ASUU Part Quatre: We Have An Agreement | Agùntáṣǫólò

[IKHIDE]

"As I’ve said several times before – this dispute is all about pay and nothing else. The thing with recommendations is that they are just that; recommendations. You cant take someone to court for not following a recommendation. So it was up to the government to follow those parts of the agreement or not. But ASUU weren’t messing about with the parts that concerned them. The numbers were clearly specified which is why today they can say the government is owing them N92bn in earned allowances or whatever the figure is. It is also the same reason why the government feels it can throw N30bn at them and ask them to ‘manage’ it. Afterall its ASUU’s word against the government’s.

You hardly come across the word ‘student’ in the agreement at all. And there is nothing specific about infrastructure in there other than the large sums of money the government was supposed to give the universities. There are many people today making ignorant noises about government ‘honouring the agreement’ and even coming up with things that are not in said agreement as ‘ASUU’s demands’. There really isnt anything for anyone in here other than ASUU so personally I’d say, leave them to fight it out with government."

Fascinating, if hilarious analysis of the ASUU-FG agreement. I wonder if Bolaji Aluko agrees with the analysis. He does nail ASUU something awful on the self-serving nature of the agreement. More alarming, he makes the great point that no one truly knows how much every year this agreement will cost. No budgetary numbers, just pay. All the government needs to do is just pay ASUU. Why are we like this? A must read. Read the rest here:

http://aguntasolo.com/2013/10/05/asuu-part-quatre-we-have-an-agreement/

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Ikhide:

First, as a Vice-Chancellor and concerned citizen, I continue to be saddened by the prolongation of this strike in the Nigerian University System (NUS) that has now entered its third month - which is a third in length already of the super-long 2002/2003 strike of yore. After the meeting of five representative VCs, ASUU representatives and the Vice-President Sambo on September 16 in which certain reasonable decisions were reached, one thought that cooler heads would prevail.  But alas, significant distrust and some missteps between the contending parties leave the situation un-resolved, with no end in sight yet.

Secondly, you have been a fly in ASUU's ointment, and have been joined by Feyi Fawehinmi (FF) in his four-part blog series, [http://aguntasolo.com/] which I have thoroughly read. I commend him - a university brat himself - for his yeoman effort. It is not easy to be a social/public critic - and using data too, because opinions are easy, facts sacred, and you must develop a thick skin when people come after you.  When you also get the attention of a Prof. Akin Oyebode (who has been on both sides of the isle on this matter) with a rejoinder (I repeat the rejoinder in the Appendix below), then you know that FF has hit a raw nerve.

However, Ikhide, for the sake of transparency, I made available in 

      http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20131003183855zg/nm-projects/higher-education-in-nigeria/all-the-2009-government-asuu-ssanu-nasu-and-naat-agreements/

all the ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAATS 209 agreements with the Federal Government. Notice that it was not ONLY ASUU, but the other three unions.  So the total EARNED allowances being demanded is NOT for ASUU alone - and that point must NOT be forgotten, and ASUU should not be held as if it is demanding ALL of this money for itself. That is a point that FF must acknowledge moving forward, and not pour all invectives on ASUU.   Non-academics too must also share the blame in the rot in our university system.  In fact, if you read the EARNED Allowances portion of the other unions other than ASUU, some eye-popping and hair-raising agreements were made which, to my mind, should not have been made AT ALL, not to talk of setting NAIRA RATES to them.

The third point to be made is that while principles of funding and financial rates were agreed with respect to certain allowances, the total number of staff to be paid (and students to be served) by each university; who between the federal government and the university that would make the payments; and  most especially the CAP of the total amount paid were really NOT part of the agreement.  This was the MAIN flaw of the agreement, and has really led to the impasse.

In order to correct this flaw, back in September 2011, all the Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities - we nine new ones included, barely six months old then on our jobs - were asked by the Federal Minister of Education to submit the financial implications of the 2009 agreement on our campuses for ALL employees (academic and non-academic) for the period July 2009 to December 2012. An initial compilation in November 2011 was incomplete (not enough universities responded) because of confusion about what was to be included or not, but by April 2012, a fuller compilation was made by the FGN/University-based Unions Agreements Implementation Monitoring Committee chaired by Dr. Wale Babalakin, and revealed to us:  a sum of N106.7 billion, itemized according to the following table.

According to the IMC, a close study of the submissions showed too much inflation, and universities were once again asked to go back to tighten their figures, leading to a revised figure of about N92 billion (I don't have that table with me, but that amounts to about 90% of the above figures).  

Where we are now then is that the Federal Government has offered to pay - and has paid - N30 billion, asking the universities and their Councils to source for the rest, to ASUU (and Vice-Chancellors') chagrin.

I suspect that Government suspects that there is still inflation in the figures, but has indicated that the universities should use what has been given NOW, and then return LATER to report what is left to be paid, and that will be considered. (This is an outcome of a meeting with the Vice-President, and what the VCs have recommended previously.)  I believe that that is a fair demand - but ASUU is not trusting enough of government's intention, not without reason - but it must trust, for the sake of the nation.

Ikhide, you asked whether I agreed with FF's analysis.  I will now stick my neck out and indicate my own official position as Otuoke VC to the IMC when it asked for a revision.  This is what I wrote in a paragraph as opinion - and I stick to it even today:

 

There is a fourth point to be made.  If you study the "agreements" closely, some of the agreements were "agreements to recommend", NOT agreements themselves.  A recommendation can be agreed to or rejected, but to act as if the agreement to RECOMMEND amounts to the RECOMMENDATION itself causes a perception problem.

For example, take this section of the ASUU agreement:

  

Does this section REALLY mean that the Federal Government has AGREED to fund universities to the tune of N1.518 trillion?  Not at all....it just means that the IMC has AGREED to make that recommendation to the FGN, which in fact it  did.  It is now UP to the FGN to accept or reject it.  We might be very UNHAPPY that the recommendation was not accepted, but it would be disingenuous to state that the FGN has ACCEPTED to provide N1.518 trillion, but is now only offering N400 billion.

Same principle goes to this section of the ASUU agreement:

Ikhide, I have provided this long piece to give you my own knowledge of the history of this impasse, and to provide some insight into my own line of thinking.  There is enough blame and misunderstanding on all sides, but what we need right now is statesmanship on both sides to end this strike, after which our whole Nigerian University System should be re-evaluated to grant GREATER AUTONOMY to individual universities; have the federal government (and the NUC) play a less intrusive role in university governance; declare the education sector a national security matter; and have collective bargaining / strike action be more local rather than national.  Towards that end:

1.  The Federal Government should truly commit to increasing funding to the education sector, starting with the 2014 Budget.  It should include ALL monies going NOT only to the Federal Ministry of Education but to ETF, PTDF and any other MDAs that spend money on education in the calculations.

2.  ASUU should accept the N30 billion earned allowance paid now as DOWN-PAYMENT, and when the Vice-Chancellors in consultation with the Governing Councils have disbursed same, should be able to return for more as found necessary.  IN the time being, the Federal Government should budget N30 billion for it in the 2014 budget, to build trust.

3.  ASUU should accept the N100 billion NEEDS assessment money given to all universities by the Federal Government, after being assured that this will not affect statutory TETFUND money. [By the way, all VCs and Pro-Chancellors are being invited to Abuja next on Tetfund affairs.]  Again, the Federal Government should budget N100 billion in the 2014 budget for special ADDITIONAL intervention in the next year, and the following two years, and ensure that all trapped TetFUND monies are released promptly..

4.  The Federal Government's No-Work No-Pay rule on this particular strike should be rescinded forthwith;  It sours relations, in the opinion of Vice-Chancellors, because there are academic staff who may NOT be teaching, but are doing research and community service, and some are actually doing administrative work (Heads of Departments, Directors, etc.).

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

  

 

APPENDIX

QUOTE   Rejoinder from Prof. Akin Oyebode to FF's "We have an ASUU Problem"

Dear FF,

I couldn’t resist responding to your jibes and vituperation. It is full of generalizations, errors, inexactitude and inanities that could make one want to throw up

Please be informed that the time UNILAG had three Harvard alumni on its Law Faculty was over two decades ago. I should know since I went to the big H and have been on the UNILAG staff list for nearly 40 years and the only member of the troika still on ground.

I agree that some of us love teaching and, or are deeply patriotic but there’s a lot more to taking the jump to a greener pasture abroad. Please be informed that most of us still around remain not out of lack of rosy offers and promises of a better life but because of our firm belief in the necessity to ensure that the roof did not cave in on Nigeria’s education system.

I’m surprised you failed to recite the line of cynics that those who can, can and those who can’t, teach. Having been in the business of teaching lawyers for quite a while, helping, in the process, to produce 50 SANs and 25 law professors, I should be in a position to make averments regarding legal education in Nigeria and matters incidental thereto

.

When one of my children came back to the country after concluding his LLM in a US Ivy League Law School and succeeded in addition to crack the New York Bar (at first attempt, by the way), he was full of praises for the quality of legal education he had obtained here in UNI:LAG. I’m sure you must have come across numerous Nigerians in your country of sojourn making good with Nigeria’s university education which you have derided so much.You argue that the quality oft our pedagogy was suspect but the evidence on the ground does not justify your wholesale condemnation. Of course, we can use greater input and modernization of the education process but we are still striving to perform or task in the face of paucity of facilities and inability to attract and retain the best and brightest. I can tell you that Harvard had nearly 100 libraries when we were there some 40 years ago. The main library had nearly five million volumes…

I do not, in the least wish to turn this conversation into a point-counter-point discussion but let me tell you this: the ball lies squarely in the court of the Nigerian State for disparaging the old legal maxim, pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be implemented in good faith). The disdain for Nigerian academics shared by people of your ilk within a general anti-intellectual environment is so suffocating that one has to wonder why our universities and other higher institutions of learning had actually survived thus far.

Way back in the 1990′s, I happened to have acted in the role of legal adviser to the ASUU negotiation team that brought into being the first FG-ASUU Agreement which the government of the day later felt it worthy to thump its nose at. A decade later, I had become a V-C and was a member of the government team that midwifed a revised version of the 1992 FG-ASUU Agreement. Characteristically, the government of the day again went back on its words. Now, we are once again faced with the scenario of discounting an agreement signed, sealed and delivered by the selfsame parties in 2009. It would have been funny if it was not tragic.

I pause to ask, when would the Nigerian State learn to put its money where its mouth is? The real issue is re-furbishing the infrastructure of our universities in the face of a student population bursting at its seams while the rich, famous and powerful dispatch their children and wards to the US, Europe and better organized environments such as South Africa, Ghana and even, Benin Republic next door. It would seem Alphonse Kerr knew what he was saying when he observed, “ Plus ca change, plus la meme chose… ( The more things change, the more they remain the same…)

Since ASUU is demanding a mere fraction of what the country expends on running its bureaucracy, importation of fuel by an oil-rich enclave, humongous emoluments for its legislators, sundry acts of corruption and squandermania, the path of reason is to make the necessary adjustment in the country’s scale of values and priorities in order to rescue Nigerian universities from ultimate perdition. Anyone who says that ASUU is asking too much or acting unreasonably needs to put on his thinking cap in order to understand clearly what the current struggle is all about.

UNQUOTE

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[Ikhide]

Bolaji:

Many thanks for taking the time off your busy schedule to provide us from your private treasure trove, rich data that informs the ASUU wahala, data that is now coming out in dribs and drabs thanks to the great efforts of in-your-face critics like Feyi Fawehinmi. I chuckled at the predictable response by Professor Akin Oyebode to Feyi's robust analysis. Feyi is what is known as a Twitter Overlord, @DoubleEph has 8,500 followers on twitter, the face of today's Nigerian youth, incredibly influential. ASUU should follow him and not heckle him. People like Feyi know mass communication and on social media (Twitter and Facebook) they are giving ASUU the royal finger - sweetly.

Yup, ASUU and the government should listen to Feyi and the others. Put the student in your documents and in your plans. Emulate how these young folks break down data. And do the same. It is free. And you know what? All these young folks are not abroad like Ikhide throwing rocks from Babylon. They are in Nigeria. Again, social media is important. There are new leaders in that culture. Many young leaders have thousands of followers. A single tweet from them shared all over could make a difference. Someone like Tolu Ogunlesi has 44,000 followers. Follow @toluogunlesi. It is free ;-) This is the 21st century people, folks should unshackle themselves of ancient paradigms. And begin by partnering with the young - in a respectful manner. It is their life after all.

It is useful to restate your recommendations here:

"There is enough blame and misunderstanding on all sides, but what we need right now is statesmanship on both sides to end this strike, after which our whole Nigerian University System should be re-evaluated to grant GREATER AUTONOMY to individual universities; have the federal government (and the NUC) play a less intrusive role in university governance; declare the education sector a national security matter; and have collective bargaining / strike action be more local rather than national.  Towards that end:

1.  The Federal Government should truly commit to increasing funding to the education sector, starting with the 2014 Budget.  It should include ALL monies going NOT only to the Federal Ministry of Education but to ETF, PTDF and any other MDAs that spend money on education in the calculations.

2.  ASUU should accept the N30 billion earned allowance paid now as DOWN-PAYMENT, and when the Vice-Chancellors in consultation with the Governing Councils have disbursed same, should be able to return for more as found necessary.  IN the time being, the Federal Government should budget N30 billion for it in the 2014 budget, to build trust.

3.  ASUU should accept the N100 billion NEEDS assessment money given to all universities by the Federal Government, after being assured that this will not affect statutory TETFUND money. [By the way, all VCs and Pro-Chancellors are being invited to Abuja next on Tetfund affairs.]  Again, the Federal Government should budget N100 billion in the 2014 budget for special ADDITIONAL intervention in the next year, and the following two years, and ensure that all trapped TetFUND monies are released promptly..

4.  The Federal Government's No-Work No-Pay rule on this particular strike should be rescinded forthwith;  It sours relations, in the opinion of Vice-Chancellors, because there are academic staff who may NOT be teaching, but are doing research and community service, and some are actually doing administrative work (Heads of Departments, Directors, etc.)."

Bolaji, mark my words, your recommendations will be ignored like the ones before them. We are only having this conversation because ASUU is feeling the heat from disgusted stakeholders and is beginning to sense what it feels like to COMPETE. More needs to be done to make ASUU and the government responsible and accountable to those who are unfortunate to be their customers. You have said it all in your opening context to your recommendations. It won't happen without a structural shift. ASUU at the national level must be disbanded. All employee unions should remain at the local level. It is a matter of national security concern that the country catches malaria each time ASUU sneezes. Nonsense.

Bolaji, even you have struggled with the numbers. No one knows for sure what the numbers mean, where they came from. I can tell you the numbers are a careful product of SWAG - Serious Wild Ass Guessing. ASUU and the government are not serious. You need an assessment of EACH facility in EACH institution with discrete dollar figures for each institution. There should be a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) - preferably a multi-year CIP for each institution. Ideally many of those facilities in those horrid pictures should simply be torn down and modernized. That would require an annual layout of CIP and maintenance money in the budgetary base every year. It won't happen with the Soviet style unitary system we have in place today. There is no competition and no incentive for improvement because ASUU and our Government do not answer to anyone and do not care. 

The money ASUU is asking for is enough to institute a Marshall Plan to rescue our institutions. Again, this is where I say ASUU and the government are not serious. Where did those figures come from? Where are the details? Bolaji, you know that as an educational administrator, this is what I do for a living, it is logistically impossible to spend that kind of money annually - you do not have the infrastructure in place to do what needs to be done. I can bet you, the money will be released - and promptly looted. Has anyone ever asked what ever happened to the money that the institutions got in the past? Your guess is as good as mine.

The government's best hope is to convert all those funds into grants, give them to the institutions, wash hands off them and assume an oversight role with a real NUC and with help from external evaluators in tertiary institutions. It can be done, but between ASUU and our worthless government the children of the poor are royally screwed. We are stuck, Bolaji.

