University Lecturers Use Research Grant to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Well, no be talk am o. The SSANU official may be a bit melodramatic and may be exaggerating a bit, but what he says is common knowledge, unfortunately. I know one scandalous case involving an international funding agency. I've heard of others. The corruption in the Nigerian university system has many faces. The SSANU man may be motivated by the grievances of his non-academic staff members but he speaks the truth. I personally know people who confessed to never having been in a classroom or doing an assignment or writing an examination after enrolling in an undergraduate program but through the giving of enormous bribes to lecturers were able to graduate. One that I know of in fact lived in a different city Nigerian city with her husband and children and simply sent money to take care of the lecturers.

Now, let the denial, deflection, and qualifications begin.

University lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses, drink beer – Ugwoke, labour leader ON MARCH 11, 20187:33 AMIN EDUCATION, NEWS51 COMMENTS …Says prostitutes from Italy bribe to graduate with second class upper By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja 

Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugwoke, National President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has accused those saddled with the administration of universities of gradually killing education through corruption. Labour He claimed that female students abandon their studies to do prostitution abroad, especially in Italy, but end up graduating, sometimes, with second class upper degree because they bribe lecturers with lorry loads of cement when they come back. Besides, the SSANU National President, who is the Chairman of Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Educational Institutions, NASU, and the SSANU, said some university lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses and drink beer, while little or nothing is done on research. This, he said, was the reason for the mega rally university non-teaching staff had that took them to the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Assembly where they called for investigation into university administration across the country. Ngokwe told Sunday Vanguard, “The mega rally is to sensitize the public about the plight of the university system as some people are gradually killing education through corruption in Nigeria. They don’t want any probe. We have asked government to set up Visitation Panels to all the universities that are overdue, let them study what is happening in the universities and unravel the corruption taking place because they are collecting IGR and they account to nobody. “We are not even talking about sex for marks, abuse of young girls and money for marks; when some graduating students make 2:1, some of them are not even in the country, some of them are doing prostitution in Italy but they are getting 2:1. “When she comes back and sends a lorry load of bags of cement to the lecturer, she will be awarded ‘A’ in his course. So many unwholesome things are happening in the system. “Let them investigate the research allowances they get which they are using to buy big cars and building houses and a lot of other works are finished at the beer parlour. By 3 o’clock they are already drinking till 11pm, that is where they do the research. “These are things we know and nobody is talking. They are at the staff club drinking beer till 10, 11 pm. Is that where they do the research? Let government investigate the research allowances that are given out in the universities”. The union leader pleaded with the National Assembly to wade into corruption in the university system so as to make the place a proper place for education.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

​Africa

What’s the World’s Fastest-Growing Economy? Ghana Contends for the Crown

By TIM MCDONNELLMARCH 10, 2018

Continue reading the main story Share This Page

• Share
• Tweet
• Email
• More
• Save

Photo

Street salesmen in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The country is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

TEMA, Ghana — As recently as the 1980s, the West African nation of Ghana was in crisis, crippled by hunger after a series of military coups. But it has held peaceful elections since 1992, and its economic outlook turned considerably brighter about a decade ago, with the discovery of major offshore oil deposits.

Now, as oil prices rise again and the country’s oil production rapidly expands, Ghana is on track to make a remarkable claim for a country mired in poverty not long ago: It is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year, according to the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Brookings Institution.

Its projected growth in 2018, between 8.3 and 8.9 percent, might outpace even India, with its booming tech sector, and Ethiopia, which over the last decade has been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies thanks to expanding agricultural production and coffee exports.

According to the I.M.F.’s projections, only Bhutan, with a minuscule economy, and Libya, whose war-ravaged economy plunged in recent years, may have a higher rate of growth this year.

In January, Ghana’s benchmark stock index achieved the world’s highest rate of growth, 19 percent, according to Bloomberg.

Continue reading the main story

ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story

And oil is not the only resource helping to drive Ghana’s economy. Cocoa is Ghana’s other natural bounty, and producers are piggybacking on the oil boom.

