Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1

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Toyin Falola

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Jul 22, 2017, 7:52:45 AM7/22/17
to dialogue, Yoruba Affairs
In over 300 photos, I will bring to you the impressive campus of Lagos State University, Nigeria. The Departments are all well staffed, and the students are incredibly talented and energetic. The millions of African young men and women represent our future, and their abilities at imaginations and inventions are so extraordinary that we may not even know that we are witnessing a revolutionary moment. To those who speak ill of these young men and women, they should check their thinking processes.



Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:02:16 AM7/22/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
Beautiful pictures from a beautiful campus. However, your over-the-top positive assessment of the university based on a brief visit, while consistent with your well known ideological project of showcasing the positive side of Africa, is tantamount to what Bill Maher calls the soft bigotry of low expectation. How many of these staff you speak of are committed to research and teaching? And how is LASU exempt from the widespread problems of poor research and teaching ethics, professorial impunity, ASUU tyranny, etc? And is LASU and UNILAG not the epicenters of "sorting." Are they free from the scourge of sexual harassment and sexual transactions in exchange for grades?

I realize that you're invested in a project of not criticizing or putting down African/Nigerian institutions and colleagues. That is understandable, given your extensive collaborations in multiple African universities. Some of us do not have such entanglements and the anxieties that come with them and are, moreover, past the point of caring about people's feelings. 

A whole generation of Nigeria's young men is being shortchanged and the country's future is being damaged and we must call culpable people out and criticize those deserving of criticism. We should not whitewash the mess or offer false or exaggerated praise in a patronizing manner. We diaspora Nigerians take offense when white people do that to us; we shouldn't do that to our continental institutions. Southern Nigerian universities do marginally better than northern ones, but they are riddled with the same problems that plague others. Nigerian universities have become incestuous national cake institutions where intellectual in-breeding, nepotism, ethno-religious insularity, and academic self-cloning reign and innovative thinking and interdisciplinary works are discouraged by academics wedded to formulaic, outmoded disciplinary templates.

We will tell the truth and refuse to be complicit in the ongoing collapse of public higher education in Nigeria. We're accountable to our conscience. This accountability is superior to any affinity we may have with colleagues and institutions back home.

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Toyin Falola

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:07:11 AM7/22/17
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A tiny question:
What concrete things can we do? It is that concrete things that all of us must reflect upon.


Sent from my iPhone
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Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:14:18 AM7/22/17
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Beautiful pictures from a beautiful campus. However, your over-the-top positive assessment of the university based on a brief visit, while consistent with your well known ideological project of showcasing the positive side of Africa, is tantamount to what Bill Maher calls the soft bigotry of low expectation. How many of these staff you speak of are committed to research and teaching? And how is LASU exempt from the widespread problems of poor research and teaching ethics, professorial impunity, ASUU tyranny, etc? And are LASU and UNILAG not the epicenters of "sorting"? Are they free from the scourge of sexual harassment and sexual transactions in exchange for grades?

I realize that you're invested in a project of not criticizing or putting down African/Nigerian institutions and colleagues. That is understandable, given your extensive collaborations in multiple African universities. Some of us do not have such entanglements and the anxieties that come with them and are, moreover, past the point of caring about people's feelings. 

A whole generation of Nigeria's young men and women is being shortchanged and the country's future is being damaged and we must call culpable people out and criticize those deserving of criticism. We should not whitewash the mess or offer false or exaggerated praise in a patronizing manner. We diaspora Nigerians take offense when white people do that to us; we shouldn't do that to our continental institutions. Southern Nigerian universities do marginally better than northern ones, but they are riddled with the same problems that plague others. Nigerian universities have become incestuous national cake institutions where intellectual in-breeding, nepotism, ethno-religious insularity, and academic self-cloning reign and innovative thinking and interdisciplinary works are discouraged by academics wedded to formulaic, outmoded disciplinary templates.

We will tell the truth and refuse to be complicit in the ongoing collapse of public higher education in Nigeria. We're accountable to our conscience. This accountability is superior to any affinity we may have with colleagues and institutions back home.

[Edited]

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:28:37 AM7/22/17
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Good question. We need to do concrete things to ameliorate the situation, not gloss over it with platitudes. That's my point. I've done and continue to do concrete things in my own little way. Others are doing theirs. You're at the apex of "doing concrete things" and inspire all of us to do more than we're doing at present. But I don't think we help the situation when we throw around platitudes that we know to be disconnected from reality. I have read the undergraduate theses of several first class graduates as well as MA graduates in the social sciences and humanities who were awarded distinction by Nigerian universities. They cannot analyze their way out of a box, do not know basic research methodology, and their written English is, to put it mildly, heavily challenged. Does this bear any correlation to the picture you paint of LASU as a center of student academic excellence and innovation, great instruction, and well-staffed units in your brief note accompanying the photos? I don't blame the students; I blame institutions that continue to recruit and retain academics who are not interested in teaching, research, and mentorship, and instructors who simply see their position as just another way to make a living in a difficult Nigerian job market. 

Toyin Falola

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:40:49 AM7/22/17
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  1. All excellent points but context matters. I can remove Nigeria or Africa from what you say below and insert many US campuses, and they will fit!
  2. Dismiss my point no. 1 as I get angry if anyone says he is bad because there is a worse person. I cannot be corrupt because others are corrupt. So, don’t take my point no. 1 seriously because comparative data on bad things make me angry as a person. I cannot beat my son because others beat their sons!
  3. You mentioned concrete below—multiply what you do by 100 and you will see the changes. 100 of us can change honors theses in the History Depts in many Nigerian universities. It is those 100 that I am always looking for.
  4. I took a small team to Nigeria to run methodology workshops….suppose I get 50 people a year!
  5. I have data to say that there are books, but only that folks are not reading them. I donated 5000 books to one university last year…are they reading them? I build E-libraries, comprising close to 200,000 materials, are they reading them?
I want us to cumulate.
And I want us to always answer the question based on one premise:
I went to school on the land confiscated from peasants; I went to school with the money collected from poor farmers. What do I owe the children of this poor people? In my own mind, I disconnect my own answer from how a system operates…that is, it does not mean I don’t understand the system, but what can I do? I owe the people of Makurdi where I trained myself after my first degree—it was the library they built at Government College that truly began my serious education, that exposed the very limits of my first degree. I have to realize that what I owe Makurdi is not always the same as what I owe Benue State University which now occupies my old place.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 22, 2017, 3:49:45 PM7/22/17
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Wow.

I came here to see if Moses would demonstrate the courage of his convictions even in response to what I expected to be a celebratory presentation by Toyin Falola. It is impressive to observe he has not flinched.

I would like to better understand Falola's response.

Also, if people are not reading in those institutions, I wonder why.

Memorable-


'I want us to cumulate.
And I want us to always answer the question based on one premise:
I went to school on the land confiscated from peasants; I went to school with the money collected from poor farmers. What do I owe the children of this poor people? In my own mind, I disconnect my own answer from how a system operates…that is, it does not mean I don’t understand the system, but what can I do? I owe the people of Makurdi where I trained myself after my first degree—it was the library they built at Government College that truly began my serious education, that exposed the very limits of my first degree. I have to realize that what I owe Makurdi is not always the same as what I owe Benue State University which now occupies my old place.
TF'


toyin

On 22 July 2017 at 22:39, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
  1. All excellent points but context matters. I can remove Nigeria or Africa from what you say below and insert many US campuses, and they will fit!
  2. Dismiss my point no. 1 as I get angry if anyone says he is bad because there is a worse person. I cannot be corrupt because others are corrupt. So, don’t take my point no. 1 seriously because comparative data on bad things make me angry as a person. I cannot beat my son because others beat their sons!
  3. You mentioned concrete below—multiply what you do by 100 and you will see the changes. 100 of us can change honors theses in the History Depts in many Nigerian universities. It is those 100 that I am always looking for.
  4. I took a small team to Nigeria to run methodology workshops….suppose I get 50 people a year!
  5. I have data to say that there are books, but only that folks are not reading them. I donated 5000 books to one university last year…are they reading them? I build E-libraries, comprising close to 200,000 materials, are they reading them?
I want us to cumulate.
And I want us to always answer the question based on one premise:
I went to school on the land confiscated from peasants; I went to school with the money collected from poor farmers. What do I owe the children of this poor people? In my own mind, I disconnect my own answer from how a system operates…that is, it does not mean I don’t understand the system, but what can I do? I owe the people of Makurdi where I trained myself after my first degree—it was the library they built at Government College that truly began my serious education, that exposed the very limits of my first degree. I have to realize that what I owe Makurdi is not always the same as what I owe Benue State University which now occupies my old place.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)


Dr. Oohay

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Jul 22, 2017, 6:40:46 PM7/22/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

THE SADOMASOCHISTIC SEDUCTIONS OF "SOFT" INFERIORITY COMPLEX
As long as the soft bigotry of low expectations (aka "soft" inferiority complex, SIC) continues to reign in and outside the academy, SIC will continue to use its seductions to kill the "spirit" of the mind. And just as in Roberta F's song, SIC will continue to strum the pain of the spirit of the mind with ITS OWN fingers, SIC will continue to sing the life of the spirit of the mind with ITS OWN songs, its own words, its own symbols -- while all along SIC SLOWLY kills the spirit of the mind. Arguably, "soft" psychology trumps "hard" physics: the former is harder; of what use is the latter without the former?

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 12:49 PM

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
From: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meoc...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, July 22, 2017 at 9:27 AM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
Good question. We need to do concrete things to ameliorate the situation, not gloss over it with platitudes. That's my point. I've done and continue to do concrete things in my own little way. Others are doing theirs. You're at the apex of "doing concrete things" and inspire all of us to do more than we're doing at present. But I don't think we help the situation when we throw around platitudes that we know to be disconnected from reality. I have read the undergraduate theses of several first class graduates as well as MA graduates in the social sciences and humanities who were awarded distinction by Nigerian universities. They cannot analyze their way out of a box, do not know basic research methodology, and their written English is, to put it mildly, heavily challenged. Does this bear any correlation to the picture you paint of LASU as a center of student academic excellence and innovation, great instruction, and well-staffed units in your brief note accompanying the photos? I don't blame the students; I blame institutions that continue to recruit and retain academics who are not interested in teaching, research, and mentorship, and instructors who simply see their position as just another way to make a living in a difficult Nigerian job market. 
On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 9:06 AM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu > wrote:
A tiny question:
What concrete things can we do? It is that concrete things that all of us must reflect upon.


Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 22, 2017, at 9:02 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Beautiful pictures from a beautiful campus. However, your over-the-top positive assessment of the university based on a brief visit, while consistent with your well known ideological project of showcasing the positive side of Africa, is tantamount to what Bill Maher calls the soft bigotry of low expectation. How many of these staff you speak of are committed to research and teaching? And how is LASU exempt from the widespread problems of poor research and teaching ethics, professorial impunity, ASUU tyranny, etc? And is LASU and UNILAG not the epicenters of "sorting." Are they free from the scourge of sexual harassment and sexual transactions in exchange for grades?

I realize that you're invested in a project of not criticizing or putting down African/Nigerian institutions and colleagues. That is understandable, given your extensive collaborations in multiple African universities. Some of us do not have such entanglements and the anxieties that come with them and are, moreover, past the point of caring about people's feelings. 

A whole generation of Nigeria's young men is being shortchanged and the country's future is being damaged and we must call culpable people out and criticize those deserving of criticism. We should not whitewash the mess or offer false or exaggerated praise in a patronizing manner. We diaspora Nigerians take offense when white people do that to us; we shouldn't do that to our continental institutions. Southern Nigerian universities do marginally better than northern ones, but they are riddled with the same problems that plague others. Nigerian universities have become incestuous national cake institutions where intellectual in-breeding, nepotism, ethno-religious insularity, and academic self-cloning reign and innovative thinking and interdisciplinary works are discouraged by academics wedded to formulaic, outmoded disciplinary templates.

We will tell the truth and refuse to be complicit in the ongoing collapse of public higher education in Nigeria. We're accountable to our conscience. This accountability is superior to any affinity we may have with colleagues and institutions back home.
On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 6:46 AM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu > wrote:
In over 300 photos, I will bring to you the impressive campus of Lagos State University, Nigeria. The Departments are all well staffed, and the students are incredibly talented and energetic. The millions of African young men and women represent our future, and their abilities at imaginations and inventions are so extraordinary that we may not even know that we are witnessing a revolutionary moment. To those who speak ill of these young men and women, they should check their thinking processes.



Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 22, 2017, 6:40:59 PM7/22/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
I think what we should ask Moses to do is make his own visit and give us a feedback of the same institution

It would be a simple task of empirical verification rather than sweeping skepticism.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Date: 22/07/2017 20:54 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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

I came here to see if Moses would demonstrate the courage of his convictions even in response to what I expected to be a celebratory presentation by Toyin Falola. It is impressive to observe he has not flinched.

I would like to better understand Falola's response.

Also, if people are not reading in those institutions, I wonder why.

Memorable-


'I want us to cumulate.
And I want us to always answer the question based on one premise:
I went to school on the land confiscated from peasants; I went to school with the money collected from poor farmers. What do I owe the children of this poor people? In my own mind, I disconnect my own answer from how a system operates…that is, it does not mean I don’t understand the system, but what can I do? I owe the people of Makurdi where I trained myself after my first degree—it was the library they built at Government College that truly began my serious education, that exposed the very limits of my first degree. I have to realize that what I owe Makurdi is not always the same as what I owe Benue State University which now occupies my old place.
TF'


toyin

On 22 July 2017 at 22:39, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
  1. All excellent points but context matters. I can remove Nigeria or Africa from what you say below and insert many US campuses, and they will fit!
  2. Dismiss my point no. 1 as I get angry if anyone says he is bad because there is a worse person. I cannot be corrupt because others are corrupt. So, don’t take my point no. 1 seriously because comparative data on bad things make me angry as a person. I cannot beat my son because others beat their sons!
  3. You mentioned concrete below—multiply what you do by 100 and you will see the changes. 100 of us can change honors theses in the History Depts in many Nigerian universities. It is those 100 that I am always looking for.
  4. I took a small team to Nigeria to run methodology workshops….suppose I get 50 people a year!
  5. I have data to say that there are books, but only that folks are not reading them. I donated 5000 books to one university last year…are they reading them? I build E-libraries, comprising close to 200,000 materials, are they reading them?
I want us to cumulate.
And I want us to always answer the question based on one premise:
I went to school on the land confiscated from peasants; I went to school with the money collected from poor farmers. What do I owe the children of this poor people? In my own mind, I disconnect my own answer from how a system operates…that is, it does not mean I don’t understand the system, but what can I do? I owe the people of Makurdi where I trained myself after my first degree—it was the library they built at Government College that truly began my serious education, that exposed the very limits of my first degree. I have to realize that what I owe Makurdi is not always the same as what I owe Benue State University which now occupies my old place.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)


Okey Iheduru

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Jul 22, 2017, 6:42:31 PM7/22/17
to USAAfrica Dialogue
Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Anyone who has been to the at Ojo Town campus of Lagos State University (LASU) --the medieval entrance gate notwithstanding--would be scratching their heads trying to figure out why Prof. Toyin Falola, who attended the unquestionably beautiful University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), would try to sell the madness at LASU as a "beautiful" campus. For me, LASU is as beautiful as Lagos is "The Center of Excellence."

I spent five weeks this summer at the University of Ghana, Legon; and a week each at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Talk about beautiful! I'm sure the folks at Ojo Town could learn a thing or two about a beautiful campus from our "Kufor country brothers," as well as from Ife and University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 22, 2017, 8:06:08 PM7/22/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Really?  If you say so!



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>
Date: 22/07/2017 23:50 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (okeyi...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Anyone who has been to the at Ojo Town campus of Lagos State University (LASU) --the medieval entrance gate notwithstanding--would be scratching their heads trying to figure out why Prof. Toyin Falola, who attended the unquestionably beautiful University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), would try to sell the madness at LASU as a "beautiful" campus. For me, LASU is as beautiful as Lagos is "The Center of Excellence."

I spent five weeks this summer at the University of Ghana, Legon; and a week each at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Talk about beautiful! I'm sure the folks at Ojo Town could learn a thing or two about a beautiful campus from our "Kufor country brothers," as well as from Ife and University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 11:32 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
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Kayode J. Fakinlede

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Jul 22, 2017, 10:03:04 PM7/22/17
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I doubt if Prof. Falola is comparing LASU with OAU where he graduated or UT where he is a professor.

I accuse Prof. Falola of two things though. He is always quick to offer praise for what he perceives as genuine effort. I guess he thinks that by doing so, the person to whom praise is given will try to do more.

Another is that the Prof. seems to ask himself always what he can personally DO to solve a defined problem or how he can contribute positively to other people’s lives. And he starts to do them.

I first found these attributes among some American Peace Corps Volunteers when I was in secondary school. In those days, most of us students would get terrifically bad grades from our African teachers. Then came the Peace Corps Volunteers. And all of a sudden we started scoring 80’s and 90’s in our tests. We, schoolchildren were tremendously proud of ourselves. Of course, we cannot doubt the sincerity of the volunteers, many of them men and women in their twenties, who left the cozy life in America to come and live among African school boys in far away 'jungles'. And let us remember, there was no electricity in those days, neither were there good roads. Many of them did not even have bicycles.

Most of us Africans have now graduated from giving bad grades to offering terrific criticisms of things we know very little about.  In the mean time we will not define a problem to solve lest we be responsible for solving it. Another attribute is our penchant for overdramatizing our ignorance through incessant paralysing analysis whose objective is to make others see us as smart. The question, ‘what can I do to help’ never crosses our consciousness.

If you should perceive that there is a problem with our universities, please define it in such a way that you can be of help.

God help us.

Kenneth Harrow

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Jul 23, 2017, 5:15:40 AM7/23/17
to usaafricadialogue
Well, this is THE question, what can we do. I admire toyin’s efforts at supporting the scholarship of junior african colleagues. His conference, the subsidiary conferences and conferences he has promoted over the years, give people a place to present their work and to bolster the cv. Offers to help in publication are the most important in our profession. that’s what we do: research and publish. Any help, mentoring, suggestions of where to place articles or books, etc., is probably the most valuable thing we can do to advance the careers of african academics here.
All of that work translates into supporting academics in africa as well, although the conditions are radically different. 
I also do believe supporting a publication, just to get it published, is meaningless. Supporting a publication so as to get a scholar’s work out there, is meaningful. This is a real distinction. I would hope my simple ideas of mentoring and promoting scholarship—not pro forma, not just to put it on a cv or get promoted—but to join in the scholarly discussions we all try to share, that is what we should be doing. In large, like toyin, or in small, like reading a junior colleagues work and offering criticism. Not just to get it published, but to get it up to speed, to get it interesting. To believe in the value of the work, and to make it meaningful.
I believe in the value of this work. If we help those entering into the profession, if we regard it as our duty, the actions should follow.

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


From: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, 22 July 2017 at 16:06
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1

Assensoh, Akwasi B.

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Jul 23, 2017, 5:17:03 AM7/23/17
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Oga Fakinlede:

 

Thank you very much for sending many of us to real memory lane. As a trained  Journalist and Historian, I did appreciate your analysis below because it did also remind me of my own past Peace Corps experiences (as a student back in Ghana in the 1960s), and also including my personal positive encounters with the late Lawyer Franklin H. Williams (as the then President of The Phelps Stokes Fund of New York), who was the first Assistant Director of the Peace Corps. Due to his Lincoln University (PA) connections with Ghana's late President Kwame Nkrumah, a Lincoln alumnus (and as former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana), the Williams-Nkrumah connections helped in making  Ghana the first African country to receive Peace Corps Volunteers! Ambassador Williams, who died in 1990 aged 72 years, has been honored today with the establishment of the Franklin H. Williams Award, which honors ethnically diverse returned Peace Corps Volunteers, who are seen "to exemplify a commitment to community service and Peace Corps’ third goal of promoting a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans."

 

However, Oga Fakinlede, I reached the portion of your useful analysis that reminded me of my "ancient" Yoruba Mentor (Baba Ijebu of Palm Grove Estates, near Yaba & Surulere). He often said that Nigerian problems keep on multiplying daily because of book long on the part of the country's intellectuals; your own book long was seen in this part of your analysis: "Another attribute is our penchant for overdramatizing our ignorance through incessant paralysing analysis whose objective is to make others see us as smart." Smart? Well, when Mr. Trump was accused by Mrs. Clinton for not paying enough or for not releasing his taxes during one of their presidential debates, the future Businessman-cum-President of America said: "It's because I'm smart!" Is that the type of smartness, Oga Fakinlede, that you refer to in your "book long" sentence?

 

Of course, it is good for us, sometimes, to experience comic relief, and I certainly enjoy some of it in perusing several USA Africa Dialogue postings, including yours below! Hopefully, our Maker will let SIR Toyin live on, until he passes the 100+ years old mark, so that, as we all age together, the USA Africa Dialogue will continue to enrich us for many, many more years!

 

A.B. Assensoh. 

   

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kayode J. Fakinlede <jfaki...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2017 9:32 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Cc: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com; yoruba...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
 
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 23, 2017, 5:17:55 AM7/23/17
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Pointing out a problem is a way of helping.

I'm puzzled abt the grades example.

Whose grades were justified by the reality of the student's performance?

Its not really possible to ignore Moses criticisms.

Acknowledging any validity they may have and discussing what is to be done is central.

Falola states the libraries  he contributed are not being read.

Why?

Meanwhile, if perhaps on the basis of being a member of USAAfrica Dialogues, arrangements can be made for me to have access to those resources donated by Falola, particularly if they are in Lagos, I would be grateful. The visibility of public libraries here is not high.

thanks

toyin

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 23, 2017, 11:32:42 AM7/23/17
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I read Kayode's post as supportive of Falola.

toyin

On 23 July 2017 at 13:59, 'Amidu Sanni' via Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I really do not understand what Kayode is trying to get at; impugning genuine optimism, pillorying personal observations, masticating encouraging acknowledgement of creativeness and imaginative development or what?. Professor Falola had been familiar with the narrative and reality of LASU almost from inception from the 80s. He was a major subscriber, if not the spirit auctores of LASU's history programme. Besides, he was an active observer-participant in efforts at solving government/ASUU face-offs when LASU was a major Command and Control Centre of crises during Baba Iyabo's (President Obasanjo) raj. So, if Professor Falola could come with other American colleagues to see firsthand what has changed over the years in terms of DEVELOPMENT and PEACE (realities not studies), and the quality of students and faculties, shouldn't we concede to him the right to voice his observations as an acknowledgement of positive changes which will encourage all stakeholders to sustain the change and even do more? 

More importantly, will this not better educate those who stay away in cosy American, Trump stifling and Brexiting worlds so that they can change/adjust their thinking caps and also see how they can make things better at home?
 Even OAU which used to be the University of Ife, has also changed its name for better or for worse too. The simple fact which Kayode and other diasporic observers through the keyhole should note is that Nigerian universities, the socio-economic constraints notwithstanding, are forging ahead in a positive manner and for this, all must join the train of sustainability. LASU is obviously changing the face of academe in Nigeria.

Amidu O. Sanni 
Lagos State University, Nigeria 





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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 23, 2017, 1:01:22 PM7/23/17
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Amidu Sanni.

We are behind you. You can count on our whole hearted support!



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Date: 23/07/2017 16:42 (GMT+00:00)
To:
Cc: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Yoruba Affairs - Re: Lagos StateUniversity  in Photos, no. 1: Fakinllede's Response

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I read Kayode's post as supportive of Falola.

toyin
On 23 July 2017 at 13:59, 'Amidu Sanni' via Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I really do not understand what Kayode is trying to get at; impugning genuine optimism, pillorying personal observations, masticating encouraging acknowledgement of creativeness and imaginative development or what?. Professor Falola had been familiar with the narrative and reality of LASU almost from inception from the 80s. He was a major subscriber, if not the spirit auctores of LASU's history programme. Besides, he was an active observer-participant in efforts at solving government/ASUU face-offs when LASU was a major Command and Control Centre of crises during Baba Iyabo's (President Obasanjo) raj. So, if Professor Falola could come with other American colleagues to see firsthand what has changed over the years in terms of DEVELOPMENT and PEACE (realities not studies), and the quality of students and faculties, shouldn't we concede to him the right to voice his observations as an acknowledgement of positive changes which will encourage all stakeholders to sustain the change and even do more? 

