardly think of reaching out.

    “Having put in some years into government service, all we want to say is: ‘I have paid my dues after all’. Truth is, in genuine service to one’s fatherland, no one can pay dues; you continue to give your best to the country until you are no longer able to,” he said.

    Dr Ogedegbe was one of the lead speakers at LASUCOM Academic Leadership Retreat themed: ‘Academic Staff Leadership for Today’s Nigeria.TRES( Teaching, Research, Entrepreneurship& Service), Antidote to distress’.

    As a medical director of a state-of-the-art hospital with arms in Lagos and Abuja, Ogedegbe said he has traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria, adding that anywhere he went, he discovered that one issue or the other would be crying for attention in various facets of medical practice. “That is why we need to wake up and fill the void,” he added.

    He further challenged his colleagues to wean themselves of Nigeria’s suffocating business environment, which prospective entrepreneurs often use as excuse for business failure. With determination as their weapon, Ogedegbe said they could access a macro business loan with which they can kickstart a modest clinic.

    To make their ambition successful, Ogedegbe admonished them to draw a Business Plan, using the SWOT analysis, to strategise, project, make permutations, shop for like minds to work with, be ICT-driven and set benchmark with respect to global best practice.s

    Ogedegbe has a word of advise for government on how to help curtail capital flight through medical tourism abroad. “Government, for instance, regulates the banking and aviation sectors; but in healthcare there is no standard yet. Therefore, the government must take special interest in setting up clear standard for the medical industry. Government must also provide funds so that those willing to take the risk can meet this standard by setting up the kind of medical facilities that people run to in other parts of the world.”

    Former LASUCOMS Provost, Prof Olumutiwa Odusanya, admonished his former colleagues to see themselves as leaders in their respective departments, and therefore, be able to make individual impact for the overall success of the college.

    “The mere fact that you are the head should also make you see yourself as the least. To be a leader, we must bring down our level of authority to responsibility. It’s all about making a change. Once that is lacking, you cannot be an effective leader,” he said.

    Speaking on the rationale behind the two-day event, Provost LASUCOMM Prof Babatunde Solagberu, said: “At LASUCOMM, we are training medical students to become medical doctors; that is medical education. As doctors, we are also consultants in teaching hospitals which are the laboratory for teaching. Now we are raising experts at that level to those we call residents doctors who will become consultants. Now both of them are huge businesses and particularly because government also expects us to generate money internally; and we can now run skill-enhancing programmes that will serve the private sector outside.”

  • From academia to royalty

    From academia to royalty

    Since ascending the throne of his community, former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Peter Ebigbo marks his transition to the monarchy, CHRIS OJI

    So much has changed in the life of former Deputy Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Prof. Peter Ebigbo since he was crowned king. Rather than Prof, he is addressed as Eze. Whereas he stood before his students in the lecture hall, he now sits on his throne with his people before him. Amid fanfare, the monarch has celebrated his transition from Nsukka to the throne in Amaofuo, Imo State.

    The occasion was preceded by a pontifical high mass at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Amaofuo Imo and officiated by the very Rev. Monsignor Dr. Hypolytus Adigwe together with the parish priest, Rev.  Fr. Olive Esomonu while Rev. Fr. Dr. Charles Ebebe and Rev. Dr. Chima Anyaeze assisted. Rev. Sister Onodungene, Rev. Sister Dr. Chizoba and others were also in attendance.

    After the mass, a procession of motorcade headed to the palace. At the palace, Mkpokiti dancers of Umunze, Anambra state were already entertaining the people. Soon, His Royal Majesty, Eze Prof. Peter Ebigbo, the Ogbuehi VI, clad in a Royal colourful gown, flowing regalia and a high Ijele cap plummeted with peacock feathers in various shinning colours, was led from his residence in a procession to the podium in the centre of the palace.

    The procession was preceded by a young lad holding a sword upright and clad in the special cotton material with the Eze’s picture, then four palace messengers in uniform holding upright each a shining specially designed cultural brass staff knife, then the Eze and his Ugoeze (wife) surrounded and followed by the Ichies and cabinet members dressed culturally in red down flowing regalia. The Igab Eze or Royal cultural dance band followed, beating the royal music as the Eze proceeded, dancing majestically to the podium.

    In attendance were eminent Nigerians and foreigners, including famous philanthropist Dr. A.B.C. Orjiako of Uli, Anambra State, retired Federal permanent Secretary Hajia Amuna Ali, Prof. Ibrahim Kolo, Chief Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), and the consul general of France, Elvira Saleras.

    Others were the Secretary to the State Government of Imo State, Prof. Anthony Awukah who was the Special Guest of Honour and who was to be honoured with the title oha amarala Dike. The Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Education Dr. Macjohn Onyekwere Nwaobiala, the Hon Commissioner for Community Government Council, Culture and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dr. Val Mbamara, and the Honourable Commissioner for Local Government and Rural Development, Prof. Lady Victoria Adaobi Obasi.