I cannot say this enough: ASUU is a victim of its own success, the perennial shutdowns have been so successful, not many seem to care anymore. ASUU has helped to devalue the worth of a real education. Bored, our kids now turn to other pleasures and vices to kill the time. Between ASUU and a criminal government the children of the poor are royally screwed. Yup, ASUU has a huge problem, not just an image problem. And anyone that does not see it is in severe denial. Again, and again and again I will say it, ASUU's mode of communication is outmoded and inarticulate. You don't believe me? Here is an editorial by YNaija an online journal based in Nigeria: 

http://ynaija.com/politico/infographic-what-we-could-have-done-with-these-monies-ournass/

Folks, please take the time to go through it, see the charts, how attractive and succinct they, see the section on ASUU, look at what they did with figures showing what NASS has gobbled up, AND what it would do for ASUU's demands. Now, that is mass communication, that is how to reach people. Compare that to the only thing remotely compelling about ASUU on her website, the Needs Assessment and you see why ASUU is seen as an ancient behemoth only invested in an outmoded system of entitlement and privilege. There is absolutely zero excuse for ASUU to be like this. There is so much good material on that "needs Assessment" that could be highlighted on charts, blogs, social media, etc. And it is FREE. All this racist liberal nonsense about how it is nice to be in America to view nice websites should fill us with shame and rage. Some of the best websites in the world are owned by Nigerians. There is something that happens to us when we get that contract to do something for an organization/state institution. 

The people that are doing this to children, many of them got their degrees abroad, many lived here, they know their rights from their wrongs. They come home and suddenly, it is open season on children.  It should not be possible for one union to shut down an entire nation's education just like that. It makes no sense and it is a national security issue for heavens' sakes. ASUU in its current configuration is sounding the death knell of public tertiary education and we know the victims of this horror. It is the children of the poor. 

Bolaji, for the avoidance of doubt, my focus is squarely on ASUU, the government of the day is beneath contempt. I hold ASUU responsible for our situation. If ASUU would spend the time to think about a sound communications plan that consists of a one-text, charts brimming with data about what the issues are, what the needs are and what it would take in the short, intermediate and long run to fix the crisis (including a decentralization of unions to local universities, autonomy for local universities, etc), millions, including youths and parents would line up behind them for the mother of all protests. 

I say to ASUU, you need data. Data is key. Anything without meaningful data is simply opinion, and mostly BS. Again, it is in ASUU's interest to have basic data that relates to its members. I have been on ASUU's case since 2009. Nothing has changed with them, they seem incurious. Many of them are here on Professor Toyin Falola's USA Africa Dialogue listserv where I have been on a running battle with them for years. Some of their executive members are on that listserv. I first complained about their website years ago. Nothing has changed. ASUU is just plain lazy.

  

In summary: We are at a pivotal moment, our educational system is in total disarray, and I agree with you Bolaji, it is a matter of national security, what is (not) happening to our children in those classrooms. Focusing on the tertiary institutions, we need a massive, massive, massive infusion of funds into public universities, colleges and polytechnics. First things first, in return for those funds, ASUU should preside over its dismantling. ASUU as a national organization needs to go. It is simply crazy that a cookie-cutter approach is being used for pretty much every public tertiary institution out there. Block grants should be given to each state to restore infrastructure, universities should have real autonomy, and union membership should only be for each institution. ASUU as a national body should not exist. It is cancer that must be excised. In the name of the children of the poor.

 - Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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From: Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com>
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com>
Cc: NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects <naijain...@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups <ekiti...@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi <Raay...@yahoogroups.com>; "niger...@yahoogroups.com" <niger...@yahoogroups.com>; Yan Arewa <YanA...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2013 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU Part Quatre: We Have An Agreement | Agùntáṣǫólò

[john.o...@gmail.com]

Thanks you citizen Ikide, thank VC Bolaji.

There should be nothing more to add to this discourse but implementation. By the way, why. Are you not part of the government team, Bolaji.

We need to redeem our educational sector for royally screwed children of the poor.

God safe Nigeria.

John

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

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From: Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2013 17:42:59 -0700 (PDT)

To: Mobolaji Aluko<alu...@gmail.com>; USAAfrica Dialogue<usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Ebere Onwudiwe]

"The Conference" with Prof. Ebere Onwudiwe, of the Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development is a public affairs program. It will debut today Sunday, 6th Oct. 7:30 pm Nigerian time, & repeated 4 pm (Nigerian time) on Tuesday, the 8th.2013.  The channel is NTA International (NTA1 DSTV). Nigerian scholar activists and other intellectuals discuss issues of strategic national importance. Please join us.

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Sent from my iPad

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

On the National Unity of ASUU

To the best of my understanding,  the idea of dismantling ASUU is ultimately inimical to the Nigerian university system. 

In a system like Nigeria's political context, you need a national ASUU to address the issues of academics and universities.

ASUU can be improved, but to dismantle the union in the name of having only local branches, looks to me like a journey to hell. 

Operating from local unions alone is a recipe for powerlessness, and therefore ineffectual relationship with the federal government, the employer of the universities.

Feyi Fawehinmi describes Nigerian academics as among the better paid in the world.

His claims are contested by respondents on his blog who state his figures are not consistent with their  own experience as Nigerian academics. 

These respondents also place his general criticism of ASUU in what looks to me like a more balanced context. 

Whatever the reality might be, however, any gains academics have  have made is because of the strength of a national ASUU.

Remove that national  strength, and you have no power.

In five to ten years time, that salary being described as so big could shrink to your pre-1990 position as the Nigerian economy fluctuates.

Then university decay would begin in earnest.

We need a discussion about and action on how to make sure ASUU and the govt are always on the same page or on a page close to each other, on how to improve academic development, on how to make sure academics are more conscientious, on how to make sure those monies made available  to universities are maximised, on how to improve student well being as much as possible -eg. any university in the world that does not have 24 hour Web access for  students - at both individual  use and dedicated computer rooms with a  sufficient number of computers-  and staff  might  never be part of the global knowledge stream in a significant manner, in my view, but removing a national ASUU from the equation might be to ensure these developments will never emerge.

Ideas are being canvassed about the govt doing its duty more diligently with reference to universities, but who is to ensure that those duties are fulfilled?

On Nigerian vs International Publication of Journal Articles and Books

Feyi Fawehinmi described Nigerian academics as being largely locally published alone.

He presents a beautiful description of the value of international publication.

An academic   responding on  Fawehinmi's   blog who disagrees with his comments on academic salaries agrees about the local publishing charge and gives reasons for that,  indicating  a very disturbing  scenario for scholarship in Nigeria.

While  I acknowledge the value of publishing outside Nigeria, I think we might need to rethink the publishing paradigm implied by the concept of international publication.

My ideas on this are still  not definite  but I would like to make some  provocative statements followed by suggestions-

The Current Situation : Difficulty  of Access by Continental  Africans to  Western Published Books and Journals

You might publish a book a year, as Biodun Jeyifo is described as doing did when he left Ife for Cornell, climaxing  in his monumental last book on Soyinka, at which point he moved to a Harvard professorship; you might almost be a God of knowledge like Toyin Falola and Abdul Karim Bangura, whose range of subject matter and volume of publication make them institutions  in themselves, most likely  inexhaustible fields of study,  but even though Falola's work is staunchly  rooted in Africa and Bangura is a die hard Afrocentrist, if I am using the right terminology  with reference to Bangura, one needs to ask- what communities of learning are  being served  by their universes   of publications? 

To what degree are African scholars, students and universities able to buy their books?

These books are academic publications, academic publications being consistently the best in non-fiction, in my experience,  but, as published by Western publishers, which I expect they and other academics in the West are published by, they are consistently  the most expensive. 

The high end of such expensiveness might be represented by some academic publishers like Cambridge University Press, who publish the cream de la creme of uncompromisingly  academic work, often without any concessions to a non-academic audience, concessions the equally academically robust but perhaps more adventurous   Oxford University Press achieves with its general range like the Very Short Introductions, a great idea, presenting the most up to date research on a subject in a succinct manner that   still does not eschew disciplinary rigour.

Cambridge UP, on the other hand, is characterised  purely  by high end works, to the best of my knowledge, encompassing the absolute academic rigour and specialist character of a good number of Oxford UP publications, but without Oxford UP's  range  of audience scope and pricing, Oxford UP interestingly, also publishing new  children's fiction, suggesting their range, while Cambridge UP seems to me to represent absolute hard core academic work, and with prices to match, their only fiction seeming to be classics of Western literature. 

Their books, however, represent a concentration of some of the very best, the most ambitious, carefully conceived works, some rightly taking  years to research and write. 

I will not bore you any further with reflections arising  from my salivations in the Cambridge UP flagship bookshop on Trinity Street, Cambridge, but leave you with the observation of a bookseller that those books are not really meant for individuals but for institutions to buy. 

When you encounter their fantastic many volumed series on the history of science-they are very good at many volumed series- then you might be compelled to assess yourself and see the point of that bookseller.  

They sell to individuals, though, and give a 20% discount to students and staff  of Cambridge university  and neighbouring  academic institutions, along with recurrent discount sales. 

I have also been able buy some books there, even without the discount, recognising the place as a necessary destination. 

 Patronising them is a necessity in certain contexts. 

There is quality, and there IS quality.

In a world in which the most globally representative books and journals  are published outside Africa, what should Africans do?

To what degree can their communities  read even the works of continental  Africans published in those journals, in a world in which even Harvard, possibly the world's richest university,  once  announced  it can no longer afford its scope of journal subscription, a world in which  Timothy Gowers, Fields medal  winner (described as the highest honour in mathematics), and Cambridge university  professor  of mathematics,  led a successful boycott on working with journals published by the prestigious academic  publisher  Elsevier, in protest at the publisher's pricing policies?

Suggestions : Persisting In and Improving Nigerian Journal and Book Publication

1. I suspect that those creating journals in Nigeria and publishing in them  are doing the right  thing in the long run for the interests of the cognitive ecosystem represented by the Nigerian educational system and its social context.

I suspect the real challenge is how to do it  as well as possible and  keep doing it, expanding the global membership of the editorial board, the international demographic represented by  those who write in the journal and the international range  of its distribution.

Web access would make a world of difference in all these cases.

One could  have Web only journals.

One could  use a blog as a journal template as is already being done.

One could even use Facebook.

Moyo Okediji is doing some wonderful work at the Facebook based University of African Art, particularly with his with every Monday free conferences on African art, enabling so many who had been shut out of the world of sophisticated art discourse to take part in the development of discourse in the field by scholars and artists.

The possibilities  that initiative  opens  up are so many. 

One could also use both Web and print options, as some journals do at present. 

2. I suspect that those writing and publishing books in Nigeria represent the foundations of an indigenous cognitive and educational ecosystem.

I suspect the real challenge is how to do it  as well as possible and  keep doing it.

Are Nigerians able to readily import academic books?

If not, nothing prevents one from writing a good book and making money from it.

The entire country would be a wide open market, and, to a lesser degree, even other African countries.

I am not aware of the current situation in Nigeria, but I doubt if lecturers  need to compel students to but their books as some have done.

 Textbooks are for general student use, and summations of the field,while others are directed at advancing  the field and are addressed to specialists and those prepared to read at that more advanced level. 

Web access could also make a world of difference here.

One can publish online, to address both a global market and even a local market accessing your work on mobile platforms like phones and iPads,  as well as publishing in print for the  local market. 

thanks

toyin 

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

One of the problems ASUU has at the moment is the ambition of some persons in the diaspora to take over the administration of education in Nigeria. They armed their attack dogs with one sided facts and unleashed them on the Internet, ASUU must be made to look bad so that they would be invited to come and "help". Unfortunately, ASUU, presently, is too weak to match them propaganda for propaganda. Nigerian literature suffered the same fate not quite long ago.

CAO. 

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

Chidi,

 

This is exactly the attitude that has brought ASUU and the issues at hand to the present level. Any dissenting voice must be squashed; they must have an ulterior motive … Yeah, let us stick together, let us think one way…

 

I’m shell-shocked – the only point you have been able to pick from ALL the arguments and suggestions on the best way forward that have been advanced on this forum is that some people in the Diaspora want to come and take ASUU’s job. Really? Are you for real?

 

Glad at least you admitted that ASUU has not been able to respond as you put it “propaganda for propaganda” – but did you stop to ask why that is?

 

With an ASUU friend like you why should they look for an enemy anywhere?

 

You remind me of the 1 million man-march for Abacha – that was also in Nigeria wasn’t it?

 

Gbolahan Gbadamosi

Bournemouth, UK

 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

ASUU’s strategy and the Nigerian university

OCTOBER 7, 2013 BY TOLU OGUNLESI (TO4OG...@YAHOO.COM) 2 COMMENTS

   

 

Tolu Ogunlesi
| credits: File copy

The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities has been in the news a lot, courtesy of a strike action that has now entered its third month and shows no signs of ending any time soon.

There have been lots of heated arguments and debates, displays of emotion, and name-calling. Perhaps, it is really a complicated matter, as some would like us to believe; perhaps not. I’ll leave that to the “experts”. What I want to do in the first part of this article is share my general thoughts about the matter.

One. Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I left the University of Ibadan in 2004, almost a decade ago, and it’s somewhat puzzling to see that ASUU’s tactics has not changed from what it was when the body kept me at home for nine months in 2001/2002. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. We all know the sort of government we have, so there are no points to be earned by ASUU for trying to scream louder than the rest of the country that we have a useless, dishonest government. We already know that; what next?

Two. It seems to me that ASUU, by prolonging the ongoing strike, is managing to accomplish only one thing: It is making the victims pay for the failings of the oppressors. ASUU’s qualms are with the Federal Government, but somehow, it’s the students – and their parents and guardians – who are at the receiving end of ASUU’s frustrations. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense to me. A strike action seems to me a rather lazy and unimaginative approach. I don’t see how ASUU expects those people that should be its key supporting constituency – students and parents/guardians – to take its side in this battle.

Three. ASUU seems to be trying to make us believe that the government is the sole problem, and that if we can just solve the funding and autonomy problems thrown at our universities by our admittedly irresponsible government, all will be well. ASUU seems keen on portraying itself as the helpless victim of an irresponsible government’s scheming. While that is to a large extent true, it’s not the entire story. The level of decay that we see in our universities could not have happened without the active participation of vice-chancellors and DVCs and university Senates and HODs, etc.

I believe that ASUU should be holding university administrators (and many of them are drawn from ASUU’s constituency) accountable to the same degree with which it is trying to hold the government accountable. For example, there’s no amount of funding that will tame sexual harassment – which is far more common in our universities than we like to admit – if our university administrators are themselves not keen to end it.

That many of our universities seem to be doing little or nothing to aggressively raise funds outside of “Abuja Allocation”, is a shame.

That many of our universities have been left behind in the internet age – disgraceful looking university websites, absence of on-campus Wi-Fi for staff and students, absence of automated transcript application systems, absence of computerised alumni lists – is less a funding problem than a vision and competence problem.

No amount of fresh funding will solve those kinds of issues. So, it seems to be that while fighting the government for more money and attention, ASUU also has a duty to fight itself and its members – the ones in administrative positions in the Ivory Towers – for greater demonstration of administrative competence and financial intelligence.

Without that, no amount in funding increases will make a difference.

Four. If ASUU’s intention is to fight for the salvation of the university system, it’s not doing a very good job of communicating this. ASUU seems to be doing a rather poor job of stating its case for the benefit of the general public. And in that failing, it is losing a lot of the potential public goodwill that could translate into heightened moral power. And it’s difficult to not assume that this strike action, like the innumerable ones before it, is yet another ill-considered, self-serving campaign, without any real regard for an overwhelming structural change in the way our universities are funded and run.

The second part of this piece is a revised version of an article I wrote in November 2010, titled, “The idea of the Nigerian university.”

It is my hope that amidst this storm of allegations and counter-allegations, and agreements and dis-agreements, we will all occasionally take the time off to pause and ponder on the bigger picture; the deeper questions: What’s a university for? What should the Nigerian university symbolise, and seek to achieve, in the 21st Century.

Here’s excerpts from the article:

Imagine wiping off the face of the United States, or Britain, all universities. Imagine the total breakdown of society that would follow. Now, imagine doing the same to Nigeria. Same effect?

For some time now, I have been thinking of the idea of the Nigerian university. What is it? What should it be?

Let’s focus on Nigeria’s oldest, and arguably most distinguished, university – Ibadan. Its early graduates speak of it with cloying nostalgia: Oladipo Akinkugbe, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, and a 1950s graduate (Ibadan was then still a college of the University of London), recalls an “elitist flavour”: “Black bow-ties at Hall Dinners, High Tables, The Grace in Latin and, for the more imaginative, port under the palm trees!”

In its heyday, it appears that much of what Ibadan, the King of Nigerian universities, had to offer, lay in the stifling realms of (colonial) elitism. Today, decades later, shorn of that admittedly unnecessary elitism, what is left?

