Nation building and the Nigerian University system

[Ibukunolu. A. Babajide]

THIS IS THE NIGERIA WE LIVE IN

"When I was called out to Markudi, we worked ourselves virtually to death trying to establish a varsity. Then I became a DVC, where you’ll leave your house around 8am not knowing when you’ll come back. I hail from Okija but Markurdi become my home. But when the issue of becoming a VC came up, the hostility I saw and experienced, together with my family and some other people around me were unprecedented. I had eight court cases to keep my job. Eventually, when a native VC was appointed, he wanted us thrown out of the place. I think that was my greatest disappointment in the Nigerian system. People told it to your face that you don’t belong to this place, go home there is a federal university in your place. Well, you could say those were Tiv people.

But what happened when I was appointed VC of University of Agriculture, Umudike. Didn’t the Abia State House of Assembly pass a motion rejecting the appointment? They insisted I must not come there, that there is Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka. At the state varsity, the challenge is which local government are you coming from? Those were my greatest disappointments.

The university system thought me that we have not started nation building and that there are lots of pretences in what we are doing. The issues of fault lines and weaknesses are being exploited politically at every level. At the local government level, it is what town do you come from? It has even come down to what denomination of religion? In all these, I don’t think theory can solve the problem."

-Professor Ikenna Onyido, former Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike

Sent from IBK’s iPhone X Max

[Toyin Falola]

“In all these, I don’t think theory can solve the problem.”

Professor Onyindo

 

Yes, he is right. In politics, the “textbooks” are not always applicable. Theories are based on accumulated ideas over time. They are not prophesies. Young people can now abuse you, something that would never happen in the 1950s and 60s when I was growing up. But the context changed, and someone can now slap you at the age of 80!

 

In life, you want wisdom, but the problem is that by the time you acquired enough, there is no more time to use them!

My good friend, Paul Zeleza, faced a protest to go as VC because he wanted to change two rules—one on payment, and the other on entrance to the campus. The insults were unimaginable.  I endured the agonies and pains with him. Theories don’t teach you that, as Professor Bolaji Aluko also experienced at Otueke. Wait for Aluko’s memoir! And wait for Tade Aina’s memoir, and you will realize that you and I know very little.

TF

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[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Well, some of us hate to say "we told you so." Now the truth is coming out--not from the know-it-all diaspora scholars that our colleagues in Nigeria, especially those beholden to ASUU, like to hate but rather from an insider. In the past, when we said Nigerian universities were provincial political arenas and not citadels of learning and discovery, some said we were judging them too harshly and arrogantly from our foreign perches. I wonder what they will say about this excerpt from Prof. Onyido's memoir. The problem is that we have spent too much time blaming funding for the meltdown n Nigeria's university sector that we have refused to acknowledge corruption, nepotism, clanishness, incestuous in-breeding, terrible teaching, and poor research culture as central components of the problem. Our escapism is what has doomed the universities and our country. Prof. Onyido is of course right. Look at what is happening in regard to the UI VCship. No respected Yoruba/Southwestern academic even on this list has condemned the odious campaign by Oyo/Ibadan indigenes to produce the VC. Nor has anyone questioned the fact that all the candidates for the position are Yoruba academics. How many Tiv academics question the unwritten rule that the VC of Benue State University must be a Tiv person? How many Idoma academics would ever publicly support a non-Idoma professor to become the VC of a federal university located in Otukpo? We have simply stripped academics away from the universities and turned them into appendages of our patronage politics, which in turn rests on resource capture, power capture, and identity politics. We must live with the consequences of the monster we have created and stop complaining. And, of course, as long as we refuse to come to terms with the ethnic and religious provincialization of Nigerian public universities, we will continue to blame funding for the collapse of our universities. Good luck in this escapist trajectory.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB72477A4A74AAB103A5884E0DF8EB0%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Moses:

A small point of correction…People actually condemned the Oyo/Ibadan candidacy politics. The PRO of UI is on this list but a civil servant, since the colonial period, must never talk.

I am a chief of the city, “the historian of the empire”, they called me. I refused to attend any of the meetings. And I wrote to them, criticizing the move.

 

When three people posted comments, two were abusive of those running, and one was insinuating. I declined the post but contacted them privately to remove names and insults. I love arguments and disagreements but once any abuse is inserted, I get angry as we cannot do Oluomo and Kanu politics. Had they used a different language, I would have posted them, at least that of Toyin Adepoju.

 

Over the issue you raised, a member of this list was recommended for sanction by the Senate—I don’t have the details. He is on this list. Two members on this list wrote extensive petitions along the line you have mentioned.