    The Honourable Justice of the Appeal Court, Justice Chinwe Iyizoba, Senator Osita Izunaso, the vice chancellor, UNN Prof. Chukwuma Ozumba, Chief Odurukwe Obiadada of Uli, Chief Bar. Okafor, Dr. Ebozue, the Ezenwa na obosi, and Eze Mehamobi, the Orlu West traditional rulers council chairman, also graced the occasion.

    • Ebigbo with some of his cabinet members
    • Ebigbo with some of his cabinet members

    After the presentation and blessing of kola nut, his Royal Majesty, Eze Prof. Peter Ebigbo, said that Ofala is a modern way of calling Ofo ala, which means the ofo guiding community being together by the land they inhabit. Ofo is therefore, the symbol of truth, laws, justice and power.

    He continued: “Usually, each family has its Ofo entrusted on the eldest male member of the family. Every community has its Ofo entrusted on the traditional ruler or the Eze or the Igwe. Before the traditional ruler is entrusted with Ofo ala he must go into prayers and fasting without leaving the palace for seven days. After the seven days and he judges himself fit and prepared, he takes on the Ofo ala usually pronounced by the masquerade (the masquerade is bigger than the medicine man. (Mmawu ka dibia). Therefore the Eze clad in special regalia with the Ijele masquerade hat with his staff of authority dances to the “egwu uhie” the dance of the ancestors after which merriment follows. The word of the custodian of the Ofo ala, the Eze, is virtually law.”

    The academic turned traditional ruler said that he was crowned Eze in his palace on September 29, 2008, after serving as regent for one year, after the death of his elder brother, His Royal Majesty Eze Dr Aloysius Mgbokwere Ebigbo, an orthopaedic surgeon. He said that he got his certificate of recognition and Staff of Office from His Excellence Owelle Rochas Okorocha on 30th March 2014, after defeating his opponents in court. His opponents maliciously wanted to truncate the usual succession procedure in Amaofuo community that had enjoyed peace since 1857.

    The Eze said that he invited all indigenes of Amaofuo both at home and abroad, including the losers to join hands and ensure that peace reigns in Amaofuo.

    “Nigerians can learn a lesson from the historic event and transformation that happened at Amaofuo, with the dispute settled peacefully and happiness written on the faces of community members, after elections, losers must join hands and support the winners”, Eze Ebigbo stressed.

    He noted that people should also realize that the land is a kind of Ofo, and once a person is chosen, that person must be respected, as he tries to entrench the justice and peace in the community.

    Shortly after the speech of the Eze, several masquerades of the Ozo ebune type came in their members lined up in their rank and seniority to pronounce the Ofo. They were led by the highest ranking masquerades from Uli called Ozaraigwe. Leaders of Otana, the central headquarters of Ozo ebune masquerade from Ukpor in Nnewi Local Government Area of Anambra state were also in attendance.

    After the Ofo prayers by the masquerades, the Eze and his cabinet danced the “Egwu Uhie” the ancestral dance. After the dance, he also danced to the tune of the “Odi ike” music (dance for the strong, valorous and the titled) before returning to the podium.

    Back at the throne, the Eze recognized some prominent persons with traditional titles, whose names had been sent to the office of the Eze Imo (Chairman Traditional Rulers Council) for clearance. These names were announced on Imo Broadcasting Corporation in case anyone had anything against them. Only three names aree approved for each Eze per year. Two sets of approvals were made since the 2015 Ofala started.

    Those who were conferred with Chieftaincy titles with beads/caps, Staff of Office and Certificates were Dr. A.B.C. Orjiako, Hajia Amuna Ali, Prof. Ibrahim Kolo, Barr. Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN, Justice Chinwe Iyizoba and Barr. Elvira Seleras.

    The day was rounded off with various traditional dances and indeed over 7000 people in attendance with the roads leading to the palace also filled with people. All these events took place without any ugly incidences. People of Amaofuo and their friends and well-wishers rejoiced that finally someone was now officially in custody of their Ofo ala. There was feasting and merriment in Amaofuo Kingdom.

    The members of the ofala organizing committee, who spoke through their chairman, Chief Isaac Nnamdi Agwunobi, said in their remarks, that Eze Prof. Ebigbo, was God- sent and expressed the hope that he would use his experience and connection at the University of Nigeria, were he had worked for over 35 years, to bring development to Amaofuo.

    Eze Ebigbo was born in 1947 and studied psychological Medicine in Germany. He is a good family man, blessed with a pretty wife and children.

    Despite winning Nigeria’s highest National merit award for medicine in 2000, the Eze belongs to many Local and International bodies, including the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect, ANPPCAN, where he is the International President.