On a recent trip (belated no doubt!) to collect my degree certificate, I had to spend some time ploughing through literally hundreds of tuition fees receipt booklets dating back to 1998, the year I was admitted to study Pharmacy. Having lost my 1st year receipt (Ibadan expects certificate-seeking graduates to produce hard-copy evidence of every tuition payment they made during their time there), I was expected to search for the university’s original copy. Computer records – what’s that?

Ibadan has a new Vice-Chancellor, Isaac Adewole, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who will take office in a month. Adewole is not at all to be envied. I don’t think that vice-chancellors in the 21st century should have to deal with the task of modernising students’ records systems and making sure that electricity and water are flowing so students can power their laptops and BlackBerry phones. But that is what he will have to spend a chunk of his time doing.

American science writer, Steven Johnson, writing recently in the Financial Times, argued that Silicon Valley was “shaped as much by the counterculture that thrived in the San Francisco Bay area as it was by the engineering prowess of Stanford University.”

“The engineering prowess of Stanford University.” Boiled down to the basics, those are the only university testimonials that (should) count. One wonders what a University of Ibadan would claim, were universities compelled to line up and ‘sell’ themselves in 10 words or less?

It does little good to recall the ‘good old days’ of Ibadan, when students were fed roasted chicken and wrote love letters in Latin. What we should be asking urgently is this: How has Ibadan made itself relevant in the 21st century; how has it adapted itself to a country in which philistines oversee the public treasury; how has it stayed faithful to the idea of a university serving as a collision-chamber for envelope-pushing ideas, as a centre of collaboration for creative people?

Today, sadly, our universities are more likely to make the news as bastions of religious fundamentalism (recall the apocalyptic saga in the Obafemi Awolowo University a few years ago, and the recent Christian-Muslim upheaval in Ibadan) than as ‘citadels of learning’. In his essay, “Of Prizes and Messiahs”, poet, dramatist and critic, Niyi Osundare, describes African universities as “citadels of marginal silence.”

An urgent task confronting Adewole is how to take Ibadan from the margins; how to free it from the ‘bubble-wrap’ that has not only suffocated ideas, but has also made the university irrelevant in the larger scheme of things; blissfully disconnected (like every other Nigerian university) from the outside world.

And I don’t see why a Fola Adeola, Lemi Ghariokwu, Sefi Atta, King Sunny Ade, Oby Ezekwesili, or Nasir El-Rufai should not be ‘hounded’ into a Honorary Professorship at Ibadan – where s/he will spend time interacting with and mentoring a new generation of leaders/creative people.

When you think of the fact that Ibadan, bad as things are with it, is still one of the ‘best’ around (there are universities in this country that would be far more useful to the society serving as Correctional Centres), you will have no choice but to take the time to observe a full minute of silence, for our hundred-plus Citadels of Nothing.

•Follow me on Twitter: @toluogunlesi

There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Oga Chidi,

I wonder if you were alluding to my post which seemed to have come just before yours.

Its true the I-Can-Do -a Better-Job spirit has emerged in this issue.

For me sha, I am simply developing ideas I have been working on since I lectured in Nigeria. 

I used to write, print and sell books to students whom I was not teaching, so there was no compulsion involved.

My books always sold out.

I am prepared to partner with people in Nigeria because my eyes can see the money practically rolling on the ground with this one.

This vision also fits your philosophy of self reliant publishing.

We could work together on this if you are interested.

I get the impression you are straightforward.

Thanks

toyin

[Shola Adenekan]

Moses,

Thanks for posting Tolu Ogunlesi's piece. One of the key points which many ASUU members are not even talking about is the issue of sexual harassment. Are we actually going to pretend that female students are not (regularly) sexually harassed or that their boyfriends are not hounded by jealous tutors?

Most of us here on this forum went through the system. We know the situation.

Additionally, it seems to me that ASUU symbolizes everything that is wrong with Nigeria. Just as our political leaders do not care about ordinary people, ASUU as a body doesn't care much about the welfare of their students and non-academic colleagues - who wash their cars and look after their gardens. When was the last time ASUU campaigned to have decent accommodation and lecture theaters for their students? Do ASUU officials actually care how much their gardeners and cleaners are being paid by the Government?

I know what people are going to say, just as an ASUU member told me recently: "Non academics have their union NASU to fight for them, Likewise the students with their SUG and NANS... ASUU represents the academic staff of universities... it is what they were formed for, the welfare of the academic staff."

As a member of the university community, if other members of that community are suffering, will you not fight for them as well?

We are not taking on ASUU because we think we know best; it is because we care about our higher education system.

ASUU as a body needs some thorough soul-searching.

Regards,

Shola Adenekan, PhD.

Postdoctoral Researcher in African Literature

BIGSAS 
Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies 
University of Bayreuth 
D-95440 Bayreuth 
Phone:	++49-921-55 5108 
Fax:	++49-921-55 5102 
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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Fine writing by Tolu Ogunlesi.

My problem with some of this criticism is its absolutist character,  its sound bite strategy.

Why describe Nigerian universities this way- ' our hundred-plus Citadels of Nothing.'

I dont get it.

So, all your years at the famous University of Ibadan  amount to nothing?

Nigerian universities are nothing?

I also did a BA, an MA and part of a PhD in a Nigerian university. 

The experience, particularly the BA, is foundational for me and continues to grow within me.

  The rigour and scope the structure of the  MA and the part PhD represented left their mark, even though they  did not demonstrate the near flawlessness  of the BA.

My teachers and my memories of them from that BA are forever embedded in my psyche, a unity of experience and memory that grows more powerful the more I develop, because I am growing on the foundations they were central to building. 

Romanus Egudu, Ogo Ofuani, Rasheed Yesufu, Chinyere Okafor, Virginia Ola, Opene, Victor Longe,Odun Balogun, Steve Ogude, Nwuemene, Titi Ufomata, Okpure Obuke, all these people were heroic in the way they did their jobs in that foundational BA, even though at that moment people had begun to look down on lecturing as a job for  poor people, for those 'economically unambitious'. 

We were fortunate that the unforgettable  Dan Izevbaye from the University of Ibadan did his sabbatical at my university rather than go abroad.   A wonderful experience. 

I have to mention my friends, my senior colleagues Nkeonye Otakpor in philosophy and Leo Otoide in history. People of vision whose publications are easily accessible and the  quality of which is glaring.

These foundations are the bedrock of my efforts in the three universities I have attended in England, all superb experiences I have accessed with ease on account of the depth, rigour and scope of the foundations I came with.

These foundations are central to all I will ever be as a scholar and writer.

My formal training is in literature, but the depth, rigour and scope of that training established in my University of Benin BA, and complemented by my further grooming there, allied to my self development, enables me to expand myself into art criticism, history and theory, along with other fields. 

Literature was taught as a sea  into which all rivers of knowledge flow, while I took electives in history and religion, along with the further exposure provided by the university library and the university bookshop, so little is new anywhere.

The years I spent teaching at the university, even though I later became embittered at the constraints  on  creative freedom imposed by senior  colleagues, motivating my leaving the system, further cooked me, as it were, opening my eyes to possibilities  in educational management and giving me  the economic strength to develop my own independent initiatives along such lines. 

The cosmopolitan culture of Benin-City, perfectly  balanced between the newer forms of knowledge and the ancient cognitive systems, rounded the learning experience off in providing  an awesome matrix, the implications of which I am still working out with great benefit all the way in England, the creative possibilities of that  cultural convergence in Benin being  practically infinite. 

I did not attend the University of Benin in  what is known as the glory days of Nigeria, but my teachers in my BA remain my heroes for their absolute dedication and sheer knowledge. 

I also read their publications in leading journals in the field.

Some of them were pioneers in their disciplines at a global level.

I see my own former students from that university in action in different parts of the world-one completed a PhD in law at Oxford, another is likely to have rounded off   his at another English university, another,   after a stellar career in the corporate world, is  at a prestigious leadership program at MIT, of which Koffi Annan is a graduate, others are working in various capacities.

I see the impressive work of my former colleagues in various academic departments.

Graduates of Nigerian art schools, from the very beginnings of the study of modern African art to the present, are at the forefront  globally of modern African art, from the early example of the Zaria art school to the more recent phenomena represented  by Victor Ekpuk,  and Joseph Eze, who, in my view, are among the world's great artists.

On account of my own  experience, and my knowledge of the history and achievements of Nigerian university education at a global level, from the 50s to the present, this system having been central to shaping across various humanities disciplines what is now known  as African studies and modern African culture, I have difficulty understanding  where dismissive attitudes to Nigerian university education  are coming from.

thanks

Toyin

[Femi Segun]

Well said my brother. Such condescending attitudes are nothing more than what I said before on this issue-'coloniality constrained mentality'. I think it is also a function of blind imitation of some warped orientations that breed devalorising one's helpers of destiny. Didn't the bible say, 'if the foundation is destroyed what can the righteous do'? When you so despise your foundation as the likes of Ikhide and Moses with their air of petulant arrogance have been doing on this issue, you inadvertently dig a deep pit for yourself-the inevitable implication-being the people you are labouring over may never get to appreciate you. No one in his right senses can say what is going in the Nigerian University System is okay. No doubt ASUU is also part of the problem as people like Prof. Okey Iheduru pointed out this morning. But it assaults decent sensibility to dismiss your foundation. I wonder what people like Moses and Ikhide  could have made of their lives if they had no one to teach them in the universities after finishing their secondary school educations. 

Femi

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Femi,

Your response is emblematic of the ASUU activist mentality. They're insulated in their own bubble and as a result see ill intentions behind every critique. To them critics must be bullied with insults and innuendoes. It will not work.

I have narrated my personal experience with Nigeria's culture of poor instruction, which ASUU is doing nothing about and is in fact standing in the way of doing something about. This does not mean that every lecturer I encountered in the university was terrible. This is not the only forum I write on, and I have praised some of my former teachers in other forums, including in my publications. Their instruction was integral to my formative intellectual processes and I'm indebted to them. Since you're quoting the bible (while insulting Ikhide and myself by the way), let me also quote you a scripture that says there is a place and time for everything... 

My main concern in this discussion are not the teachers who take their craft seriously--God bless them. I sat under the instructions of several. I currently know a few and I'm good friends with them. They're not only great teachers but they're fantastic scholars. But I'll tell you that for every one lecturer who taught me well, for every lecturer who takes his/her pedagoy seriously, there were/are two who were/are terrible teachers. I mean, some lecturers were scatter brain jokers who themselves should be in the classes they claim to be teaching! Many saw the rudimentary elements and obligations of the teaching craft as distractions and nuisances. And that is the problem. 

Our task here is not to praise individual members of ASUU who are not making excuses and are being productive in pedagody and research. Our task here is critique, constructive critique. If you and you fellow ASUU bullies and activists can't take it, tough luck. You're not going to use emotional blackmail to shut down this discussion, no matter how uncomfortable the critique makes you feel. So, buckle up, the ride is going to get bumpier.

[FJKolapo]

Dear Femi,
what will you say to the man in Things Fall Apart who when the oracle told him that his dead father required that he sacrifice a goat to him, responded that the oracle should ask whether his dead father when he lived ever had a chicken to eat? i certainly have seen a foundation dug up by a house owner, in fact the entire house pulled down - and a good house and good foundation they were as far as I could see. But he did this in order that the original foundation could be strengthened to be able to hold a new two story building instead of one originally on it. These critics and commentators are not being paid ... for putting out their necks to the axe!  I agree that one can take umbrage at the use of inappropriate language or for misleading interpretation of evidence or bad logic where there is any such and certainly one can disagree with their position on the basis of ones own conclusions, but otherwise, I would rather commend them.
/f. kolapo

---

From: "Femi Segun" <solor...@gmail.com>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2013 11:36:20 AM

[shina7...@yahoo.com]

Femi,
When you talk of 'condescending attitudes' in referring to Ikhide and Moses, you of course miss the entire point of these debates and go on a personal tangent that hurts the overall effort to assess the state of educational development in Nigeria.

How did you get your reading of condescension? You obviously haven't been following the debates and the unravelling of the delicate issues involved. Once you go on this tangent, you stand the chance of derailing a robust debate (and thereby inviting the Almighty Moderator's Hammer!). Even Ikhide's interventions, however blunt they may be, can't be labelled 'condescending'. I most time struggle with getting a reading between the lines of his vitriolic criticisms. But then you really need to read him as he is. And Moses condescending? 'Coloniality constrained mentality'? Biko!

I share Toyin's disgust at Ogunlesi's absolutist condemnation of the Nigerian university system (just as I felt pained by Ikhide's unfortunate reference to ASUU as a 'body of academic thugs'-i ain't no thug now!). I am also proud of my BA, MA and PhD at Ibadan's philosophy dept. Many of my intellectual experiences there form the staple of my maturation process now. I remember then that people like Eghosa Osaghae, Femi Otubanjo, Suberu, Olusegun Oladipo (of blessed memory), Chris Uroh, A.G.A Bello and others provided the intellectual stimulation that moulded my curiosity as an 'accidental' philosophy student. I particularly remember the simmering intellectual 'cold war' between Prof. Oladipo and Prof. Irele on the relevance of the postmodern agenda in African philosophy. When I published 'Is Postmodernism Meaningful in Yoruba?' I had this 'cold war' in the dept in mind.

So, would I throw away the baby with the bath water? No. Rather, I'll ensure that the 'baby' is adequately scrutinised to ensure that it achieves an hygienic scrubbing that gives it a new lease of life. It pays to also give attention to the murky bath water and what it is about the 'baby' that discoloured it.

Don't you think that's what's going on right now not only on this forum but everywhere?


Adeshina Afolayan

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Femi Segun <solor...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 08:36:20 -0700

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Moses,

I wont address the nuanced validity of Femi's response, which is not equivalent  to an escapist mentality. 

I see you, on the other hand, as an extremist on this subject, most of whose information  is  fictitious and analyses most problematic, to put it kindly. 

I have a problem with some of the claims you make that suggest a sweeping knowledge of the Nigerian university system.

Please help me explain this-

how do you know this for a fact-

'But I'll tell you that for every one lecturer who taught me well, for every lecturer who takes his/her pedagogy seriously, there were/are two who were/are terrible teachers. I mean, some lecturers were scatter brain jokers who themselves should be in the classes they claim to be teaching! Many saw the rudimentary elements and obligations of the teaching craft as distractions and nuisances. And that is the problem.'

Is this your personal experience?

If it is your personal experience, how representative is it of  Nigerian university education?

If you consider it representative, how did you come to that conclusion?

Thanks

toyin 

[Femi Segun]

Moses:

I have nothing against you or Elder Ikhide! I think you need to do more research on what goes for constructive criticism or what you previously justified as a ' poetic license'. I have shown in my previous interventions on this debate that ASUU cannot be absolved of the blame as far as the problems in the university system in Nigeria are concerned. Just like Professor Afolayan said in a previous post, I had issues with the ASUU chairman of my university before I left the country. He thinks I'm too critical of his administration for advising him to ensure some sanity in the system.  However, it is your tendency to commit what is  call the  error of accidental generalisation in Sociology 101 that I object to-in very strong terms. While one can pardon Tolu Ogunlesi for his youthful exuberance in  classifying all Nigerian universities 'as citadel of nothing,' an experienced and knowledgeable somebody like you should not go so low and pedestrian as to be saying you wanted to set exams for Lecturers in Nigerian Universities -with a certain air of unfounded certainty that no one can pass such exams. Is that part of constructive criticism? What happens if they all passed your exams?  Context matters. 

Nothing personal please. 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Toyin,

Me an extremist on this issue? Na you sabi. I am more than an extremist, I'm a victim, direct and indirect, of that which I critique. I have nephews and nieces attending university in Nigeria, you know. 

It should be pretty clear that I was talking about my experience in a particular university in Nigeria, not UniBen, where your experience clearly radically departed from mine, where, going by your narrative, you got a first class education from stellar teachers. That's your good fortune. I never claimed that my experience was representative, but you cannot claim that it is not either since, like me, you have not conducted a nationwide survey. I have compared notes with my educational contemporaries from many universities in Nigeria, and I've generally heard stories that corroborate my experience. Your experience may be an outlier or mine and others I've heard may be outliers. You don't know and I don't know, so let's leave it at that. But even if ONE university in Nigeria substantiates my critique, it is tragic enough and is thus undeserving of the kind of defensiveness and waffling you're putting up.