More importantly, will this not better educate those who stay away in cosy American, Trump stifling and Brexiting worlds so that they can change/adjust their thinking caps and also see how they can make things better at home?
 Even OAU which used to be the University of Ife, has also changed its name for better or for worse too. The simple fact which Kayode and other diasporic observers through the keyhole should note is that Nigerian universities, the socio-economic constraints notwithstanding, are forging ahead in a positive manner and for this, all must join the train of sustainability. LASU is obviously changing the face of academe in Nigeria.

Amidu O. Sanni 
Lagos State University, Nigeria 





On Sunday, July 23, 2017, 2:41:04 AM GMT+1, Kayode J. Fakinlede <jfaki...@gmail.com> wrote:


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Kayode J. Fakinlede

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Jul 23, 2017, 5:22:39 PM7/23/17
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Wow! Kabiyesi o!!!
I am sure if Amidu Sanni had read more than five lines of what I wrote, he would not have replied the way he did. Let me reach into my bag of humor. If I had read what Sanni wrote a few minutes before heading home, I probabaly would have driven into a tree.
The circumstance under which I met Prof. Falola at Univerity of Texas will forever make me feel grateful to him. Enough said. 
 

On Saturday, July 22, 2017 at 12:52:45 PM UTC+1, Toyin Falola wrote:

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Jul 24, 2017, 8:48:50 AM7/24/17
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 The next time I meet Profs. Falola and Ochonu, I plan to hand each 
of them a glass of beer,  and find out  whether they  each  find the glass in  hand,   half-full,  or conversely, half- empty. Each glass will be identical, contain the same amount of beer, and will be 50% of total capacity.


         One more question:  Is there such a thing as the bigotry of
        hyper -high expectations?


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2017 5:12 AM
To: usaafricadialogue

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 24, 2017, 11:00:53 AM7/24/17
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Gloria,

In this particular case, I wish the glass of beer was half-full. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no beer in the glass. The answer to your question is yes. I answer yes because I want to link it to an argument that Ibram Kendi makes in his award winning book on the history of racist ideas, which is that the discourse of black moral perfection as a prerequisite for equality, which several black intellectuals, including Du Bois for a time, bought into, is a kind of racism, a kind of bigotry. He calls it uplift suasion. He argues and I agree that black folks who internalize this discourse of black moral perfection as a precondition for them obtaining what their humanity entitles them to, and who do not stop to ask why no such perfection is required of white folk, are guilty of benign racism. You could call it soft bigotry. 

However, what one is advocating is not perfection in Nigerian higher education. We want a modest commitment to the ideals of higher education--teaching, research, and mentorship. Crude relativism is not a productive retort to this advocacy because it is, once again, the soft bigotry of low expectations.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu> wrote:

 The next time I meet Profs. Falola and Ochonu, I plan to hand each 
of them a glass of beer,  and find out  whether they  each  find the glass in  hand,   half-full,  or conversely, half- empty. Each glass will be identical, contain the same amount of beer, and will be 50% of total capacity.


         One more question:  Is there such a thing as the bigotry of
        hyper -high expectations?


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone



Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2017 5:12 AM
To: usaafricadialogue

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
Well, this is THE question, what can we do. I admire toyin’s efforts at supporting the scholarship of junior african colleagues. His conference, the subsidiary conferences and conferences he has promoted over the years, give people a place to present their work and to bolster the cv. Offers to help in publication are the most important in our profession. that’s what we do: research and publish. Any help, mentoring, suggestions of where to place articles or books, etc., is probably the most valuable thing we can do to advance the careers of african academics here.
All of that work translates into supporting academics in africa as well, although the conditions are radically different. 
I also do believe supporting a publication, just to get it published, is meaningless. Supporting a publication so as to get a scholar’s work out there, is meaningful. This is a real distinction. I would hope my simple ideas of mentoring and promoting scholarship—not pro forma, not just to put it on a cv or get promoted—but to join in the scholarly discussions we all try to share, that is what we should be doing. In large, like toyin, or in small, like reading a junior colleagues work and offering criticism. Not just to get it published, but to get it up to speed, to get it interesting. To believe in the value of the work, and to make it meaningful.
I believe in the value of this work. If we help those entering into the profession, if we regard it as our duty, the actions should follow.

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


Toyin Falola

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Jul 24, 2017, 11:23:15 AM7/24/17
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Moses:

These ideas of commitment to higher education—teaching, research and mentorship—are there, from Malami Buba in Sokoto, Onwuka Njoku in Nsukka, Sati in Jos, Adeshina at Ibadan, Imbua at Calabar, Zeleza in Nairobi, Amutabi as Vice Chancellor, etc. etc. etc. that we have no choice but to empower them. My co-editor of African Economic History, Jennifer, has just moved to become the VC of American University in Yola, Nigeria, leaving her job here in the US. We must empower her. A catalog of bad things can be compiled, but where does this leave us? How many people will pack their luggage in Austin and move to Yola? I was approached for this same position and I turned it down.

How do we empower them, as a question, is what makes me sleepless. We must empower them, even minimally by words of encouragement.

We must cumulate what we do, you and I and others.

TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)

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Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 24, 2017, 12:57:46 PM7/24/17
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Oga Falola,

When I make these critical assessments, I deliberately generalize. That should be obvious to those who know my rhetorical gestures on this topic already. I omit the usual caveats and qualifiers. Of course, there are some exceptions to the picture I am painting---serious, committed scholars. teachers, and mentors in the Nigerian higher education system (some of them are my friends and collaborators). But that is precisely the problem. They are the exception. We need a critical mass of people who are committed to these ideals. That should begin with admitting that many of those who are teaching and mentoring our young people today have absolutely no business being in the academy. And there are way too many of them. If you got a PhD in history and became a professor of history without ever having to go to an archive, how the heck can you mentor a budding historian? How can you teach them how to navigate and make sense of an archive? 

You and I get an ear full whenever we interact with colleagues in Nigerian universities about how deep and hopeless the problem is. Some people from this side who wanted to go and help have been forced back; they had to relocate back to the West, giving up because the committed scholars you mentioned are too few and far between to make a difference. Zeleza and Amutabi seem to be doing well, although I have no detail of their battles and their results. You and I have had several conversations on this topic and we're on the same page. We go to these institutions and see things. You have told me numerous stories that I was not even aware of, stories that are even more scandalous than the ones I saw or experienced myself. Not only that, people within the system bring us the details of the rot and dysfunction. I informally mentor several Nigerian graduate students and you'd cry if you heard their stories. They are being let down by a corrupt and inhumane system and by clueless academics. Some of them who cross over to this side struggle immensely because they had been shortchanged by those who should have prepared them for higher academic challenges. You and I differ only in one sense: you seem to believe that praising people when they do not deserve it and giving effort grades will encourage change in the system. I believe otherwise. I believe that such false praise enables more dysfunction and encourages more impunity. I believe though that what both of us are doing are necessary. Someone needs to constantly call out the culprits of the rot beyond the hackneyed cry of funding. Professorial culprits need to be called out and shamed. At the same time, helping with collaborations, visits, donations, etc is also important, as is acknowledging the effort of those who are seeking to rise above the rot or live out the ideals of the profession. It is not an either/or situation, which is why I give you credit for your efforts. My critique is a systemic one.

By the way, Jennifer, who is a friend, has been in touch about her new AUN gig. She will do well there. AUN is being run on a different model. There is no ASUU there, and recruitment and retention are strictly on merit. Rewards are commensurate with measurable commitments to the ideals of teaching, research, and mentorship, not determined by a blanket national system of remuneration that does not reward or punish individual efforts. Zeleza's institution is also run on a similar model as AUN.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 10:21 AM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Moses:

These ideas of commitment to higher education—teaching, research and mentorship—are there, from Malami Buba in Sokoto, Onwuka Njoku in Nsukka, Sati in Jos, Adeshina at Ibadan, Imbua at Calabar, Zeleza in Nairobi, Amutabi as Vice Chancellor, etc. etc. etc. that we have no choice but to empower them. My co-editor of African Economic History, Jennifer, has just moved to become the VC of American University in Yola, Nigeria, leaving her job here in the US. We must empower her. A catalog of bad things can be compiled, but where does this leave us? How many people will pack their luggage in Austin and move to Yola? I was approached for this same position and I turned it down.

How do we empower them, as a question, is what makes me sleepless. We must empower them, even minimally by words of encouragement.

We must cumulate what we do, you and I and others.

TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)


Toyin Falola

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Jul 24, 2017, 1:06:39 PM7/24/17
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Excellent points, Moses.
The lost sheep parable by Jesus was all about this.
Anyone with three kids will spend more time and resources on the bad one than the two good ones!!!
We just have to do more work, unfortunately.
More work
More work
More work
Until we are tired.
TF
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Malami buba

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Jul 24, 2017, 2:27:38 PM7/24/17
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Dear Moses,
The raw nerve here is 'battles and results', and I'll be very surprised to hear of any 'modest' achiever whose battles with institutional malaise are not greater than their results. And you need to widen the scope of your 'call outs' to include rogue VCs and their corrupting mentorship practices. In my experience, unaccountable VCs are at the centre of every unethical practice in our univeristies. The worst cases relate to students, who 'steal' water from tanks meant for toilets and use tiny torches in classrooms for revision at night! Without water and electricity for students on campus, no one can escape your 'modest' and indicting manifesto! It's modest, because you seem to underestimate the harmful effect of so many university VCs on the well being of students and the few good men and women who are struggling to do no harm as 'best option' under the tyranny of the 'big man'. Despicable sorts!! 

I may be right!

Malami

Chidi Anthony Opara

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Jul 24, 2017, 2:28:11 PM7/24/17
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Every great person is a hostage to greatness, a condition that forbids the person from saying and/or doing certain things, even if those things are truth/right things to say/do.

Professor Falola is a great man.

CAO.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 24, 2017, 4:35:10 PM7/24/17
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Malami,

I couldn't agree more about the VCs.... please don't even get me started on them. The processes by which VCs are picked are so corrupt and so riddled with nepotism, politics, and ethno-religious considerations that one would be naive to expect the chosen ones to be anything other than thoroughly politicized appointees with no commitment to faculty and students. As I write this in July 2017, in the twenty first century after the death of Jesus Christ (Prophet Isa), there are VC's in the Nigerian university system who have no email accounts, cannot surf the web even if their lives depended on it, and are functionally computer illiterate---or at least they were before their appointment. I know this for a fact. Go figure. 

Most of their allegiances lay not on campus but elsewhere in the political world. Even the problem of recruitment and retention that looms large over any discussion of faculty mediocrity and misconduct is largely the doing of VCs who force departments and units to hire unqualified minions or kinsmen of theirs, pseudo-academics who have zero interest in teaching, research, mentorship, and service and instead see their positions as platforms to earn salaries and benefits from a federal resource pool that nobody's father supposedly owns. If people like you talk they'll ask you: is it your father's money?

So, yes, VC's are responsible for a big chunk of the problem. They are mediocrity personified, and they enable and reward mediocrity among the professoriate. I have a dinner with the wife, so please let me not ruin my appetite by talking about the VCs, a despicable lot indeed. And please let no one come here to tell me that there are exceptions. Of course there are. But the one who was recently convicted of embezzling more than a billion Naira from Southwestern federal university (google it) is not one of them.

Toyin Falola

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Jul 24, 2017, 6:47:20 PM7/24/17
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Moses:
I do not want to get involved with this aspect, having just co-host a successful conference on higher education with over a dozen Vice Chancellors, with three reports already posted on this list.
The major thing that caught my eye is that you don’t want to have exceptions. Theoretically, we should not encourage this. Practically, we should promote the culture of exceptions. Morally, it is good to point to good people so that society can have direction.

So, what would you say, if I were to tell you that one former VC is owing me money as we speak….he is on this list. It is not a big sum of money, to be sure, but he does not have it.
So, what would you say, if I were to say that one that I know very well is yet to finish his first and only house? He is so broke that when I saw him at Ondo, I promised to help.
So, what would you say if I were to tell you about Tamuno and Akinkugbe and Ayandele? Two of them are dead and one is alive, but I know their houses and their worth. If anyone were to say that Professor Tamuno stole a cent as VC at Ibadan, that person must be dead crazy.

Or more broadly, if people say that Nigerians are corrupt, I can say that for every Nigeria you accuse of corruption, I will bring 9 Nigerians who are not corrupt. I can say that Professor Gloria Chuku, a current head of her dept, if she sees a brief case of money on the street, will not take it. Or I can say Gloria Emeagwali will never steal anyone’s money.

I am not turning exceptions into rule, but to say that society needs those people to make a moral point. Otherwise, society creates a void.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
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Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 24, 2017, 8:21:06 PM7/24/17
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Oga Falola,

I really have no problem with the idea of celebrating exceptions, nor do I disagree about the moral and philosophical power of exceptionality. Exceptions demonstrate possibilities, and possibilities are what drive initiatives and hopes for improvement and progress. I get all that. But focusing on the exception can be quite misleading and it can exculpate and/or provide undeserved solace to the culpable.

Moreover, personal integrity and ethics are just one aspect of my contention. My main argument has to do with administrative capacity, commitment to students and faculty, nepotism, rigidity, outmodedness, and a general inability to grapple with the challenges of running a university in the twenty first century and doing right by students, the reason why universities exist. 

On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 5:46 PM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Moses:
I do not want to get involved with this aspect, having just co-host a successful conference on higher education with over a dozen Vice Chancellors, with three reports already posted on this list.
The major thing that caught my eye is that you don’t want to have exceptions. Theoretically, we should not encourage this. Practically, we should promote the culture of exceptions. Morally, it is good to point to good people so that society can have direction.

So, what would you say, if I were to tell you that one former VC is owing me money as we speak….he is on this list. It is not a big sum of money, to be sure, but he does not have it.
So, what would you say, if I were to say that one that I know very well is yet to finish his first and only house? He is so broke that when I saw him at Ondo, I promised to help.
So, what would you say if I were to tell you about Tamuno and Akinkugbe and Ayandele? Two of them are dead and one is alive, but I know their houses and their worth. If anyone were to say that Professor Tamuno stole a cent as VC at Ibadan, that person must be dead crazy.

Or more broadly, if people say that Nigerians are corrupt, I can say that for every Nigeria you accuse of corruption, I will bring 9 Nigerians who are not corrupt. I can say that Professor Gloria Chuku, a current head of her dept, if she sees a brief case of money on the street, will not take it. Or I can say Gloria Emeagwali will never steal anyone’s money.

I am not turning exceptions into rule, but to say that society needs those people to make a moral point. Otherwise, society creates a void.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)

From: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meoc...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, July 24, 2017 at 3:22 PM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
Malami,

I couldn't agree more about the VCs.... please don't even get me started on them. The processes by which VCs are picked are so corrupt and so riddled with nepotism, politics, and ethno-religious considerations that one would be naive to expect the chosen ones to be anything other than thoroughly politicized appointees with no commitment to faculty and students. As I write this in July 2017, in the twenty first century after the death of Jesus Christ (Prophet Isa), there are VC's in the Nigerian university system who have no email accounts, cannot surf the web even if their lives depended on it, and are functionally computer illiterate---or at least they were before their appointment. I know this for a fact. Go figure. 

Most of their allegiances lay not on campus but elsewhere in the political world. Even the problem of recruitment and retention that looms large over any discussion of faculty mediocrity and misconduct is largely the doing of VCs who force departments and units to hire unqualified minions or kinsmen of theirs, pseudo-academics who have zero interest in teaching, research, mentorship, and service and instead see their positions as platforms to earn salaries and benefits from a federal resource pool that nobody's father supposedly owns. If people like you talk they'll ask you: is it your father's money?

So, yes, VC's are responsible for a big chunk of the problem. They are mediocrity personified, and they enable and reward mediocrity among the professoriate. I have a dinner with the wife, so please let me not ruin my appetite by talking about the VCs, a despicable lot indeed. And please let no one come here to tell me that there are exceptions. Of course there are. But the one who was recently convicted of embezzling more than a billion Naira from Southwestern federal university (google it) is not one of them.

Kayode J. Fakinlede

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Jul 25, 2017, 2:52:59 AM7/25/17
to USA Africa Dialogue Series, USAAfric...@googlegroups.com, yoruba...@googlegroups.com

Prof,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. May your tribe increase.
 I am very grateful to you that you are able to actually name some Nigerians who are incorruptible and exceptional.  As long as we celebrate these people, even in passing, others will like to emulate them. And is that not really what history is made of - exceptional people? For every Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Orunmila, Achebe,  there are hundreds of millions of us who go bye as mediocres.
Most Nigerians are not corrupt.  Most of us wake up every morning trying to do the best to stay alive.

Most Nigerian lecturers are not thieves or sexual perverts who are out to get into students’ pants. Most Nigerian lecturers and professors try to do the best with the hands they are dealt. There are of course, too many factors militating against Nigerians lecturers and professors that make it not possible to be as productive or as effective as their American counterparts. This is not due to their laziness or lack of will.

True, there are many areas of our university life that need improvement; and that is where many of the people in the diaspora can be of help. Helping means that the diasporean people, who are definitely more aware of ways ‘to grapple with the challenges of running a university in the twenty first century and doing right by students,’ can come in the spirit of love and wanting to contribute their own quota. This is not to say that Nigerian in the Diaspora are not contributing already, however, they have to take it out of their minds that once they enter that big bird and escape to Europe or America, the rest of us suddenly become deadheads and bumblers.

The process of getting into the university in Nigeria is quite effective. I would say that for every one hundred students that are admitted into the the university, upwards of ninety of them come though the right way. Nigerian universities are also conscious of their reputation.

I have noticed that by the time they graduate from the university, most Nigerians do not speak good English. One notices that this trend is observed even in American universities where English is the first and many a time, the only language. I know older Nigerians tend to judge the younger ones harshly for not being as proficient in the English language as themselves. I daresay that I will never be as proficient in using the smart phone as my grandchild. I also know that this yardstick does not apply to Chinese, Russians, Japanese etc, who sometimes may speak no English at all by the time they become doctors, engineers or space scientists. I always see this as the vestiges of enslavement or deep seated colonial mentality among older Africans. Why don’t we ask ourselves why we are even speaking English in the first place or why cant we use our own languages to teach our students.

Prof, I share your observation that ‘the millions of African young men and women represent our future, and their abilities at imaginations and inventions are so extraordinary that we may not even know that we are witnessing a revolutionary moment. To those who speak ill of these young men and women, they should check their thinking processes.’ And when you come up with this assessment, you are in no way exaggerating.

Again Prof, I say, ‘May you tribe increase.‘

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 25, 2017, 7:13:46 AM7/25/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Amen.

I have a problem with this, though-

'I have noticed that by the time they graduate from the university,
most Nigerians do not speak good English. One notices that this trend
is observed even in American universities where English is the first
and many a time, the only language.'

Americans who cant speak good English are poorly educated in what has
become the most globally widespeard means of communication, same with
Nigerians. This inadequacy will lead to problems, particulraly in
contexts where verbal communication is vital.

As for this idea:

'Why don’t we ask ourselves why we are even speaking English in the
first place or why cant we use our own languages to teach our
students.'

Many nationalisties are struggling to learn to speak English well bcs
it is the most global of languages. Most African languages are served
by a relatively small demographic and so the idea of teaching in
African languiages needs to be managed carefully bcs what is at stake
is being able to take advantage of the world's knowedge, not only the
knowledge avaibale to a particular linguistic comunity, particularly a
relatively small one.

I doubt if African underdevelopment has much, if anything, to do with
language of instruction, but I belive is more related to the
dysfunctional mode of founding and structures of the nations in
question.

The race is very long. We must not hobble ourselves.

We should ask why Africans are able to excl in the West but are more
likely to be challenged at home. Kunle Olukotun, for example, is a
professor of computer science at Stanford, an entrepreneur with Afara
computing systems and has sufficent recognition of conjunctions
between his discipline and Yoruba cosmology to name his server 'Ogun
', the Yoruba orisa or deity of iron, in recognition of the role of
metals in computer construction, as he informed me in an email in
response to why he has 'Ogun' in his email address, but I wonder if
studying in Yoruba is necessarily central to his achievements.

thanks

toyin
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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 25, 2017, 9:00:53 PM7/25/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
I have noted at least on two occasions Moses listing sexual predation as one of his grouses against Nigerian academics in a manner suggestive that it does not occur in the West.  Nothing can be further from the truth.

I was pub crawling with a Marketing lecturer  in one of North London universities when on learning I was a university teacher he asked for my views on SFG.  I said I didnt do it having adopted a policy of not mixing business with pleasure from the time I was an 18 year old single intern; not even with my fellow interns till they started thinking something was wrong with me somewhere.

He narrated how a Polish female student came into his office and was seated in a suggestive posture that bared all for him to see.

He said he confronted her with the statement 'Do you want to fxxx? He refused to oblige her.  He had two wives in Afghanistan.  

He said students were sent to the university not because they knew anything but because they knew nothing.

There was another publicised incident  in the papers of a 40 something lecturer from the University of East Anglia a couple of years before that caught in a liaison with one of his students.

And yours truly was the subject of  baits in the US in similar incidents to the Anglian lecturer which were all resisted.

As an undergraduate student in Nigeria I was witness to one of my female classmates who did the running for one of our lecturers succeeded and the only reason I knew was when he came to drop her off at the female hostel the following morning.  I knew several of the ladies at the time wanted to achieve what she did because of their comments in class.

I have gone to all these length just to show that in many cases and not just in Africa contrary to Moses's stereotyping denigration it is not just the teacher who is doing the harrassing but the female students; but it is the DUTY of the teacher to resist.  Not all teachers have the armoury to resist.

Again I have gone to these length to show that it is such steteotyping by Moses that leads to westerners humiliating African academics without any justifications as when I wanted to teach a group of youngsters and the teaching coordinator was making insulting insinuations that I could see that these were only kids implying that I should make no advances on them!  I felt so humiliated and insulted because they were only a few years older than my own children.

It is for this reason that Im asking Moses to apologise to the majority of the hard working and morally upright Nigerian academics he may have insulted by his comments.  People dont get morally upright simply because they teach in the American academy.  Not all that teach in America are morally upright.  It is not in all cases that academics sexually harrass students; sometimes students do the harrassing in all climes.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 25/07/2017 01:33 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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

I really have no problem with the idea of celebrating exceptions, nor do I disagree about the moral and philosophical power of exceptionality. Exceptions demonstrate possibilities, and possibilities are what drive initiatives and hopes for improvement and progress. I get all that. But focusing on the exception can be quite misleading and it can exculpate and/or provide undeserved solace to the culpable.

Moreover, personal integrity and ethics are just one aspect of my contention. My main argument has to do with administrative capacity, commitment to students and faculty, nepotism, rigidity, outmodedness, and a general inability to grapple with the challenges of running a university in the twenty first century and doing right by students, the reason why universities exist. 
On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 5:46 PM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Moses:
I do not want to get involved with this aspect, having just co-host a successful conference on higher education with over a dozen Vice Chancellors, with three reports already posted on this list.
The major thing that caught my eye is that you don’t want to have exceptions. Theoretically, we should not encourage this. Practically, we should promote the culture of exceptions. Morally, it is good to point to good people so that society can have direction.

So, what would you say, if I were to tell you that one former VC is owing me money as we speak….he is on this list. It is not a big sum of money, to be sure, but he does not have it.
So, what would you say, if I were to say that one that I know very well is yet to finish his first and only house? He is so broke that when I saw him at Ondo, I promised to help.
So, what would you say if I were to tell you about Tamuno and Akinkugbe and Ayandele? Two of them are dead and one is alive, but I know their houses and their worth. If anyone were to say that Professor Tamuno stole a cent as VC at Ibadan, that person must be dead crazy.

Or more broadly, if people say that Nigerians are corrupt, I can say that for every Nigeria you accuse of corruption, I will bring 9 Nigerians who are not corrupt. I can say that Professor Gloria Chuku, a current head of her dept, if she sees a brief case of money on the street, will not take it. Or I can say Gloria Emeagwali will never steal anyone’s money.