 

As I write, the crisis continues…. There are ongoing serious conflicts to be VC in nine places, and all of them are on the Minister’s table. Indeed some of the set with Aluko and new universities wrote a joint letter to the Attorney General that they should be considered for reelection, making the argument that the initial appointment was not authorized by Council. I was drafted to counter them, and the Minister refused to grant the request.

 

Alas! there is always a distinction between a public space and a private space, and a wise person knows that all what he knows must be kept private.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAHJfPq2thtVvSeD0vfuan48DwBVDfFP_aHrB5ERrWHB0DopPg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emmanuel Udogu]

I expressed my opinion on this matter when the search for the VC began. I suggested then that “there was no vacancy,” and that the advertisement of the position was a mere formality. This was so, since the power brokers in the state had already chosen a VC. My opinion on the VC selection at UI followed what happened at the University of Benin (my nephew’s alma mater).

Several years ago, the VC of the Federal University of Benin was from Asaba, the capital of Delta State. I was astonished while reading the papers that some of my Edo brothers and sisters challenged his VC-ship. They demanded vociferously that the university’s VC should be an Edo. Ironically, many citizens from this region (Midwest, Bendel, Delta and Edo) of Nigeria share a common root.

I find this thread very interesting since I am examining it—i.e. education—within the context of human rights infraction in Nigeria.

Ike Udogu

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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

When it comes to the UI 'Omo wa ni e je o see' I wished the ground opened up and swallowed me for shame when I read that piece by some academics of Ibadan origin.  In fact I immediately planned a write up which I planned to  share this evening together with my follow up address to NASS on # EndSARS but develooments in other areas kept these two to the back burners and so Onyido beat me to it.

Let me say that as a honorary Ibadan citizen I felt horribly ashamed that such trash could come from Ibadan Intellectuals.

I will add that it is unmistakable to notice a kind of proactive reversal of ' 'penkelemesi' mind set by a few  since the intellectual prominence of the Moderator of this forum which is wholly unnecesarry.  The political climate that bred that phraseology is so long gone and no longer dominant in Ibadan or allied cities so its like flogging a dead horse.  So there is no need to imply: 'but they mock us; see how far we have gone.'

As I planned to state in that write up

1.The University of Ibadan is a Federal institution and the Visitor cannot be served the implied threat contained in that letter.

2.  The Visitor of any federal institution is not obliged to  pick the indigene of that place as chief accounting officer throughout the life of that institution.

3. The fact that the Ibadan forebears deliberately left the field of contest always open for non- indigenes is in no way a sign of admitted inferiority complex but a grand act of self- abnegation to reciprocate the move that others find Ibadan a worthy city.  

Any Ibadan indigene plagued by personal inferiority complex must declare such openly and not insinuate the others see them ( as a group)  as inferior and hence they need to prove their mettle.

OAA

Mr. President you took an oath to rule according to the institution

Where are the schools to promote the teaching of the country's lingua francas?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>

Date: 08/11/2020 18:33 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nation building and the NigerianUniversity  system

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

Well, some of us hate to say "we told you so." Now the truth is coming out--not from the know-it-all diaspora scholars that our colleagues in Nigeria, especially those beholden to ASUU, like to hate but rather from an insider. In the past, when we said Nigerian universities were provincial political arenas and not citadels of learning and discovery, some said we were judging them too harshly and arrogantly from our foreign perches. I wonder what they will say about this excerpt from Prof. Onyido's memoir. The problem is that we have spent too much time blaming funding for the meltdown n Nigeria's university sector that we have refused to acknowledge corruption, nepotism, clanishness, incestuous in-breeding, terrible teaching, and poor research culture as central components of the problem. Our escapism is what has doomed the universities and our country. Prof. Onyido is of course right. Look at what is happening in regard to the UI VCship. No respected Yoruba/Southwestern academic even on this list has condemned the odious campaign by Oyo/Ibadan indigenes to produce the VC. Nor has anyone questioned the fact that all the candidates for the position are Yoruba academics. How many Tiv academics question the unwritten rule that the VC of Benue State University must be a Tiv person? How many Idoma academics would ever publicly support a non-Idoma professor to become the VC of a federal university located in Otukpo? We have simply stripped academics away from the universities and turned them into appendages of our patronage politics, which in turn rests on resource capture, power capture, and identity politics. We must live with the consequences of the monster we have created and stop complaining. And, of course, as long as we refuse to come to terms with the ethnic and religious provincialization of Nigerian public universities, we will continue to blame funding for the collapse of our universities. Good luck in this escapist trajectory.