Finally, I've travelled to Nigeria every year since I came to the states more than 15 years ago, sometimes twice a year. I go to campuses and have events there. I collaborate on projects with colleagues in the system. I socialize and have conversations. I hear things from these colleagues about the deplorable state of instruction in their universities. In these conversations, there is no defensiveness, no rationalization, but a sober acknowledgement that we can do a lot better. Most of those stories come to me unsolicited by the way, so don't think that I seek out stories that corroborate my preconceived views. Only a few months ago, I was on my way to Nigeria for a conference and on the flight from Atlanta to Lagos I sat next to an HOD of a Political Science department in one of the federal universities. I cannot even publicly repeat some of the scandalous things he told me about the instructional picture in his department, other departments, and other institutions that he has intimate knowledge of. These are things that will get even a tenured faculty fired elsewhere. I have to say I was shocked at his candor about the standard of teaching ( more like the the lack of teaching) in Nigerian universities. But what he told me only reinforced what colleagues from other universities had told me and what I had heard from students.

So, bottom line, whether my experience and narrative are representative or not is immaterial. Even if you acknowledge that one Nigerian university exhibits these depressing trends, you've acquiesced in my contention.

[shina7...@yahoo.com]

Femi,
When you talk of 'condescending attitudes' in referring to Ikhide and Moses, you of course miss the entire point of these debates and go on a personal tangent that hurts the overall effort to assess the state of educational development in Nigeria.

How did you get your reading of condescension? You obviously haven't been following the debates and the unravelling of the delicate issues involved. Once you go on this tangent, you stand the chance of derailing a robust debate (and thereby inviting the Almighty Moderator's Hammer!). Even Ikhide's interventions, however blunt they may be, can't be labelled 'condescending'. I most time struggle with getting a reading between the lines of his vitriolic criticisms. But then you really need to read him as he is. And Moses condescending? 'Coloniality constrained mentality'? Biko!

I share Toyin's disgust at Ogunlesi's absolutist condemnation of the Nigerian university system (just as I felt pained by Ikhide's unfortunate reference to ASUU as a 'body of academic thugs'-i ain't no thug now!). I am also proud of my BA, MA and PhD at Ibadan's philosophy dept. Many of my intellectual experiences there form the staple of my maturation process now. I remember then that people like Eghosa Osaghae, Femi Otubanjo, Suberu, Olusegun Oladipo (of blessed memory), Chris Uroh, A.G.A Bello and others provided the intellectual stimulation that moulded my curiosity as an 'accidental' philosophy student. I particularly remember the simmering intellectual 'cold war' between Prof. Oladipo and Prof. Irele on the relevance of the postmodern agenda in African philosophy. When I published 'Is Postmodernism Meaningful in Yoruba?' I had this 'cold war' in the dept in mind.

So, would I throw away the baby with the bath water? No. Rather, I'll ensure that the 'baby' is adequately scrutinised to ensure that it achieves an hygienic scrubbing that gives it a new lease of life. It pays to also give attention to the murky bath water and what it is about the 'baby' that discoloured it.

Don't you think that's what's going on right now not only on this forum but everywhere?


Adeshina Afolayan

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Femi Segun <solor...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 08:36:20 -0700

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Femi,

Fine, but why are you still making patronizing statements to me ("an experienced and knowledgeable somebody like you.."), as if I need your validation to know that I am knowledgeable and experienced, and insulting me by saying that I am "go[ing] low and pedestrian"? Seriously, you want to judge my analytical depth? There are things I could say about your own analytical capabilities, but I will not go there as that is unimportant to the discussion at hand. To boot, you lectured me on the perils of accidental generalization. Wow! Since you barged into this discussion, you've contributed nothing of substance--only invectives and patronizing asides that you've not earned the right to throw at me or Ikhide. And all of this from someone quoting the Bible and deploying pentecostal Christianese (destiny helper)!

I could lecture you on the value of strategic generalization, strategic essentialism, poetic license, and other subtleties of the discursive enterprise, but why bother? I could also lecture you on the dangers of crude empiricism (the discursively tyrannical and unrewarding notion that every claim must be statistically or empirically substantiated to be valid), but you'd not appreciate it.

The most egregious part of your diatribe is that, in getting so worked up defending ASUU and its shenanigans, you did not even bother to notice that it was Feyi Fawehinmi, the blogger, whose write-up I posted, who said he would set exams for lecturers in Nigerian universities, and not Moses Ochonu. My crime, I guess, was that I posted the offending blogpost--I was the messenger. 

Put a sock in it; I don't need patronizing niceties from you. And I'm still struggling to understand why you want to dictate to full-grown men who are arguably your intellectual equals the way to express themselves in a public forum. What arrogance! Who appointed you to the role of discourse police. Who doesn't know that Ikhide generalizes for effect?  I mean, the man has even declared multiple times that readers concerned about his generalization can help themselves by erecting the appropriate caveats and qualifiers if that floats their boats. If you cannot navigate different discursive styles to extract their essential insights, that's a testament to your own prejudices and incuriosity. If you think anyone will change their style for you, you got another think coming buddy. Is this forum an academic journal? My broda, quit obsessing over someone else's style of expression and develop your own unique style. At least Ikhide has a signature style--what is your own stye?

And on a lighter note, if you cut Tolu Ogunlesi some slack on account of youthful exuberance, why won't you do the same for me? Am I not a youth myself and am I not entitled to some youthful exuberance, especially on a matter that I am passionate about, a matter in which I am deeply involved?

[Ikhide]

"And on a lighter note, if you cut Tolu Ogunlesi some slack on account of youthful exuberance, why won't you do the same for me? Am I not a youth myself and am I not entitled to some youthful exuberance, especially on a matter that I am passionate about, a matter in which I am deeply involved?"

- Young man Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu

LOL! SMH. 

Moses, OK, Young man continue to be yourself, you should be chuffed as we say in my village, each time you open your mouth, the volleys hit their targets, that is why you hear all that wailing. Just continue to be yourself, I admire the way you have shaped this debate, with a mixture of brains, brawn, passion and pure swag. This is how to write jor, when I grow up I want to be like you, writing as if it is water coming from a real tap :-D

Don't worry about it, in 40 years time when you become the age of your favorite rascal (me) you will learn to separate the sizzle from the suya, not every Tom, Dick and Harry should be worth your time. Me, if the person mangles his or her tenses and senses in the first sentence, o pari ni yen, I am so deleting the nonsense. Life is too short for me to be engaging chaff. 

If you want to engage me, learn English, write English, and by all means, do your research. Otherwise you are dead to me. You want the attention of a whole big man like me? Talk to my secretary's secretary first. Nonsense *sips tea*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

You guys should spare this forum these unnecessary Intellectual showmanship, (gra-gra in motor park parlance), aimed at ego boosting and unnecessary intimidation of the other person. Even when the discussion degenerates into “I can lecture you……..”, you guys still think you are “proffering solutions”. Most of your posts have only entertainment value (apologies to Toyin Adepoju).

Any way shaa, I can lecture all of you on the "Intellectualization of njakirism or yabisism"(una no go clap for me?).

CAO.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Dear Forum Members:

My problem with all of you social scientists who populate this forum in overwhleming number is the problematization of little matters.  In the sometimes serious, sometimes tombo-joint discussions, I suddenly read someone quote/cite Freud, Nietzsche (sp?), especially Weber, not to talk of the occasional Soyinka, Jeyifo or even Falola. And I ask: sho?

Anyway sha, Diaspora returnee or not, Chidi - noting your earlier pregnant ly egeregious and gratuitous insinuation and innuendo - we are still working on seeing the strike come to some amicable resolution - for the sake of the innocent and hapless students.

And there you have that one.


Bolaji Aluko

[obiemeka06]

I have watched quietly but i must say sadly how the debate on the ASUU strike has degenerated to name calling and unnecessary ego trip.While some are simply interested in running down ASUU without engaging in serious thinking about how to rescue our education from the claws of imminent death,others are bent on defending ASUU.Please the issue is not ASUU,its about our children,our future ,and our nation.What surprises me about those who have been busy heaping all the blames on ASUU is that they seem to forget that ASUU is part of the Nigerian system and as such cannot be totally immuned from the general value debasement of the nation.Granted that as academics they are expected to have higher values but we must remember that the university is a microcosm of the society.Thus,our major concern today should be how to address the rot in the educational system holistically in such manner as to produce real educated people with higher values that can help in the struggle for value re_orientation which we so much need today.Please stop the arguement on who should be blamed and proffer workable solutions to the problem.Remember the blame game doesnt solve any problem and is often an escape route for a lazy man.

Obi Emeka Anthony  Anambra State University

Sent from Samsung tablet

>>>>>> OCTOBER 7, 2013 BY TOLU OGUNLESI (TO4OG...@YAHOO.COM) 2 COMMENTS<http://www.punchng.com/opinion/asuus-strategy-and-the-nigerian-university/#comments>

>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [image: Tolu Ogunlesi]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tolu Ogunlesi

>>>>>> *| credits: File copy*

>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities has been in the

>>>>>> news a lot, courtesy of a strike action that has now entered its third

>>>>>> can power their laptops and *BlackBerry* phones. But that is what he

>>>>>> *•Follow me on Twitter: @toluogunlesi*

>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 7:06 AM, Gbolahan Gbadamosi <
>>>>>> gbola.g...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>

>>>>>>> *Chidi,*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *This is exactly the attitude that has brought ASUU and the issues

>>>>>>> at hand to the present level. Any dissenting voice must be squashed; they
>>>>>>> must have an ulterior motive … Yeah, let us stick together, let us think

>>>>>>> one way…*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *I’m shell-shocked – the only point you have been able to pick from

>>>>>>> ALL the arguments and suggestions on the best way forward that have been
>>>>>>> advanced on this forum is that some people in the Diaspora want to come and

>>>>>>> take ASUU’s job. Really? Are you for real?*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Glad at least you admitted that ASUU has not been able to respond

>>>>>>> as you put it “propaganda for propaganda” – but did you stop to ask why

>>>>>>> that is?*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *With an ASUU friend like you why should they look for an enemy
>>>>>>> anywhere? *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *You remind me of the 1 million man-march for Abacha – that was
>>>>>>> also in Nigeria wasn’t it?*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> * *
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Gbolahan Gbadamosi*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Bournemouth, UK*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> **

>>>>>>> On 7 October 2013 10:38, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> One of the problems ASUU has at the moment is the ambition of some
>>>>>>>> persons in the diaspora to take over the administration of education in
>>>>>>>> Nigeria. They armed their attack dogs with one sided facts and unleashed
>>>>>>>> them on the Internet, ASUU must be made to look bad so that they would be
>>>>>>>> invited to come and "help". Unfortunately, ASUU, presently, is too weak to
>>>>>>>> match them propaganda for propaganda. Nigerian literature suffered the same
>>>>>>>> fate not quite long ago.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> CAO.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Sunday, 6 October 2013 19:54:04 UTC+1, tovadepoju wrote:
>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>   *On the National Unity of ASUU*

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> To the best of my understanding,  the idea of dismantling ASUU is
>>>>>>>>> ultimately inimical to the Nigerian university system.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  In a system like Nigeria's political context, you need a
>>>>>>>>> national ASUU to address the issues of academics and universities.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ASUU can be improved, but to dismantle the union in the name of
>>>>>>>>> having only local branches, looks to me like a journey to hell.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  Operating from local unions alone is a recipe for powerlessness,
>>>>>>>>> and therefore ineffectual relationship with the federal government, the
>>>>>>>>> employer of the universities.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Feyi Fawehinmi describes Nigerian academics as among the better

>>>>>>>>> paid in the world<http://aguntasolo.com/2013/09/28/asuu-part-deux-this-time-the-facts-and-only-a-bit-of-speculation/>

>>>>>>>>> *
>>>>>>>>> *
>>>>>>>>> *On Nigerian vs International Publication of Journal Articles and
>>>>>>>>> Books*

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Feyi Fawehinmi described Nigerian academics as being largely locally

>>>>>>>>> published alone<http://aguntasolo.com/2013/09/28/asuu-part-deux-this-time-the-facts-and-only-a-bit-of-speculation/>

>>>>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> He presents a beautiful description of the value
>>>>>>>>> of international publication.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> An academic   responding on  Fawehinmi's   blog who disagrees
>>>>>>>>> with his comments on academic salaries agrees about the
>>>>>>>>> local publishing charge and gives reasons for that,  indicating  a very
>>>>>>>>> disturbing  scenario for scholarship in Nigeria.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> While  I acknowledge the value of publishing outside Nigeria, I
>>>>>>>>> think we might need to rethink the publishing paradigm implied by

>>>>>>>>> the concept of international **publication.

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> My ideas on this are still  not definite  but I would like to make

>>>>>>>>> some  provocative statements **followed by suggestions-
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> *The Current Situation : Difficulty  of Access by Continental
>>>>>>>>>  Africans to  Western Published Books and Journals*

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  You might publish a book a year, as Biodun Jeyifo is described
>>>>>>>>> as doing did when he left Ife for Cornell, climaxing  in his monumental
>>>>>>>>> last book on Soyinka, at which point he moved to a Harvard professorship;
>>>>>>>>> you might almost be a God of knowledge like Toyin Falola and Abdul Karim
>>>>>>>>> Bangura, whose range of subject matter and volume of publication make them
>>>>>>>>> institutions  in themselves, most likely  inexhaustible fields of
>>>>>>>>> study,  but even though Falola's work is staunchly  rooted in
>>>>>>>>> Africa and Bangura is a die hard Afrocentrist, if I am using the right
>>>>>>>>> terminology  with reference to Bangura, one needs to ask-
>>>>>>>>> what communities of learning are  being served  by their universes   of
>>>>>>>>> publications?
>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> To what degree are African scholars, students and **universities able

>>>>>>>>> to buy their books?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> These books are academic publications, academic publications being
>>>>>>>>> consistently the best in non-fiction, in my experience,  but, as published
>>>>>>>>> by Western publishers, which I expect they and other academics in the West
>>>>>>>>> are published by, they are consistently  the most expensive.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The high end of such expensiveness might be represented by some

>>>>>>>>> academic publishers like Cambridge University Press<http://www.cambridge.org/>,

>>>>>>>>> who publish the cream de la creme of uncompromisingly  academic work, often
>>>>>>>>> without any concessions to a non-academic audience, concessions the equally

>>>>>>>>> academically robust but perhaps more adventurous   Oxford <http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/>
>>>>>>>>> University Press <http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/> **achieves with
>>>>>>>>> its general range like the Very Short Introductions<http://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-introductions-vsi/;jsessionid=EFB1AA70F8B7E621F5C20944F91DBA64?cc=gb&lang=en&>,

>>>>>>>>> a great idea, presenting the most up to date research on a subject in
>>>>>>>>> a succinct manner that   still does not eschew disciplinary rigour.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cambridge UP, on the other hand, is characterised  purely  by high
>>>>>>>>> end works, to the best of my knowledge, encompassing

>>>>>>>>> the absolute academic rigour **and specialist character of a good

>>>>>>>>> number of Oxford UP publications, but without Oxford UP's  range
>>>>>>>>>  of audience scope and pricing, Oxford UP interestingly, also publishing new

>>>>>>>>>  children's fiction<https://global.oup.com/education/children/?region=uk>
>>>>>>>>> , suggesting their **range, while Cambridge UP seems to me to

>>>>>>>>> represent absolute hard core academic work, and with prices to match, their

>>>>>>>>> only fiction seeming to be classics of Western literature<http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/european-and-world-literature-general-interest/series/cambridge-library-collection-fiction-and-poetry?options%5B%5D=Historic%2Btitles>
>>>>>>>>> .

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Their books, however, represent a concentration of some of the

>>>>>>>>> very best, the most ambitious, carefully **conceived works, some

>>>>>>>>> rightly taking  years to research and write.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I will not bore you any further with reflections arising  from my

>>>>>>>>> salivations in the Cambridge UP<http://www.cambridge.org/uk/bookshop/default.htm> flagship bookshop
>>>>>>>>> on Trinity Street, Cambridge<http://www.cambridge.org/uk/bookshop/default.htm>,

>>>>>>>>> but leave you with the observation of a bookseller that those books
>>>>>>>>> are not really meant for individuals but for institutions to buy.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> When you encounter their fantastic many volumed series on the history of

>>>>>>>>> science<http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/history-science-general-interest/series/cambridge-history-science>-they

>>>>>>>>> are very good at many volumed series- then you might be compelled to
>>>>>>>>> assess yourself and see the point of that bookseller.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> They sell to individuals, though, and give a 20% discount to
>>>>>>>>> students and staff  of Cambridge university  and neighbouring
>>>>>>>>>  academic institutions, along with recurrent discount sales.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I have also been able buy some books there,
>>>>>>>>> even without the discount, recognising the place as
>>>>>>>>> a necessary destination.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  Patronising them is a necessity in certain contexts.
>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> There is quality, and there *IS* quality.