I am not turning exceptions into rule, but to say that society needs those people to make a moral point. Otherwise, society creates a void.
TF

Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)

From: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meoc...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, July 24, 2017 at 3:22 PM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos, no. 1
Malami,

I couldn't agree more about the VCs.... please don't even get me started on them. The processes by which VCs are picked are so corrupt and so riddled with nepotism, politics, and ethno-religious considerations that one would be naive to expect the chosen ones to be anything other than thoroughly politicized appointees with no commitment to faculty and students. As I write this in July 2017, in the twenty first century after the death of Jesus Christ (Prophet Isa), there are VC's in the Nigerian university system who have no email accounts, cannot surf the web even if their lives depended on it, and are functionally computer illiterate---or at least they were before their appointment. I know this for a fact. Go figure. 

Most of their allegiances lay not on campus but elsewhere in the political world. Even the problem of recruitment and retention that looms large over any discussion of faculty mediocrity and misconduct is largely the doing of VCs who force departments and units to hire unqualified minions or kinsmen of theirs, pseudo-academics who have zero interest in teaching, research, mentorship, and service and instead see their positions as platforms to earn salaries and benefits from a federal resource pool that nobody's father supposedly owns. If people like you talk they'll ask you: is it your father's money?

So, yes, VC's are responsible for a big chunk of the problem. They are mediocrity personified, and they enable and reward mediocrity among the professoriate. I have a dinner with the wife, so please let me not ruin my appetite by talking about the VCs, a despicable lot indeed. And please let no one come here to tell me that there are exceptions. Of course there are. But the one who was recently convicted of embezzling more than a billion Naira from Southwestern federal university (google it) is not one of them.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 25, 2017, 10:46:51 PM7/25/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
Here's an addendum to my last post. The morally upright lecturers do not speak out because they say they fear reprisal, blacklisting, and accusation of betraying colleagues. They will tell you the stories, but you know that it's a systemic thing, a culture and not an aberration because they, the upright ones, are afraid to speak out. If the harassers were in the minority as some claim, why should the "majority" upright ones be so afraid to speak out against them? 

Some of the upright ones who will never harass students themselves even help in shielding culprits from punishments and in covering up their misconduct. In one particular case, there was a mountain of documented evidence against the lecturer but members of the sham committee set up to investigate the case instead decided to let him off because "he would lose too much." The lone female holdout in the committee was eventually overridden and out of frustration left the university. She almost shed tears when she was telling me this story.

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 8:51 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:
"but it is the DUTY of the teacher to resist.  Not all teachers have the armoury to resist."

Yinka, 

The first sentence above answers your own specious rhetorical questions. Student-teacher seduction happens both ways in all climes, but it is, as you said, the duty of the teacher to resist, being that he/she is in a position of authority over the student. Isn't that why it's called sexual harassment and is outlawed by universities in the West? 

If I didn't personally know you, I'd say that your second sentence above was an attempt to justify the epidemic of rape and sexual exploitation in Nigerian higher institutions. Because I know you, I'll chalk it up to defensiveness and a facile attempt to defend our colleagues in Nigeria. For goodness sake, being an academic comes with responsibilities. It is not for everyone. It's okay if you do not have the "armoury to resist" (we all have our weaknesses), but have the decency to get out of the profession and go and do something else, preferably something in which you can seduce and allow yourself to be seduced to your heart's content without breaching any ethical or legal lines. Do not remain in the profession and exploit people's daughters and wives entrusted to you to educate. It is a heinous crime. It is rape and it is an egregious betrayal of trust and the responsibility of your calling as an educator and mentor.

I guess you did not read Falola's statement that grasping to point out equivalences in the West is an outrageously escapist way to respond to criticism of malfeasance in Nigeria. It is the very definition of defensive racism and relativism. It is a very dangerous enterprise. So what if occasionally one hears of sexual harassment cases in the US? Who the heck is talking about the US? We are talking about Nigeria, and you predictably invoke the West to avoid having to deal with Nigerian problems on their terms.  Let me tell you something. Even before I came to the West, when I was an undergraduate in Nigeria, I seethed with rage against the misconducts, sexual and otherwise, of Nigerian academics, some of whom where my teachers. So, please do not assume that I am always engaging with these topics from a Western frame of reference. I am a Nigerian who is grated about Nigerian problems. Let Westerners deal with the problems of their own society.

Bit since you've invoked the West, let me say this. Professorial sexual harassment does not occur often in the US academy because there is deterrence and it is punished and results in incalculable personal losses to the harasser. Nigerian universities are sexual crime scenes. I say this advisedly and I am not exaggerating. Perhaps you have been away from Nigeria for too long or have not kept pace with the state of affairs in Nigerian universities. How many Nigerian lecturers have been punished for their sexual crimes against students? I personally witnessed many of them get away with full blown rape on my undergraduate campus in Nigeria. Nothing happened to them. Some of them were serial rapists. And guess what? The morally upright lecturers you speak of feed are the ones who feed you with stories of these misconducts and are happy when a spotlight is shone on the problem precisely because the sexual harassers (who may very well be in the majority, although you cannot investigate the number) reflect badly on the non-harassers. They are happy with me for highlighting the problem, and they are as outraged as I am, if not more so.

How many Nigerian universities have a faculty conduct handbook or a coherent policy on sexual harassment? Here in the West, when you're appointed you're given a handbook that tells you all dos and don'ts regarding interactions with students. And violations will cost you not just your job but your freedom if you're handed over to the police in egregiously criminal cases. Good luck telling your employers and/or the police that you don't have the "armoury to resist.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 25, 2017, 10:47:03 PM7/25/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
"but it is the DUTY of the teacher to resist.  Not all teachers have the armoury to resist."

Yinka, 

The first sentence above answers your own specious rhetorical questions. Student-teacher seduction happens both ways in all climes, but it is, as you said, the duty of the teacher to resist, being that he/she is in a position of authority over the student. Isn't that why it's called sexual harassment and is outlawed by universities in the West? 

If I didn't personally know you, I'd say that your second sentence above was an attempt to justify the epidemic of rape and sexual exploitation in Nigerian higher institutions. Because I know you, I'll chalk it up to defensiveness and a facile attempt to defend our colleagues in Nigeria. For goodness sake, being an academic comes with responsibilities. It is not for everyone. It's okay if you do not have the "armoury to resist" (we all have our weaknesses), but have the decency to get out of the profession and go and do something else, preferably something in which you can seduce and allow yourself to be seduced to your heart's content without breaching any ethical or legal lines. Do not remain in the profession and exploit people's daughters and wives entrusted to you to educate. It is a heinous crime. It is rape and it is an egregious betrayal of trust and the responsibility of your calling as an educator and mentor.

I guess you did not read Falola's statement that grasping to point out equivalences in the West is an outrageously escapist way to respond to criticism of malfeasance in Nigeria. It is the very definition of defensive racism and relativism. It is a very dangerous enterprise. So what if occasionally one hears of sexual harassment cases in the US? Who the heck is talking about the US? We are talking about Nigeria, and you predictably invoke the West to avoid having to deal with Nigerian problems on their terms.  Let me tell you something. Even before I came to the West, when I was an undergraduate in Nigeria, I seethed with rage against the misconducts, sexual and otherwise, of Nigerian academics, some of whom where my teachers. So, please do not assume that I am always engaging with these topics from a Western frame of reference. I am a Nigerian who is grated about Nigerian problems. Let Westerners deal with the problems of their own society.

Bit since you've invoked the West, let me say this. Professorial sexual harassment does not occur often in the US academy because there is deterrence and it is punished and results in incalculable personal losses to the harasser. Nigerian universities are sexual crime scenes. I say this advisedly and I am not exaggerating. Perhaps you have been away from Nigeria for too long or have not kept pace with the state of affairs in Nigerian universities. How many Nigerian lecturers have been punished for their sexual crimes against students? I personally witnessed many of them get away with full blown rape on my undergraduate campus in Nigeria. Nothing happened to them. Some of them were serial rapists. And guess what? The morally upright lecturers you speak of feed are the ones who feed you with stories of these misconducts and are happy when a spotlight is shone on the problem precisely because the sexual harassers (who may very well be in the majority, although you cannot investigate the number) reflect badly on the non-harassers. They are happy with me for highlighting the problem, and they are as outraged as I am, if not more so.

How many Nigerian universities have a faculty conduct handbook or a coherent policy on sexual harassment? Here in the West, when you're appointed you're given a handbook that tells you all dos and don'ts regarding interactions with students. And violations will cost you not just your job but your freedom if you're handed over to the police in egregiously criminal cases. Good luck telling your employers and/or the police that you don't have the "armoury to resist.

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 7:45 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 27, 2017, 7:17:10 AM7/27/17
to usaafricadialogue
Could lecturers in Nigerian universities please speak up?

Is it true that most of you are crooks masquerading as teachers, sex criminals in disguise as law abiding members of society, empty heads who have no business pretending to impart knowledge, misfits who need psychiatric rehabilitation, this being the message I get from Moses Ochonu's claims year after year on this group about Nigerian universities from what he describes as his experiences in that system, while Nigeria based academics keep mum as if the discussion does not concern them?

I have little patience with the claim that the so called psychologically healthy minority are largely silent bcs of fear. What kind of fear? Bcs you speak up on USAAfrica Dialogues you will be persecuted?

A person who chooses to keep silent while his or her consistency is consistently painted in the harshest  colours, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the condemnations, is performing an evil act.

If these claims are true, do you desire to continue working in this evil zone, and if not, if you are not going to leave, how will you change things if you can't speak your truth in a forum in which you don't have to name any institution or anyone to be given attention?

If the claims are not true or are not completely true, how will you project the facts if you are silent?

Whatever the validity or lack of it in Moses' claims, the ultimate responsibility for these issues rests on Nigeria based academics, the people directly affected. Nobody else can fight your fight for you. The best others can do is point out the issues.

It is said that even the Devil abhors people who are neither-here-nor-there. That he spits them out as being too cold for Hell while God rejects  their insipidity  as not befitting of Heaven. Dante's map of Hell, though,in his Inferno, might have a place for them, suffering torments in harmony with their evil behavior on earth, that being the logic of Dante's Hell, perhaps with these insipids, these hiders behind silence being condemned to suffer intense pain interminably but without being able to cry out to ease their suffering.

Silence while your constituency is consistently pilloried in extreme terms  suggests you place no value on that system, yet it is the system that feeds you and your families and dependents, giving you a place as a member of society and a supposedly productive one.

 Or are all or most of the Nigeria based academics in this group within the class  of sexually predatory soul destroyers and their conscience keeps them silent?

One of Nigeria's great problems is a culture of cowardice and accommodation.

Perhaps academics in Nigeria have responded robustly to these charges on this group, but I missed those responses.

thanks

toyin



Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 27, 2017, 1:08:21 PM7/27/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
Toyin,


There you go again, using a bizarre mixture of hyperbole, distortion, and caricature to characterize my clear, unambiguous assertions in order to incite home-based academics against me. Don't you ever tire of recycling this cheap and failed rhetorical maneuver? And would you keep repeating it if you had an actual defense, if there was actually a credible defense against what I've been saying?

We have discussed this issue several times in the past. In fact it seems like we keep returning to it once every year or once every other year. The archive of our discussion on this topic on this list can fill a book. Which is why sometimes I just feel like referring people to the archive to save them the trouble. I remember that in the previous discussions, you tried this "Nigeria-based academics come and defend yourselves agains Moses's attacks" tact. It did not work. You did not find takers. In fact I remember that on one occasion you gave up in exasperation when no one joined you in your faux outrage and declared that you were no longer going to defend people who would not defend themselves. Good luck trying to incite Nigeria-based lecturers against me again. 

This is the typical escapism of those who do not want to confront the multiple problems of the Nigerian higher education sector: intimidate and browbeat the messenger. If I was not intimidated into silence in the past what makes you think that it will be different this time. Just so you know, I do not care about the egos and feelings of our colleagues in Nigeria. So far, my advocacy on this issue has not cost me any friendships, collegiality, or collaborations in Nigerian academe, but in fact I am prepared for that outcome and would accept it because I am convinced that someone needs to keep saying these uncomfortable things. I only care about our young ones whose futures are being destroyed and who are being victimized and traumatized. This is not about me or Nigeria-based academics. It is about the students. Unfortunately, many of you defenders of the rotten status quo don't get that. For you it it more important to defend Nigeria-based academics than to defend and protect our vulnerable youths against the tyranny and predation of those who are supposed to educate and prepare them for future challenges.

You have tried everything to discredit me on this issue. It has not and will not work. You even once, without knowing the extent of my engagements with Nigerian universities, accused me of not knowing what was going on, of being removed from the institutional realities, and of sitting in my armchair in America to pontificate on Nigerian higher education. I had to set you straight by detailing my yearly, sometimes twice yearly pilgrimages to Nigeria; my role in summer seminars, my lectures to administrators of tertiary institutions on some of these issues, my external Masters and PhD examinations and reviews in Nigeria and other African countries, my offline engagements with colleagues, my mentorship of Nigeria-based graduate students and prospective graduate students, and my many conversations on these issues with Nigeria-based academics, some of discussions initiated by them to feed me with more damning details and to corroborate what I've been saying.

And by the way, when I say the upright ones do not speak up, I am not talking about this list. I mean that they do not challenge the offending colleagues in their universities or insist on punishment being administered for fear of reprisals and accusations that they are betraying colleagues. I supplied one example that I know very well and that I partly witnessed. There are many others. 

By the way, have you considered the possibility that very few of the Nigeria-based colleagues have challenged me on these points over the years that we've had this discussion because they know that my claims are true and testify to it in private? Even Falola, whose knowledge of the Nigerian higher education system no one can fault or doubt, has he denied the validity of my assertions? Why do you think he is arguing that we should encourage and empower the few good ones, the exceptions, to change the system, rather than denying my premise of widespread misconduct and mediocrity?

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 27, 2017, 5:02:39 PM7/27/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
I havent implied 'not having armoury to resist' is a legitimate defence. I agree such people as in pastors taking advantage of parishioners on both sides of the Atlantic (the case of Suleiman is still fresh) are guilty most grievously of a serious breach of trust (people wont on acount of pastor Suleiman be right in condemming all pentecostals or generalize would they?). 

 For me in the case of errant professors the low esteem in which they are held by colleagues ought to be the greatest deterrent  and sanction litigations aside.

   I know that in spite of the handbook you speak of breaches happen more regularly than you might know in the West but that is not a defence either. In the West if there is no complaint it is treated as agreement between consenting adults. I know in Africa particularly when the student is young  it is socially viewed (rightly) as you viewed it as abominable.

All Im saying is unless you can produce statistics to prove an overwhelming practice sweeping generalizations damage the reputations of both the good and bad as outsiders cant tell who is who and treat all as suspicious as my personal example I cited demonstrates.  You know how suspicious westerners are by nature dont you?

 



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 26/07/2017 04:22 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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"but it is the DUTY of the teacher to resist.  Not all teachers have the armoury to resist."

Yinka, 

The first sentence above answers your own specious rhetorical questions. Student-teacher seduction happens both ways in all climes, but it is, as you said, the duty of the teacher to resist, being that he/she is in a position of authority over the student. Isn't that why it's called sexual harassment and is outlawed by universities in the West? 

If I didn't personally know you, I'd say that your second sentence above was an attempt to justify the epidemic of rape and sexual exploitation in Nigerian higher institutions. Because I know you, I'll chalk it up to defensiveness and a facile attempt to defend our colleagues in Nigeria. For goodness sake, being an academic comes with responsibilities. It is not for everyone. It's okay if you do not have the "armoury to resist" (we all have our weaknesses), but have the decency to get out of the profession and go and do something else, preferably something in which you can seduce and allow yourself to be seduced to your heart's content without breaching any ethical or legal lines. Do not remain in the profession and exploit people's daughters and wives entrusted to you to educate. It is a heinous crime. It is rape and it is an egregious betrayal of trust and the responsibility of your calling as an educator and mentor.

I guess you did not read Falola's statement that grasping to point out equivalences in the West is an outrageously escapist way to respond to criticism of malfeasance in Nigeria. It is the very definition of defensive racism and relativism. It is a very dangerous enterprise. So what if occasionally one hears of sexual harassment cases in the US? Who the heck is talking about the US? We are talking about Nigeria, and you predictably invoke the West to avoid having to deal with Nigerian problems on their terms.  Let me tell you something. Even before I came to the West, when I was an undergraduate in Nigeria, I seethed with rage against the misconducts, sexual and otherwise, of Nigerian academics, some of whom where my teachers. So, please do not assume that I am always engaging with these topics from a Western frame of reference. I am a Nigerian who is grated about Nigerian problems. Let Westerners deal with the problems of their own society.

Bit since you've invoked the West, let me say this. Professorial sexual harassment does not occur often in the US academy because there is deterrence and it is punished and results in incalculable personal losses to the harasser. Nigerian universities are sexual crime scenes. I say this advisedly and I am not exaggerating. Perhaps you have been away from Nigeria for too long or have not kept pace with the state of affairs in Nigerian universities. How many Nigerian lecturers have been punished for their sexual crimes against students? I personally witnessed many of them get away with full blown rape on my undergraduate campus in Nigeria. Nothing happened to them. Some of them were serial rapists. And guess what? The morally upright lecturers you speak of feed are the ones who feed you with stories of these misconducts and are happy when a spotlight is shone on the problem precisely because the sexual harassers (who may very well be in the majority, although you cannot investigate the number) reflect badly on the non-harassers. They are happy with me for highlighting the problem, and they are as outraged as I am, if not more so.

How many Nigerian universities have a faculty conduct handbook or a coherent policy on sexual harassment? Here in the West, when you're appointed you're given a handbook that tells you all dos and don'ts regarding interactions with students. And violations will cost you not just your job but your freedom if you're handed over to the police in egregiously criminal cases. Good luck telling your employers and/or the police that you don't have the "armoury to resist.

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 7:45 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 27, 2017, 5:02:39 PM7/27/17
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Moses:

People may be afraid to speak out because of the status of the person involved and not becayse it is prevalent. Irs a human problem

When I was an undergraduate there was a case of a highly placed social scientist who kept tongues wagging it stood out precisely because it was not widespread but who was to bell the cat?  The same thing in the linguistics dept.  We (students) all knew or thought we knew what was going on but since the student did not complain to risk rustication what could we do?



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 26/07/2017 04:22 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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Here's an addendum to my last post. The morally upright lecturers do not speak out because they say they fear reprisal, blacklisting, and accusation of betraying colleagues. They will tell you the stories, but you know that it's a systemic thing, a culture and not an aberration because they, the upright ones, are afraid to speak out. If the harassers were in the minority as some claim, why should the "majority" upright ones be so afraid to speak out against them? 

Some of the upright ones who will never harass students themselves even help in shielding culprits from punishments and in covering up their misconduct. In one particular case, there was a mountain of documented evidence against the lecturer but members of the sham committee set up to investigate the case instead decided to let him off because "he would lose too much." The lone female holdout in the committee was eventually overridden and out of frustration left the university. She almost shed tears when she was telling me this story.
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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 27, 2017, 5:02:39 PM7/27/17
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Toyin:

Great!
You hit the nail on the head as usual!



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Date: 27/07/2017 14:08 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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Could lecturers in Nigerian universities please speak up?

Is it true that most of you are crooks masquerading as teachers, sex criminals in disguise as law abiding members of society, empty heads who have no business pretending to impart knowledge, misfits who need psychiatric rehabilitation, this being the message I get from Moses Ochonu's claims year after year on this group about Nigerian universities from what he describes as his experiences in that system, while Nigeria based academics keep mum as if the discussion does not concern them?

I have little patience with the claim that the so called psychologically healthy minority are largely silent bcs of fear. What kind of fear? Bcs you speak up on USAAfrica Dialogues you will be persecuted?

A person who chooses to keep silent while his or her consistency is consistently painted in the harshest  colours, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the condemnations, is performing an evil act.

If these claims are true, do you desire to continue working in this evil zone, and if not, if you are not going to leave, how will you change things if you can't speak your truth in a forum in which you don't have to name any institution or anyone to be given attention?

If the claims are not true or are not completely true, how will you project the facts if you are silent?

Whatever the validity or lack of it in Moses' claims, the ultimate responsibility for these issues rests on Nigeria based academics, the people directly affected. Nobody else can fight your fight for you. The best others can do is point out the issues.

It is said that even the Devil abhors people who are neither-here-nor-there. That he spits them out as being too cold for Hell while God rejects  their insipidity  as not befitting of Heaven. Dante's map of Hell, though,in his Inferno, might have a place for them, suffering torments in harmony with their evil behavior on earth, that being the logic of Dante's Hell, perhaps with these insipids, these hiders behind silence being condemned to suffer intense pain interminably but without being able to cry out to ease their suffering.

Silence while your constituency is consistently pilloried in extreme terms  suggests you place no value on that system, yet it is the system that feeds you and your families and dependents, giving you a place as a member of society and a supposedly productive one.

 Or are all or most of the Nigeria based academics in this group within the class  of sexually predatory soul destroyers and their conscience keeps them silent?

One of Nigeria's great problems is a culture of cowardice and accommodation.

Perhaps academics in Nigeria have responded robustly to these charges on this group, but I missed those responses.

thanks

toyin



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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 27, 2017, 6:45:11 PM7/27/17
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Moses,

I am not trying to discredit you or incite anyone against you.

You will observe that I did not express a personal opinion on how factual or not your assertions are, as I used to do in the past.

I am simply insisting that no one can fight the fight for Nigeria based academics.

Only they can fight for themselves. The best others can do is describe the battlefield.

If I am wrong in stating that you see MOST Nigeria based academics as crooks, sexual  predators and academic frauds, please educate us so people like me can understand you better.

Are they as you describe them, even if you say my summation of your description is hyperbolic? They should tell us.

Are they not as you describe them? They should tell us.

What is not acceptable is silence.

A person who cannot express an opinion on an online group, what can such a person do at a departmental board meeting, at a university senate meeting, at an ASUU meeting? Nothing.

The struggle has to start somewhere, and online groups are among the safest places to begin the process.

On your visits to Nigeria, you  will say your piece to the academics in Nigeria and leave. You express outrage and possibly advice, online and in private communication,  which is vital, but how far can that go?

The Nigeria based academics, however,   live daily the reality of Nigerian academia.They are the ones who will have to weigh the challenges involved every time something wrong is being cultivated in the system. They will have to balance the fear of ostracism, of delayed promotions, of unjustified acrimony, of various forms of persecution, and in some cases, of bodily harm and of destruction of their precious belongings, against the need to stand up for the integrity of the institutions which define their professional existence, institutions of the kind their children and loved ones are likely to attend.

If the best they can do is keep silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your characterization of mot of them as a curse to the students they are supposed to lead, canker-worms corroding the educational establishment, then what progress is being made?

While expressing outrage, we need a dialogue to understand the complexity of the challenges and what to do about them. To what degree are the issues attitudinal, emerging from attitudes of academics in Nigeria, to what degree are they about the Nigerian socioeconomic system and to what degree are they about larger, global contexts?

The better developed Western nations and Nigeria, for example, represent systems each  belonging in  a very different cosmos. They only happen to be on the same planet.

What is the point of intersection of a country with a huge publishing industry, a broad and vigorous culture of bookshops, a rich culture of public libraries at almost every corner, effortless and cheap access to high speed broadband, a high level of economic, social, infrastructural and anti-crime security and one where the opposite of these indices of development are determinant?

By the time a person moves from the  better enabled  to the impoverished nation, its like going to prison. Yet, the wealth in possibilities of knowledge of the  impoverished environment are sustaining academic careers in the West, as people win grants that polish their CVs, with these grants come to Africa, do research and return to whence they came from.

Yet, the people battling with buying fuel and diesel to run generators and cars in the face of epileptic power supply and bad roads are competing globally with the others, who, comparatively speaking, are in heaven.

How can these two worlds ever meet?

How did people like Abiola Irele do their best work in Africa of the 60s and 70s, works that continue to resonate within and beyond Africa? What has gone wrong? What can be done to right the wrongs?

I am not arguing that academics in Nigeria are not to some degree culpable in the inadequacies pf the system. I am only trying to understand what led to these problems.  I see you try to pinpoint some of these causes. We need  a conversation that includes Nigeria based academics, rather than being restricted to or  dominated by the critique of   a Moses Ochonu or the remedial efforts and celebration of a Toyin Falola.


Thanks

Toyin


Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 27, 2017, 6:45:25 PM7/27/17
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Mose:
I FULLY support Toyins call for people to speak up on the forum and back you publickly to elighten us even without naming names.  