Edmund Poku, the managing director of Niche Cocoa, said his processing factory in Tema, an industrial suburb of the capital, Accra, already has contracts to sell all of the powder, butter and chocolate bars it plans to make in 2018.

Photo

Laborers weighing and loading bags of cocoa beans in Akyekyere, Ghana. Cocoa sales are helping lift the country’s agriculture sector. Credit Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor, via Getty Images

“This is the first year we’ve done that,” Mr. Poku said as employees in white lab coats ducked into his office from the factory floor for the day’s marching orders.

Inside Mr. Poku’s noisy chocolate factory, crews of technicians sat behind banks of computers, operating machines that roast, grind, boil, press and blend hundreds of pounds of cocoa beans every day.

His factory embodies the goal of economists and technocrats across Africa: a local enterprise that offers hundreds of well-paid, skilled jobs and uses cutting-edge technology.

Mr. Poku has doubled his factory’s capacity in the last two years and plans to hire another 100 workers this year. He predicted other business sectors would also have the opportunity to expand.

“Once people see that the economy is growing, banks and investors will be more willing to see Ghana as a good place to make investments,” he said.

While the country is on a roll now, economists and other experts have urged Ghana to avoid the so-called resource curse that has plagued other nations that rely too heavily on the extraction of petroleum and minerals — industries often associated with graft and corruption.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was elected in late 2016 on a wave of discontent over the economy, has pledged to heed that advice, and to funnel oil revenues into education, agriculture and manufacturing, to diversify the economy.

In his recent State of the Nation address, Mr. Akufo-Addo called the agriculture industry the “backbone” of his development agenda and said that factories like Mr. Poku’s have been the “takeoff point for industrialization in most developed societies.” He said he also plans to expand incentives for cocoa processors.

Photo

Imported containers in the Tema Harbor area, outside of Accra. If the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

Cocoa sales are helping lift Ghana’s agriculture sector, which at the end of last year posted its best quarter of growth since 2010, driven by a bumper cocoa crop. Cocoa prices, along with prices for another of Ghana’s exports — gold — are rising again.

The cocoa processing industry is expanding to take advantage of an influx of raw beans, said Eric Amengor, the deputy research manager at the Ghana Cocoa Board. Applications for permits to build new factories are flooding in, he added.

But critics say that a program to set up new factories across a range of industries — one in each of Ghana’s 216 districts — has been slow to get started.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

The Interpreter Newsletter

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

Sign Up

You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

• See Sample
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime
  

Growth in industries like finance and health care has also lagged, in part because government investment has been restricted over the last few years, in order to correct for years of overspending. After an initial oil boom in 2011, an overextended public payroll and increasing debt interest payments drove the country into a deep budget deficit when oil prices fell.

But today, Ghana seems to be getting back on stable budgetary footing, analysts said.

While the long-term goal is to diversify the economy, the main reason behind all the current optimism in Ghana is still oil.

In the last 18 months, two major oil fields off Ghana’s coast have started production. In 2017, production jumped to nearly 60 million barrels, resulting in oil export revenues 124 percent above the previous year, according to central bank statistics.

In September, Ghana won an offshore boundary dispute with neighboring Ivory Coast, which is expected to clear the way for further oil exploration. Exxon Mobil signed an exploration deal with the government in January.

The boom has some experts worried.

“If you suddenly see a resource bonanza coming, there’s a tendency to spend money you don’t have, and that has been the case in the Ghana situation,” said John Page, a senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution.

Photo

Houses under construction in the neighborhood of Cantonments, in Accra. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

At the same time, Mr. Page cautioned, if the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports and lead to a slowdown in manufacturing investment.

What happens in Ghana could hold lessons for other West African countries, including Senegal, which recently announced discoveries of oil and gas off shore, and Mauritania, which has signed an exploration deal with Total, the French oil company.