On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 8:43 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB72477A4A74AAB103A5884E0DF8EB0%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

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[Mobolaji Aluko]

My People:

Since fully completing my term as VC at Otuoke in 2016 - amidst the untruthful "rumor" of being sacked along with my other colleagues  - I have been reluctant to write too publicly about Nigerian university systems as regards the selection of VCs in particular.   I remember being accused of the "hypocrisy" of "would have opposed the establishment of new universities" if I had not been chosen as one of the nine new VCs (three from the Diaspora), and that, besides,  what due process was used in naming us all anyway?

I just shook my head, and said "Okay o", and moved to Otuoke to do my second "national service" - for five years.  Even calling it "national service" - with a N1 million per month (salary + allowances) - was derided and I decided I could not win, and I just smiled ...and moved on again....

Moving on...

As to the ongoing parochialism  in the choice of VCs in Nigerian  federal universities, unfortunately I believe that the NUC has absconded in its duties of ensuring that University Councils adhere to NATIONAL  minimum standards of professorial years (eg 10 years), service in various academic, professional and community positions, and respectable grant and publication experiences.  Nothing destroys a university more than when a Vice-Chancellor is not respected by ALL peers, because he or she must indeed be truly "primus inter pares".

In addition, two conditions must adhere for Federal Universities.  Candidates need not apply if they dont satisfy these conditions;

1.  The VC should not come from the ranks of Professors in that same university.  That means that the VC must have made his or her mark away from that university, and the danger of existing cliques around a new VC is reduced.

2.  The VC should not come from the state in which the University exists.    This condition will kick one leg off the stool on which the greatest amount of parochialism resides.

There you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAVj7VqTzVm3CXTia-h7HNxdUUtxN6vWj3t_F7jSRbDTQZCN-w%40mail.gmail.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

I think we have discussed this before and I think we deliberated on the contentiousness of these provisos.

I cited the stewardship of Cyril Agodi Onwumechili at my alma mater during my undergraduate days and the Moderator said this was Obasanjo's unilateral choice.  This means a measure of clannishness has always been part and parcel of the Nigerian public university system.

MOA cited the American experience ( and I agreed with him) where presidents are appointed on their ability to attract funds and their town and gown friendly disposition (as well as attachment and emotional investment in the growth of the institution.  I taught at an American institution where the emotional attachment to the institution was so high he sent himself to an early grave and pulled some faculty in tow as ' abobaku' - yours truly was only lucky to survive)  That means a large measure of local knowledge.  So out- of- state-ism might be a minus.  

But we may argue the Nigerian federal university system is not privately funded.  But should this continue indefinitely?  That debate is still on ( confer Aare Afe Babalola's contribution to funding Nigerian universities.)

So my position is there are pros and cons depending on the goals and types of tertiary institutions in Nigeria.  Private institutions are not that hampered.  They are private and that affects the type of accounting officers selected ( for instance you cant query an evangelical university for not appointing a Muslim as chief accounting officer.)

But I quite agree particularly  in public institutions anything that can be put in place to neutralise clanishness is welcome.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com>

Date: 08/11/2020 23:21 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nation building andthe  Nigerian University system

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (alu...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

My People:

Since fully completing my term as VC at Otuoke in 2016 - amidst the untruthful "rumor" of being sacked along with my other colleagues  - I have been reluctant to write too publicly about Nigerian university systems as regards the selection of VCs in particular.   I remember being accused of the "hypocrisy" of "would have opposed the establishment of new universities" if I had not been chosen as one of the nine new VCs (three from the Diaspora), and that, besides,  what due process was used in naming us all anyway?

I just shook my head, and said "Okay o", and moved to Otuoke to do my second "national service" - for five years.  Even calling it "national service" - with a N1 million per month (salary + allowances) - was derided and I decided I could not win, and I just smiled ...and moved on again....

Moving on...

As to the ongoing parochialism  in the choice of VCs in Nigerian  federal universities, unfortunately I believe that the NUC has absconded in its duties of ensuring that University Councils adhere to NATIONAL  minimum standards of professorial years (eg 10 years), service in various academic, professional and community positions, and respectable grant and publication experiences.  Nothing destroys a university more than when a Vice-Chancellor is not respected by ALL peers, because he or she must indeed be truly "primus inter pares".