After all it is not Moses Ochonus country alone.  Why arent people prepared to discuss it generally as I am at the moment doing?  What or who is stopping them and why?  Should Moses Ochonu Olayinka Agbetuyi and Toyin Adepoju be the only concerned souls if it is that serious.

This for me is not a case of anyone inciting people against you? Why should this be a taboo subject when we daily discuss the matter of crooked politicians?

If it is not discussed how woyld this problem be solved since I believe this is what you really want?  I believe this a community of adults to which no subject is taboo.

The fact that it was only you and Toyin in the past and Im now involved means your efforts are not in vain.  Or were you raising rhetorical questions to which you expected no answers or only answers that fit your specifucations?

This is not Moses againts Nigerian academics at all.  This is a search for the truth.  I believe there are eminent social scientists in the forum who can provide leadership and guidance on how to get at the truth and tackle the truth so YOU and people of good will get the solution to a problem which they deserve.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 27/07/2017 18:34 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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Toyin,


There you go again, using a bizarre mixture of hyperbole, distortion, and caricature to characterize my clear, unambiguous assertions in order to incite home-based academics against me. Don't you ever tire of recycling this cheap and failed rhetorical maneuver? And would you keep repeating it if you had an actual defense, if there was actually a credible defense against what I've been saying?

We have discussed this issue several times in the past. In fact it seems like we keep returning to it once every year or once every other year. The archive of our discussion on this topic on this list can fill a book. Which is why sometimes I just feel like referring people to the archive to save them the trouble. I remember that in the previous discussions, you tried this "Nigeria-based academics come and defend yourselves agains Moses's attacks" tact. It did not work. You did not find takers. In fact I remember that on one occasion you gave up in exasperation when no one joined you in your faux outrage and declared that you were no longer going to defend people who would not defend themselves. Good luck trying to incite Nigeria-based lecturers against me again. 

This is the typical escapism of those who do not want to confront the multiple problems of the Nigerian higher education sector: intimidate and browbeat the messenger. If I was not intimidated into silence in the past what makes you think that it will be different this time. Just so you know, I do not care about the egos and feelings of our colleagues in Nigeria. So far, my advocacy on this issue has not cost me any friendships, collegiality, or collaborations in Nigerian academe, but in fact I am prepared for that outcome and would accept it because I am convinced that someone needs to keep saying these uncomfortable things. I only care about our young ones whose futures are being destroyed and who are being victimized and traumatized. This is not about me or Nigeria-based academics. It is about the students. Unfortunately, many of you defenders of the rotten status quo don't get that. For you it it more important to defend Nigeria-based academics than to defend and protect our vulnerable youths against the tyranny and predation of those who are supposed to educate and prepare them for future challenges.

You have tried everything to discredit me on this issue. It has not and will not work. You even once, without knowing the extent of my engagements with Nigerian universities, accused me of not knowing what was going on, of being removed from the institutional realities, and of sitting in my armchair in America to pontificate on Nigerian higher education. I had to set you straight by detailing my yearly, sometimes twice yearly pilgrimages to Nigeria; my role in summer seminars, my lectures to administrators of tertiary institutions on some of these issues, my external Masters and PhD examinations and reviews in Nigeria and other African countries, my offline engagements with colleagues, my mentorship of Nigeria-based graduate students and prospective graduate students, and my many conversations on these issues with Nigeria-based academics, some of discussions initiated by them to feed me with more damning details and to corroborate what I've been saying.

And by the way, when I say the upright ones do not speak up, I am not talking about this list. I mean that they do not challenge the offending colleagues in their universities or insist on punishment being administered for fear of reprisals and accusations that they are betraying colleagues. I supplied one example that I know very well and that I partly witnessed. There are many others. 

By the way, have you considered the possibility that very few of the Nigeria-based colleagues have challenged me on these points over the years that we've had this discussion because they know that my claims are true and testify to it in private? Even Falola, whose knowledge of the Nigerian higher education system no one can fault or doubt, has he denied the validity of my assertions? Why do you think he is arguing that we should encourage and empower the few good ones, the exceptions, to change the system, rather than denying my premise of widespread misconduct and mediocrity?
On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 11:33 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
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Moses Ochonu

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Jul 27, 2017, 6:45:41 PM7/27/17
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"the low esteem in which they are held by colleagues ought to be the greatest deterrent  and sanction litigations aside."


I cannot believe I read this from you, Yinka. Wow, just wow. So for abusing their powers, preying sexually on their female students and financially exploiting their male students, betraying the trust of parents and society, and bringing disrepute to a respected profession and their colleagues, they should only be subjected to the scorn of colleagues, "sanctions litigations aside." Scorn as deterrence? Now I've heard it all.

Obviously I do not have any statistics to indicate the number of Nigerian lecturers engaged in sexual or other misconducts or those who neglect teaching or mentorship. I have not conducted a study, nor would a study reveal the extent of the problem as most students, as you said, don't come forward to report and most reported cases are buried, never to be mentioned again.

 But you self-appointed defenders of the honor of Nigerian lecturers do not have any statistics either, yet you insist that the offenders are a minority and that the majority is upright. How exactly do you know that? Where is the study you conducted? At least I am modest and honest enough to admit the absence of precise numbers. If I say MANY Nigerian lecturers are culpable, that takes care of the absence of statistics. So let us agree that you do not have any statistics to show that the offenders are a minority and that I do not have any to show that they are a majority. Going off of that, and going by the preponderance of cases, scandals, and the private and public testimonies of victims and colleagues, we can conclude that too many lecturers are implicated. How many is too many depends on one's moral perspective. If you don't think the offenders are many or too many, that is your own judgment. Go an conduct a study to prove that only a minority are engaged in the practice. But keep in mind that even if you were to prove that, it would not mitigate the outrage, nor would it exculpate the majority who enable the offenders by tolerating, shielding, and in some cases defending them.

Again, the problem is the absence of deterrence and punishment when students come forward. In most cases the students are even further and victimized by the authorities of the institution and by supposedly upright colleagues of the perpetrator who are fond of blaming the victims.

Finally, let me shock you by saying that I never get defensive about pastors engaged in misconduct. I don't hold my tongue either; I am a big critic of pastoral misconduct, which is now widespread in modern Christianity, especially in Pentecostal circles. It is not only Suleiman; many other scandals have broken publicly or quietly.  I cannot be a pastor because I simply cannot live up to the moral demands of the job. Which begs the question, if you do not have the capacity to live up to the moral and ethical demands of a profession, why get into that profession in the first place or remain in it? I would pose exactly the same question to my colleagues in Nigerian universities who prey on, exploit, and terrorize students. I would advise them to go do something else, to have a career change, or to conform to the moral and ethical expectations of the job.

Sent from my iPad

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 27, 2017, 9:14:30 PM7/27/17
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Yinka,

Our people have a proverb. Those who ask for guidance hardly get lost. We have discussed this issue every year for at least five or six years. In fact Falola once remarked that were we to compile the contributions, we would fill a multivolume book. You're new on this forum at least as an active member. It is not Toyin and I alone who have contributed to the topic as you wrongly asserted. Many members of the forum have had their say over the years, including many Nigeria-based academics. Simply go and avail yourself of the archive of this forum, which I think is searchable by subject. In fact, Toyin is wrong that Nigeria-based lecturers have not spoken up on the issue. Many have done precisely that on this forum in past discussions of this issue, some on Toyin's side and many on my side. What Toyin doesn't like is that most home-based academics would not take his side of downplaying or denying the problems I am discussing and/or choose to be silent. That is what Toyin is decrying and repeatedly trying to change by his now tired appeals to Nigeria-based academics to defend themselves. It is actually quite amusing in its repetitive familiarity.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Jul 27, 2017, 9:14:30 PM7/27/17
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Toyin,

How does the catalogue of excuses you outlined justify the predatory behavior of lecturers or the failure to teach or mentor. So struggling to buy fuel for your house turns you into a sexual predator? Or a financial exploiter of students? Or prevents you from showing up to class to teach? Besides, you're contradicting yourself massively here. You cannot in one breadth claim that most lecturers are innocent of the misconducts and mediocrities I outlined and then in another make excuses to justify why they engage in the misconduct or fail to teach, mentor, and conduct research, essentially confirming my claim of widespread misconduct and mediocrity.

"They will have to balance the fear of ostracism, of delayed promotions, of unjustified acrimony, of various forms of persecution, and in some cases, of bodily harm and of destruction of their precious belongings, against the need to stand up for the integrity of the institutions which define their professional existence, institutions of the kind their children and loved ones are likely to attend."

The quote above continues your explanation of why lecturers enable their offending colleagues by being silent and thus encouraging and perpetuating the menace. You're basically confirming what I've been saying. There is no deterrence but rather an enabling environment. I am not judging the enablers, who are acting out of their instinct for self-preservation. But I am delineating the reality of enablement and impunity that ensues from their failure to challenge the offenders, whose numbers then grow, and who then grow bolder in their impunity, engulfing the entire system.

I have passed the point of dignifying the usual existential excuses. No one is suggesting that Nigeria-based colleagues publish, conduct pedagogy, and mentor at the same level as their better resourced colleagues in the West. Our expectation is quite modest: they simply need to show up and teach, maintain a decent research agenda and output, mentor graduate students, and not sexually harass or exploit their students. Is that asking for too much? What the heck has that got to do with possessing or not possessing resources? Besides, our colleagues in Nigeria who are doing the right thing and not harassing or exploiting their students, are they exempt from the familiar challenges you listed?

Please stop making excuses for people whose actual conditions you know little about. You have a textbook, theoretical understanding of this issue of challenges, much of it informed, I suspect, by the stereotype of third world economic lack and by the fact that you've not visited your former Nigerian colleagues in a long time. What if I told you that many of my colleagues in Nigeria in my academic rank live a much more comfortable life than I do in America or that they have more time to devote to the tasks I mentioned? Falola mentioned donating books to libraries but that no one reads them. Why do they not read the books? That's a more productive question to pose than repeatedly invoking socioeconomic factors as justification for egregious crimes, ethical violations, and embarrassing mediocrity.

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 28, 2017, 9:37:29 AM7/28/17
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This discussion would benefit from  not going further down the path of claims of excusing negative qualities in Nigerian academia or  of insisting alone on highlighting the evils in the system without reflecting on why these evils exist, how the system declined from the heights of the 60s to the present and what can be done to correct these evils.

The cries of evils in Nigerian academia has been heard.

What do we do now? Why are things the way they are? What can be done to change it?

What do those within the system have to say about the root causes of this negative enabling environment Moses describes?

He states that the few righteous Nigeria based academics prefer to keep quiet over the abuses by their evilly behaved colleagues so as not to be seen as betrayers. I then outline the dangers those who speak up may face, consequent on being perceived as betraying their colleagues.That list I made of the fears those who speak up may have is a list drawn up from historical incidents in a Nigerian university. It does not come from my imagination. One may visit Nigerian universities various times in a year,  but that is not the same as working in that system and facing the various internally generated and externally propelled pressures at work on the system, an experience I have had, informing that list of reprisals I provided, representing possibilities one has to overcome fear of if one is to stand up for justice.

In pursuing the goal of understanding the reasons for decline in the system,  is it possible to adequately grasp  the challenges of Nigerian academia without appreciating the role of its insertion into the global knowledge economy?

What factors shape the self perception of an academic, informing their grasp of the creative imperatives of the job and influencing their commitment to these imperatives as opposed to identifying with destructive possibilities of the kind earlier outlined in this discussion?

Human agency emerges through a confluence of internal and external drives. What are these drives in the case of Nigerian academia and what can be done to shape or respond to these drives for maximum creative output?

​What is the scope of exposure to academic culture enabled by living in Nigeria? There exist gradations ​
 
​in quality of provision of academic culture and of exposure to this culture, gradations that shape the trajectory of people's engagement with the specialized human creation known as academia.

In a national environment that poorly empowers a culture of learning, how may we magnify the understanding of the imperatives of that culture among people who live there? What would it take to fire as many people as possible in such an environment with what the Greeks described as philosophia, the love of wisdom, in the spirit of the Socratic perception that the focus on higher values makes lower values unattractive? How may  as many of the academic staff as possible be  inflamed by the love of learning and its communal pursuit as a good in itself empowering to the community, a pursuit that would negate interest in pursuits inimical to that primary goal?

How does one  perceive oneself as an academic? How does one configure those attitudes and behavior that one sees as compatible with that self perception? Do they involve the sexual predatoriness, poor teaching and mentoring culture and other ills that Moses describes as characteristic of Nigerian academia? How do we create environments in which human dignity is at the heart of learning in a national context in which such dignity is not paramount?

thanks

toyin

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 30, 2017, 8:55:59 AM7/30/17
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'Gordon (not actual name)   has a crush on a smart girl in the literature class auditorium.

He tried to ask her out but the word got stuck.

He settled for KFC crochets while he worked on his chat up line'

This is the paraphrase for a radio jingle advert for KFC currently airing on a British station Capital Radio capital.co.uk.

If the malaise we both condemn in Nigerian academics is so rare in the American academy how come it forms the theme of an advert jingle exported to the UK with a distinctive American accent complete with the unique alveola-palatal flutter American drawl 'r'?

Any interested forumite can verify this by logging in to the radio online.

But again this justifies nothing on either side of the Atlantic.

What we are both aiming at are effective institutional checks and I personally welcome more ideas.

I dont know the current structure of checks but it seems to me that the best form would involve both student bodies and university officials.

The coordinating organ should be national ASUU which must have standing local chapter student/teacher ethics committee with whom it must constantly be in touch on a monthly basis.  

This local committee must liaise with representatives of student bodies with which it should meet on weekly basis and from which it should collect data on student complaints and suspicions needing discrete investigations.  Students must be encouraged to report to such student bodies.

The national body must collect this statistics in a monthly basis even if all such statistics say is everything is 'cleared for this month'.

The national body must provide this statistics to every university Council and Senate concerned on a monthly basis keeping a copy to assist in the recruitment, retention and promotion exercise nationwide just like the credit scoring system in the West.

On recruitment the ASUU national ethics committee must serve each university teaching staff a code of its student/teacher relationship as you suggested (I never got this in the US but that does not mean I dont know what is and is not acceptable.)

There should be no retroactive witch hunt but it should serve as the premise of a new more morally binding accountable beginning.





Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 28/07/2017 00:04 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
"the low esteem in which they are held by colleagues ought to be the greatest deterrent  and sanction litigations aside."


I cannot believe I read this from you, Yinka. Wow, just wow. So for abusing their powers, preying sexually on their female students and financially exploiting their male students, betraying the trust of parents and society, and bringing disrepute to a respected profession and their colleagues, they should only be subjected to the scorn of colleagues, "sanctions litigations aside." Scorn as deterrence? Now I've heard it all.

Obviously I do not have any statistics to indicate the number of Nigerian lecturers engaged in sexual or other misconducts or those who neglect teaching or mentorship. I have not conducted a study, nor would a study reveal the extent of the problem as most students, as you said, don't come forward to report and most reported cases are buried, never to be mentioned again.

 But you self-appointed defenders of the honor of Nigerian lecturers do not have any statistics either, yet you insist that the offenders are a minority and that the majority is upright. How exactly do you know that? Where is the study you conducted? At least I am modest and honest enough to admit the absence of precise numbers. If I say MANY Nigerian lecturers are culpable, that takes care of the absence of statistics. So let us agree that you do not have any statistics to show that the offenders are a minority and that I do not have any to show that they are a majority. Going off of that, and going by the preponderance of cases, scandals, and the private and public testimonies of victims and colleagues, we can conclude that too many lecturers are implicated. How many is too many depends on one's moral perspective. If you don't think the offenders are many or too many, that is your own judgment. Go an conduct a study to prove that only a minority are engaged in the practice. But keep in mind that even if you were to prove that, it would not mitigate the outrage, nor would it exculpate the majority who enable the offenders by tolerating, shielding, and in some cases defending them.

Again, the problem is the absence of deterrence and punishment when students come forward. In most cases the students are even further and victimized by the authorities of the institution and by supposedly upright colleagues of the perpetrator who are fond of blaming the victims.

Finally, let me shock you by saying that I never get defensive about pastors engaged in misconduct. I don't hold my tongue either; I am a big critic of pastoral misconduct, which is now widespread in modern Christianity, especially in Pentecostal circles. It is not only Suleiman; many other scandals have broken publicly or quietly.  I cannot be a pastor because I simply cannot live up to the moral demands of the job. Which begs the question, if you do not have the capacity to live up to the moral and ethical demands of a profession, why get into that profession in the first place or remain in it? I would pose exactly the same question to my colleagues in Nigerian universities who prey on, exploit, and terrorize students. I would advise them to go do something else, to have a career change, or to conform to the moral and ethical expectations of the job.

Sent from my iPad

Kenneth Harrow

unread,
Jul 30, 2017, 11:33:56 AM7/30/17
to usaafricadialogue
Dear all
The notion that faculty are significantly abusing their relations w students in the u.s. Academy strikes me as out of touch with reality. The heightened fears and penalties are quite pervasive. Cases that really signal faculty abuse are given enormous negative publicity. that’s my sense of things.
I want to add that I married a girl who had been a student in my class (more than 40 years ago), that I saw, and still see, nothing wrong with faculty actually dating students. I know it is now virtually banned throughout academe, but I don’t agree. I no doubt stand alone, but my position is based on the belief that we all have agency, and have moral responsibility. Not law, to regulate our relations. However, that does not mean we condone abuse.
 Abuses of authority and position have to be severely punished, faculty fired for forcing themselves on students, blackmailing them to have sex. I agree with the punishments there; and I find it equally not credible that students are abusing this situation to blackmail faculty, though perhaps on rare occasion it probably arises.

That this happens in nigeria, or elsewhere in africa, is not a surprise to anyone who has taught in african universities.
The extent of it must vary. When I taught in cameroon 40 years ago, the black cars were lined up after school at the highschools, and it was disgraceful that female students were virtually prostituting themselves, and that big men took advantage of them
This was, I repeat, common knowledge: not hidden, not sneakily done.
It was also there in sembene’s film Faat Kine. No one found it hard to believe in that film. Common knowledge.
How to correct it? Moses is setting the standard, period. We shouldn’t focus on how much, how many, but how to stop it

What I really wanted to state is that this is not an issue that is debated in the american academy: it was settled practice to stop it many years ago. 
What is debated, where the huge bonfire issue now exists, is the question of rape, of physical abuse of students, not so much by faculty but by other students. Especially athletes. If you are really interested in bringing the u.s. Campus into this discussion,  you have to begin there. that is where the powers that be, the concerns, the fightingback to regain the night, etc, etc., is occuring. That is where the seachange in relations is being fought out. 

Another memory: my aunt was a student in the class, at medical school, of a man who became her husband. That was somewhere around the 1930s. No one condemned them for falling in love and marrying, the prof and his student. As for myself, well, I didn’t date liz till a year after she had been in my class. I was lucky she had been my student…. And lucky the university then did not prevent a prof from falling in love with his student!
Ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

Olayinka Agbetuyi

unread,
Jul 30, 2017, 12:47:05 PM7/30/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Thanks Ken for this illuminating piece.

Like in your case I know of a few professors who met their spouses at the university.  Its no crime although other copy cats on the face value of what they see can indulge in indiscriminate affairs.

My own position is professors when single should be able to tell interested female students 'if you are really interested in ME and not your grades then when you are no longer on my course we will talk about it.' If its true love it must endure the course.

This is part of what I mean by no witch hunting.

I have got a childhood friend who willingly confessed to having a relationship with her professor.  She enjoyed it .  I was not judgmental. I know she was well brought up.  She mentioned some other professor who came after her and she turned down.  She had no serious emotional commitment at the time.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 30/07/2017 16:42 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.   1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
Dear all
The notion that faculty are significantly abusing their relations w students in the u.s. Academy strikes me as out of touch with reality. The heightened fears and penalties are quite pervasive. Cases that really signal faculty abuse are given enormous negative publicity. that’s my sense of things.
I want to add that I married a girl who had been a student in my class (more than 40 years ago), that I saw, and still see, nothing wrong with faculty actually dating students. I know it is now virtually banned throughout academe, but I don’t agree. I no doubt stand alone, but my position is based on the belief that we all have agency, and have moral responsibility. Not law, to regulate our relations. However, that does not mean we condone abuse.
 Abuses of authority and position have to be severely punished, faculty fired for forcing themselves on students, blackmailing them to have sex. I agree with the punishments there; and I find it equally not credible that students are abusing this situation to blackmail faculty, though perhaps on rare occasion it probably arises.

That this happens in nigeria, or elsewhere in africa, is not a surprise to anyone who has taught in african universities.
The extent of it must vary. When I taught in cameroon 40 years ago, the black cars were lined up after school at the highschools, and it was disgraceful that female students were virtually prostituting themselves, and that big men took advantage of them
This was, I repeat, common knowledge: not hidden, not sneakily done.
It was also there in sembene’s film Faat Kine. No one found it hard to believe in that film. Common knowledge.
How to correct it? Moses is setting the standard, period. We shouldn’t focus on how much, how many, but how to stop it

What I really wanted to state is that this is not an issue that is debated in the american academy: it was settled practice to stop it many years ago. 
What is debated, where the huge bonfire issue now exists, is the question of rape, of physical abuse of students, not so much by faculty but by other students. Especially athletes. If you are really interested in bringing the u.s. Campus into this discussion,  you have to begin there. that is where the powers that be, the concerns, the fightingback to regain the night, etc, etc., is occuring. That is where the seachange in relations is being fought out. 

Another memory: my aunt was a student in the class, at medical school, of a man who became her husband. That was somewhere around the 1930s. No one condemned them for falling in love and marrying, the prof and his student. As for myself, well, I didn’t date liz till a year after she had been in my class. I was lucky she had been my student…. And lucky the university then did not prevent a prof from falling in love with his student!
Ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

From: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, 30 July 2017 at 14:31
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no. 1
'Gordon (not actual name)   has a crush on a smart girl in the literature class auditorium.

He tried to ask her out but the word got stuck.

He settled for KFC crochets while he worked on his chat up line'

This is the paraphrase for a radio jingle advert for KFC currently airing on a British station Capital Radio capital.co.uk.

If the malaise we both condemn in Nigerian academics is so rare in the American academy how come it forms the theme of an advert jingle exported to the UK with a distinctive American accent complete with the unique alveola-palatal flutter American drawl 'r'?

Any interested forumite can verify this by logging in to the radio online.

But again this justifies nothing on either side of the Atlantic.

What we are both aiming at are effective institutional checks and I personally welcome more ideas.

I dont know the current structure of checks but it seems to me that the best form would involve both student bodies and university officials.

The coordinating organ should be national ASUU which must have standing local chapter student/teacher ethics committee with whom it must constantly be in touch on a monthly basis.  

This local committee must liaise with representatives of student bodies with which it should meet on weekly basis and from which it should collect data on student complaints and suspicions needing discrete investigations.  Students must be encouraged to report to such student bodies.

The national body must collect this statistics in a monthly basis even if all such statistics say is everything is 'cleared for this month'.

The national body must provide this statistics to every university Council and Senate concerned on a monthly basis keeping a copy to assist in the recruitment, retention and promotion exercise nationwide just like the credit scoring system in the West.

On recruitment the ASUU national ethics committee must serve each university teaching staff a code of its student/teacher relationship as you suggested (I never got this in the US but that does not mean I dont know what is and is not acceptable.)

There should be no retroactive witch hunt but it should serve as the premise of a new more morally binding accountable beginning.





Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 28/07/2017 00:04 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
"the low esteem in which they are held by colleagues ought to be the greatest deterrent  and sanction litigations aside."


I cannot believe I read this from you, Yinka. Wow, just wow. So for abusing their powers, preying sexually on their female students and financially exploiting their male students, betraying the trust of parents and society, and bringing disrepute to a respected profession and their colleagues, they should only be subjected to the scorn of colleagues, "sanctions litigations aside." Scorn as deterrence? Now I've heard it all.

Obviously I do not have any statistics to indicate the number of Nigerian lecturers engaged in sexual or other misconducts or those who neglect teaching or mentorship. I have not conducted a study, nor would a study reveal the extent of the problem as most students, as you said, don't come forward to report and most reported cases are buried, never to be mentioned again.