While Ghana may have a shot at claiming the title of fastest-growing nation this year, it will still have to prove it can parlay its oil boom into high-quality jobs and sustainable growth.

“It’s our hope that our leaders can use these resources strategically,” said Alhassan Atta-Quayson, an economist at the University of Education in Winneba, in Ghana’s western coastal region, not far from the offshore oil wells. “So far, not much has been done. You don’t feel the effect of Ghana being an oil-producing country.”

Across the nation, many ordinary citizens feel left out of the economic expansion.

The unemployment rate, although below the average of 7.4 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, increased from 4 percent in 2011 to 5.8 percent last year, according to the World Bank. Among youth, the rate is as high as 11.5 percent.

On the streets of Accra — where the population has increased by nearly one million in the last decade, to 2.7 million, as people pour in from the countryside in search of work — optimism can be hard to detect.

Kekeli Aryeetey graduated from Pentecost University College in Accra several years ago with a degree in finance. She was laid off from a microfinance firm, and then from a travel agency, before deciding to open a shop selling bulk rice and palm oil.

As a student, she imagined her future in an air-conditioned office with a decent salary and annual vacations. Her income now is about $67 per month, below the national average of $115. She is waiting for the oil money to trickle down.

The government “speaks very big,” she said, “but in terms of our daily activities, I don’t see anything. You can go to school, get a qualification, but it’s not enough. We’re still struggling for jobs.”

[Anthony Akinola]

Good news from a great African nation.

Anthony Akinola

Oxford, UK

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Obododimma Oha]

Well, Moses, how does one begin to deny what has been asserted by a union leader who is aggrieved over a compensation paid to another professional? He has his eyes on money, envious of that other professional's compensation. Let him assess his own service and how he has been contributing to the growth of the university system in Nigeria. Or, rather to its death through his attitude to work and public statements, like the type he made about the corrupt tendencies of lecturers in Nigeria.

Oh, I should be thinking of changing my 1978 model of Volvo 244 GL,taking another wife and an ozo title with the fat compensation I was paid!

-- Obododimma.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Obododinma,

Okay, we accept the highlights of your non-denial denial, which are:

1. Obododinma is not one of the corrupt lecturers because he still drives his 1978 Volvo 244.

2.The SSANU Union man who made the allegation is an envious of the perks enjoyed by lecturers and he failed to mention the corruption of his own members--the non-academic staff in Nigerian universities.

Ok, these are good caveats, but they DO NOT refute or deny the allegation against lecturers. Just saying....

[Ademola Dasylva]

I have followed the thread of the narrative to this point, over generalization of such allegations is unacceptable. Must we all begin to line up to declare our assets, as my friend and colleague, Prof. Obododinma, partly did to prove our innocence, and that we are not guilty of the allegations? If I choose to buy a 2009 model of a car brand as a personal choice, for a modest comfort and safety, with cooperative loans, how does that translate to being a crime? No doubt, there could be such cases as alleged, they must be very few if I must say. It is part of the duty of granting bodies to scrutinize the research proposal and the budget as approved, as well as ensure that no money is spent outside the approved budget. If however somebody outsmarts the supervising/granting body and it can be proved, that is a really serious indictment on integrity, both personal and institutional. Such a serious case should be reported to the appropriate Department of the institution of affiliation for investigation, and sanction.

 In any case there are bad eggs in every society. The Nigerian universities had their own share of the decay when many scholars “andrewed” to Europe and America, and characters who ordinarily should have no business in the universities were recruited. That is another long story for another day. Granted that there are bad eggs, there are still many good ones who live by, and keep sustaining the global university tradition and best practices. They deserve to be acknowledged, encouraged and respected, and definitely do not deserve insults.

Cheers,

DAO

On Mon, 12 Mar 2018 at 10:23 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Obododinma,

Okay, we accept the highlights of your non-denial denial, which are:

1. Obododinma is not one of the corrupt lecturers because he still drives his 1978 Volvo 244.

2.The SSANU Union man who made the allegation is an envious of the perks enjoyed by lecturers and he failed to mention the corruption of his own members--the non-academic staff in Nigerian universities.