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> In a world in which the most globally representative books and
>>>>>>>>> journals  are published outside Africa, what should Africans do?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> To what degree can their communities  read even the works

>>>>>>>>> of continental  Africans published in those **journals, in a

>>>>>>>>> world in which even Harvard, possibly the world's richest university,

>>>>>>>>> **once  announced  it can no longer afford its scope
>>>>>>>>> of journal subscription, a world in which  Timothy Gowers<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Gowers>, Fields medal

>>>>>>>>>  winner (described as the highest honour in mathematics),
>>>>>>>>> and Cambridge university  professor  of mathematics,  led

>>>>>>>>> a successful boycott <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cost_of_Knowledge>on

>>>>>>>>> working with journals published by the prestigious academic  publisher
>>>>>>>>>  Elsevier, in protest at the publisher's pricing policies?
>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> *Suggestions : Persisting In and Improving Nigerian Journal and
>>>>>>>>> Book Publication*

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 1. I suspect that those creating journals in Nigeria and
>>>>>>>>> publishing in them  are doing the right  thing in the long run for the

>>>>>>>>> interests of the cognitive ecosystem **represented by the

>>>>>>>>> Nigerian educational system and its social context.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I suspect the real challenge is how to do it  as well
>>>>>>>>> as possible and  keep doing it, expanding the global membership of the

>>>>>>>>> editorial board, the international demographic **represented by

[shina7...@yahoo.com]

When Oyinbo land like this, we usually exclaim

GBAM!!

Three gbosas for njakirism/yabisism!!!

Chidi, I clap o jare.

Adeshina Afolayan

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 03:17:35 -0700 (PDT)

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

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

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

“My problem with all of you social scientists who populate this forum in overwhelming number is the problematization of little matters.”  

 

Ma

 

Hm. You have a problem with “all of you social scientists…”. Is this to say that there is not one “social scientist” in your opinion, who does not ‘problematize’ little matters? When is a matter a little matter? Who makes the determination? What is the basis of this person’s entitlement to so determine if indeed such a person exists? Is it not the case that one person’s little matter may be another’s not-little matter? What is the certainty that a so-called little matter that is not properly addressed, will not transmute into a not-little matter? A little more charity, discretion, humility, thoughtfulness, and respect for all, on the part of every all forum participant will help to edify and enrich forum conversations. I am just musing.

 

oa

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mobolaji Aluko
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 5:53 AM
To: Chidi Anthony Opara
Cc: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU Part Quatre: We Have An Agreement | Agùntáṣǫólò

 

--

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

For the record, I fully support Bolaji's four-point (or is it five-point?) road map for resolving the ongoing impasse. The suggested measures seem fair to both sides and accomplishes the task of getting our students back to the classroom---with the hope that, once this crisis passes, ASUU, government, and other stakeholders will begin the tough, uncomfortable conversations that can bring lasting stability, decent infrastructural conditions, and INSTRUCTIONAL excellence/integrity back to the system. I'd only add that as part of the resolution, ASUU should at least pledge itself to some basic, rudimentary gestures of self-scrutiny and student-centered accountability. An anonymous student evaluation system would be a good place to start, and its weight in lecturer performance evaluations can be negotiated with each institution. Later, we can talk about other metrics of performance evaluation, as well as the need to institute transparent hiring practices that can police entry into the academy and deal with quackery on the front end. The phenomenon of "I'm just teaching" that Professor Iheduru eloquently analyzed is at the root of poor, unethical instructional conducts. Folks should not enter or remain in the academy if they're "just teaching" until something more lucrative and glamorous comes along. Mba!

From the very beginning of this discussion, I've been focused like a laser on ASUU. It should be obvious to any observer that the government is also a culprit, perhaps a bigger one, in the crisis of higher education in Nigeria. We're already familiar with that story, and there are enough people going over that terrain, including those making ASUU's case in public spaces; I didn't want to join the ASUU propaganda choir. But only a few people were willing to entertain the increasingly obvious fact that ASUU is now deeply implicated in the crisis that it often decries. This tone-deaf insularity can happen to even well-intentioned organizations; they become cocooned in their self-created narratives and their members and sympathizers repeat the organizational line without stepping back to examine shifts that may have occurred and flawed strategic assumptions that may underpin the organization's propaganda. 

My purpose was to put the spotlight on ASUU's own miscalculations, its failure to read the public mood, and more crucially, its refusal to frontally confront the big elephant ultimately responsible for the production of poor graduates--poor instruction and poor ethics. I can see that this point has been made, and a consensus has developed around it. I will not take credit for this consensus. Rather, I will give the credit to the students and recent graduates who, through punchy, robust blogposts, status updates, and vigorous online discussions and commentaries, put ASUU on notice that it will no longer be business as usual and that the union could no longer keep asking for stuff without giving up some of its impunity or accepting some responsibility for what ails university education in Nigeria. This vast online army of young commentators and bloggers got ASUU supporters worked up and gave them a window into what students, the most important stakeholders in the system, really think of ASUU's indifference to the plight and interests of students. Moreover, the important imperative of ASUU's functional decentralization has been put on the table and it will remain there until it is embraced in one form or another.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Something Is Wrong Here : Unfounded Assumptions Projected as Fact 

A  lot of unfounded assumptions on ASUU and the Nigerian university system as a whole are being presented here as summative valid points.

It seems one has to  pay more attention and speak up consistently.  

One cannot claim to be too busy to address those making up false stories  about one's home, mixing fact and fiction, meaningful comments with  preposterous claims, thus giving the impression they are being fair.

Who knows who is reading all this stuff?

On the Relationship Between the Structural Integrity of ASUU and the Past and Future History of Nigerian University Education

1. This is is a NO GO AREA : 

'Moreover, the important imperative of ASUU's functional decentralization has been put on the table and it will remain there until it is embraced in one form or another.' 

Moses Ebe Ochonu

You are ON YOUR OWN with Ikhide in that illusion.

That statement you made does not grasp what is at stake. 

I had written a rejoinder that expressed graphically  my sense of outrage at that statement on ASUU but it seems it might be better to approach the issue in a more urbane manner.

We are discussing the union that took me from a person earning 600 naira a month, a person looked down upon by many in society as being in an unserious job, a person whom my father was pleased that I had been offered the lecturing job, but advised me that he would not have been able to achieve much of what he had if he had remained  a teacher, so why I dont I let him get me a job as an editor in a publishing house, since I loved books so much;the union that took me from from the years of managing because one believed in the academic calling, resisting statements like ' you will die in poverty','can he mould a block'?; the union that took me from being   person whom when one of my classmates learnt the dept had retained me as a lecturer came to tell me 'I have come to commiserate with you'-I keep wondering if she made a mistake in her words, but she was a graduate  of English and Literature like myself and would not mistake 'commiserate' for 'congratulate'; the union that fught through great sacrifice for my dignity as a   person who, in the 12 years I taught  at Uniben, the faculty of arts staff toilet never had running water, leaving the indefatigable Ehimika Ifidon who believed body and soul in the system, to fetch water with buckets to flush them before and after use, a level of commitment I could not muster, leaving me to pass water by the side of a tree in the faculty grounds,  on which, on one occasion, a passing student greeted me  'good afternoon sir'...the sheer ridiculous  hilarity of it all wont let me continue.

What is the point here?

ASUU is the force that makes being a lecturer with some dignity possible in Nigeria. A national ASUU with teeth.

Remove that and you have nothing.

You become a football of the politicians. 

You cannot be taken seriously as a decentralised group.

What is your bargaining power?

The argument should not be 'ASUU must not go strike 'but what do we do to make strikes unnecessary?'

Students in Nigerian Universities and ASUU

This, too, is not a representative view-

'ASUU's indifference to the plight and interests of students.'

I suppose you want ragged teachers to teach the students?

Teachers who run barbershops and butcher shops, as  in the hard old days? 

Then, we shall know what is called 'indifference to the plight and interests of students.'

Muzzled teachers who have no one to speak for them, are never on strike, always in the classroom, come rain or shine, teaching what?

Fela- 'teacher, no teach me nonsense.'

At least the teacher is teaching.

'This vast online army of young commentators and bloggers got ASUU supporters worked up and gave them a window into what students, the most important stakeholders in the system'.

You clearly missed those students calling for a nation wide demonstration in favour of ASUU and those whom the govt send a mobile police  detachment to suppress their pro-ASUU  demonstration. 

Wonderful  Student Experiences in  Nigerian Universities from BA to PhD Across the Years

I have been composing an essay on this issue of ASUU which its clear I need to complete and publish.  Yes. Posting online is publishing. 

Im so grateful for this group inspiring me to write about my teachers at the University of Benin.

I have such wonderful stories too from my sister who studied at the University of Calabar.

She talked so much about Emelia Oko, Imme Ikhide, Rukmini Vanamali and others I knew their names by heart.

I can bring you Charles Ugu's stories of the University of Ibadan, with the names of his teachers falling from his lips like incantations. 

Is it my teacher  Ogo Ofuani who was forever talking  about his University of Ibadan PhD as an immersion in a place where reality of knowledge reigned and the descent to Uniben was moving to a lower plane?

Is it Max Wagbafor of Political Science who kept talking of his University of Ibadan PhD as if he became a human being at IU, and compared to Uniben he was among barbarians?

Yet, both Ofuani and Wagbafor were teachers at the very university of Benin where Moses has described my account of my education there as a 'first class education by stellar lecturers'.

Some of the most notable African-American and English scholars today in England and the US came to University of Ife to get their PhDs, after which they returned home.

Am I to write about the University of Calabar yearly international conferences in African literature, the presentations of which were published as books?

The Central Impact  of the Nigerian University System, from its Beginnings to the Present, on Modern African Culture and  Scholarship on this Culture 

Am I to give a history of the University of Nsukka school of art, over the decades, from the days of Uche Okeke, to Obiora Udechukwu, to El Anatsui, to Olu Oguibe to Sylvester Ogbechie to  Dimprozukike and the impact of this school on African art?

Do I survey the achievements of the Ibadan and Ife schools of the humanities, from the 50s to the present,  their shaping of the agenda in African historiography, African literature and literary criticism, and theatre arts?

The Ife art school from Ona, with Moyo Okediji and others to Victor Ekpuk?

What about Yaba polytechnic and its art school?

University of Lagos and its school of philosophy?

The achievements of Okike journal at Nsukka, and the dept of philosophy and its journal?

What about Akiwowo and the Ife school of indigenous sociology?

It is not possible to discuss scholarship about Africa in the humanities without discussing the past and present achievements of the Nigerian university system through its teachers and students. 

Any other story is not based on fact. 

ASUU: Strategies and Creative Impact in Comparison with Other Academic Unions in Western Countries

If one were to write on the meaning of ASUU, its strategies  and its profound positive impact on Nigerian academia, it would be a long essay. 

I will attempt at least  part of such an essay.

I was a student at various levels at the University of Benin, and a member of Uniben ASUU exco and so got some exposure. 

Happily,I have also got some exposure to higher education in England and their academic strategies of unionisation, which is very active at both local and national levels. 

My  History with My Teachers at the University of Benin as Central to the Creative Shaping of Myself 

If I were to write in detail about the roles of my Nigerian university teachers as teachers, guidance counsellors, guides in how to study, people who assisted me well after I had graduated and they were no longer employed by my university, who bought me gifts from their journeys abroad, who paid their own money for applications for me to US schools and sent the forms themselves, who tried to get me jobs abroad,  people whom I had nothing to give except my appreciation, which I did not always give anyway because I did not always appreciate the value of what I was being given, and if I add to this the stories of my sisters, my friends and other acquaintances,would I not make a book?

Please note that I am a man, as most of the teachers I refer to are men,  so would have nothing to offer in the dept some say Nigerian teachers have become specialists in. 

As to my sexual orientation, you can guess that from my blog list and my Facebook account. 

So, there would be nothing happening in the reverse side of sexual possibility on account of my being male. 

I mention all this because with the way Nigerian academics have been fiendishized here, one wonders what justifications  for their being human in the way I have described could be brought up in some people's minds.

I have already written and published online an  essay "Professor Ogo Ofuani and the Resonance of Memory Across Space and Time", posted on this group, on May 19, 2013, on Ogo Ofuani,  who taught me in my BA, MA and part PhD in the Department of English and Literature and was later my academic colleague,  and have more writing  on him in preparation. 

I have written two essays on Iro Eweka,who taught my sister at the University of Benin Theatre Arts dept, a lecturer   I used to admire from a distance.

The first, "Unforgettable Teachers: Iro Eweka" is an email conversation between Akin Solanke and myself, schoolmates in different entry years  in the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin. 

The second, Iro Eweka : The Human Face, the Human Mind, and the Possibility of a Mysticism Inspired by Benin Olokun Symbolism" discusses the impression of his appearance represented by the accounts of Akin and I in relation to Eweka's  work on Benin Olokun symbolism. 

 

Why Discuss Your Parents/Teachers in Public?: When They are Being Described as Uniformly  Evil

I used to think that talking publicly about your teachers is like coming to the public to discuss your parents. 

They mean a lot to you, they shaped what you are, and so?

Everybody has their own story. Some good, some not so good, some bad, some a mixture.

In the general run, however,they would be stories of humans struggling to make meaning of a huge responsibility which no one really fully understands how best to manage because the human being is largely  a mystery.

So,why come to a public space and tell stories that most people can replicate in  their own accounts?

Until I came across the open  season on Nigerian university lecturers on this group, , with stories of gore being  told as if the student account of studying in a Nigerian university in the past 20 years  begins and ends from such hells.

The second and third  parts of my account of my experience at the University of Benin   are in preparation.

I place the experience in the context of my philosophical and spiritual quest.

thanks

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

REPOSTED WITH ADDED LINKS

Something Is Wrong Here : Unfounded Assumptions Projected as Fact 

A  lot of unfounded assumptions on ASUU and the Nigerian university system as a whole are being presented here as summative valid points.

It seems one has to  pay more attention and speak up consistently.  

One cannot claim to be too busy to address those making up false stories  about one's home, mixing fact and fiction, meaningful comments with  preposterous claims, thus giving the impression they are being fair.

Who knows who is reading all this stuff?

On the Relationship Between the Structural Integrity of ASUU and the Past and Future History of Nigerian University Education

This is  a NO GO AREA : 

As to my sexual orientation, you can guess that from my list of blogs and my Facebook account and the list of Facebook groups I founded and all those I belong to. 

So, there would be nothing happening in the reverse side of sexual possibility on account of my being male. 

I mention all this because with the way Nigerian academics have been fiendishized here, one wonders what justifications  for their being human in treating me as a fellow human being the way I have described could be brought up in some people's minds.

I have already written and published online an  essay "Professor Ogo Ofuani and the Resonance of Memory Across Space and Time", posted on this group, on May 19, 2013, on Ogo Ofuani,  who taught me in my BA, MA and part PhD in the Department of English and Literature and was later my academic colleague,  and have more writing  on him in preparation. 

I have written two essays on Iro Eweka,who taught my sister at the University of Benin Theatre Arts dept, a lecturer   I used to admire from a distance.

The first, "Unforgettable Teachers: Iro Eweka" is an email conversation between Akin Solanke and myself, schoolmates in different entry years  in the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin. 

The second, "Iro Eweka : The Human Face, the Human Mind, and the Possibility of a Mysticism Inspired by Benin Olokun Symbolism" discusses the impression of his appearance represented by the accounts of Akin and I in relation to Eweka's  work on Benin Olokun symbolism. 

 

Why Discuss Your Parents/Teachers in Public?: When They are Being Described as Uniformly  Evil

I used to think that talking publicly about your teachers is like coming to the public to discuss your parents. 

They mean a lot to you, they shaped what you are, and so?

Everybody has their own story. Some good, some not so good, some bad, some a mixture.

In the general run, however,they would be stories of humans struggling to make meaning of a huge responsibility which no one really fully understands how best to manage because the human being is largely  a mystery.

So,why come to a public space and tell stories that most people can replicate in  their own accounts?

Until I came across the open  season on Nigerian university lecturers on this group, , with stories of gore being  told as if the student account of studying in a Nigerian university in the past 20 years  begins and ends from such hells.

The second and third  parts of my account of my experience at the University of Benin   are in preparation.