 But you self-appointed defenders of the honor of Nigerian lecturers do not have any statistics either, yet you insist that the offenders are a minority and that the majority is upright. How exactly do you know that? Where is the study you conducted? At least I am modest and honest enough to admit the absence of precise numbers. If I say MANY Nigerian lecturers are culpable, that takes care of the absence of statistics. So let us agree that you do not have any statistics to show that the offenders are a minority and that I do not have any to show that they are a majority. Going off of that, and going by the preponderance of cases, scandals, and the private and public testimonies of victims and colleagues, we can conclude that too many lecturers are implicated. How many is too many depends on one's moral perspective. If you don't think the offenders are many or too many, that is your own judgment. Go an conduct a study to prove that only a minority are engaged in the practice. But keep in mind that even if you were to prove that, it would not mitigate the outrage, nor would it exculpate the majority who enable the offenders by tolerating, shielding, and in some cases defending them.

Again, the problem is the absence of deterrence and punishment when students come forward. In most cases the students are even further and victimized by the authorities of the institution and by supposedly upright colleagues of the perpetrator who are fond of blaming the victims.

Finally, let me shock you by saying that I never get defensive about pastors engaged in misconduct. I don't hold my tongue either; I am a big critic of pastoral misconduct, which is now widespread in modern Christianity, especially in Pentecostal circles. It is not only Suleiman; many other scandals have broken publicly or quietly.  I cannot be a pastor because I simply cannot live up to the moral demands of the job. Which begs the question, if you do not have the capacity to live up to the moral and ethical demands of a profession, why get into that profession in the first place or remain in it? I would pose exactly the same question to my colleagues in Nigerian universities who prey on, exploit, and terrorize students. I would advise them to go do something else, to have a career change, or to conform to the moral and ethical expectations of the job.

Sent from my iPad

Moses Ebe Ochonu

unread,
Jul 30, 2017, 8:09:48 PM7/30/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
I like the direction this discussion has taken lately. Gone is the denial and deflection. We now have a grudging acceptance of the problem and what looks like a genuine effort to grapple with it.  Both Toyin and Olayinka have put some ideas and suggestions on the table. I have my own ideas, which I hope to outline, time permitting. It's not rocket science. Once you've acknowledged the problem, solving it is fairly easy if you have the stakeholders of consequence and power on board and they have the will to act. which is why I've been trying to get us to not just acknowledge the problem but its enormity.

Ken has told a personal story that contextualizes things. I too know a retired American professor who married someone who was a student in his class. It used to be okay for professors to date students. Not any more, with the ban. I personally think it is a good thing that Professor-Student relationships are now banned by a vast majority of American universities. Americans saw a slippery slope into abuse and professorial impunity in the future and took action to prevent it. However, I respect the views of those who disagree with the ban even while adhering to it, not that they have a choice unless they no longer cherish their job and/or their freedom. But here are the important facts:

1. The ban was introduced in the US because that was the only way you could stop professors from abusing their power, intimidating and harassing their students into sexual relationships, and or demanding sex as a condition for high grades.

2. This discussion has never been about consensual relationships between adults, but rather about sexual harassment, abuse by an authority figure, asymmetry in power relations, etc. It's been about the fact that consent is a problematic concept when you have an authority figure with control over grades and other evaluational resources and a vulnerable student. Unfortunately when you solve a problem such as this one, you're going to prevent some genuinely consensual relationships as well.

3. Incidents of professorial sexual abuse of students are rare in the US. Which is precisely why they are news when they occur. This contrasts with Nigerian universities  in which sexual abuse is widespread and is not treated as a big deal.

4. Ken's story is very important because it illustrates the fact that even the US, which some people have inexplicably introduced into a discussion of sexual and other misconducts committed by academics in Nigerian universities, recognized the problem of abuse and/or the potential of abuse and solved it by taking drastic measures. Before the ban, the problem never even reached the proportion of what we have in Nigeria. But a few incidents that came to light were enough to spur action; they were scandalous enough for MOST stakeholders to recognize that there was a problem that needed to be solved. There was no debate about numbers, about how many people were involved, about how many incidents had occurred. There was no obsession with what was happening in other countries. 

Even the egalitarian turn in US higher education, which effectively destroyed rigid hierarchies dividing professors from students, something that we now take for granted, is fairly recent, occurring only in the 1960s. Before then, the system was close to the one in Nigeria (at least in terms of relations between professors and students) where professors are demigods and students have little or no right.

5. Which brings me to the point I was trying to make in an earlier post. The Western reference and comparison is irrelevant and is solely based on the wrong assumption that that is one's frame of reference. One is not venerating a Western ideal of restraint or professorial self-control. Far from it. If the incidents of professorial misconduct are few in the West today, it is not because Westerners are inherently more morally upright than Africans or that they possess a greater will to resist temptations from students. As I said before and as Ken affirmed, it is simply because that infraction is now widely outlawed and is severely punished when it occurs. It is because it is outlawed explicitly, so even a defense of consensual coupling is not tenable. Not anymore. This is an important point to stress because the only difference between the West and Nigeria in this regard is that stakeholders in the US system acknowledged a problem (even before it reached Nigeria-esque proportions) and solved it with a drastic action while stakeholders in the Nigerian system are struggling to even acknowledge the problem, never mind solving it with measures of deterrence and punishment. In this US, explicit policies against sexual abuse and professor-student relationships preceded and occasioned an attitudinal change in professors, not the other way round. The human propensity for impunity and for leveraging authority for self-gratification resides in every society. The difference is the existence of organs that constrain human actions, institutions of deterrence. That is what engenders attitudinal change.

Finally, I want to thank Ken for telling his story about what he witnessed while teaching in a university in Cameroon, and for bringing a very clear, honest perspective to the discussion. Too often progressive white men and women do not tell the truth about their true observations of African society. They are afraid of being accused of racism or Othering, so they make patronizingly pretentious and relativist comments about foibles and problems they see on the continent. It takes courage for Ken to speak truthfully about this widespread, well known problem of sexual and other exploitations of students by academics. The truth is that every Nigerian I know know that the problem of professorial abuse of their authority (expressed in sexual ways or in the form of financial extortion in exchange for grades) is quite common in Nigerian universities. The demand for numbers and statistics is a disingenuous tactic of deflection, but I am happy to see that it has had very little purchase on this list and has now given way to a more truthful, constructive acknowledgement of the problem.

I will be back to offer my own thoughts on how to solve not just the sexual abuse issue but the other problems I have been harping on.

On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 11:21 AM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Ken for this illuminating piece.

Like in your case I know of a few professors who met their spouses at the university.  Its no crime although other copy cats on the face value of what they see can indulge in indiscriminate affairs.

My own position is professors when single should be able to tell interested female students 'if you are really interested in ME and not your grades then when you are no longer on my course we will talk about it.' If its true love it must endure the course.

This is part of what I mean by no witch hunting.

I have got a childhood friend who willingly confessed to having a relationship with her professor.  She enjoyed it .  I was not judgmental. I know she was well brought up.  She mentioned some other professor who came after her and she turned down.  She had no serious emotional commitment at the time.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 30/07/2017 16:42 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.   1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
Dear all
The notion that faculty are significantly abusing their relations w students in the u.s. Academy strikes me as out of touch with reality. The heightened fears and penalties are quite pervasive. Cases that really signal faculty abuse are given enormous negative publicity. that’s my sense of things.
I want to add that I married a girl who had been a student in my class (more than 40 years ago), that I saw, and still see, nothing wrong with faculty actually dating students. I know it is now virtually banned throughout academe, but I don’t agree. I no doubt stand alone, but my position is based on the belief that we all have agency, and have moral responsibility. Not law, to regulate our relations. However, that does not mean we condone abuse.
 Abuses of authority and position have to be severely punished, faculty fired for forcing themselves on students, blackmailing them to have sex. I agree with the punishments there; and I find it equally not credible that students are abusing this situation to blackmail faculty, though perhaps on rare occasion it probably arises.

That this happens in nigeria, or elsewhere in africa, is not a surprise to anyone who has taught in african universities.
The extent of it must vary. When I taught in cameroon 40 years ago, the black cars were lined up after school at the highschools, and it was disgraceful that female students were virtually prostituting themselves, and that big men took advantage of them
This was, I repeat, common knowledge: not hidden, not sneakily done.
It was also there in sembene’s film Faat Kine. No one found it hard to believe in that film. Common knowledge.
How to correct it? Moses is setting the standard, period. We shouldn’t focus on how much, how many, but how to stop it

What I really wanted to state is that this is not an issue that is debated in the american academy: it was settled practice to stop it many years ago. 
What is debated, where the huge bonfire issue now exists, is the question of rape, of physical abuse of students, not so much by faculty but by other students. Especially athletes. If you are really interested in bringing the u.s. Campus into this discussion,  you have to begin there. that is where the powers that be, the concerns, the fightingback to regain the night, etc, etc., is occuring. That is where the seachange in relations is being fought out. 

Another memory: my aunt was a student in the class, at medical school, of a man who became her husband. That was somewhere around the 1930s. No one condemned them for falling in love and marrying, the prof and his student. As for myself, well, I didn’t date liz till a year after she had been in my class. I was lucky she had been my student…. And lucky the university then did not prevent a prof from falling in love with his student!
Ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

unread,
Jul 31, 2017, 3:59:14 PM7/31/17
to USAAfricaDialogue

"Incidents of professorial sexual abuse of students are rare in the US."


Moses,

          Sexual abuse is still  quite rampant on US campuses. Some cases are not reported officially. Many campuses try to conceal the statistics.  Students, in some cases,  do not report the abuse openly  to avoid  the public glare, or, from fear of the blame game, retaliation, peer response etc.


Sexual abuse  is also rampant in the US  military and  prevalent in the media with  recent high profile cases and accusations  of abuse  by senior administrators- including the President himself.  


Vanderbilt and Michigan must be exceptions.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 31, 2017, 3:59:30 PM7/31/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
We are with you on this score.  There is no denying there is a problem. Let us all work together to get in place a system to solve it.  Next time we touch base we should be assessing how far the measures we have leveraged the authorities to put in place are working.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 31/07/2017 01:28 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
I like the direction this discussion has taken lately. Gone is the denial and deflection. We now have a grudging acceptance of the problem and what looks like a genuine effort to grapple with it.  Both Toyin and Olayinka have put some ideas and suggestions on the table. I have my own ideas, which I hope to outline, time permitting. It's not rocket science. Once you've acknowledged the problem, solving it is fairly easy if you have the stakeholders of consequence and power on board and they have the will to act. which is why I've been trying to get us to not just acknowledge the problem but its enormity.

Ken has told a personal story that contextualizes things. I too know a retired American professor who married someone who was a student in his class. It used to be okay for professors to date students. Not any more, with the ban. I personally think it is a good thing that Professor-Student relationships are now banned by a vast majority of American universities. Americans saw a slippery slope into abuse and professorial impunity in the future and took action to prevent it. However, I respect the views of those who disagree with the ban even while adhering to it, not that they have a choice unless they no longer cherish their job and/or their freedom. But here are the important facts:

1. The ban was introduced in the US because that was the only way you could stop professors from abusing their power, intimidating and harassing their students into sexual relationships, and or demanding sex as a condition for high grades.

2. This discussion has never been about consensual relationships between adults, but rather about sexual harassment, abuse by an authority figure, asymmetry in power relations, etc. It's been about the fact that consent is a problematic concept when you have an authority figure with control over grades and other evaluational resources and a vulnerable student. Unfortunately when you solve a problem such as this one, you're going to prevent some genuinely consensual relationships as well.

3. Incidents of professorial sexual abuse of students are rare in the US. Which is precisely why they are news when they occur. This contrasts with Nigerian universities  in which sexual abuse is widespread and is not treated as a big deal.

4. Ken's story is very important because it illustrates the fact that even the US, which some people have inexplicably introduced into a discussion of sexual and other misconducts committed by academics in Nigerian universities, recognized the problem of abuse and/or the potential of abuse and solved it by taking drastic measures. Before the ban, the problem never even reached the proportion of what we have in Nigeria. But a few incidents that came to light were enough to spur action; they were scandalous enough for MOST stakeholders to recognize that there was a problem that needed to be solved. There was no debate about numbers, about how many people were involved, about how many incidents had occurred. There was no obsession with what was happening in other countries. 

Even the egalitarian turn in US higher education, which effectively destroyed rigid hierarchies dividing professors from students, something that we now take for granted, is fairly recent, occurring only in the 1960s. Before then, the system was close to the one in Nigeria (at least in terms of relations between professors and students) where professors are demigods and students have little or no right.

5. Which brings me to the point I was trying to make in an earlier post. The Western reference and comparison is irrelevant and is solely based on the wrong assumption that that is one's frame of reference. One is not venerating a Western ideal of restraint or professorial self-control. Far from it. If the incidents of professorial misconduct are few in the West today, it is not because Westerners are inherently more morally upright than Africans or that they possess a greater will to resist temptations from students. As I said before and as Ken affirmed, it is simply because that infraction is now widely outlawed and is severely punished when it occurs. It is because it is outlawed explicitly, so even a defense of consensual coupling is not tenable. Not anymore. This is an important point to stress because the only difference between the West and Nigeria in this regard is that stakeholders in the US system acknowledged a problem (even before it reached Nigeria-esque proportions) and solved it with a drastic action while stakeholders in the Nigerian system are struggling to even acknowledge the problem, never mind solving it with measures of deterrence and punishment. In this US, explicit policies against sexual abuse and professor-student relationships preceded and occasioned an attitudinal change in professors, not the other way round. The human propensity for impunity and for leveraging authority for self-gratification resides in every society. The difference is the existence of organs that constrain human actions, institutions of deterrence. That is what engenders attitudinal change.

Finally, I want to thank Ken for telling his story about what he witnessed while teaching in a university in Cameroon, and for bringing a very clear, honest perspective to the discussion. Too often progressive white men and women do not tell the truth about their true observations of African society. They are afraid of being accused of racism or Othering, so they make patronizingly pretentious and relativist comments about foibles and problems they see on the continent. It takes courage for Ken to speak truthfully about this widespread, well known problem of sexual and other exploitations of students by academics. The truth is that every Nigerian I know know that the problem of professorial abuse of their authority (expressed in sexual ways or in the form of financial extortion in exchange for grades) is quite common in Nigerian universities. The demand for numbers and statistics is a disingenuous tactic of deflection, but I am happy to see that it has had very little purchase on this list and has now given way to a more truthful, constructive acknowledgement of the problem.

I will be back to offer my own thoughts on how to solve not just the sexual abuse issue but the other problems I have been harping on.
On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 11:21 AM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Ken for this illuminating piece.

Like in your case I know of a few professors who met their spouses at the university.  Its no crime although other copy cats on the face value of what they see can indulge in indiscriminate affairs.

My own position is professors when single should be able to tell interested female students 'if you are really interested in ME and not your grades then when you are no longer on my course we will talk about it.' If its true love it must endure the course.

This is part of what I mean by no witch hunting.

I have got a childhood friend who willingly confessed to having a relationship with her professor.  She enjoyed it .  I was not judgmental. I know she was well brought up.  She mentioned some other professor who came after her and she turned down.  She had no serious emotional commitment at the time.



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-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 30/07/2017 16:42 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.   1

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Dear all
The notion that faculty are significantly abusing their relations w students in the u.s. Academy strikes me as out of touch with reality. The heightened fears and penalties are quite pervasive. Cases that really signal faculty abuse are given enormous negative publicity. that’s my sense of things.
I want to add that I married a girl who had been a student in my class (more than 40 years ago), that I saw, and still see, nothing wrong with faculty actually dating students. I know it is now virtually banned throughout academe, but I don’t agree. I no doubt stand alone, but my position is based on the belief that we all have agency, and have moral responsibility. Not law, to regulate our relations. However, that does not mean we condone abuse.
 Abuses of authority and position have to be severely punished, faculty fired for forcing themselves on students, blackmailing them to have sex. I agree with the punishments there; and I find it equally not credible that students are abusing this situation to blackmail faculty, though perhaps on rare occasion it probably arises.

That this happens in nigeria, or elsewhere in africa, is not a surprise to anyone who has taught in african universities.
The extent of it must vary. When I taught in cameroon 40 years ago, the black cars were lined up after school at the highschools, and it was disgraceful that female students were virtually prostituting themselves, and that big men took advantage of them
This was, I repeat, common knowledge: not hidden, not sneakily done.
It was also there in sembene’s film Faat Kine. No one found it hard to believe in that film. Common knowledge.
How to correct it? Moses is setting the standard, period. We shouldn’t focus on how much, how many, but how to stop it

What I really wanted to state is that this is not an issue that is debated in the american academy: it was settled practice to stop it many years ago. 
What is debated, where the huge bonfire issue now exists, is the question of rape, of physical abuse of students, not so much by faculty but by other students. Especially athletes. If you are really interested in bringing the u.s. Campus into this discussion,  you have to begin there. that is where the powers that be, the concerns, the fightingback to regain the night, etc, etc., is occuring. That is where the seachange in relations is being fought out. 

Another memory: my aunt was a student in the class, at medical school, of a man who became her husband. That was somewhere around the 1930s. No one condemned them for falling in love and marrying, the prof and his student. As for myself, well, I didn’t date liz till a year after she had been in my class. I was lucky she had been my student…. And lucky the university then did not prevent a prof from falling in love with his student!
Ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


Moses Ochonu

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Jul 31, 2017, 9:47:06 PM7/31/17
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I hope you're not including student-student sexual abuse, which is rampant on US college campuses, with many institutions struggling to grapple with it. Anyway, I was going off of the publicly available statistics on faculty-student sexual abuse. I am not going to argue the numbers, however, because I agree with you, and studies have shown, that many if not most sexual abuses are not reported and are therefore not part of the public statistics. My point was merely to show the power of deterrence and punitive and preventive policy in REDUCING and discouraging professorial sexual abuse. Whatever the true number is in the US, imagine what it would be in Nigeria, where there is no policy of deterrence, punitive or otherwise.

Sent from my iPhone

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Jul 31, 2017, 9:47:21 PM7/31/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
The radio I was referring to was erroneously cited as capital.co.uk.  Its actually Londons CapitalFM.com.

I heard that advert again a few hours ago



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Date: 31/07/2017 21:15 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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"Incidents of professorial sexual abuse of students are rare in the US."


Moses,

          Sexual abuse is still  quite rampant on US campuses. Some cases are not reported officially. Many campuses try to conceal the statistics.  Students, in some cases,  do not report the abuse openly  to avoid  the public glare, or, from fear of the blame game, retaliation, peer response etc.


Sexual abuse  is also rampant in the US  military and  prevalent in the media with  recent high profile cases and accusations  of abuse  by senior administrators- including the President himself.  


Vanderbilt and Michigan must be exceptions.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 31, 2017, 9:47:25 PM7/31/17
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"Next time we touch base we should be assessing how far the measures we have leveraged the authorities to put in place are working."
Olayinka

I don't think the Nigerian university system is so bad it has  to take interventions from USAAfrica Dialogues to begin to put systems in place to tackle negative possibilities of the system.

Is the more realistic approach not to see what systems are already in place, assess how effective they are and suggest refinements of the existing systems, additions to these or a rethinking of extant procedures?

It would be helpful to avoid a messianic, savior, or parachuting mentality, in which one drops in from above into a  social situation, ignoring already existing social frameworks, forgetting that institutional procedures are executed within social contexts.

In an earlier discussion on this group, Nigeria based academics  presented sex abuse guidelines in place in their universities. Can they give us updates on these?

The issues involved, particularly as outlined by Moses, run from  sexual conduct guidelines to teaching and mentoring to publishing strategies and promotion criteria. It would be wonderful to read from those directly involved because they understand the heat in the kitchen. For example, what is the relationship of Nigeria based scholars to the more prominent journals in academia, most or all of which are based abroad, most likely in the West?

In discussing sensitive issues, I have experienced two frustrations on this group.

 It is difficult to get Nigeria based academics to open up on allegations of negativity in their system.

On the other side, it is difficult to get African immigrant US academics to open up on the challenges faced by Black people in the US. Throughout the season of the highlights of the recurrent unjustifiable murders of Black people by US police during Obama's tenure, I don't recall any discussion about that terrible problem on this group which seems peopled significantly by African immigrant scholars in the US. The one person whose voice I remember speaking unequivocally on the negativities of the US establishment  is Kwame Zulu Shabbaz and to some degree Kenneth Harrow, but Shabbaz is African-American and Harrow is a Caucasian Jew.

The horrible treatment meted out to one of, if not the most prominent Black Humanities scholar in the US, Henry Luis Gates Jr, in which an almost elderly man dependent on a walking stick for mobility was handcuffed by a  policeman in an incident involving his insisting the policeman identify himself as the officer challenged him as to whether or not his house belonged to him, an incident in which even President Obama became involved,  passed without a comment on this group of people a good number of whom fall into the Gates demographic-Black academics.

The only African immigrant academic, writer or scholar I have read in my random Internet journeys  discussing this issue is Sylvester Ogbechie on his blog Aachronym, describing how he has to be careful to place his driving license within easy view so as to avoid the negative attentions  trigger happy police people direct at Black people, as well as the difference between his treatment at US border control before and after he became a US citizen along with other discussions on "borders and access" on how readily Black people can access means of international mobility, at that blog.I have also read Kennedy Emetulu on this group discussing punitive British immigration controls.

Perhaps I am wrong and I have missed  discussions that obviate my thesis. The total silence from Nigeria based academics in this latest scathing debate on their system justifies part of the thesis to some degree.

If I am right, why is it the case in both instances? Are these populations  embarrassed by the circumstances in which they find themselves? Are the Nigeria based academics jaded by their presence in a situation they see themselves as having little control over? Are they afraid of vicimisation by their colleagues?Do they feel intimidated by the fierce condemnations of their system?Are the US based academics far removed from the painful realities of Black life in the US or do they see those challenges as of little consequence compared to the brutalities evident in their countries of origin or are they wary of reprisals in the spirit depicted by Ogbechie?

How shall we pool resources to tackle these challenges if we don't discuss them in public?

thanks

toyin




Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 1, 2017, 5:12:25 AM8/1/17
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'in Nigeria, where there is no policy of deterrence, punitive or otherwise.'
Moses

Not true.

It is not difficult to represent the various punitive and preventive measures in place against professorial sexual abuse as provided on this group for some Nigerian universities.

If I recall correctly, even the Nigerian legislature has either enacted rules addressing anti-student sexual abuses on Nigerian campuses or has discussed enacting such rules.

It is such blanket and fantastical condemnations as I quoted above that makes it difficult to disentangle the validity in a critic's point from suggestions of  prejudice.

thanks

toyin

Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 1, 2017, 5:12:41 AM8/1/17
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My own two cents on this:
I do not believe sexual abuse of students by faculty is rampant on u.s. college campuses. I am uber-skeptical of that claim.
I do believe rape or sexual abuses of female students by male students, of young people by young people, is very widespread. My university took enormous steps to try to counter the images of student athletes abusing or raping female students. (this is michigan state university, not university of michigan).
I won’t bore peope with the emails we’ve received from the administration, the obligatory training we all have had to undergo, etc etc. the warnings, the headlines, everything you could imagine.
To say faculty have ignored the considerable risks to their careers and reputations to engage in “rampant” sexual abuse defies any common sense. On the other hand, To say that the thousands of students, who party on weekends, get drunk, get close, and engage in unwanted sexual activity, seems, also, quite obvious.
People who live here, on college campuses on in college towns, see the scene, see the students, read the reports, etc., have something to say. “rampant” doesn’t concord with reality, in my opinion, when it comes to faculty; but it could well be used when describing the student scene.