Ok, these are good caveats, but they DO NOT refute or deny the allegation against lecturers. Just saying....

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 8:49 PM, Obododimma Oha <obod...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, Moses, how does one begin to deny what has been asserted by a union leader who is aggrieved over a compensation paid to another professional? He has his eyes on money, envious of that other professional's compensation. Let him assess his own service and how he has been contributing to the growth of the university system in Nigeria. Or, rather to its death through his attitude to work and public statements, like the type he made about the corrupt tendencies of lecturers in Nigeria.

Oh, I should be thinking of changing my 1978 model of Volvo 244 GL,taking another wife and an ozo title with the fat compensation I was paid!

-- Obododimma.

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:41 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, no be talk am o. The SSANU official may be a bit melodramatic and may be exaggerating a bit, but what he says is common knowledge, unfortunately. I know one scandalous case involving an international funding agency. I've heard of others. The corruption in the Nigerian university system has many faces. The SSANU man may be motivated by the grievances of his non-academic staff members but he speaks the truth. I personally know people who confessed to never having been in a classroom or doing an assignment or writing an examination after enrolling in an undergraduate program but through the giving of enormous bribes to lecturers were able to graduate. One that I know of in fact lived in a different city Nigerian city with her husband and children and simply sent money to take care of the lecturers.

Now, let the denial, deflection, and qualifications begin.

University lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses, drink beer – Ugwoke, labour leader ON MARCH 11, 20187:33 AMIN EDUCATION, NEWS51 COMMENTS …Says prostitutes from Italy bribe to graduate with second class upper By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja 

Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugwoke, National President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has accused those saddled with the administration of universities of gradually killing education through corruption. Labour He claimed that female students abandon their studies to do prostitution abroad, especially in Italy, but end up graduating, sometimes, with second class upper degree because they bribe lecturers with lorry loads of cement when they come back. Besides, the SSANU National President, who is the Chairman of Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Educational Institutions, NASU, and the SSANU, said some university lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses and drink beer, while little or nothing is done on research. This, he said, was the reason for the mega rally university non-teaching staff had that took them to the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Assembly where they called for investigation into university administration across the country. Ngokwe told Sunday Vanguard, “The mega rally is to sensitize the public about the plight of the university system as some people are gradually killing education through corruption in Nigeria. They don’t want any probe. We have asked government to set up Visitation Panels to all the universities that are overdue, let them study what is happening in the universities and unravel the corruption taking place because they are collecting IGR and they account to nobody. “We are not even talking about sex for marks, abuse of young girls and money for marks; when some graduating students make 2:1, some of them are not even in the country, some of them are doing prostitution in Italy but they are getting 2:1. “When she comes back and sends a lorry load of bags of cement to the lecturer, she will be awarded ‘A’ in his course. So many unwholesome things are happening in the system. “Let them investigate the research allowances they get which they are using to buy big cars and building houses and a lot of other works are finished at the beer parlour. By 3 o’clock they are already drinking till 11pm, that is where they do the research. “These are things we know and nobody is talking. They are at the staff club drinking beer till 10, 11 pm. Is that where they do the research? Let government investigate the research allowances that are given out in the universities”. The union leader pleaded with the National Assembly to wade into corruption in the university system so as to make the place a proper place for education.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Ademola O. Dasylva,PhD
Professor of African Literature, Oral Poetics & Performance;
Coordinator, Ibadan Cultural Studies Group;
Board Chairman & Convener, TOFAC (International);
Rm. 68, Faculty of Arts,

& Dean, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria..

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Dear All:

I cannot confirm or deny whether this grievous accusation by SSANU is true, but if it is true of ASUU, then it is also true of SSANU, because certain facts apply to both their members in Nigeria's University system, it is just a matter of degree. 

Please come with me..... 