In addition, two conditions must adhere for Federal Universities.  Candidates need not apply if they dont satisfy these conditions;

1.  The VC should not come from the ranks of Professors in that same university.  That means that the VC must have made his or her mark away from that university, and the danger of existing cliques around a new VC is reduced.

2.  The VC should not come from the state in which the University exists.    This condition will kick one leg off the stool on which the greatest amount of parochialism resides.

There you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

On Sun, Nov 8, 2020, 23:20 Emmanuel Udogu <udo...@appstate.edu> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAVj7VqTzVm3CXTia-h7HNxdUUtxN6vWj3t_F7jSRbDTQZCN-w%40mail.gmail.com.

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

I salute those people with faith in Nigeria and its public institutions.

I salute Moses Ochonu and his desperately passionate commitment to Nigerian university education.

I mourn for the University of Ibadan, a place whose name remains in legend regardless of whatever locusts may ravage the institution.

I mourn for the citadel made luminous by the likes of Abiola Irele, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Tekena Tamuno, Daniel Izevbaye, Biodun Jeyifo, Ade Ajayi, Kenneth Dike, Obaro Ikime, Latunde Odeku, Obododimma Oha, Ademola Dasylva, Remi Raji
(one of the Ibadan indigenes in the VCship race).

On visiting UI, I see myself breathing the same air as breathed by those masters, as I moved in the same spaces as Isaac Newton when visiting Trinity, his old college at Cambridge. I pass by the Cavendish laboratory, where a plaque celebrates the achievements of J.J. Thomson, a pioneer in atomic physics. I visit the pub where Crick and Watson first announced their discovery of the helical structure of DNA. I recall gazing in wonder at UI campus when I passed by as a passenger in my father's car, a glimpse into a world of privilege and wonder.

The story of UI is entwined with that of the creation of an academic and  professional elite and the spaces it centred in, places like UI and Bodija in Ibadan, to central Lagos and Victoria Island.

A metamorphosis is underway, where the intersection of academic and professional elite with excellence is transmuted into a flattening of values, where power is might, quality is defined by narrow interests, where struggle for territory replaces aspiration to greatness, as even those benefiting from these nativist agitations are likely to prefer sending their children to study in the West, where standards have been stable for centuries.

Nigerians are among the most successful professionals in the world, but these successes have often moved offshore. To find a concentration of the world's most highly achieved Nigerians, you go to the US, not Nigeria.

Buhari is in Aso Rock promoting his Fulani agenda.

Academics and Ibadan indigenes are promoting an Ibadan agenda.

The news coming out of my alma mater, the University of Benin, is that the successful struggle to enthrone by force a Benin indigene as VC of Uniben, beginning from Professor Oshodin, has deeply eroded the university.

It is alleged that this ethnic policy, described by its adherents as initiated to correct marginalization of Benin people at the apex post since the inception of the university, has led to a culture of impunity centred around Benin people in the university.

The  fight that brought in Professor Oshodin was fought both in the online groups  and most vociferously on the ground in Benin, involving the open use of Benin traditional magic, specifically a mini shrine dedicated to a particular Benin goddess of vengeance, Ayelala, placed on the entrance to the university as a way of demonstrating the absolute commitment of Benin people to claiming the VCship.

Oshodin was replaced by another Benin person. Will that be the trend from now on?

Anyway, I had lost hope in Nigeria until the magic of #EndSARS.

I shall be publishing soon my explorations of what made  Yoruba Studies great at the then University of Ife, a world class centre of scholarship, between the   70s, 80s and mid-90s preceding its scholars fleeing abroad in the exodus that hemorrhaged our universities.

May we again  have a great university system.

thanks

Toyin

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[Okey Iheduru]

The narratives we're being fed here suggests that yesterday is ancient history. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I'd like to remind folks to remember the fate that befell Prof. Eni Njoku at the University of Lagos-- perhaps, the first victim of "parapo" or "son-of-the soil" gang-up in Nigerian academe--in 1962-1965. The novelist, Vincent C. Ike (later, WAEC Registrar) captured the sordid ethnic revanchist details in his famous Toads for Supper. 

Prof. Falola recently announced the publication of a book by the pioneer scholar of Yoruba at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka--the first tertiary institution in Nigeria to teach Yoruba language and culture! It wasn't a priority for University of Ibadan which had been there since 1948! 

As Albert Memi reminds us, "We've seen the enemy; it's us"; and Prof. Eni Njoku is looking down forlornly at the thermidorian chain-reaction unleashed on Nigeria by the offsprings of the hounds that bayed for his blood at Akoka!

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--

Okey C. Iheduru

e-mail: okeyi...@gmail.com