One other word, in response to olayinka’s longer post today regard how this list might see itself as positioning itself on nigerian universities. Yinka makes the point that rules are no doubt in place, and need better policing; and that it is not the job of those outside the system to fly in and lecture people on what to do. 
This raises an important issue, in my mind. I believe we all should feel empowered to hold opinions on wrongs, and ask what we can do to right them. But outsiders dictating to insiders is different from holding an opinion. I have long thought that the charge to change female circumcision should be led by african women, and that the best that outsiders like myself could do would be to support those women in any reasonable way.
But who is an outsider? Most people on this thread are expatriate nigerians, people who were educated in the nigerian system, who have family and friends there, who feel themselves to be not “ex” anything, but part of the world that encompasses nigerian universities. That gets extended as contacts are made, trips and lectures are given, research is involved, etc etc. who could deny that the major voices on this list are indeed part of the system, while at the same time having appointments outside the system.
That creates delicate sensibilities, where those living in nigeria, working at universities, directly involved with fellow faculty as well as students, feel that they have the primary charge of addressing the conditions that directly affect their lives. 
Those of us wishing to help change the untenable conditions that condone sexual abuse might contemplate how moral suasion might best work to change people’s acceptance of abuse; how public displays and appeals to moral rectitude might help. I believe a toyin, an olayinka, a moses, can speak out. Even, must speak out.
But others like myself might well be more circumspect because any attempts to lecture others on their behavior is likely to have only negative impacts. And if that weren’t the case, I’d feel guilty of neocolonial impulses and not wish to be placed in that position.
I don’t feel that way at home in michigan state, where I feel I have the right to excoriate anyone, up to the president of the university, whose position depends on maintaining a positive public image which is very much threatened each time the football players get charged, again, with rape. 
Perhaps when the equivalent official, the vice chancellor of a nigerian university, feels himself or herself to be placed at risk every time another student is abused, things might start to change as well.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 1, 2017, 9:52:52 AM8/1/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Toyin:

Let me confess I did not pay particular attention enough in the past to notice the extent of the debate and systems already put in place as Moses already indicated perhaps because I had not acquired a smart phone then and the tedium of logging on to a computer was too much for my busy schedule to enable me keep up as much as I wanted to.  Now I contribute as much as I like on the go.  

Perhaps you could update people such as myself on these measures as well as progress assessment on why people like Moses think they are not working (or why should he bring the issue up again if they worked?)

On the treatment of Blacks in America and the Gates issue (I cant quite make the connection with what we are discussing at the moment)  I remember engaging Baba Kadiri on Black on Black suspicion and how I was treated by a female Black police officer who looked trigger happy and disdainful when all I did was approach her at a shopping centre to ask for directions.

Unfortunately the police have these powers in the West that they have the power to stop anyone no matter how highly placed and subject them to interrogations until the police is satisfied of their lawful intentions.  That is the procedure to keep EVERYONE safe.

If any one feels short changed there is the police complaints commission to complain to and the police as an institution can be sued. 

They are being sued from time to time and when the police are adjudged to be in the wrong compensations are paid.

Henry Gates is educated enough to know what to do



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Date: 01/08/2017 03:21 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin....@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
"Next time we touch base we should be assessing how far the measures we have leveraged the authorities to put in place are working."
Olayinka

I don't think the Nigerian university system is so bad it has  to take interventions from USAAfrica Dialogues to begin to put systems in place to tackle negative possibilities of the system.

Is the more realistic approach not to see what systems are already in place, assess how effective they are and suggest refinements of the existing systems, additions to these or a rethinking of extant procedures?

It would be helpful to avoid a messianic, savior, or parachuting mentality, in which one drops in from above into a  social situation, ignoring already existing social frameworks, forgetting that institutional procedures are executed within social contexts.

In an earlier discussion on this group, Nigeria based academics  presented sex abuse guidelines in place in their universities. Can they give us updates on these?

The issues involved, particularly as outlined by Moses, run from  sexual conduct guidelines to teaching and mentoring to publishing strategies and promotion criteria. It would be wonderful to read from those directly involved because they understand the heat in the kitchen. For example, what is the relationship of Nigeria based scholars to the more prominent journals in academia, most or all of which are based abroad, most likely in the West?

In discussing sensitive issues, I have experienced two frustrations on this group.

 It is difficult to get Nigeria based academics to open up on allegations of negativity in their system.

On the other side, it is difficult to get African immigrant US academics to open up on the challenges faced by Black people in the US. Throughout the season of the highlights of the recurrent unjustifiable murders of Black people by US police during Obama's tenure, I don't recall any discussion about that terrible problem on this group which seems peopled significantly by African immigrant scholars in the US. The one person whose voice I remember speaking unequivocally on the negativities of the US establishment  is Kwame Zulu Shabbaz and to some degree Kenneth Harrow, but Shabbaz is African-American and Harrow is a Caucasian Jew.

The horrible treatment meted out to one of, if not the most prominent Black Humanities scholar in the US, Henry Luis Gates Jr, in which an almost elderly man dependent on a walking stick for mobility was handcuffed by a  policeman in an incident involving his insisting the policeman identify himself as the officer challenged him as to whether or not his house belonged to him, an incident in which even President Obama became involved,  passed without a comment on this group of people a good number of whom fall into the Gates demographic-Black academics.

The only African immigrant academic, writer or scholar I have read in my random Internet journeys  discussing this issue is Sylvester Ogbechie on his blog Aachronym, describing how he has to be careful to place his driving license within easy view so as to avoid the negative attentions  trigger happy police people direct at Black people, as well as the difference between his treatment at US border control before and after he became a US citizen along with other discussions on "borders and access" on how readily Black people can access means of international mobility, at that blog.I have also read Kennedy Emetulu on this group discussing punitive British immigration controls.

Perhaps I am wrong and I have missed  discussions that obviate my thesis. The total silence from Nigeria based academics in this latest scathing debate on their system justifies part of the thesis to some degree.

If I am right, why is it the case in both instances? Are these populations  embarrassed by the circumstances in which they find themselves? Are the Nigeria based academics jaded by their presence in a situation they see themselves as having little control over? Are they afraid of vicimisation by their colleagues?Do they feel intimidated by the fierce condemnations of their system?Are the US based academics far removed from the painful realities of Black life in the US or do they see those challenges as of little consequence compared to the brutalities evident in their countries of origin or are they wary of reprisals in the spirit depicted by Ogbechie?

How shall we pool resources to tackle these challenges if we don't discuss them in public?

thanks

toyin




On 31 July 2017 at 23:02, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Moses Ochonu

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Aug 1, 2017, 9:52:54 AM8/1/17
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Toyin,

There you go again, reverting to your default position of denial. Many if not most Nigerian institutions of higher learning have no coherent policy on faculty sexual abuse. Those that do do not enforce them so how can they serve as deterrence? I gave you a story, one of many I heard, of offending lecturers let off the hook after a charade of a process. Have you even looked at the policies of the few universities that have them? They're laughably impotent as instruments for punishing and preventing faculty sexual abuse of students. 

You see yourself as an outsider. I do not see myself as one. I am heavily invested in the Nigerian higher education system. I am a stakeholder. Therefore I speak my mind because I have a stake in the system. I do not have the anxieties of messianism you speak of. Like I said earlier, I am way past the point of caring about how my advocacy on this matter is perceived by our colleagues in Nigeria. We're dealing with a national emergency that threatens the future of our youth and our country and you are here worrying about being perceived as a haughty outsider. That's a luxury I cannot afford. If I may ask, why do you care more about the feelings and perceptions of Nigeria-based academics than you do about the lives and futures of our youth that are being destroyed through rape' sexual blackmail, harassment, and other abuses? Are you that unfeeling or elitist or loyal to your former constituency of Nigerian university lecturers?

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Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 1, 2017, 1:37:40 PM8/1/17
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Dear olayinka,
If the police system here functioned as well as you suggest we would not have a Black Lives Matter movement.
I have only the highest regard for BLM, and seeing it operate locally only enhanced that view.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 1, 2017, 2:39:12 PM8/1/17
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To be frank a policy of deterrence will be a good thing for Nigeria.  It will  markedly impact the calibre of the graduate output.  Im grateful that Funmi Okelola provided that paper which showed the goal of the originary institutiin as that of a factory.

If a person sets up a factory that continuously produces defective goods for sale due to avoidable practices of his own making would consumers not justifiably boycott his goods for other brands? And should he not be made to suffer financially for his deliberate negligence?


If 30% of the grades are unmerited and things are tightened to reduce it to say 10 is that a bad thing?




Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 01/08/2017 03:21 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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I hope you're not including student-student sexual abuse, which is rampant on US college campuses, with many institutions struggling to grapple with it. Anyway, I was going off of the publicly available statistics on faculty-student sexual abuse. I am not going to argue the numbers, however, because I agree with you, and studies have shown, that many if not most sexual abuses are not reported and are therefore not part of the public statistics. My point was merely to show the power of deterrence and punitive and preventive policy in REDUCING and discouraging professorial sexual abuse. Whatever the true number is in the US, imagine what it would be in Nigeria, where there is no policy of deterrence, punitive or otherwise.

Sent from my iPhone

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 1, 2017, 3:43:26 PM8/1/17
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I just got off the phone with a Nigeria-based colleague who is a member of this list and has been reading the exchange. Not that I needed any reinforcement for my position, which is grounded in observed facts, eye witness accounts, and my own experiences as a student, but he says that on the specific issue of sexual abuse, lecturers who report misconduct or insist on offending colleagues being held accountable are shocked to find that not only do the offenders get away with the abuse but that the person or persons who want justice done end up being victimized themselves. This has produced a conspiracy of silence and inaction, the perfect condition for sexual predation.

Nothing short of robust deterrence will solve this particular problem, and deterrence is nothing without policies that prescribe harsh punishments for offenders and protect students from the predation of their teachers.

On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 1:20 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
To be frank a policy of deterrence will be a good thing for Nigeria.  It will  markedly impact the calibre of the graduate output.  Im grateful that Funmi Okelola provided that paper which showed the goal of the originary institutiin as that of a factory.

If a person sets up a factory that continuously produces defective goods for sale due to avoidable practices of his own making would consumers not justifiably boycott his goods for other brands? And should he not be made to suffer financially for his deliberate negligence?


If 30% of the grades are unmerited and things are tightened to reduce it to say 10 is that a bad thing?




Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 01/08/2017 03:21 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
I hope you're not including student-student sexual abuse, which is rampant on US college campuses, with many institutions struggling to grapple with it. Anyway, I was going off of the publicly available statistics on faculty-student sexual abuse. I am not going to argue the numbers, however, because I agree with you, and studies have shown, that many if not most sexual abuses are not reported and are therefore not part of the public statistics. My point was merely to show the power of deterrence and punitive and preventive policy in REDUCING and discouraging professorial sexual abuse. Whatever the true number is in the US, imagine what it would be in Nigeria, where there is no policy of deterrence, punitive or otherwise.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 31, 2017, at 8:17 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu> wrote:

"Incidents of professorial sexual abuse of students are rare in the US."


Moses,

          Sexual abuse is still  quite rampant on US campuses. Some cases are not reported officially. Many campuses try to conceal the statistics.  Students, in some cases,  do not report the abuse openly  to avoid  the public glare, or, from fear of the blame game, retaliation, peer response etc.


Sexual abuse  is also rampant in the US  military and  prevalent in the media with  recent high profile cases and accusations  of abuse  by senior administrators- including the President himself.  


Vanderbilt and Michigan must be exceptions.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


Okey Iheduru

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Aug 1, 2017, 5:06:15 PM8/1/17
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Wright State professor resigns while under investigation

  • Max Filby
    •   Staff Writer
6:00 a.m. Monday, July 31, 2017  Crime
 
0

A Wright State University education professor resigned in May amid a four-month university investigation into accusations that he raped one student and sexually harassed other students.

The university’s Office of Equity and Inclusion launched the investigation of Jason Fruth, 37, on Feb. 19 after a graduate student filed a complaint claiming she had been raped by the professor, WSU investigative records obtained by the Dayton Daily News show.

Please continue reading at

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime--law/wright-state-professor-resigns-while-under-investigation/9T3eAT9kYwMEeittAHDwNJ/


Also at



https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/08/01/wright-state-professor-under-investigation-quits?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=1b0d729230-DNU20170801&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-1b0d729230-197542281&mc_cid=1b0d729230&mc_eid=fd344a6e78

Jason Fruth resigned as assistant professor of education at Wright State University two weeks before an investigation into allegations against him was due to be completed, The Dayton Daily News reported. The university was investigating an allegation from a graduate student that Fruth raped her and 29 instances in which the university found that he engaged in inappropriate conduct with students. Among student complaints was that he sent them shirtless photographs of himself, made sexual jokes and told them they were attractive. Fruth was also accused of having a sexual relationship with a student over whom he had "direct supervisory authority." Police investigated the rape allegation and did not bring charges. Fruth denied the rape and allegations that he had harassed students. Fruth declined comment to the newspaper.




On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 7:59 AM, Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
Dear olayinka,
If the police system here functioned as well as you suggest we would not have a Black Lives Matter movement.
I have only the highest regard for BLM, and seeing it operate locally only enhanced that view.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


From: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, 1 August 2017 at 13:31
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no. 1

Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 1, 2017, 6:38:27 PM8/1/17
to usaafricadialogue
Hi okey
The headline proves my point, if y ou will
It is a big deal when this happens. I didn’t say it never occurred, but the fact that it is relatively rare explains why when it does happen it is headline news.
The country if big; the university system has millions of people. Inevitably there will be cases like this. how it compares with analagous systems elsewhere I really do not know.

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

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Toyin Falola

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Aug 1, 2017, 6:54:23 PM8/1/17
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Your moderator and obedient servant is in India, giving lectures, observing and talking. The current challenge here is that the central govt. is defunding. The talk is also about the uselessness of PhDs as the govt points to those who work as sweepers and doing menial jobs.
On the issue of women, some universities here follow a policy of maintaining what they see as the sacrosanctity of culture. Even female graduate students are not allowed to step outside of campus without permission, and with a limit of 3 per term. They must be in their hostels by dinner time.
TF

Sent from my iPhone

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 1, 2017, 7:09:07 PM8/1/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Keep up keeping us posted Mr moderator.  I know the Indians unlike Africans will never eagerly relinquish their cultural priorities when it comes to dealing with western culture on their own turf.  They are one of the key reasons Brexit happened in the UK.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 01/08/2017 23:54 (GMT+00:00)

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

unread,
Aug 2, 2017, 3:39:51 AM8/2/17
to usaafricadialogue

"....    but the fact that it is relatively rare explains why when it does happen it is headline news.  "harrow



So do we apply this kind of  logic in assessing homicide, robbery and  police brutality  news reports?

They make the headlines because the incidents are rare!!!



Sent From the town of Moyale:

At the border of Ethiopia and Kenya



Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 5:25 PM

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Aug 2, 2017, 3:40:09 AM8/2/17
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http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/widespread-sexual-assaults-at-melbournes-top-universities-human-rights-commission-report/news-story/0045bfb7658057e3c40d76996b7737fb



    Here is a recent report on sexual abuse in the Australian campus. This report includes student and faculty perpetrators.   The distinction

    between the two groups of perpetrators is obvious - even for a high school student.  Since we have been discussing the issue of sexual abuse I thought

    I would post it. This report also suggests that  human rights commissions may provide data collection services in this regard. 







Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 5:25 PM

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Aug 2, 2017, 7:31:29 AM8/2/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Unfortunately the police have these powers in the West that they have the power to stop anyone no matter how highly placed and subject them to interrogations until the police is satisfied of their lawful intentions.  That is the procedure to keep EVERYONE safe. Olayinka

 


 How many murders of innocent people  by police will  it take to convince you otherwise?  Black lives don't matter- because a Black female officer once  harassed you? 


 Ken certainly got this right. BLM is a vital movement to challenge police brutality of unarmend Black 

men in a highly racialized  and imperfect society. Sorry to tell you that the  existing  police  procedure in fact keeps a lot of people unsafe.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 7:31 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 2, 2017, 7:31:29 AM8/2/17
to usaafricadialogue
To Olayinka-

'Perhaps you could update people such as myself on these measures as well as progress assessment on why people like Moses think they are not working (or why should he bring the issue up again if they worked?)'

I will not go into he archives of this group to provide information provided by Nigeria based academics bcs I don't believe the task is worthy of my time. I am not able to provide a progress based report bcs I am not a researcher in the relevant field, just as Moses is not. All discussions so far on this subject are not based on research or even first hand experience. Negative personal experiences in one university, as Moses asserts for himself as a student in Nigeria perhaps more than a decade ago,  are not valid for contradicting the entire system.

 I, too, have my own positive and negative experiences as both undergraduate and graduate student and eventually, an academic, within one Nigerian university, but I would be cautious about generalizing about Nigerian university education in general based on my individual experiences and broader perceptions within one university at a point in time.

I am insisting that contributors to this topic recognize their limitations and desist from making presumptions of knowledge beyond their genuine understanding as different from assumptions.

I shall respond henceforth to suggestions for improvement, accounts of experiences and research into the subject.

I shall not be responding to sweeping assertions with weak or non-existent foundations.

I am particularly interested in education as a systemic and dynamic social process. With reference to Nigerian tertiary education, I am particularly keen on the relationship between academic and student self perception and interaction within the global context of the system. In this framework, issues such as sexual abuse, research and teaching inadequacy, valuable points raised by Moses although blurred by the attitude within which he presents his case, may be better understood and tackled.

 Nigerian academia needs to be understood as part of a global network of standards and expectations.
"robust deterrence [ operating through] policies that prescribe harsh punishments for offenders and protect students from the predation of their teachers", as Moses suggests, is vital, although I would add punishment for predatory students also,  but also priceless are methods of continuously raising the standard of the entire system in the understanding that academia, like all professional pursuits, requires constant relearning to grow.

thanks

toyin






On 2 August 2017 at 16:01, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga Moses,

Quck response.

You don't do research on this subject. You operate on hearsay.

You are therefore not in a position to make this assertion-

' Many if not most Nigerian institutions of higher learning have no coherent policy on faculty sexual abuse. Those that do do not enforce them so how can they serve as deterrence? '

When you can present your systematic investigations of institution by institution, then one knows you have moved beyond hearsay, valuable as it could be when related to in a critical manner, to investigation, enabling you make the sweeping condemnations you seem fond of.

As for 'I just got off the phone with a Nigeria-based colleague who is a member of this list and has been reading the exchange'

Why are such characters not giving us their first hand accounts and analyses but relying on Moses whose 'insider' knowledge comes from what he is told on visits to Nigeria, on Olayinka, Harrow, Gloria and Toyin who are not Nigeria based academics?

thanks

toyin



Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 2, 2017, 7:31:29 AM8/2/17
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Well, if you insist that my intuition is wrong, you can dig up statistics from some reputable source and cite them. I am presently only what seems clear to me; it isn’t anything I can prove scientifically. 
as for murders there are fbi reports, so I suppose there are similar statistics for campus faculty abuse.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

Kwabena Akurang-Parry

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Aug 2, 2017, 9:43:43 AM8/2/17
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I have followed these perspectives on sexual harassment. I am with Moses and will even add that sexual harassment and abuse are not only comparatively endemic in our tertiary institutions, but have also flooded the non-tertiary levels of education. The same can be said about the workplace, especially cases of young females looking for jobs. 

 Kwabena Akurang-Parry


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Sent: August 2, 2017 7:50 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 2, 2017, 9:43:43 AM8/2/17
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Toyin,

Quit the diversions and tangents. How are students predatory towards their own teachers who possess and exercise pedagogical and supervisory authority over them? This is similar to people who are more concerned with reverse black racism than with consequential white racism. They conveniently sidestep the fact that ineffectual racism that is not underpinned by power is not racism in the consequential definitions of the term. 

You're obsessed with the fabricated notion of student predation as part of your broader effort to provide alibis and exculpatory circumstances for Nigerian academics who prey on their students. Surely, any comprehensive policy against professorial sexual predation has to include a clause discouraging flirtatious and seductive behavior on the part of students toward their lecturers, but ultimately, as everyone on this list, except you perhaps, agrees, it is the responsibility of lecturers to resist any real or perceived seductive overtures from their students. 

And stop twisting the facts. My experiences and stories are NOT from one university. They are from several universities across Nigeria. I hear these stories from academics from different universities, in most cases unsolicited. In some cases, I was on the campuses of the universities when some of the stories unfolded. When you start talking to Nigeria-based academics at conferences, seminars, or private phone and face-to-face conversations, the stories of misconduct pour out of them. My advice to you, since you haven't been in Nigeria for along time and haven't been interacting with Nigeria-based academics in private or at academic forums, is to try to go home and/or interact privately with Nigeria-based academics. Ask them or simply let them speak freely to the subject of sexual abuse. Your ears will fill up with stories. The problem is an epidemic and Nigeria-based academics describe it in those terms. In fact I am often disarmed and surprised by their bluntness and transparency on this issue. 

Your skepticism is unfounded, grounded only in a defensive impulse. Interestingly, Nigeria-based academics do not deny the problem or minimize it. They do not make excuses or dredge up alibis like you routinely do. Neither do they even shy away from discussing it when one encounters them. They are usually eager to talk about it in graphically disturbing terms. That's not the defensive denialism that Toyin Adepoju has adopted in a self-appointed mission to redeem and protect the reputation of our home-based colleagues. We may never figure out what informs this denialism on your part, Toyin; perhaps it is purely a function of disconnect and ignorance.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 2, 2017, 11:01:58 AM8/2/17
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Thank you, my brother Kwabena, for supplying this confirmatory perspective from Ghana. We now have testimonies from Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria, but someone based in the UK, who has not been to Nigeria in years, says we're exaggerating and generalizing and is demanding research and statistics. It's like complaining about a problem in your family and someone tells you to provide statistical proof of it. It exacerbates the anguish that one feels. 

On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 7:20 AM, Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kap...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I have followed these perspectives on sexual harassment. I am with Moses and will even add that sexual harassment and abuse are not only comparatively endemic in our tertiary institutions, but have also flooded the non-tertiary levels of education. The same can be said about the workplace, especially cases of young females looking for jobs. 

 Kwabena Akurang-Parry



Sent: August 2, 2017 7:50 AM

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no. 1
 

Unfortunately the police have these powers in the West that they have the power to stop anyone no matter how highly placed and subject them to interrogations until the police is satisfied of their lawful intentions.  That is the procedure to keep EVERYONE safe. Olayinka

 


 How many murders of innocent people  by police will  it take to convince you otherwise?  Black lives don't matter- because a Black female officer once  harassed you? 


 Ken certainly got this right. BLM is a vital movement to challenge police brutality of unarmend Black 

men in a highly racialized  and imperfect society. Sorry to tell you that the  existing  police  procedure in fact keeps a lot of people unsafe.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone



Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 7:31 AM

Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 2, 2017, 11:02:34 AM8/2/17
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I agree entirely with kwabena that the reading of sexual harassment as a social issue must be understood throughout the society, and not simply in the education sector.
In that regard, again as a non-expert, I would say that it is much much more widespread in the u.s. In such places as the entertainment industry, corporate businesses, in the news and information media. At the same time, just consider the weight given to charges against trump, against roger ailes, against the fox news people, etc. sometimes those charges actually had a big impact, meaning people do care. Sometimes, probably often, people would be afraid to lose their jobs if they complained. And we all know this disparity in power that accounts for sexual abuse is carried on down to the prisons!
If we can admit this, and apply pressure to bring law or social disgrace to effect change, then we have a program to start to change society.
The institutions in africa are not the same as in the west. Where abuse might exist in one sphere, it isn’t necessarily there in others since social opprobrium is applied to different spheres by different societies. But I think we share largely goals of social justice—just not the means for accomplishing it.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

From: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kap...@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 2, 2017, 5:35:30 PM8/2/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
In the context of the Gates affair (which I have just unknowingly deleted) what I implied was that not stopping people they are not familiar with because they appear to be highly placed may mean big time criminals escape detection while only petty criminals are arrested.

A rookie police officer may not recognize Gates as such the way an Obama might recognize his significance.  That does not negate the importance of BLM.  In fact the existence of BLM proves my point that erring police officers will be held accountable if they are perceived as overstepping their bounds.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Date: 02/08/2017 08:42 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (emea...@ccsu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/widespread-sexual-assaults-at-melbournes-top-universities-human-rights-commission-report/news-story/0045bfb7658057e3c40d76996b7737fb



    Here is a recent report on sexual abuse in the Australian campus. This report includes student and faculty perpetrators.   The distinction

    between the two groups of perpetrators is obvious - even for a high school student.  Since we have been discussing the issue of sexual abuse I thought

    I would post it. This report also suggests that  human rights commissions may provide data collection services in this regard. 







Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 5:25 PM

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 2, 2017, 5:36:47 PM8/2/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi


Toyin:

Your points are well taken.  But do you subscribe to the point that sanctions on faculty are necessary at this stage to keep up with the global system to which you admit the Nigerian tertiary education system is an appendage?