Present government rules in Nigeria require VCs/Research Administrators  to ensure that research funds eg from Tetfund (the greatest research benefactor in Nigeria at the moment) , obtained by recipients (mostly lecturers)  are paid DIRECTLY (with evidence) into the salary deposit accounts of the funded lecturers within a week or two of the university officially  receiving the money.  

As VC at Otuoke, I could not believe this could be allowed to happen, and fought for the university to have control of the funds, with the recipients having signatory rights. But the law/regulation was quoted, and I had to back down.

   The story was that in previous times the universities used to convert the varsity-controlled research funds to other use, hence the new rule, which is a  solution far worse than the disease, and subject to the kind of abuse that SSANU is pointing out. 

Of course,, such direct payment is inconceivable in other climes.  People art of how it has been solved in such places  - eg in the US, - is to give universities DIRECT STAKE  in the research grants, and then to refuse new grants to them - even grayklist -  if the funds are misspent. 

Here is what I mean: suppose a researcher proposes N10 million to be spent directly on his or her research   The funding agency figures that the University administration itself must somehow provide staff to administer the fund, electricity, roads, security, water, office and laboratory space for the researcher, etc which are not accounted for directly  in the grant money.  So an INDIRECT COST amount is negotiated with the University, say often between 30 - 65% (at least in the US) and paid to the university for its UUNRESTRICTED use.  So the researcher gets N10 million  and the university gets (say) N4 million (for a 40% INDIRECT cost rate, for a total of N14.0 million), and so both the researcher and the university are keen to see the research succeed. Alternatively, the more usual situation is that the  funding agency may say that its grant size is limited to N10 million, of which 40% is unrestricted indirect cost to the university.  That means that of the N10 million, the university will get N4 million, and the researcher gets only N6 mlllion to work with directly, and with that firm understanding, everyone is happy.   

Consequently, responsible and ambitious universities the world over  include research money expectations directly into their annual budgets through this indirect cost recovery mechanism, and actively recruit staff who will increase such funding.

 But in Nigeria, ALL - at least Tetfund -  the Instituion-based research funding is assigned to the lead researcher(s)  with the understanding that "Sebi government is funding the university already?"  Because that funding is invariably not enough, it encourages the universities to illegally  dig into research funds when they hsve financial troubles, and removes incentives for much research.

When towards the end of my term at Otuoke, Tetfund asked for some suggestions for improvement, I asked for the removal of direct payment to researchers accounts, and institution of unrestricted indirect cost payments to universities, it was  "Good idea, very good idea," that  I heard, but nothing has been done so far.  

These are just some of too many problems in our university system - and one needs to see improvements soon.

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Tuesday, March 13, 2018, Ademola Dasylva <dasy...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have followed the thread of the narrative to this point, over generalization of such allegations is unacceptable. Must we all begin to line up to declare our assets, as my friend and colleague, Prof. Obododinma, partly did to prove our innocence, and that we are not guilty of the allegations? If I choose to buy a 2009 model of a car brand as a personal choice, for a modest comfort and safety, with cooperative loans, how does that translate to being a crime? No doubt, there could be such cases as alleged, they must be very few if I must say. It is part of the duty of granting bodies to scrutinize the research proposal and the budget as approved, as well as ensure that no money is spent outside the approved budget. If however somebody outsmarts the supervising/granting body and it can be proved, that is a really serious indictment on integrity, both personal and institutional. Such a serious case should be reported to the appropriate Department of the institution of affiliation for investigation, and sanction.

 In any case there are bad eggs in every society. The Nigerian universities had their own share of the decay when many scholars “andrewed” to Europe and America, and characters who ordinarily should have no business in the universities were recruited. That is another long story for another day. Granted that there are bad eggs, there are still many good ones who live by, and keep sustaining the global university tradition and best practices. They deserve to be acknowledged, encouraged and respected, and definitely do not deserve insults.