I place the experience in the context of my philosophical and spiritual quest.

thanks

toyin

[Femi Segun]

Thanks again for this incisive post. You have forced me to add more to my previous posts on this issue. Those whose  claim to superior ideas  is based essentially  on  expertise in English Language-(what we call the language of domination in Political Economy), are either unschooled in the values of mutual respect or have been so absorbed in a perverse value system of the society in which  they are ensconced,  that they have totally negated such values. 

As to whether a different perspective from those of the intolerant  duo is  capable of derailing the debate on ASUU strike, I think not. Toyin has raised an important point on the likely diversity of people who reads the posts on this forum. I think failure to reply and provide a more balanced and reasonable perspectives on the core issues surrounding the current debacle  will only help to validate and legitimize their vague generalisations. In fact, it will amount to intellectual laziness. 

Femi

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Femi.

I have been preoccupied with trying to restructure myself.

For that reason, I have not followed up on the few comments I have made on this thread or even followed the thread seriously.

Something told me, though, that I cannot be too busy to address an issue central to my history and telling on the image of what has made me what I am and is central to the platform of all I will be.

I have looked through most, if not all the posts on this subject on this group, and I would like to make my contribution to putting things in perspective.

Between Infrastructural Challenges  and the Human Spirit 

Well before I began my BA in 1985, Wole Soyinka had advocated that Nigerian universities should be scrapped and rebuilt from the bottom up.

My generation never saw the glory days of Nigerian university provision-some of which I had seen because I had been admitted to the university earlier  but left because I did not identify with the  ethos of the globally dominant educational  system, but that is a much broader philosophical issue for another time- so we were the buka generation,who made do with food cooked and served by private food sellers at varying degrees of aesthetic value for the university landscape, in contrast to being served meals in the cafeteria, a change that drastically slashed  the elite culture of the university.

It was during my BA I saw a computer for the first time in the Dean's office and asked what the object was.

The toilet in the Hall 4 male hostel was not a place one liked to go to,  on account of its poor water condition.

Being able to have your own bed space was a significant achievement, before the advent of the private housing complex known as Ekosodin, and in Hall 4,a place of privilege in that context,  we were about four to a room, with the sections partitioned by something like nets.

I never used a computerised library card catalogue, or even saw one outside what I had read about,  till I got to England in 2003, 12 years after my BA. 

All journals I had accessed, even  as a lecturer at the University of Benin, were all hard copy, though some were up to date and there was a significant selection in my field.

Even though I had been able to buy a computer in Benin with the aid of the university's hire purchase scheme, I had employed a secretary to use it in the research centre I founded using my personal library, while I  went on field work, so it was at Kent I was compelled to learn how to use a computer. 

What am I trying to say?

Its important to insist on and work towards  better conditions, but dont dismiss the resilience of the human spirit.

The fact that our circumstances were far from ideal does not mean that we could not do great things. 

I see the relative heaven in which Cambridge students live, my mouth waters at the sight of this different universe, but I am pleased I had  the exposure I had to my country and tasted of its substance. 

Developmental Processes and the Challenges of Time and Opportunity  

I see that my lecturers at the University of Benin are every inch as intelligent, most of them as diligent, as dedicated,  as my lecturers at the universities of Kent, SOAS and UCL.

The central difference was opportunity.

What we Nigerians, Africans and other struggling peoples  need is opportunity.

We also need to avoid putting each other down and denigrating our countries. 

Critique, but try and be balanced and humane.

At a meeting of the Quakers I attended the other day, I moaned about poor government in Africa.

The  English people looked at me silently. 

Then one of them told me that it took England  centuries of growth to achieve a stable democracy, citing as an example the  mandatory length between the seating arrangements for members of parliament, which has to be longer than the length of a sword, because in the old days they used to lunge over the bench to attack each other with swords.

She also mentioned that in order to avoid  persecution, the opposition had called itself her majesty's  loyal opposition.

Democracy is more than a process.

It is a culture. 

It takes time to build and the only way to to cultivate it is to do it and do it continuously for as long as possible.

Distinctive Qualities of Nigeria 

I suspect Nigerian social class is more flexible than that of England and that Nigerians are more socially aware.

I see myself as having moved on from Nigeria, having spent decades there  from my birth till I left, but I need to still mine the place for treasures I cant find here, treasures I consider vital to the history and perhaps the future of the human race.

What are these treasures?

An understanding of nature as cognitively symbiotic with the human being, integrating but transcending its aesthetic value. 

That vision is core to classical African cosmologies, and is embodied in the character of the Benin landscape, for example. 

It  is an ancient global insight, evident from Africa to Asia, but seemingly negated in Europe, the West and perhaps the Middle East by the transcendentalist ethos of the Abrahamic religions and the disanimated  science that eventually emerged from the ferment of the Scientific Revolution. 

It is only now beginning to remerge with Western neo-paganism and partly reinforced by scientific rethinking of the the balance of nature. 

The Need for a Balance of Narratives 

What has this got to do with ASUU and the Nigerian university system?

Everyone should tell their stories, so we dont have one sided  stories. 

From the varied platforms of these stories, we are better enabled to conduct analyses.

Publication and Promotion and the Place of Nigerian Academia in the Global System of Knowledge

                          Foundations and Continuity in Nigerian Academia : Landmarks 

I was shocked, for example, by Moses assertion that the use of publication criteria as a measure for promoting academic staff is a recent development in the Nigerian university system and that this criterion assess only quantity, not quality.

How can such a belief even be entertained, much less held, about a system that was created  and run by  such discipline definers as  Kenneth Dike, Cornelius Adepegba, Abiola Irele, Adiele Afigbo, Emefia Ikengah-Metuh, Obiora Udechukwu, Chika Okeke, Dapo Adelugba, Peter Bodunrin, among so many names inescapable in any study of the their disciplines, and of the foundational initiatives of scholarship in African history, the visual arts, African literature and African philosophy, not forgetting the marvellous work of Akiwowo at Ife on indigenous sociology based on Ifa which received widespread attention even beyond Africa and was carefully examined by his non-African colleagues,  a dialogical collection   in the form of academic journal articles  I have to post here as soon as possible. 

So, how can anyone even suspect, much less believe, that rigorous academic procedures were not made the life blood of the systems run by these figures who represent much of the foundations  and much of what came after in their respective disciplines anywhere these disciplines  are studied, from Benin to New York to Tokyo? 

Joseph  Omoregbe, then  at the University of Lagos, I think, wrote and published in Nigeria  what is likely to one of the earliest  surveys of global philosophy anywhere, most likely well before Blackwell and other Western publishers  came out with their works on world philosophies, the scales of Western exceptionalism having begun to fall from their eyes, and even then,I am yet to see such  works written by one person.  Omoregbe's impressive publications list is accessible here. The links are to recent reissues by Lambert, some dated 2012, but, to the best of my knowledge  most or all these books were published more than ten years ago in Nigeria, as suggested by older publication dates from other information sources, such as Google Books on Knowing Philosophy , A Philosophical Look at Religion  and Philosophy of Law and others present on that platform. 

Interestingly, there is 2010 journal essay on on him  Scribd in relation toASUU and the Nigerian govt : "JosephOmoregbe’s Philosophy of Civil Disobedience and the Imperativeness of the 2009 ASUU Strike : Implications for a Sustainable Higher Education in Nigeria" by  Sylvester Enomah.  The issues weighs heavily in relation to this debate because it is asking the same questions asked here and seems to not take sides with ASUU or the govt. 

One of the most important works on divination theory and practice is Angulu Onwuejwgwu's Afa Symbolism  and Phenomenology, published in Benin by Ethiope, when Onwuejeogwu was professor of sociology at the University of Benin. 

The most sophisticated work, the most rounded presentation of the core metaphysical Orisa concept of ori, the self in its dialogue with fate and free will, known to me is by Adegboyega Orangun, Destiny : The Unmanifesfed Being, written when he had only an MA from the University of Lagos, if my memory is accurate on the specific university, and consisting of interviews  with Ifa babalawo and his own carefully detailed analyses and conceptual constructs. 

That  field of study is central to African philosophy and religions, a global field of enquiry,  but I  am yet to see Orangun's work equalled. 

In the light of such observations, I  am puzzled at outright dismissals and condemnation of my country and its scholars. 

                       The Struggle to Balance Quantity and Quality in Nigerian Academic Publication 

The struggle to balance quality and quantity of publications may be described as perennial  challenge in the Nigerian university system.

Efforts to address this challenge have included instituting a ratio of externally published as opposed to locally published papers.

Others have included insistence on publication in particular kinds of journals of proven quality. 

I see publications of my peers and senior colleagues online and I recognise that they are making an effort to make an input  outside their own nation. 

                      Nigerian Academia and  Self Awareness in a Global Context : A Personal Experience 

What point am I making?

I am suggesting that the Nigerian university system,  as represented by the Nigerian academic community,  is more mature than it is given credit for, more aware of its place in the global community of knowledge, than is suggested by its critics.

In 2010,  A.M Ashafa, at Kaduna Sate University, Kaduna, contacted me on the behest of a noted diaspora Nigerian professor to contribute an essay on the Nigerian Diaspora  to a book in honour  of Professor Abdullahi Mahadi (link to call for papers).

I was moved. This prof must know others in the social sciences who could do a good job, and my formal academic training is not in the social sciences.

 I have never met this prof before. He must have read my online writings and been convinced I could do the job.

I put myself together, and with consistent gentle  reminders from Ashafa, I completed  it and sent it off by email.

The book, Challenges for Nigeria at 50: Essays in Honour of Professor Abdullahi Mahadi was published and my copy, beautifully bound in hardback, with a fine picture of the honouree on the front, was sent to me by courier  from Nigeria.

Interestingly, the book has an essay "The Authority of Mutual Obligation : ASUU and the Social Contract Tradition" by Ibrahim Bello-Kano.

The Nigerian production team  wanted a national and  cross-continental spread for their book, representative of high, even very high quality contributions,   and they got it. 

That quality is evident from the scope of the essays, their structure and organisation and the concepts and analyses they deploy.

The contributors in Nigeria cover the North, the Niger Delta, the Southwest and the Southeast,while those abroad are drawn from England and the US. 

The contributors include 13 professors and 13 PhDs,  the PhDs being doctorates who are  not professors. 

You cannot dismiss people operating at such a professional level.

Who published the book?

Kaduna State University.

Where was it printed?

In Kaduna, by G.K Press. 

thank you very much 

toyin

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Toyin,

Do not bother. The discerning do not agree with those positions whether challenged or not. One “critic” in an unguarded moment told me things in Port Harcourt,

Bravo all the same for independent mindedness and profundity(qualities which ironically earned you dismissal from two reactionary literary listservs.)

CAO.

<span style="font-size:15.8333330154418

...

[Ikhide]

 

"One “critic” in an unguarded moment told me things in Port Harcourt..."

 

- Chidi Opara

 

Chidi,

 

I bowed out of this ASUU discussion a while back, not sure what is going on with you. But f you notice, I have ignored you out of compassion. I am sure your parents did not raise you to be a snivelling cowardly gossip. You have made poorly veiled references to me - in your disrespectful "ode" to Professor Falola, and now in this your latest, you insinuate that I told you things that the world would very much like to know about.

 

Please share with the world what I told you in Port Harcourt. Let me assure you that I told you nothing. I certainly  told you nothing that I don't want the world to know about. Again, please, please, please, share with the world what I told you, or shame is forever yours. You are the one that parades pictures of you with me all over the world, you have a fixation on being associated with certain people, "writers", "critics", etc. Yes, I visited Port Harcourt's literary conference on my own dime and you were all over me, I could not get rid of you.

 

I was in Port Harcourt, seated by you in a vehicle and you started this story about "what Ikhide said," not knowing that I was by your side. Tade Ipadeola laughingly asked, "Do you know who is seated by you?" You almost fainted from shock. From that point on, you were a groupie, never leaving my side. I was happy to spend time in Port Harcourt, at my own expense. I paid my way everywhere I went, you invited me out, that was kind of you, but I ended up paying for everything, I did not take a penny from you. I am glad I did not let my guard down in your presence, I was surrounded at all times by witnesses. Know this, you have just done this forum a great favor, you are not someone to share time with, ever.

 

As for your insinuations, know this, yes, I am damn proud of my achievements in life. Folks here know me as just Ikhide. But go and google me, the history of public education in my county, in my state wil be incomplete without my name in it. What I do here, I do merely for fun, but the hours I spend daily on our literature some have made professorships out of them. Again,I do not define myself by my writings, I have made more substantive achievements in life than that, google me. And despite your insinuations, if I have to brag, it is not about how many wretches beg to take their pictures with me, not about followerships. And yes, I count myself as a personal friend of Professor Toyin Falola, ask him. And I have contributed a chapter to a scholarly book on him (talk about scholarship! Hiss!0. Google that. I did that for free and I will do that again and again.

 

Chidi, I am proud of myself, I don't need you to affirm who I am. But hear me, I am even prouder of you. Here you are in the fringes of life, your life thoroughly mismanaged by a confluence of rogues, and you are still here proudly soldiering on, flitting from one half-baked project to the other, your miserable life defined by the rank mediocrity of your circumstances. In that respect, you are a better man than me. In your wretched shoes, I would have jumped into the nearest ocean, who needs that?  It is for people like you, for your offspring that I even bother. Trust me, I don't need Nigeria's money, I certainly do not need you, you have nothing, absolutely nothing to offer me.

 

Now that you have my attention, I beg you, please share with this August audience what your unnamed "critic" told you. I will take out my red pen, correct your half-sentences and your lies and send you back to the creepy crawly cave you came from. Nonsense.

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

My ideas on this are still  not definite  but I would like to make some  provocative statements follow ed by suggestions-

The Current Situation : Difficulty  of Access by Continental  Africans to  Western Published Books and Journals

You might publish a book a year, as Biodun Jeyifo is described as doing did when he left Ife for Cornell, climaxing  in his monumental last book on Soyinka, at which point he moved to a Harvard professorship; you might almost be a God of knowledge like Toyin Falola and Abdul Karim Bangura, whose range of subject matter and volume of publication make them institutions  in themselves, most likely  inexhaustible fields of study,  but even though Falola's work is staunchly  rooted in Africa and Bangura is a die hard Afrocentrist, if I am using the right terminology  with reference to Bangura, one needs to ask- what communities of learning are  being served  by their universes   of publications? 

To what degree are African scholars, students and univers ities able to buy their books?

These books are academic publications, academic publications being consistently the best in non-fiction, in my experience,  but, as published by Western publishers, which I expect they and other academics in the West are published by, they are consistently  the most expensive. 

The high end of such expensiveness might be represented by some academic publishers like Cambridge University Press, who publish the cream de la creme of uncompromisingly  academic work, often without any concessions to a non-academic audience, concessions the equally academically robust but perhaps more adventurous   Oxford University Press achiev es with its general range like the Very Short Introductions, a great idea, presenting the most up to date research on a subject in a succinct manner that   still does not eschew disciplinary rigour.

Cambridge UP, on the other hand, is characterised  purely  by high end works, to the best of my knowledge, encompassing the absolute academic rigour a nd specialist character of a good number of Oxford UP publications, but without Oxford UP's  range  of audience scope and pricing, Oxford UP interestingly, also publishing new  children's fiction, suggesting their rang e, while Cambridge UP seems to me to represent absolute hard core academic work, and with prices to match, their only fiction seeming to be classics of Western literature. 

Their books, however, represent a concentration of some of the very best, the most ambitious, carefully conceived  works, some rightly taking  years to research and write. 

<span style="font-size:15. 8333330154418

...

--

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Ikhide,

I will not respond to your usual venom, but let me say this, on the way from the University Of Port Harcourt, in the bus assigned to members of PEN in which you and I rode, a discussion about the relevance of books ensued between the chap who authored "Fine Boys........" , Tade and I, I mentioned what I referred to then as "one of one Ikhide's comments on the relevance of books" Tade asked if I know Ikhide in person, I said I don't, he drew your attention and introduced us, whereupon you became excited and came over to where I was seating and other things followed. At the hotel presidential, you were all over me to the annoyance of Kaine Agary whose invitation to the gala night at the government house you turned down. Most of your friends went to that gala night, but you refused to go because you said you wanted to be with "Poet Chidi Anthony Opara", you said this openly and even confirmed it on this forum while commenting on a post by Pius Adesamni, immediately after the event. Truly, you were paying the bills, because you were the one who wanted my company. 

 

Apologies for my bad grammar.

 

Be well.

 

CAO.

...