Second what are your own ideas just as I have outlined mine, on how these might be effectively applied?

You mentioned predatory students. How can predatory students be dealt with bearing in mind they are the inexperienced  youth (trangression is the middle name of youth)whose learning curve the faculty are there to help guide to maturity and not exploit?

We must also bear in mind the West did not introduce professional ethics to precolonial Nigerian nationalities.

The abhorrence in which the Yoruba hold abuse of mentees and apprentices is couched in the aphorism 'Esin kii je koriko abe e.'( A horse does not devour the pasture directly beneath its quadruped limbs.) Im sure other Nigerian nationalities have similar taboo systems.  So it seems to me that it is the defamiliarization of the larger nation state that encouraged sloth.

Please be more specific



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Date: 02/08/2017 13:28 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin....@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
To Olayinka-

'Perhaps you could update people such as myself on these measures as well as progress assessment on why people like Moses think they are not working (or why should he bring the issue up again if they worked?)'

I will not go into he archives of this group to provide information provided by Nigeria based academics bcs I don't believe the task is worthy of my time. I am not able to provide a progress based report bcs I am not a researcher in the relevant field, just as Moses is not. All discussions so far on this subject are not based on research or even first hand experience. Negative personal experiences in one university, as Moses asserts for himself as a student in Nigeria perhaps more than a decade ago,  are not valid for contradicting the entire system.

 I, too, have my own positive and negative experiences as both undergraduate and graduate student and eventually, an academic, within one Nigerian university, but I would be cautious about generalizing about Nigerian university education in general based on my individual experiences and broader perceptions within one university at a point in time.

I am insisting that contributors to this topic recognize their limitations and desist from making presumptions of knowledge beyond their genuine understanding as different from assumptions.

I shall respond henceforth to suggestions for improvement, accounts of experiences and research into the subject.

I shall not be responding to sweeping assertions with weak or non-existent foundations.

I am particularly interested in education as a systemic and dynamic social process. With reference to Nigerian tertiary education, I am particularly keen on the relationship between academic and student self perception and interaction within the global context of the system. In this framework, issues such as sexual abuse, research and teaching inadequacy, valuable points raised by Moses although blurred by the attitude within which he presents his case, may be better understood and tackled.

 Nigerian academia needs to be understood as part of a global network of standards and expectations.
"robust deterrence [ operating through] policies that prescribe harsh punishments for offenders and protect students from the predation of their teachers", as Moses suggests, is vital, although I would add punishment for predatory students also,  but also priceless are methods of continuously raising the standard of the entire system in the understanding that academia, like all professional pursuits, requires constant relearning to grow.

thanks

toyin





On 2 August 2017 at 16:01, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga Moses,

Quck response.

You don't do research on this subject. You operate on hearsay.

You are therefore not in a position to make this assertion-

' Many if not most Nigerian institutions of higher learning have no coherent policy on faculty sexual abuse. Those that do do not enforce them so how can they serve as deterrence? '

When you can present your systematic investigations of institution by institution, then one knows you have moved beyond hearsay, valuable as it could be when related to in a critical manner, to investigation, enabling you make the sweeping condemnations you seem fond of.

As for 'I just got off the phone with a Nigeria-based colleague who is a member of this list and has been reading the exchange'

Why are such characters not giving us their first hand accounts and analyses but relying on Moses whose 'insider' knowledge comes from what he is told on visits to Nigeria, on Olayinka, Harrow, Gloria and Toyin who are not Nigeria based academics?

thanks

toyin




On 1 August 2017 at 20:59, Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 2, 2017, 5:36:52 PM8/2/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Kwabena:

Thank you for your contribution and the impact in the wider society; that is the precise goal of our drift.

It was the retired soldier Theophilus Danjuma who on examining why stratospheric corruption was the hall mark of the Ibrahim Babangida regime opined that when a fish starts to get rotten it starts from the head.

A university system is a university system precisely because it sets the tempo for the cognitive systems of the whole society.  If the university system is rotten the college of education system cannot be paradisiac. 

Many of the graduates of the university system will transmit the rot downwards.  Faculty at the colleges of education will transmit the rot downwards to the elementary teachers.  It is not hard to see the combined effect on the products of all of these on the larger society.

Reform the university system with the zero tolerance for abuse and corruption and the whole society is cured by the same logic and process.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kap...@hotmail.com>
Date: 02/08/2017 14:50 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.   1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (kap...@hotmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

I have followed these perspectives on sexual harassment. I am with Moses and will even add that sexual harassment and abuse are not only comparatively endemic in our tertiary institutions, but have also flooded the non-tertiary levels of education. The same can be said about the workplace, especially cases of young females looking for jobs. 

 Kwabena Akurang-Parry


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Sent: August 2, 2017 7:50 AM

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 3, 2017, 3:48:06 AM8/3/17
to usaafricadialogue
Someone called Moses, a person who likes to make assertions on issues in which he does not do research, a person who is not in a position to have such information about Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, keeps struggling to make claims about where  Adepoju is, where Adepoju has been  and who Adepoju communicates with as a platform for validating Moses' need to generalize based on hearsay from largely faceless characters, figures who remain invisible when required to present their assertions even in a safe space such as this one.

 I don't expect Moses is manufacturing his claims of accounts across the spectrum of Nigerian academia covering a broad scope  of institutions across all regions in the most populated country in Africa, but the  total silence from members of that constituency in a Nigeria/global academic centered listserve which has built momentum and membership by being vigorously active for many years is not too helpful to the generalizations he is aggressively pursuing.

As for investigations into the Nigerian university system and making suggestions about improving it, I have done so before now in a number of widely published essays. A quick Googling of "nigerian university system by oluwatoyin vincent adepoju" gives the following open access hits:

"Nigerian  University Education : Past, Present, Future : My Life at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka by  Chijioke Ngobili" (2013)

published on

Facebook
Scribd (PDF)
Nigerian Development blog
Listserves

"Nigerian Academia and Local and International Journal and Book Publication : Developing a Nationally Based International Knowledge Ecosystem"( 2013)

published on

Facebook
Scribd(PDF)
academia.edu(PDF)
Nigerian Development blog


"Academic Standards in Nigerian Universities Within the Global Framework of the Economics, Social Contexts and Philosophies of Higher Education"( 2016)

published on

Scribd (PDF)
academia.edu( PDF)
Nigerian Development blog
Listserves


At the present moment, I will not be making any such further cerebrations  my priority, particularly since those who belong to the system on this list, those who work within the system, whose task it will be to strive for the implementation of any ideas suggested,  prefer the path of silence.

I shall feel free, however, to comment on any suggestions provided by anyone.

Thanks.

toyin



On 3 August 2017 at 05:17, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Kwabena:

Thank you for your contribution and the impact in the wider society; that is the precise goal of our drift.

It was the retired soldier Theophilus Danjuma who on examining why stratospheric corruption was the hall mark of the Ibrahim Babangida regime opined that when a fish starts to get rotten it starts from the head.

A university system is a university system precisely because it sets the tempo for the cognitive systems of the whole society.  If the university system is rotten the college of education system cannot be paradisiac. 

Many of the graduates of the university system will transmit the rot downwards.  Faculty at the colleges of education will transmit the rot downwards to the elementary teachers.  It is not hard to see the combined effect on the products of all of these on the larger society.

Reform the university system with the zero tolerance for abuse and corruption and the whole society is cured by the same logic and process.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kap...@hotmail.com>
Date: 02/08/2017 14:50 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.   1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (kap...@hotmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

I have followed these perspectives on sexual harassment. I am with Moses and will even add that sexual harassment and abuse are not only comparatively endemic in our tertiary institutions, but have also flooded the non-tertiary levels of education. The same can be said about the workplace, especially cases of young females looking for jobs. 

 Kwabena Akurang-Parry



Sent: August 2, 2017 7:50 AM

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no. 1
 

Unfortunately the police have these powers in the West that they have the power to stop anyone no matter how highly placed and subject them to interrogations until the police is satisfied of their lawful intentions.  That is the procedure to keep EVERYONE safe. Olayinka

 


 How many murders of innocent people  by police will  it take to convince you otherwise?  Black lives don't matter- because a Black female officer once  harassed you? 


 Ken certainly got this right. BLM is a vital movement to challenge police brutality of unarmend Black 

men in a highly racialized  and imperfect society. Sorry to tell you that the  existing  police  procedure in fact keeps a lot of people unsafe.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone



Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 7:31 AM

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

unread,
Aug 3, 2017, 3:48:06 AM8/3/17
to USAAfricaDialogue

I believe we have to realize that sexual abuse on campuses,  and  in the wider society,  is a global problem. There is no need to criminalize an entire society and exempt others. The problem facing us is that of fixing the pandemic in whichever country we choose to focus on. Unfortunately, world wide,  Faith -based institutions seem to have endemic sexual abuse problems themselves- such as the sexual abuse of little boys  (Catholics) or abuse of female parishioners under the guise of spiritual enlightenment (Evangelicals). Don't know how this plays out in religions such as Hinduism and Shinto,  but we know that there are misogynistic tendencies in  some Muslim dominated countries.


It is heartening to see   scholar - activists like Moses ready to provide solutions to the problem. That is commendable.


I suggest the following:


  1. Active liason with gender related groups in the country of choice. In the Nigerian case there are quite a few active groups, including the thirty -year- old organization           WOMEN IN NIGERIA. They should be encouraged to play a lead role in this issue.
  2. Exploration of more legal protections for victims and heavy fines for perpetrators.
  3. Examination of various successful interventions in countries around the world to copy and implement best practices where applicable.
  4. Establishment of Human Rights Commissions (Australian model) that could receive anonymous complaints and engage in impartial fact-finding.This is very important in the case of university campuses where the fear of retaliation  through grading may encourage silence.
  5. Dialogue and liason with law enforcement in those regions where the police themselves are least implicated.



GE



 

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2017 9:56 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
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Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 3, 2017, 5:11:53 AM8/3/17
to usaafricadialogue
i applaud gloria’s suggestions.
ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

Moses Ebe Ochonu

unread,
Aug 3, 2017, 12:15:28 PM8/3/17
to USAAfricaDialogue
Toyin Adepoju,

First of all, calm down. Nor be fight! So this is what you call research and investigation into higher education in Nigeria, a compilation of your online interventions and posts on discussions of this topic?  When and where did you collect your data? What was your methodology? How about sample size? How much time did you spend in the field?These are rhetorical questions of course. I laugh and reserve my comments. 

You're simply incorrigible my broda. I obviously don't research these issues for a living. I am a historian with my own academic research agenda. However, this is an issue I am passionate about and have dedicated myself to understanding, studying, and advocating on. You've called me an outsider and questioned my capacity to make pronouncements on problems of the Nigerian higher education, all in a feeble bid to delegitimize my perspective. I humored you and proceeded to establish my credibility on the issue. In my many efforts to underscore my intimate knowledge of these issues in Nigerian higher education, I've narrated personal experiences and observations in Nigerian universities as well as what I've heard from insiders, some of them on this very list. 

I have even betrayed a bit of confidence by mentioning my conversations with the moderator of this list on some of the issues plaguing the Nigerian university sector, saying that he and I were on the same page in these conversations. Did he deny it? Did he not say rightly that, yes, the problems are real, but that we should focus on solving them? I commune with Nigeria-based academics in several forums. I am headed to ASA in November, where I'm sure I'll meet with many of them. I'll be at Professor Falola's Texas conference in April. And I'll be in Nigeria later this year, my second visit in 2017. I know what I am talking about and in fact I am withholding identifying information and details from my contributions so as not to betray confidences. We have an undeclared emergency in our higher education sector and you're there in the UK blowing ineffectual grammar of evasion, denial, and deflection. Why don't you tell us the basis of your denialist claims. Which Nigeria-based colleagues do you talk to? Which forums do you attend with them? What studies have you conducted? In fact when was the last time you set foot in Nigeria, let alone on a Nigerian university campus? You make comments steeped in abstract generalities and you expect us to take you seriously?

For reasons known only to you and God, you've decided to appoint yourself into the impossible role of defender of the reputation of Nigeria-based academics, a mission obviously more important to you than protecting our vulnerable students who are being abused and exploited and shortchanged. You're thus frustrated that your hollow defense is finding no takers and that your call for Nigeria-based colleagues to join you in your denial and deflection has fallen flat. You tried this tack several times in the past with the same result. I feel for you. Now, you've fabricated a blatant falsehood, that Nigeria-based academics are silent on this matter. It's a lie. I recall that in our previous discussion on this issue, some home-based colleagues wrote on this forum to corroborate my position of widespread abuse, impunity, and professorial tyranny. If you persist in this falsehood I may have to dig into the archive and locate those testimonies. Besides, how can you accuse them of silence when as I said, they acknowledge and discuss these problems in graphic details when one encounters them? Try and talk to the Nigeria-based colleagues you claim to be defending. You will come away enlightened and reeducated on this issue. Some of the stories Nigeria-based graduate students have told me during my seminars and external examinations cannot even be repeated in decent, civilized arenas. You're very removed from the problem, hence your textbookish approach to it.

We are trying to move to the phase of outlining suggestions for tackling the identified issues but you keep taking us back with your penchant for denial and deflection.

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 3, 2017, 3:30:03 PM8/3/17
to USAAfricaDialogue

Here are some rough thoughts on what could be done about some of the issues we’ve discussed.

 

 

Unfortunately, several of these problems require the robust involvement of the regulatory organ, the National Universities Commission, NUC. I say unfortunately because ideally, universities should be self-governing entities with minimal regulatory intrusion from outside. However, in Nigeria we have to deal with the reality of an overbearing regulatory framework in the form of the NUC bureaucracy, whose stifling effect on university education is a topic for another day. At any rate, if we’re trying to implement a national solution to the problems, the NUC will have to be consulted and brought on board.

 

 

Sexual Abuse

 

The NUC, through its legal and supervision departments, should outline a broad outline of a policy on faculty-student sexual harassment. All universities should then be required to formulate their own policies on sexual abuse, making sure that these policies conform to or meet the broad requirements outlined in the NUC policy guideline. The NUC’s appropriate department(s) will review and approve the individual policies of universities. Four important components that the NUC should insist on are, 1) protection against victimization and retaliation for student victims who report faculty sexual abuse and harassment, and 2) expedited and transparent investigation of allegations, 3) harsh punishment for offending lecturers, and 4) the involvement of the police in cases of rape. Finally, the NUC should build a database of confirmed predatory academics, which universities could consult when making hiring decisions so that lecturers who are disgraced from one institution on account of sexual abuse do not find employment in another. This is important as Nigeria does not yet have robust criminal and professional background check systems.

 

Once the policies are in place, a series of townhall meetings should be mandated in every university, so that the provisions of the policies can be thoroughly explained to faculty members and those seeking clarifications can have their questions answered. The object is to leave no ambiguity, so that no lecturer has an excuse for violating the policies.


An appendage of this policy should be another one explicitly outlawing all demands or acceptance of material or monetary gratifications from students to lecturers who currently teach or have pedagogical authority over said students.

 

 

Teaching

 

1.   The NUC should make student teaching evaluations mandatory for all universities and should, after consultation with ASUU and other stakeholders, establish a weighted role for such evaluation in faculty promotion and retention decisions.

2.   One of the biggest problems of Nigerian higher education, especially from the perspective that students’ interests are paramount, is the failure of lecturers to show up and teach, something so basic to the calling of an academic that one would not think that it would be a problem. But many Nigerian lecturers simply don’t show up in class enough. Some only show up to administer tests and exams after giving students study materials. Others don’t even bother to give students study guides. To solve this problem, the NUC, working with university governing bodies and ASUU, should formulate a clear policy making class attendance mandatory for lecturers except for legitimate reasons such as ill health, family event or emergency, pre-scheduled conference, research, and other external academic obligations. This policy should also set a maximum number of times that lecturers can be absent from class outside of the aforementioned legitimate reasons.

 

 

Research

 

The problem of poor research output in our universities begins from poor teaching and mentorship early on. A student who was never properly taught how to conduct research and how to analyze the research findings and construct original arguments on the strength of such findings will not be able to conduct compelling research or produce strong research outcomes when s/he becomes an academic.

 

However, that is not the immediate issue with our poor research culture. The main problem, as I see it, is an emphasis on quantity of research output, rather than quality, in the NUC’s research guidelines for promotions from one rank to another. It is a terrible way to cultivate a research culture. The result today is that trash is being published by Nigeria-based academics in predatory online journals hosted in India and Pakistan and elsewhere. Some of these “articles” are unworthy of an undergraduate term paper. Most are not even grounded in any original research and are derived solely from published works and peppered with pedestrian conjectures. Some are even shamelessly plagiarized.

 

I was at a conference five years ago in Ibadan when the citation of a Nigeria-based colleague was read out and he was said to have over a hundred published papers. Even if you discount the fact that Nigerian academics tend to count newspaper op-eds and other popular writings as part of their academic publications, you’d see clearly that this is a fraudulent statistical representation of the said scholar’s academic output. It is not his fault however. It is the fault of the NUC, which prescribes fixed numbers of publications of various kinds for the purpose of promotion.

 

The NUC needs to shift from bean counting, from an emphasis on quantity to quality. It will cause academics to thoroughly research their papers, develop their analyses and arguments, and go through the rigorous, sometimes lengthy peer review process of reputable publications. It is better for an academic to have one or two quality publications in reputable venues than to have fifty poorly researched and hurriedly written articles in junk predatory publications. The current system makes mockery of the academic publication culture. And yes, I have read or at least skimmed many of these trashy “articles.” They’re a disgrace to scholarship. The NUC’s new guideline on research output should also explicitly discourage publishing in predatory journals. One measure might be to compile a constantly updated list of predatory journals that academics can consult. Another measure might be to outlaw payments for publishing. Yet another one would be a requirement for peer review reports to be submitted along with a published article for the purpose of promotion.

 

 

Mentorship and supervision

 

This is a touchy one. Our current postgraduate supervision culture is one of oppression, hazing, and mean-spirited tyranny perpetrated by supervisors. Supervisors behave as though they are doing the students a favor, the result being a slavish relationship between mentor and mentee in which the latter has no voice and has his or her intellectual initiatives killed or subordinated to the whims and predilections of the powerful supervisor. It is a system largely devoid of the mentoring and guidance that one expects from such a relationship. What we need is a postgraduate student bill of rights, which would empower and restore some rights to the student. The NUC should issue a set of guidelines to govern this important relationship in the academy. Such guidelines should make it possible for students to:

 

1.   Ask to be reassigned to a new supervisor when the existing one is not giving them time, attention, and guidance, or is delaying the completion of the dissertation and its associated processes. If this right already exists, it should be strengthened and enforced.

2.   This bill of rights should include the right of the student to refuse arbitrary, tyrannical orders to simply replicate the scholarly or analytical trajectory of the supervisor. It should allow the students to creatively pursue their own analytical direction without their supervisors forcing them into a straight-jacket and refusing to consider the merit or otherwise of the analytical choices the student is making.

3.   The NUC should set a time limit for supervisors sitting on chapters submitted by students without offering them feedback/comments.

4.   The NUC should explicitly forbid supervisors from demanding money or material goods, services, errands, or sexual favors from graduate students they are supervising, with penalties for violations clearly prescribed.

5.   The guidelines should encourage the exploration of interdisciplinary questions where appropriate without supervisors punishing students who do so or insisting on the observance of  narrow disciplinary conventions for the sake of conformity.

 

 

These are some of my rough thoughts, which can be fleshed out, debated, and refined. On sexual abuse, I endorse the prescriptions of Gloria, especially the one about working with non-governmental entities to protect victims and pressure investigators and school authorities. This is especially important since universities and the police have a history of treating teacher-student sexual assault with levity.

 

 

 

Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 3, 2017, 5:50:56 PM8/3/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Thanks for your suggestions Gloria. Two observations:  faith based institutions and the Nigerian academy in particular.  The latter first since this is the original premise of this debate. I am thinking again of preemptive deterrence rather than punitive retributions.

Since most  warped faculty start this ignoble practice as rookie lecturers and perfect their malfeasance as they earn their pips  its best to place newly recruited lecturers under the mentorship of experienced clean professors (faculties know the clean ones among them just as Femi Falana SAN indicated lawyers know the crooked lawyers and bent judges amongst them) for their first 5 years to ensure they followed the straight and narrow in addition to involving ASUU student/faculty ethics committee in enforcing penalties for violations.

Your suggestions involving WIN will be apposite for the wider based society particularly church based abuses.  Why do churches insist on the fad of overnight vigils increasing greater susceptibility among the weak clergy?

I say this because of instances I have been aware of including that of a high profile colleague in Nigeria having marital problems going for over night vigils only to learn she was expecting a baby for the popular prophet!

In such cases unlike the academia the church would simply choose to forgive the prophet over prayers leaving accountability in the final analysis to 'God' rather than choosing prosecution.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Date: 03/08/2017 09:10 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (emea...@ccsu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

I believe we have to realize that sexual abuse on campuses,  and  in the wider society,  is a global problem. There is no need to criminalize an entire society and exempt others. The problem facing us is that of fixing the pandemic in whichever country we choose to focus on. Unfortunately, world wide,  Faith -based institutions seem to have endemic sexual abuse problems themselves- such as the sexual abuse of little boys  (Catholics) or abuse of female parishioners under the guise of spiritual enlightenment (Evangelicals). Don't know how this plays out in religions such as Hinduism and Shinto,  but we know that there are misogynistic tendencies in  some Muslim dominated countries.


It is heartening to see   scholar - activists like Moses ready to provide solutions to the problem. That is commendable.


I suggest the following:


  1. Active liason with gender related groups in the country of choice. In the Nigerian case there are quite a few active groups, including the thirty -year- old organization           WOMEN IN NIGERIA. They should be encouraged to play a lead role in this issue.
  2. Exploration of more legal protections for victims and heavy fines for perpetrators.
  3. Examination of various successful interventions in countries around the world to copy and implement best practices where applicable.
  4. Establishment of Human Rights Commissions (Australian model) that could receive anonymous complaints and engage in impartial fact-finding.This is very important in the case of university campuses where the fear of retaliation  through grading may encourage silence.
  5. Dialogue and liason with law enforcement in those regions where the police themselves are least implicated.



GE



 

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2017 9:56 AM
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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 3, 2017, 5:51:08 PM8/3/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi
Well articulated.  More ideas to consolidate ones here or advance new ones welcome



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 03/08/2017 20:56 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

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

Here are some rough thoughts on what could be done about some of the issues we’ve discussed.

 

 

Unfortunately, several of these problems require the robust involvement of the regulatory organ, the National Universities Commission, NUC. I say unfortunately because ideally, universities should be self-governing entities with minimal regulatory intrusion from outside. However, in Nigeria we have to deal with the reality of an overbearing regulatory framework in the form of the NUC bureaucracy, whose stifling effect on university education is a topic for another day. At any rate, if we’re trying to implement a national solution to the problems, the NUC will have to be consulted and brought on board.

 

 

Sexual Abuse

 

The NUC, through its legal and supervision departments, should outline a broad outline of a policy on faculty-student sexual harassment. All universities should then be required to formulate their own policies on sexual abuse, making sure that these policies conform to or meet the broad requirements outlined in the NUC policy guideline. The NUC’s appropriate department(s) will review and approve the individual policies of universities. Four important components that the NUC should insist on are, 1) protection against victimization and retaliation for student victims who report faculty sexual abuse and harassment, and 2) expedited and transparent investigation of allegations, 3) harsh punishment for offending lecturers, and 4) the involvement of the police in cases of rape. Finally, the NUC should build a database of confirmed predatory academics, which universities could consult when making hiring decisions so that lecturers who are disgraced from one institution on account of sexual abuse do not find employment in another. This is important as Nigeria does not yet have robust criminal and professional background check systems.

 

Once the policies are in place, a series of townhall meetings should be mandated in every university, so that the provisions of the policies can be thoroughly explained to faculty members and those seeking clarifications can have their questions answered. The object is to leave no ambiguity, so that no lecturer has an excuse for violating the policies.


An appendage of this policy should be another one explicitly outlawing all demands or acceptance of material or monetary gratifications from students to lecturers who currently teach or have pedagogical authority over said students.

 

 

Teaching

 

1.   The NUC should make student teaching evaluations mandatory for all universities and should, after consultation with ASUU and other stakeholders, establish a weighted role for such evaluation in faculty promotion and retention decisions.