Cheers,

DAO

On Mon, 12 Mar 2018 at 10:23 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Obododinma,

Okay, we accept the highlights of your non-denial denial, which are:

1. Obododinma is not one of the corrupt lecturers because he still drives his 1978 Volvo 244.

2.The SSANU Union man who made the allegation is an envious of the perks enjoyed by lecturers and he failed to mention the corruption of his own members--the non-academic staff in Nigerian universities.

Ok, these are good caveats, but they DO NOT refute or deny the allegation against lecturers. Just saying....

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 8:49 PM, Obododimma Oha <obod...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, Moses, how does one begin to deny what has been asserted by a union leader who is aggrieved over a compensation paid to another professional? He has his eyes on money, envious of that other professional's compensation. Let him assess his own service and how he has been contributing to the growth of the university system in Nigeria. Or, rather to its death through his attitude to work and public statements, like the type he made about the corrupt tendencies of lecturers in Nigeria.

Oh, I should be thinking of changing my 1978 model of Volvo 244 GL,taking another wife and an ozo title with the fat compensation I was paid!

-- Obododimma.

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:41 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, no be talk am o. The SSANU official may be a bit melodramatic and may be exaggerating a bit, but what he says is common knowledge, unfortunately. I know one scandalous case involving an international funding agency. I've heard of others. The corruption in the Nigerian university system has many faces. The SSANU man may be motivated by the grievances of his non-academic staff members but he speaks the truth. I personally know people who confessed to never having been in a classroom or doing an assignment or writing an examination after enrolling in an undergraduate program but through the giving of enormous bribes to lecturers were able to graduate. One that I know of in fact lived in a different city Nigerian city with her husband and children and simply sent money to take care of the lecturers.

Now, let the denial, deflection, and qualifications begin.

University lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses, drink beer – Ugwoke, labour leader ON MARCH 11, 20187:33 AMIN EDUCATION, NEWS51 COMMENTS …Says prostitutes from Italy bribe to graduate with second class upper By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja 

Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugwoke, National President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has accused those saddled with the administration of universities of gradually killing education through corruption. Labour He claimed that female students abandon their studies to do prostitution abroad, especially in Italy, but end up graduating, sometimes, with second class upper degree because they bribe lecturers with lorry loads of cement when they come back. Besides, the SSANU National President, who is the Chairman of Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Educational Institutions, NASU, and the SSANU, said some university lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses and drink beer, while little or nothing is done on research. This, he said, was the reason for the mega rally university non-teaching staff had that took them to the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Assembly where they called for investigation into university administration across the country. Ngokwe told Sunday Vanguard, “The mega rally is to sensitize the public about the plight of the university system as some people are gradually killing education through corruption in Nigeria. They don’t want any probe. We have asked government to set up Visitation Panels to all the universities that are overdue, let them study what is happening in the universities and unravel the corruption taking place because they are collecting IGR and they account to nobody. “We are not even talking about sex for marks, abuse of young girls and money for marks; when some graduating students make 2:1, some of them are not even in the country, some of them are doing prostitution in Italy but they are getting 2:1. “When she comes back and sends a lorry load of bags of cement to the lecturer, she will be awarded ‘A’ in his course. So many unwholesome things are happening in the system. “Let them investigate the research allowances they get which they are using to buy big cars and building houses and a lot of other works are finished at the beer parlour. By 3 o’clock they are already drinking till 11pm, that is where they do the research. “These are things we know and nobody is talking. They are at the staff club drinking beer till 10, 11 pm. Is that where they do the research? Let government investigate the research allowances that are given out in the universities”. The union leader pleaded with the National Assembly to wade into corruption in the university system so as to make the place a proper place for education.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Ademola O. Dasylva,PhD
Professor of African Literature, Oral Poetics & Performance;
Coordinator, Ibadan Cultural Studies Group;
Board Chairman & Convener, TOFAC (International);
Rm. 68, Faculty of Arts,

& Dean, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria..