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Beyond Polemics : On Online Self Definition

While composing that description of Chidi Anthony Opara, my mental state was poised between two extremes.

One- a part of me was laughing at what I was doing.

Was I serious about the way I was characterising Chidi?

Self publishing, blogs and listserves as a principal outlet, Facebook groups?

Are these not forms of ephemera, existent virtually, not concretely, and therefore, not truly part of hard core reality?

Is a fully respectable writer not to be judged in terms of publications primarily in print?

Are blogs not a form of toy that can never replace the honest solidity of the traditional form of the book?

Was I not simply making a polemical point in my effort to stand up for Chidi?

All this in spite of the fact I operate almost exactly like Chidi, who is an  inspiration to me.

Gradually, another impression took over completely, obliterating the split between two aspects of my mind, one focused on researching and writing about Chidi and the other unconvinced about the validity of the picture I was painting.

A sense of awe.

I had to acknowledge that  the speed with which I was able to construct a profile of Chidi in terms of his online activity confronted me with a phenomenon that was propelling a more intimate fusion   between two parts of myself.

One was the part of me that grew up with love of books in their hard copy form, salivated over the names of scholars and their grand academic positions in such works as what was a formative encounter for me, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the part of me that was so happy to be invited to a job as an academic at the University of Benin and the other part of me that still loved the traditional world of the hard copy book and admired the academic institutional context  but had later chosen to redefine itself as a scholar and writer  outside  academia.

These two parts of me  had fused at last, or were reaching a more intimate fusion, thereby bringing to a deeper level of inward consummation a  history that stretched from my teenage rebellion against the academic system in the name of self education to decades of immersion in that system on two continents.

An experience of fusion emerging  through confrontation with the sheer evidence of the quality, scope of work and self awareness represented by Chidi's achievement.

Some knowledge is best gained through action, rather than purely through thought, contemplation or study, it seems. 

The Internet gives everyone with access to it a chance  to define themselves at a scope never before experienced in history, and in a way open to access by anyone, anywhere, with the necessary resource-an online connection.

thanks

toyin 

.

On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 8:11 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tovad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Very interesting.

Is this an attempt at a summation of Chidi Anthony Opara, a striking poet in new Nigerian literature, a master in both pidgin English and Standard English poetry, evoking with unforgettable imagery the Nigerian experience through a cross-cultural prism?  

Is this an effort to characterise Chidi Anthony Opara, the creator and manager of Chidi Opara Reports, a consistent, multimedia online news service?

Is the name being referred to that of Chidi, one of the vanguard who have spearheaded the global revolution in self definition by writers in relation to publishers by writing, posting online and publishing his own  poetry  for years?

The Chidi whose collection of general Nigerian centred poetry, Nigerian Pidgin English poetry, Nigerian Pidgin English quotes  and whose archive of personal quotes, all these initiatives  a growing harvest of years of ever maturing practice, are presented in terms of aesthetically delightful  form for the world to see?

Is it the Chidi, the brother of Italian poet Dante Alighieri of the De Vulagaria Eloquentia, Of the Vulagar Tongue and the Divina Commedia, the Divine Comedy, the father of Italian literature, one of the greatest creators in history, the man who created a literary platform out of pidgin Latin, that being what the Romance languages developed from,  the native languages of those ethnicities having been overrun by the Latin of the Roman conquerors?

Is this the Chidi who has created and runs two powerful Facebook groups Biafra Genocide and Nigerian Social Action Platform?

Is it the  Chidi who created and runs Public Information Reports, a beacon in the era of the individual shaping the global informationscape,an amalgam  of his various online initiatives?

Is it a different person being referred to in terms of  'flitting from one half-baked project to the other, your miserable life defined by the rank mediocrity of your circumstances'?

Is an alternate reality to this one I am aware of  being described?

I'm puzzled.

Perhaps Einstein's theories about time can help us here.

Something about perspectives being distorted as one approaches particular temporal zones, as the speed of time catches up with you. 

I wonder.

Toyin 

[K. Gozie Ifesinachukwu]

Easy. As the saying goes, "but for the grace of God, there go I".

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Very interesting.

Is this an attempt at a summation of Chidi Anthony Opara, a striking poet in new Nigerian literature, a master in both pidgin English and Standard English poetry, evoking with unforgettable imagery the Nigerian experience through a cross-cultural prism?  

Is this an effort to characterise Chidi Anthony Opara, the creator and manager of Chidi Opara Reports, a consistent, multimedia online news service?

Is the name being referred to that of Chidi, one of the vanguard who have spearheaded the global revolution in self definition by writers in relation to publishers by writing, posting online and publishing his own  poetry  for years?

The Chidi whose collection of general Nigerian centred poetry, Nigerian Pidgin English poetry, Nigerian Pidgin English quotes  and whose archive of personal quotes, all these initiatives  a growing harvest of years of ever maturing practice, are presented in terms of aesthetically delightful  form for the world to see?

Is it the Chidi, the brother of Italian poet Dante Alighieri of the De Vulagaria Eloquentia, Of the Vulagar Tongue and the Divina Commedia, the Divine Comedy, the father of Italian literature, one of the greatest creators in history, the man who created a literary platform out of pidgin Latin, that being what the Romance languages developed from,  the native languages of those ethnicities having been overrun by the Latin of the Roman conquerors?

Is this the Chidi who has created and runs two powerful Facebook groups Biafra Genocide and Nigerian Social Action Platform?

Is it the  Chidi who created and runs Public Information Reports, a beacon in the era of the individual shaping the global informationscape,an amalgam  of his various online initiatives?

Is it a different person being referred to in terms of  'flitting from one half-baked project to the other, your miserable life defined by the rank mediocrity of your circumstances'?

Is an alternate reality to this one I am aware of  being described?

I'm puzzled.

Perhaps Einstein's theories about time can help us here.

Something about perspectives being distorted as one approaches particular temporal zones, as the speed of time catches up with you. 

I wonder.

Toyin 

On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Let me hasten to add that I did not take those photos, Ikhide's "Personal Assistant" did with Ikhide's camera at his request and it was Ikhide who first posted them on his facebook page from where I downloaded them.

CAO.

Feyi Fawehinmi describes Nigerian academics <a href="http://aguntasolo.com/2013/09/28/asuu-part-deux-this-time-the-facts-and-only-a-bit-of-speculation/" rel="nofollow" target="

...

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Thanks for standing on the truth Toyin. But again do not bother, I am nothing and will like to remain nothing, at least, let a greater part of the dehumanized humanity be lifted from the dehumanization in which they are now. It is not about me.

CAO.

...

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Sorry, I mean to say "I did not request those photos........"

</blockqu

...

[okpeh...@gmail.com]

Ikhide and Chidi:
Please, while you reserve the right to disagree, please don't take this further. We have all enjoyed your profound interventions in the ASUU/FGN debate. We respect both of you...a lot. Please don't disappoint us.
Having said that, may I request the Moderator's intervention. Oga, we know say u still dey enjoy your birthday celebration. But dis our uncles dem hold each oda for neck. Abeg, help us settle matter.

Dont mind my fractured pidgin.... LOL.

03.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

---

From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 02:45:27 -0700 (PDT)

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Cc: Chidi Opara<chidi...@gmail.com>; Toyin Adepoju<toyin....@googlemail.com>; Ikhide<xok...@yahoo.com>

--

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

While I join my brother, Professor Okpeh, in calling for a ceasefire on the personal stuff, it should be noted that Ikhide did not ask for this personal fight. It was brought to him by Chidi, whose familiar three to four line contributions on this forum often contain innuendoes, veiled accusations, insinuations, and other mischievous asides. Chidi always has a bête noir for every week or month. When he's not railing against diaspora Nigerians for being elitist or distant in their politics and priorities, he is fuming at diaspora literary figures for defining the valuational parameters of African literature and thus devaluing his and other home-based writers' work. It's always one contrarian angst or another with Chidi. Because of the tendentious and substantively empty character of these gripes, folks often ignore him, but you can only throw out so many silly, unfounded, and deliberately vague accusations before the intended target(s) answer back. An African proverb says that if someone continues to fart in your face and you do not call them to order, they might actually think that you enjoy the company of their flatulence.

 

The other day, Bolaji had to respond to Chidi's baseless insinuation that diaspora Nigerians who  are critiquing the status quo in Nigerian higher education, including ASUU's many foibles, are actually angling to be called upon to take over the running of the education system because "they feel they can do a better job." He takes care not to mention names in these diatribes but his targets are always clear to the discerning, and often they are diaspora Nigerians. Pius Adesanmi once had to put him in his place after one of those vague innuendoes directed at Pius. The genesis of the current spat is that Chidi made a vague gossipy comment about Ikhide telling him something in an unguarded moment of their interactions in PH, giving the impression that what Ikhide told him contradicts what he says on the forum--all of this without specifying this "thing" that he alleges Ikhide told him and without indicating what exactly is the relevance of this "thing" to the discussion on ASUU. Even after being challenged by Ikhide to reveal this huge conversation that we're supposed to believe has consequences for the debate on the ASUU-FG wahala and Ikhide's contributions to it, Chidi has demurred and is instead spewing irrelevant interactional details from Ikhide's PH visit. This is despicable intellectual and personal behavior that must be called by its proper name. No need for pretend politeness here.

 

But it is not just Chidi who is culpable. Recently another Nigeria-based commentator flatly stated that Ikhide was being used by President Jonathan to destabilize ASUU. I shook my head when I read that nonsense. It was probably fitting that Ikhide, the target, and others ignored that ridiculous tactic of accusatory blackmail. Some of these defensive outbursts by supporters of ASUU, do not deserve the dignifying aura of a response, for they skirt your contentions and attack your person and your motive.

 

The forum was told recently that I was infected by "coloniality mentality"--whatever that means, that I was pedestrian in my analysis, that I was misinformed, and that I and others in the diaspora who would not repeat the ASUU official line had been corrupted by the white man's ways of seeing and knowing. Is that a productive trajectory of debate or the continuing obsession with diasporans as interlopers in the Nigerian higher education debate?

 

The other time it was Okey Iheduru who was attacked with vicious innuendoes, subtle accusations, and petty, irrelevant comments.

 

So, Chidi's infraction is not isolated. It fits into a pattern of folks abusing and making unfounded accusations against diaspora Nigerians when they dare to interject critically into debates and discussions that home-based colleagues consider their experiential and intellectual fortes. Their effort to discredit and delegitimize us as critics of and stakeholders in the Nigerian higher education industry range from absurd accusations about pecuniary motives to the claim that we're ignorant of events in Nigeria, never mind that some of us are a lot more informed about Nigerian realities than some of those at home, thanks to multiple technological, telephonic, and human streams of information, thanks to the interconnectedness fostered by social media, and thanks to regular personal visits and multiple collaborations with colleagues and friends at home.

 

We cannot have a productive dialogue on the issues ailing our higher education industry if home folks regard diaspora voices, especially critical ones, with suspicion, insist on delegitimizing us, ask us to return home if we care so much, question our motive, alternately accuse us of ignorance and arrogance, and generally aim to shut us out of the debate with fair and foul tactics. 

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

May your tribe increase!  When you are referred to slyly, and you don't answer, the Yoruba say that you are a coward.  Ikhide obliged, having once lived in the Yoruba axis.

But I still blame Ikhide for mixing it up with Chidi on this matter.  He should allow us lesser beings to do the mixing-up.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

PS:  I read elsewhere that Ikhide is alleged to be something like my factotum over this ASUU matter, with Tolu Ogunlesi as a back-up trumpeter.  The guy who wrote so - I hear a Professor - is an illiterate, I understand.  Ikhide and I don't even agree on ASUU, even though his angst is understandable, and I could not tell Tolu Ogunlesi from Adam or Eve.

By the way, I am more optimistic this minute than yesterday that the ASUU strike will end soon...stay tuned.

...

[Message clipped]  

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

A former ASUU activist saying that the union has overplayed the strike hand, with diminishing and predictably mixed outcomes. He argues that they ought to dial back on the use of strikes and instead try less disruptive methods of struggle.

Conversation With My ASUU Comrades: Let’s Get Real

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust 13th October 2013

This is a difficult conversation for me given my history of active engagement in ASUU, especially during its formative years. My comments might be dismissed as the words of an ASUU renegade. To attempt to prevent this this type of response, let me start with my CV. As a young lecturer in Ahmadu Bello University in 1980, I was already in the progressive caucus when Biodun Jeyifo, (BJ everybody calls him), and Uzodinma Nwala, newly elected pioneer President and Secretary of ASUU, stormed our Samaru campus to bring the good news. The transformation has occurred they proclaimed, by the law of 1978, the Nigerian Association of University Teachers, then existing in the five pioneer universities was dead and from its grave has emerged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a trade union. We were in exquisite excitement as BJ explained to us that intellectuals can now join the working class struggle as trade unionists and bring our intellectual support to the larger struggle to improve the educational system, but even more important, make our contribution to creating a progressive Nigeria.

I was in the team that dashed off to the Department of Electrical Engineering to inform Buba Bajoga, the last head of the association that a new regime has arrived. We organised elections and George Kwanashie and Raufu Mustapha emerged as the first leadership of ASUU in ABU, the bedrock of campus radicalism in Nigeria. We immediately engaged in organising the first ASUU strike and in 1982, I spent months in the Ibadan headquarters providing support for the ASUU negotiating team. In 1983, I became the secretary of ASUU in ABU with Yahaya Abdullahi as Chairman and the struggle continued. That was the year I defended my masters thesis. My examiner, the late Claude Ake commended me on a good thesis but told me off for spending five years writing a mere masters thesis. I was upset with him and mumbled that I had been spending all my time with the ASUU struggle and had little time for the thesis and as a comrade; he should understand the urgency of the ASUU struggle. He offered me an advice, get your PhD he told me, and you will be surprised that the struggle will still be there waiting, and you will be better equipped for it. 

My Head of Department, Ibrahim Gambari, looked at me and smiled. Shortly thereafter, Gambari called me and gave me a scholarship letter to pack my bags and go to France for postgraduate studies. I told him bluntly that I was not going because the ASUU struggle had reached a critical stage and ABU was its cerebral base so I had to stay and continue my coordination role. Secretly in my mind, I was afraid of going to France because Mrs Waldron, my French teacher in Barewa College had sent me out of her class on the basis that I was incapable of learning French. God bless Gambari, he just told me I must go or he will sack me, I succumbed to the threat. The Caucus was of course very upset with me for jumping ship at a time in which we believed we were successfully cornering President Shagari to grant all our demands and finally create a university system with full autonomy and sufficient resources. My response was that the reason we operated in a caucus was not to depend on an individual. 

I went to France, successfully learnt French and started the postgraduate programme but came back two years later to find out we were exactly where we were before my departure. A year later, I went back to France to finish the doctoral programme and returned to find the ASUU struggles was still where I had left it. The lesson for me is that our history teaches us that there is no formula for a final resolution of the ASUU struggle.

Through the 1990s, I continued with the ASUU struggles but with a more realistic vision that we need to have a more incremental approach to the struggle until I was forced out of the university system. Subsequently, as Country Director of Global Rights, an organisation engaged in facilitating legislative advocacy, I contacted the ASUU caucus both during the three-month old 2001 and six-months old 2003 ASUU strike that they should focus on the National Assembly and lobby them for sufficient funding rather than focus on President Obasanjo. They dismissed me as a renegade trying to dissipate their energies. We will force Obasanjo to deliver and eventually, the deal was signed, AND OF COURSE NOT IMPLEMENTED. We are still there today. 

ASUU is strong. It has the capacity to carry out long strikes, keep students at home and get them to pressurise their parents to pressurise the President to sign a deal. Presidents through the ages have all been forced to sign, but signing is the simple issue, implementation has always been the bane of policies in Nigeria. ASUU is weak because its too focused on grandiose victory that often yields little in real results. The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian Government is irresponsible and never fully implements deals it signs. The struggle for a responsive and accountable government is a much larger one and goes far beyond the ASUU struggle. ASUU must go into introspection and learn what every trade unionist knows, gains in the struggle are never total, they are always incremental.

The key question in the faceoff is finance and financial matters are addressed in budgets. The President proposes budget estimates but our Constitution gives power to the National Assembly to make the budget. Let’s reflect on Nigeria’s budgets. Budgets are laws, which our Constitution says must be fully implemented by all governmental agencies. We know however that since 1999, no budget of any government ministry, department or agency (MDA) has ever been fully implemented. The Federal Universities are government agencies and their expectations that the agreement they have, which is not even a law, must be fully implemented, is correct in principle but does not reflect current practices. It is despicable that Government signs without any intention of full implementation but we need to start asking ourselves whether strikes will change the course of Government business. 