2.   One of the biggest problems of Nigerian higher education, especially from the perspective that students’ interests are paramount, is the failure of lecturers to show up and teach, something so basic to the calling of an academic that one would not think that it would be a problem. But many Nigerian lecturers simply don’t show up in class enough. Some only show up to administer tests and exams after giving students study materials. Others don’t even bother to give students study guides. To solve this problem, the NUC, working with university governing bodies and ASUU, should formulate a clear policy making class attendance mandatory for lecturers except for legitimate reasons such as ill health, family event or emergency, pre-scheduled conference, research, and other external academic obligations. This policy should also set a maximum number of times that lecturers can be absent from class outside of the aforementioned legitimate reasons.

 

 

Research

 

The problem of poor research output in our universities begins from poor teaching and mentorship early on. A student who was never properly taught how to conduct research and how to analyze the research findings and construct original arguments on the strength of such findings will not be able to conduct compelling research or produce strong research outcomes when s/he becomes an academic.

 

However, that is not the immediate issue with our poor research culture. The main problem, as I see it, is an emphasis on quantity of research output, rather than quality, in the NUC’s research guidelines for promotions from one rank to another. It is a terrible way to cultivate a research culture. The result today is that trash is being published by Nigeria-based academics in predatory online journals hosted in India and Pakistan and elsewhere. Some of these “articles” are unworthy of an undergraduate term paper. Most are not even grounded in any original research and are derived solely from published works and peppered with pedestrian conjectures. Some are even shamelessly plagiarized.

 

I was at a conference five years ago in Ibadan when the citation of a Nigeria-based colleague was read out and he was said to have over a hundred published papers. Even if you discount the fact that Nigerian academics tend to count newspaper op-eds and other popular writings as part of their academic publications, you’d see clearly that this is a fraudulent statistical representation of the said scholar’s academic output. It is not his fault however. It is the fault of the NUC, which prescribes fixed numbers of publications of various kinds for the purpose of promotion.

 

The NUC needs to shift from bean counting, from an emphasis on quantity to quality. It will cause academics to thoroughly research their papers, develop their analyses and arguments, and go through the rigorous, sometimes lengthy peer review process of reputable publications. It is better for an academic to have one or two quality publications in reputable venues than to have fifty poorly researched and hurriedly written articles in junk predatory publications. The current system makes mockery of the academic publication culture. And yes, I have read or at least skimmed many of these trashy “articles.” They’re a disgrace to scholarship. The NUC’s new guideline on research output should also explicitly discourage publishing in predatory journals. One measure might be to compile a constantly updated list of predatory journals that academics can consult. Another measure might be to outlaw payments for publishing. Yet another one would be a requirement for peer review reports to be submitted along with a published article for the purpose of promotion.

 

 

Mentorship and supervision

 

This is a touchy one. Our current postgraduate supervision culture is one of oppression, hazing, and mean-spirited tyranny perpetrated by supervisors. Supervisors behave as though they are doing the students a favor, the result being a slavish relationship between mentor and mentee in which the latter has no voice and has his or her intellectual initiatives killed or subordinated to the whims and predilections of the powerful supervisor. It is a system largely devoid of the mentoring and guidance that one expects from such a relationship. What we need is a postgraduate student bill of rights, which would empower and restore some rights to the student. The NUC should issue a set of guidelines to govern this important relationship in the academy. Such guidelines should make it possible for students to:

 

1.   Ask to be reassigned to a new supervisor when the existing one is not giving them time, attention, and guidance, or is delaying the completion of the dissertation and its associated processes. If this right already exists, it should be strengthened and enforced.

2.   This bill of rights should include the right of the student to refuse arbitrary, tyrannical orders to simply replicate the scholarly or analytical trajectory of the supervisor. It should allow the students to creatively pursue their own analytical direction without their supervisors forcing them into a straight-jacket and refusing to consider the merit or otherwise of the analytical choices the student is making.

3.   The NUC should set a time limit for supervisors sitting on chapters submitted by students without offering them feedback/comments.

4.   The NUC should explicitly forbid supervisors from demanding money or material goods, services, errands, or sexual favors from graduate students they are supervising, with penalties for violations clearly prescribed.

5.   The guidelines should encourage the exploration of interdisciplinary questions where appropriate without supervisors punishing students who do so or insisting on the observance of  narrow disciplinary conventions for the sake of conformity.

 

 

These are some of my rough thoughts, which can be fleshed out, debated, and refined. On sexual abuse, I endorse the prescriptions of Gloria, especially the one about working with non-governmental entities to protect victims and pressure investigators and school authorities. This is especially important since universities and the police have a history of treating teacher-student sexual assault with levity.

 

 

 

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Ibukunolu A Babajide

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Aug 4, 2017, 4:51:24 AM8/4/17
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An Address Delivered By Chief Obafemi Awolowo On The Occasion Of His Installation As The First Chancellor Of The University Of Ife At Ile-Ife On Monday 15 May 1967
 
YOUR EXCELLENCIES, YOUR HIGHNESSES, MY LORDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”

Today, my heart overflows with profound gratitude to God Who has made it possible for me to be in this gathering, and to play in it the historic role of the first Chancellor of this most promising University.

By ordinary human calculations, I was not due to regain my freedom until 11 May 1969 – that is, two calendar years minus four days from today, or a little less than three calendar years from the date of my release from prison on August 3, last year. But by the Grace of God, and the divine agency of Lt. Col. Yakubu Go won, Head of the Federal Military Government, here stand I, in the midst of you, as the principal figure of this memorable occasion.

My thanks, therefore, go very deep to Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Col. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, the Chairman and Members of the Provisional Council of the University of Ife, for the parts which they have severally played in making the early restoration of my personal liberty and my installation here this morning as the titular head of this reputable seat of learning, the accomplished facts of which all of you are undoubted witnesses. It is not generally known that, apart from labouring for my release up to the time of his death, and apart from gallantly and heroically laying down his life for his military superior and friend, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi became, in his death, an unpremeditated ransom for my redemption.

The University of Ife was founded in i960; and although it was officially opened in 1961, it actually began its regular academic session in its Ibadan Campus in the year 1962. Like other Universities in this country and elsewhere, it is dedicated to the teaching of all the academic disciplines which have so far been and will in future be, instituted by the formidable and venerable world of learning.

From its birth seven years ago, the University of Ife has, in spite of some unhappy vicissitudes, had a steady and healthy growth. With an initial intake of 180 students, it now has an undergraduate student population of 923, composed of 795 male and 128 female students. There are, in addition, 22 post-graduate students, one of whom is female.

The University authorities expect that the present under-graduate student population will increase to 1,500 in the next academic year. It is my earnest hope, however, that this anticipated figure will have a phenomenal rise when, in the near future, education becomes free at the University level, as already agreed by the Leaders of Thought in Western Nigeria, regardless of their differing political beliefs.

Of the existing student population, 57 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, are pursuing courses in non-science and science subjects. It is the aim of the University to reverse this ratio to 3 : 2 in favour of Science, within the next three to five years. I fully support this aim; and am pledged to foster it in any way I can.

It is my considered opinion that Science and Scientific Method, if properly mastered and conscientiously applied, will provide the Master Key to all our problems—be they technical, political, economic, or commercial. Even the non-science disciplines stand considerably to benefit from the employment of Scientific Method. Already, there are authoritative books on THE LOGIC OF THE HUMANITIES.

It has been said by many well-meaning and knowledgeable patriots that Nigeria is in a hurry. I will go further and say that, after she shall have survived her present paroxysm, Nigeria has need to make a leap over a quarter-of-a-century, if she is to satisfy the legitimate yearnings of her teeming peoples. After very careful consideration, I have no doubt in my mind that this feat of social rocketry is feasible, provided that Science is the booster and the Humanities the controllers. It is for this reason that I regard as enlightened and farsighted the University’s plan to reverse, within the next five years or so, the present approximate ratio of 2 : 3, in respect of students doing science and non-science subjects.

Though the fact is generally known, yet it can bear repetition, that the University moved to its present site only last January. And from all appearances, it has settled down so well, in that short period of time, that unwary visitors may be tempted to believe that the University has been here all its life.

For this and other achievements, all praise is due to the late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, and Col. R. A. Adebayo, both of whom, on different occasions, squeezed water, so to say, from the Regional Government’s financial flint to make this campus the elegant and inspiring place that we now see. Equally, our sincere and profuse thanks go to those foreign Governments and Foundations which have been of assistance to us in the past.

Much work, and much expenditure remain to be done and incurred before we can claim to be fairly well established in this new home of ours. Even the Science disciplines are still in Ibadan and are only expected to move in during the coming academic session. In this connection we have implicit trust in the oft-repeated and firm assurances of the Military Governor, Col. Adebayo, that he regards the Ife University project as one of the top priorities in his Government’s scheme of things. In fact, in the current financial year, he has already demonstrated the earnest of his Government’s good faith, by making relatively substantial provisions for the University in the Budget.

We also look forward to our friends and well-wishers including overseas Governments and Foundations to give us as much assistance, in cash and kind, as it is ever within their power to bestow on this infant but fast-growing institution.

As for my fellow-Nigerians, I only wish to seize this opportunity to give them advance notice of my future plan for raising funds for the University. Before very long, I shall launch a “University of Ife Endowment Fund”; and I have no doubt that when the time comes they will respond generously to my appeal.

It is my ambition that the University of Ife – and indeed every other University in Nigeria for that matter – should be reasonably independent financially. It is incompatible with and subversive of the academic independence of a University for its Council and Vice-Chancellor, now and again, to go cap-in-hand to beg for funds from the Government, especially when such Government is controlled by a political party.

Whether we are conscious of or acknowledge it or not, the fact remains stubborn and indestructible that poverty, disease, social unrest and instability, and all kinds of international conflict, have their origins in the minds of men. Unless we tackle and remove, or at the very least minimize, these evils at their source, all our efforts in Nigeria to bring about happier circumstances for our peoples, and all the endeavours of mankind to evolve a better world, would be completely in vain. It is only when the minds of men have been properly and rigorously cultivated and garnished, that they can be safely entrusted with public affairs with a certainty and assuredness that they will make the best of their unique opportunity and assignment.

For this reason, I do fervently beseech both tutors and students alike in all our Universities to take their individual assignments most seriously. It is from them—from the university teachers to the university students, and from the latter to all the lower institutions of learning—that the eternal light of knowledge, and hence of intellectual and spiritual freedom, will beam, with powerful and inextinguishable radiance, to the lowest place of learning—even the nursery school.

The responsibility which thus devolves upon them is a grave one. It obliges them to intellectual honesty and detachment; so that the light which they shed may be brilliant, all- pervasive in its illumination, and unerringly guide men’s feet on the path of truth.

The cardinal aim of every academic discipline is to develop the power to think – clearly, correctly, and scientifically.

According to Haddock –
“The power to think, consecutively and deeply and clearly, is an avowed and deadly enemy to mistakes and blunders, superstitions, unscientific theories, irrational beliefs, unbridled enthusiasm, fanaticism.”

It will be seen, therefore, that the power to think clearly, correctly, and scientifically, is the greatest of all the powers that a man can possess.

If they are to discharge, creditably, the responsibility laid upon them, by the very nature of their calling, the University teachers must develop this power in themselves, in full measure, and sedulously help the students in their charge to cultivate it.

For exactly SIXTEEN months now, we have been making a strenuous and earnest search for peace, and a new Constitution. So far, the results which have attended our efforts have not been as we would wish them to be.

On this auspicious and felicitous occasion, and in the presence of this august and mixed congregation, I will endeavour to make only such remarks on the present situation in the country as appear to me to be non-critical and non-controversial.

There is an urgent and crying need to recognize certain factors which, in my view, have not hitherto been given the due recognition, emphasis, and weight that they deserve. I consider six of such factors to be very important, and I enumerate them.

ONE: Because of the nature of its political evolution since 1900, Nigeria had only had, all told, a lease of two years, for discovering and forging new cohesive materials, in place of the British ones, to keep it going as a united and harmonious entity.
Neither the discovering, nor the forging had been well under way before the prolonged crisis, which now threatens to engulf us, began in 1962. To be sure, since 1962, the fifty-one odd national groups in Nigeria have been moving farther and farther apart from one another, not closer and closer together. Indeed, as a result of the supervening and aggravating events of the past sixteen months, mutual suspicion and hostility have been deepening and ossifying with alarming speed.
In this connection, it must be borne in mind that the basis for any union among any communities, especially amongst diverse national groups such as we have in Nigeria, is the utmost mutual trust and understanding. The greater the trust and understanding, the stronger and more harmonious the union. The converse, of course, is also true.

TWO: Because of its youth as an independent sovereign State—Nigeria was only a little over five years of age when the coup of January 1966 took place; because of its youth, and because of the strains and stresses inherent in it as a multi-national State, Nigeria cannot afford an unduly protracted political and economic illness. The pressing danger involved in the present illness of our country is that it might kill more by its sheer protraction than by its severity.

THREE: Our military Administration must be recognized for what it was originally intended and proclaimed to be: an essentially corrective regime, and not a reconstructing Administration with ready and lasting answers to all our political and economic ills.
In my view, the main task of the military regime is to perform a quick and successful surgical operation for the purpose of removing, from our body politic, a malignant and debilitating morbid growth. It was never expected, and it would be too much of a risk for it to attempt to undertake the massive and never-ending task of rebuilding or reconstructing our body politic. It would be too much of a risk, because the Army would then be embarking on a venture for which it is not by tradition and training equipped, and which by its very nature is an ever-recurring phenomenon in any healthy progressive State.

FOUR: As there are good soldiers, so there are good politicians. Not all soldiers are saints, and not all politicians are devils or social lepers.
I have no doubt in my mind that if the corrective measures, which our Military leaders have in mind, are prosecuted with fearlessness, impartiality, and despatch, a new breed of politicians would emerge which would make the welfare of the people the sole object of their public career and pursuit.

FIVE: One of the stark and naked facts which stare us in the face is that, during the past five years, we have inflicted deep and grievous wounds oh one another; so much so that emotions, bitterness and deep-seated suspicions, far more than reason, charity, and trustfulness, now rule our hearts.
It is my candid and honest opinion that what we need very badly, in the present circumstances, is a palliative that will tide us over the present critical stage. Thereafter a curative must be sought and applied. I must warn, however, that an inflexible insistence on a curative, when there is so much sharp disagreement among all the doctors in attendance, may prove fatal to the patient.

SIX: All the great religions and ideologies of the world teach one and only one supreme and imperishable lesson, namely: that LOVE is the touchstone of all human activities. Any human activity that does not stand the test of LOVE is evil. As a practical guide to the practice of LOVE Jesus Christ gave us the Golden Rule in the following words:
“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the prophets.”

In closing, I wholeheartedly thank all of you—distinguished men and women in practically all walks of life, from far and near in and outside Nigeria—for responding to the invitation of the Provisional Council by gracing this occasion with your presence. Apart from the colourfulness and impressiveness of this ceremony which I hope we have all enjoyed, a visit to Ile-Ife must be a rewarding adventure to anyone- no matter from what part of the world he hails.

It is not generally known that Ife is more than the cradle of the Yoruba people. It is from here in Ile-Ife, so our worthy legend goes, that the solid earth first arose from the midst of the all-pervading ocean, and was then spread, by one of our gods, to all the other parts of the world, to form the six continents of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America.

...

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Aug 4, 2017, 4:51:54 AM8/4/17
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All of the suggestions on sexual abuse seem to be sound except for one thing. I believe 

that ASUU and gender based organizations should be involved along with the NUC.


 I have many doubts about  American style teaching evaluations. They lead to grade inflation,

and  intimidation etc although there may be some merits here and there.


I believe that Toyin has made some good points and  his comments should not be 

arbitrarily dismissed. Don't throw away the baby and the bath water. He is less dismissive of the output and contributions of Nigerian based academics. You have some solid recommendations on  sexual abuse, a student bill of rights and mentorship. How about a middle ground?


GE







Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
 New Britain. CT 06050
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815  Phone
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Kenneth Harrow

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Aug 4, 2017, 5:54:09 AM8/4/17
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what’s the next step? A petition?  A public stance somehow?
ken


 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

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Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 5, 2017, 7:30:10 PM8/5/17
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Ken:

I dont think a petition is apt.  I think this issue if handled appropriately through ASUU proves that the body is not concerned merely about bread and butter issues for its members alone but genuinely cares for the educational development and structural moral probity of the country.

It will be the duty of ASUU to work with NUC for the wholesome implementation of the strategy put in place.

Goals such as not charging students for course materials cannot be realistically implemented without involving the NUC in how the loophole can be filled



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 04/08/2017 10:57 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
what’s the next step? A petition?  A public stance somehow?
ken


 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

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Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 5, 2017, 9:59:24 PM8/5/17
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Good luck, Yinka, trying to get ASUU to care about anything else aside from the bread and better issues affecting its members. It's only during their strikes that they make up lofty ideals and goals that they want Nigerian to believe they are fighting for. It is a grand rhetorical comic relief, which occurs during every strike. It is only during those frequent strikes that they conveniently remember to tell us that they want to rescue a collapsing Nigerian university system. Once the strike is over, they go predictably silent on the problems of higher education except of course their favorite, funding, which in their lexicon basically means throwing more money at the universities outside a holistic effort to address the fundamental problems confronting the university sector. They're hostile to any measures that would require their members to give more effort.

But in life you play the card you're dealt and you work with entities you do not approve of to solve problems you care about, hence my recommendation of working with ASUU on several of my suggestions. It is a fact that ASUU can and will frustrate any reform effort in the university sector that requires more from their members, hold them accountable, and empower students to stand up to professorial abuse and tyranny. So, the denizens of ASUU must be consulted and brought on board.

Even the NUC is largely an obstacle to reform in the university sector. It intrudes into university affairs unnecessarily, dictate one-size-fits all measures that are stifling and prevent creatively innovative problem solving and initiatives at the local university level. But, again, we do not get to wish away the NUC. It is there as a regulator, and it must be pressured to implement suggested reform without burdening universities further. There are problems that require nationwide reform and the NUC should diligently be cultivated in those areas, but it should also get out of the way in several other areas, so that individual universities can innovate in their own peculiar circumstances to raise standards, satisfy their students' thirst for quality knowledge, and serve the greater interest of their communities.

There are issues therefore in which both ASUU and NUC are impediments, not partners. One example is the absence of merit pay. This is a huge problem that de-incentivizes quality research and research excellence. In the late 1980s and 1990s, it was a good idea for ASUU to struggle for higher uniform remuneration for university academics. However, that paradigm has since proven to be counterproductive and anachronistic. 

Today, those who make it to the rank of full professors have absolutely no reason to continue to publish and be productive because it will not bring them any additional rewards beyond their fixed salary scale rewards. Not only that, academics below the rank of professor will only publish the QUANTITY of work prescribed as conditions for promotion and no more. No more because what would such an academic gain financially from producing more work? Nothing because his remuneration is already fixed along a scale. The result, unintended of course, is that both the lazy and mediocre academic and the productive, profoundly sound one are rewarded at the same salary/allowance level if they are in the same rank. There is little remunerative differentiation to account for and reward QUALITY of work and fecundity. 

If the research culture in Nigerian university is to improve, therefore, the reward system needs to be revised to reward quality research output and research excellence. It would encourage academics to strive for innovative, groundbreaking research, and to publish in respectable venues. Individual universities can then, within a broad set of non-binding remunerative guidelines, come up with formulas for awarding merit raises to incentivize research and teaching excellence. 

The question is, will an ASUU that is stuck to an outmoded model of uniform remuneration across the entire public university sector be receptive to the concept of merit pay and income differentiation corresponding to research distinction and accomplishment?

On Sat, Aug 5, 2017 at 6:22 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Ken:

I dont think a petition is apt.  I think this issue if handled appropriately through ASUU proves that the body is not concerned merely about bread and butter issues for its members alone but genuinely cares for the educational development and structural moral probity of the country.

It will be the duty of ASUU to work with NUC for the wholesome implementation of the strategy put in place.

Goals such as not charging students for course materials cannot be realistically implemented without involving the NUC in how the loophole can be filled



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 04/08/2017 10:57 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
what’s the next step? A petition?  A public stance somehow?
ken


 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


Olayinka Agbetuyi

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Aug 9, 2017, 11:35:55 AM8/9/17
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Olayinka Agbetuyi


Moses.

All your points taken on board.  In a country awash with private money I think university administrators must be saddled with more responsibilities to attract more funding for endowed Chairs perhaps starting from the sciences in the first instance. Occupants must be scientists who have solved problems of global significance or made internationally recognized discoveries either individually or in concert with world bodies.

 From the self interests of Industrialists this should be music to their ears and Council can approve special additional remunerations for VCs who attract funding above specified bench marks.

This is the role of college presidents in western academic institutions.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 06/08/2017 02:59 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
Good luck, Yinka, trying to get ASUU to care about anything else aside from the bread and better issues affecting its members. It's only during their strikes that they make up lofty ideals and goals that they want Nigerian to believe they are fighting for. It is a grand rhetorical comic relief, which occurs during every strike. It is only during those frequent strikes that they conveniently remember to tell us that they want to rescue a collapsing Nigerian university system. Once the strike is over, they go predictably silent on the problems of higher education except of course their favorite, funding, which in their lexicon basically means throwing more money at the universities outside a holistic effort to address the fundamental problems confronting the university sector. They're hostile to any measures that would require their members to give more effort.

But in life you play the card you're dealt and you work with entities you do not approve of to solve problems you care about, hence my recommendation of working with ASUU on several of my suggestions. It is a fact that ASUU can and will frustrate any reform effort in the university sector that requires more from their members, hold them accountable, and empower students to stand up to professorial abuse and tyranny. So, the denizens of ASUU must be consulted and brought on board.

Even the NUC is largely an obstacle to reform in the university sector. It intrudes into university affairs unnecessarily, dictate one-size-fits all measures that are stifling and prevent creatively innovative problem solving and initiatives at the local university level. But, again, we do not get to wish away the NUC. It is there as a regulator, and it must be pressured to implement suggested reform without burdening universities further. There are problems that require nationwide reform and the NUC should diligently be cultivated in those areas, but it should also get out of the way in several other areas, so that individual universities can innovate in their own peculiar circumstances to raise standards, satisfy their students' thirst for quality knowledge, and serve the greater interest of their communities.

There are issues therefore in which both ASUU and NUC are impediments, not partners. One example is the absence of merit pay. This is a huge problem that de-incentivizes quality research and research excellence. In the late 1980s and 1990s, it was a good idea for ASUU to struggle for higher uniform remuneration for university academics. However, that paradigm has since proven to be counterproductive and anachronistic. 

Today, those who make it to the rank of full professors have absolutely no reason to continue to publish and be productive because it will not bring them any additional rewards beyond their fixed salary scale rewards. Not only that, academics below the rank of professor will only publish the QUANTITY of work prescribed as conditions for promotion and no more. No more because what would such an academic gain financially from producing more work? Nothing because his remuneration is already fixed along a scale. The result, unintended of course, is that both the lazy and mediocre academic and the productive, profoundly sound one are rewarded at the same salary/allowance level if they are in the same rank. There is little remunerative differentiation to account for and reward QUALITY of work and fecundity. 

If the research culture in Nigerian university is to improve, therefore, the reward system needs to be revised to reward quality research output and research excellence. It would encourage academics to strive for innovative, groundbreaking research, and to publish in respectable venues. Individual universities can then, within a broad set of non-binding remunerative guidelines, come up with formulas for awarding merit raises to incentivize research and teaching excellence. 

The question is, will an ASUU that is stuck to an outmoded model of uniform remuneration across the entire public university sector be receptive to the concept of merit pay and income differentiation corresponding to research distinction and accomplishment?
On Sat, Aug 5, 2017 at 6:22 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Ken:

I dont think a petition is apt.  I think this issue if handled appropriately through ASUU proves that the body is not concerned merely about bread and butter issues for its members alone but genuinely cares for the educational development and structural moral probity of the country.

It will be the duty of ASUU to work with NUC for the wholesome implementation of the strategy put in place.

Goals such as not charging students for course materials cannot be realistically implemented without involving the NUC in how the loophole can be filled



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>
Date: 04/08/2017 10:57 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos State University in Photos,no.  1

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (har...@msu.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info
what’s the next step? A petition?  A public stance somehow?
ken


 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/


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