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Professor DaSylva should know that the emotional blackmail of invoking "Andrew" is not going to work with me--never has, never will. By the way, isn't it disingenuous to blame those who "Andrewed" out of the country to further their careers and fulfill their scholarly dreams for the recruitment of those Sylva himself admits "have no business being in the university"? Did the Andrews recruit the fraudulent, corrupt, and incompetent lecturers from their distant bases in North America and Europe? Did our ASUU-empowered lecturers-turned university administrators not recruit those people? 

Professor DaSylva is a Dean at UI. Does he not participate in recruitment exercises? Can he say no if the VC or some NUC big man recommends an incompetent, unqualified, and unethical candidate to him for recruitment? Perhaps he should tell us what he has done as dean to ensure that only competent, ethical, and committed candidates are recruited into his faculty at UI. It's typical of some of our colleagues back home to resort to the blame game of invoking external factors and ignoring their own culpability.

These are systemic problems. Blaming diaspora academics is escapist at best. And may I say that it is laden with hypocrisy too. You celebrate Professor Falola and worship him as if he is a god. But you forget that he too "Andrewed" and that if he had not his stature and intellectual resources would not be anywhere near where it is today. You then turn around to blame "Andrews" like him for looking for greener academic pastures elsewhere and allegedly making it possible for charlatans to invade the university system. You cannot have it both ways. 

Quit blaming "Andrews" for the vices that plague your system, vices in which you are complicit directly or indirectly.

They talk about bag eggs and how bad eggs exist in every system. Is the existence of bad eggs the natural order of things that must be accepted? I guess we should just not do anything about the systematic destruction of our higher education by corrupt universities teachers, administrators, and non-academic staff because even US universities too have some bad eggs. 

Even in trying to defend the rot in the system, they are so predictable and unimaginative. Once you've read one defense you've read all of them. The template is simple: allege excessive generalization, feign outrage at being "insulted" by a diaspora colleague, play the victim, claim a lack of support, appreciation, and fair remuneration, construct false equivalences of vices with Euro-American institutions, and blame "Andrews" for abandoning the system and opening the door to incompetence, fraud, and corruption--all the while denying that these problems are rampant and saying that only a few, insignificant number of people are guilty. 

Where the heck is the creative defense, or the sense of responsibility? Do we not care about the situation in Nigerian universities precisely because, 1) the volume/ratio of misconduct vis-a-vis innocence is too high, and 2) because Nigeria as a developing country cannot afford the existence of so-called bad eggs in the university system? 

Do Americans discuss or deflect their problems by referencing similar problems in other places? We seem to be the only ones who specialize in this strange type of fatalism.

The narrative of an innocent majority does not fly anymore, if we discard pretentious politeness. We're talking about people living in Sokoto and "studying" for degrees in absentia in Port Harcourt, and vice versa, never stepping into a classroom and simply making money available to bribe lecturers on their way to a first class or 2:1. I personally know two people who did it and boasted about it. It's not one class or one lecturer we're talking about. It's an entire faculty. You need close to 40 or more classes to graduate, so we're talking about tens of lecturers who are on the take, actively participating in the scam.

I've also told the story that I witnessed in part when I spent my summer in KWASU in 2015. When this lecturer was caught red handed with documented evidence of sexually harassing a female student and failing her because she refused to put out, what did the so-called innocent majority do? What did the administrators do? I'll tell you what the "innocent majority" did. They pleaded on behalf of the guilty party, saying that he should not be fired or punished severely because how would he feed his family bla bla bla. In the end the guilty lecturer got off easy, his impunity enabled and subsidized by the so-called "innocent majority" of lecturers.

The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging it, not in denying or parrying it away in pompous but pretentious sanctimony or outrage.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

"You celebrate Professor Falola and worship him as if he is a god. But you forget that he too "Andrewed" and that if he had not, his stature and intellectual resources would not be anywhere near where it is today. " Ochonu

Nobody worships Falola as a god. There is recognition and celebration of his intellectual prowess. That is all.

 If Falola had not  migrated he would still be  a dominant intellectual figure. By 1990,

he was already making waves and  had produced several books. Who knows how many more books

 he would have produced?