In 2004, President Obasanjo introduced a new fiscal policy based on what is called the “oil price rule”. Each year, the government sets a pre-determined price for petroleum at a level that would be certainly lower than the market price. The government then saves the difference between the pre-determined price and the actual price to build foreign reserves and create confidence in the economy. Based on this criterion of fiscal prudence, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) authorised its Policy Support Instrument (PSI) for Nigeria in October 2005. The agreement with the IMF on fiscal policy was done surreptitiously and Parliament was not consulted. The Obasanjo regime therefore made commitments on significant cuts to public expenditure without the accord of the Nigerian people. This treacherous act of the regime in cutting funds for social expenditure is celebrated in many IMF and World Bank reports. 

It is the on-going policy that no appropriation shall be fully disbursed and implemented. President Goodluck Jonathan brought back a certain Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to continue this policy. The fact of the matter is that the macro-economic policy framework of the Presidency is to continue to curb investment in the social sector, in particular, on education and health. Progressives must engage this struggle with zeal and on a wider front but its resolution cannot be the basis of re-opening our universities.

The prognosis of the ASUU struggle is clear, Government will eventually be forced to commit to full implementation, ASUU will go back to work and receive arrears for the months of work not done and Government will once again renege at the level of full implementation. It will take ASUU two more years of massive mobilisation to get lecturers back on strike and the cycle continues. ASUU must start a conversation about a profound change in tactics. More minimalist and attainable targets must be set and advocacy must be broadened to address the National Assembly and other institutions. My ASUU comrades, the struggle is our life but this does not mean that we cannot get real. Did BJ not tell us in 1980 that there are two struggles, one for the university system and another for a progressive Nigeria?

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Apologies for reposting

Modifications in section one, line one in paragraph  two and line one of last section.

Chidi on  Perspectives about ASUU and on Ikhide 

Even though I have not followed the debate closely, reading through the mails does not give me the impression that Chidi's comment on some Diaspora Nigerians positioning   themselves  to manage Nigerian education while lambasting ASUU necessarily  applies to Bolaji Aluko.

I dont remember reading Aluko critiquing ASUU or making suggestions implying grand strategy in relation to Nigerian higher education which Chidi could have been referring to.

I thought I was enjoying the honour of Chidi's critique, particularly since it came on the heels of the suggestions I made on publication in Nigerian academia.

Also, its true that suggestions are being  made by Diaspora Nigerians on restructuring  the educational system and in the context of a personal commitment to do the job, not necessarily by  persons  on this list but on other lists, with such advocates suggesting how to deal decisively and forcefully with the saboteur they see ASUU as being, so, in a general sense, Chidi is right on that development.

I was not pleased with what looked like Chidi's unmissable- for me-allusion to his time with Ikhide in Port Harcourt, which I distinctly remember Ikhide celebrating on this group, not surprisingly, since Chidi exemplifies the vision Ikhide preaches on self reliance, through virtual platforms, for African writers, thereby bypassing Western hegemonies.

While admitting my response to their dispute was biased in favour of Chidi- although I must tell you I had at the back of my mind that I experienced both of them as two pro-Biafra thinkers, the right wing of which persuasion I find problematic, although I think Chidi has moved towards a more balanced stance on that commitment- just suspecting-I must confess I share wholeheartedly  his disenchantment- looking for a polite word-with Ikhide's  style of anti-ASUU social criticism.

Ikhide's Attitude to Social Criticism of Nigeria

I will only add to what I have stated earlier on Ikhide's attitude that his approach to social criticism of Nigeria is marked by uncritical condemnation of almost anything to do with officialNigerian institutions, from the country's conduct of the civil war, to the Boko Haram crises to ASUU.

His recurrent strategy is the loud repetition of what is ether obvious, false or exaggerated, using the most egregious tones, without any depth of analysis, with little attention to historical context and  readiness to become insulting when pushed consistently  to the wall, as I have experienced with him once on this forum, at which point I laughed at him.

On the civil war, I wont go into the infelicities he shares with other right wing pro-Biafrans but recall his effort to rope  Olusegun Obasanjo into the ring of Nigerian war crime commiters- quick coinage there- at which point I asked him-what war crime do you know Obasanjo to have committed? We know of the Asaba massacre and the Midwest massacres but what information do you have on Obasanjo along similar lines?

I was not surprised that he kept his peace.

Of course, discussing Biafran war crimes, which takes more effort to research, because the Nigerian side dwells  less on that subject , the South-East victims seem to have largely put it behind them, and the Biafrans had less opportunity for such action once they had retreated across the Nigeria  after the Ore defeat, is not an area one would expect Ikhide to be active in, since investigation on Nigerian social issues is not his strong point. 

His strong point is stating what can is obvious while exaggerating aspects of it or misrepresenting it or giving incorrect information, as in the Obasano civil war case.

On ASUU and the Nigerian university system, I am yet to see Ikhide make any point that suggests serious thinking, having read through almost all contributions on this subject on this group.

He makes some valid criticism, but his contextualisation of his points often invalidates them.

I suspect  he as a problem with Nigeria, generally, some unresolved pain he can only express through consistent demonisation of the nation in claims of being a social critic.

Ikhide as Comic Thinker and Writer

Apart from his literary criticism, Ikhide is best appreciated as  a literary critic and a perceptive comic thinker and writer.

Within the comic role, his implied social criticism often has more value than his uncritically absolutist  and vituperative  attempts at critiquing  Nigerian society. 

Within that comic role, he does not take himself too seriously, thus avoiding giving more weight to attitudes that cannot carry that weight successfully, and presents experience without significant efforts to draw totalising conclusions, while avoiding the usual anti-Nigeria venom.

A comic thinker in this sense is a person who presents reflections on issues in the spirit of laughter at the world, or at himself, or both, inviting us to laugh with him.

To enjoy this more refined side of Ikhide, read his Facebook status updates, such as the latest one of today that concludes with him eating his bicycle in frustration at the evil work of the imperialist  Satan inspired agents who refused to grant  the Booker prize to his anticipated African author but gave it instead to an obscure Western name.

The sweetness of the post is that it is not stated explicitly the way I have presented it but in a mode both satirical  and comic as he mimics the mind set and expressions of significant numbers of Nigerian Pentecostals in response to issues not fully understood. 

The post also demonstrates a social critical bite, if you understood the ideological space the style of expression of the comic rage is coming from- significant numbers of Nigerian Pentecostals insisting  on super-naturalising  almost, if not everything, leaving them open to manipulation by pastors who feed hope in return for private jets. 

The bicycle being eaten enjoys iconic, even metaphysical status in Ikhideland, as can be seen from its  constant presence in his posts and analyses of its significance in one or two responses by his fans. 

I would have  posted the update  here for your entertainment,  but I will let you read it for yourself.

I am having difficulty making myself state it, but reading Ikhide's status updates, complemented by the responses of his fans, might be a sufficient justification for having a Facebook account, even if that is all you do with it. 

thanks

toyin 

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 11:57 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tovad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi on  Perspectives about ASUU and on Ikhide 

Even though I have not followed the debate closely, reading through the mails does not give me the impression that Chidi's comment on some Diaspora Nigerians positioning   themselves  to manage Nigerian education while lambasting ASUU necessarily  applies to Bolaji Aluko.

I dont remember reading Aluko making suggestions implying grand strategy in relation to Nigerian higher education which Chidi could have been referring to.

I thought I was enjoying the honour of Chidi's critique, particularly since it came on the heels of the suggestions I made on publication in Nigerian academia.

Also, its true that suggestions are being  made by Diaspora Nigerians on restructuring  the educational system and in the context of a personal commitment to do the job, not necessarily by  persons  on this list but on other lists, with such advocates suggesting how to deal decisively and forcefully with the saboteur they see ASUU as being, so, in a general sense, Chidi is right on that development.

I was not pleased with what looked like Chidi's unmissable- for me-allusion to his time with Ikhide in Port Harcourt, which I distinctly remember Ikhide celebrating on this group, not surprisingly, since Chidi exemplifies the vision Ikhide preaches on self reliance, through virtual platforms, for African writers, thereby bypassing Western hegemonies.

While admitting my response to their dispute was biased in favour of Chidi- although I must tell you I had at the back of my mind that I experienced both of them as two pro-Biafra thinkers, the right wing of which persuasion I find problematic, although I think Chidi has moved towards a more balanced stance on that commitment- just suspecting-I must confess I share wholeheartedly  his disenchantment- looking for a polite word-with Ikhide's  style of anti-ASUU social criticism.

Ikhide's Attitude to Social Criticism of Nigeria

I will only add to what I have stated earlier on Ikhide's attitude that his approach to social criticism of Nigeria is marked by uncritical condemnation of almost anything to do with officialNigerian institutions, from the country's conduct of the civil war, to the Boko Haram crises to ASUU.

His recurrent strategy is the loud repetition of what is ether obvious, false or exaggerated, using the most egregious tones, without any depth of analysis, with little attention to historical context and  readiness to become insulting when pushed consistently  to the wall, as I have experienced with him once on this forum, at which point I laughed at him.

On the civil war, I wont go into the infelicities he shares with other right wing pro-Biafrans but recall his effort to rope  Olusegun Obasanjo into the ring of Nigerian war crime commiters- quick coinage there- at which point I asked him-what war crime do you know Obasanjo to have committed? We know of the Asaba massacre and the Midwest massacres but what information do you have on Obasanjo along similar lines?

I was not surprised that he kept his peace.

Of course, discussing Biafran war crimes, which takes more effort to research, because the Nigerian side dwells  less on that subject , the South-East victims seem to have largely put it behind them, and the Biafrans had less opportunity for such action once they had retreated across the Nigeria  after the Ore defeat, is not an area one would expect Ikhide to be active in, since investigation on Nigerian social issues is not his strong point. 

His strong point is stating what can is obvious while exaggerating aspects of it or misrepresenting it or giving incorrect information, as in the Obasano civil war case.

On ASUU and the Nigerian university system, I am yet to see Ikhide make any point that suggests serious thinking, having read through almost all contributions on this subject on this group.

He makes some valid criticism, but his contextualisation of his points often invalidates them.

I suspect  he as a problem with Nigeria, generally, some unresolved pain he can only express through consistent demonisation of the nation in claims of being a social critic.

Ikhide as Comic Thinker and Writer

Ikhide is best appreciated as  a literary critic and a perceptive comic thinker and writer.

Within the comic role, his implied social criticism often has more value than his uncritically absolutist  and vituperative  attempts at critiquing  Nigerian society. 

Within that comic role, he does not take himself too seriously, thus avoiding giving more weight to attitudes that cannot carry that weight successfully, and presents experience without significant efforts to draw totalising conclusions, while avoiding the usual anti-Nigeria venom.

A comic thinker in this sense is a person who presents reflections on issues in the spirit of laughter at the world, or at himself, or both, inviting us to laugh with him.

To enjoy this more refined side of Ikhide, read his Facebook status updates, such as the latest one of today that concludes with him eating his bicycle in frustration at the evil work of the imperialist  Satan inspired agents who refused to grant  the Booker prize to his anticipated African author but gave it instead to an obscure Western name.

The sweetness of the post is that it is not stated explicitly the way I have presented it but in a mode both satirical  and comic as he mimics the mind set and expressions of significant numbers of Nigerian Pentecostals in response to issues not fully understood. 

The post also demonstrates a social critical bite, if you understood the ideological space the style of expression of the comic rage is coming from- significant numbers of Nigerian Pentecostals insisting  on super-naturalising  almost, if not everything, leaving them open to manipulation by pastors who feed hope in return for private jets. 

The bicycle being eaten enjoys iconic, even metaphysical status in Ikhideland, as can be seen from its  constant presence in his posts and analyses of its significance in one or two responses by his fans. 

I would have  posted the update  here for your entertainment,  but I will let you read it for yourself.

I am having difficulty making myself state it, but reading Ikhide's status updates, complemented by the responses of his fans, might be a sufficient justification for having a Facebook account, even if that is all you do with it. 

thanks

toyin 

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

It is not clear to me what Chidi, Ikhide, or indeed anyone else’s position on Biafra and whether or not Obasanjo or anyone else is a war criminal, has to do with the ASUU conversation. Why anyone would do so afflicts the imagination.  I will not be surprised though, if someone contrives the necessity, to educate me on the discursive value of developing context, before making one’s case. The Biafra and ASUU issues are so unrelated and far apart that it is audacious and spurious, to attempt to connect anyone’s position on Biafra and the one’s position on the Nigeria’s education  (including ASUU) challenge. Who in clear or good conscience would  equate a position on savagely fought, enduringly consequential war that cost millions of lives and limbs, and invaluable treasure, a position on a largely non-violent  industrial action by an association of educated professional people? Who in factual knowledge would match dysentery and colon cancer?  

 

oa

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I am giving an overview of my interaction with Chidi and Ikhide on this forum, providing  a brief survey on how that interaction has developed with time and drawing my conclusions. 

I am trying to characterise Ikhide in the process.

I am also suggesting that I see Chidi's attitude to Nigeria- a geographical and political entity to which the Nigerian Civil War and the current challenges of higher education are central- is  more mature than that of Ikhide.

Ikhide and Chidi are pro-Biafra advocates.

Chidi even has a Facebook group dedicated to the claim of a Biafra genocide.

Chidi, however, identifies with Nigeria and loves the country.

I dont think Ikhide does.

I argue that Ikhide's largely irrationally vitriolic attitude to ASUU is a demonstration of an irrationally vitriolic attitude to Nigeria's official identity, a case represented by attitudes to Nigeria in connection  with the Nigerian Civil War.

We are therefore speaking of two poles of comparison unified in one. 

Issues of conflict involving one nation.

Conflict pursued  largely through material  weapons, such as guns and bombs and reinforced by economic weapons, such as food, and further developed through mental weapons represented by propaganda.

Conflict  pursued purely through through non- material, economic and mental weapons, -industrial action, delay tactics  and withholding  of income and verbal strategies.

My argument is that Ikhide's irrationally vitriolic attitude to Nigeria as an entity is highlighted by   his irrationally  vitriolic  attitude  towards  Nigeria in relation to these conflicts, these being the two most prominent examples of a long running demonstration of this irrationality in various contexts, as I see it. 

These are the most obvious examples I know of in his effort to describe himself as a social critic, when, in fact,he is best understood, in that context, as a person who demonises the country in almost every context, from its civil war history to its educational system.

That is why I conclude that something is paining him-to use a pidgin expression-that is being vented through this unjustifiable vitriol.

Some pro-Biafra advocates hate Nigeria and do not hide it.

Their reasons are clear.

I wont pretend to understand those of Ikhide.

I am not  claiming to interpret him with absolute certainty.

I am stating that his attitude to Nigeria goes beyond honest criticism and suggests a deep disaffection not rooted in identification, and therefore, in a desire to see a better nation.

 I am not suggesting that one may agree with all my points or with any.

One could see with me on his attitude to Nigeria without seeing it as mysteriously negative. 

One could think his Biafra stance is odd without agreeing with me on his general Nigeria stance.

One could think he is okay on both grounds.

I am looking at his attitude to the nation Nigeria, across a broad spectrum and drawing tentative conclusions.

I am not trying to divide loyalties in terms of pro-or not pro-Biafra.

I realise that some pro-Biafra advocates do not or would not see with Ikhide's approach to ASUU.

One could disagree with Ikhide's attitude to ASUU and even to Nigeria and still distill something from it.

One could, like Shina, see it as disturbing but evocative of something valuable he tries to appreciate.

One could see it as a valid strategy used for effect to address an issue that requires such a level of outrage, as Moses seems to suggest.

I am simply trying to understand the individual, Ikhide, not characterise  everyone addressing these issues as being on one side or the other.

I have long reached these tentative conclusions about Ikhide so his way of demonising the nation's institutions as in his recent anti-ASUU vituperations  does not surprise me. 

Note- to 'demonise' is not necessarily identical with to 'criticise'.

I am perfectly comfortable with my broad assessment of Ikhide, particularly using his attitudes to those two aspects of Nigeria's history  as representative of his attitude to Nigeria generally,   being seen as escapist, diversionary, ethnic, closed minded, an example of an ASUU  identifier trying to give a critic a bad name etc. 

I am not looking for anyone to agree with me.

My interest  is in identifying a pattern and trying to understand the logic, if any, of that pattern, and using those observations in studying phenomena. 

thanks

toyin