The West  has also destroyed prominent careers. I have met many who have been shoved into

low paying jobs as part-time professors, barely surviving to pay their basic bills. If they had

remained within Africa they might have been better off. I have heard that confession quite a few times.

Some have actually returned. That is why organizations like ASUU must fight for just salaries and remuneration

and for improved conditions for faculty and students.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Professor of History
 

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 11:35 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use Research Grant to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

 

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

EDITED

Oga Moses,

Na wa for you o.

'You celebrate Professor Falola and worship him as if he is a god'.

You dont want us to celebrate our heroes?

Western culture, whose academic culture you revere,  thrives on celebrating its heroes, hence the system is alive with very visible role models who inspire others.

If we dont celebrate our heroes, how shall we have examples to counter the negative tendencies you focus on calling people's attention to?

Is Dasylva 'worshiping' and 'deifying' Falola bcs Dasylva plays a central role in the annual Toyin Falola conferences created to honour the great scholar?

What else would you have Dasylva do apart from play a central role in celebrating the phenomenon of one of the greatest scholars in the history of scholarship?

Great scholars are best known for their ideas, for the impact of their scholarship. A few, like the Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam, like Henry Louis Gates Jr at Harvard, like Molefi Kete Asante at Temple, are also known for building scholarly institutions, Salam for theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy and the International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs in Pakistan, Gates for the WEB Dubois institute at Harvard and Asante for his work on Afrocentrism. Scholars may also be known for those they have inspired and a fewer number perhaps, for those they have mentored.

When faced with a scholar who has achieved more in his scholarship than the collective effort represented by Africanist historians before him, according to the view of a scholar of history I discussed this with some years ago, who also plays a central role in founding or and/running scholarly initiatives across continents and whose mentees, people whose career he has contributed to shaping fundamentally are in significant number, what less should be done that create institutions inspired by such a scholar?

thanks

toyin

On 13 March 2018 at 20:02, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Oga Moses,

Na wa for you o.

'You celebrate Professor Falola and worship him as if he is a god'.

You dont want us to celebrate our heroes?

Western culture, whose academic culture you revere,  thrives on celebrating its heroes, hence the system is alive with very visible role models who inspire others.

If we dont celebrate our heroes, how shall we have examples to counter the negative tendencies you focus on calling people's attention to?

Is Dasylva 'worshiping' and 'deifying' Falola bcs Dasylva plays a central role in the annual Toyin Falola conferences created to honour the great scholar?

What else would you have Dasylva do apart from play a central role in celebrating the phenomenon of one of the greatest scholars in history?

Great scholars are best known for their ideas, for the impact of their scholarship. A few, like the Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam, like Henry Louis Gates Jr at Harvard, like Molefi Kete Asante at Temple, are also known for building scholarly institutions, Salam for theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy and the International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs in Pakistan, Gates for the WEB Dubois institute at Harvard and Asante for his work on Afrocentrism. Scholars may also be known for those they have inspired and a fewer number perhaps, for those they have mentored.

When faced with a scholar who has achieved more in his scholarship than the collective effort represented by Africanist historians before him, according to the view of a scholar of history I discussed this with some years ago, who also plays a central role in founding or and/running scholarly initiatives across continents and whose mentees, people whose career he has contributed to shaping fundamentally are in significant number, what less should be done that create institutions inspired by such a scholar?

thanks

toyin

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Oga Moses,

Na wa for you o.

'You celebrate Professor Falola and worship him as if he is a god'.

You dont want us to celebrate our heroes?

Western culture, whose academic culture you revere,  thrives on celebrating its heroes, hence the system is alive with very visible role models who inspire others.

If we dont celebrate our heroes, how shall we have examples to counter the negative tendencies you focus on calling people's attention to?

Is Dasylva 'worshiping' and 'deifying' Falola bcs Dasylva plays a central role in the annual Toyin Falola conferences created to honour the great scholar?

What else would you have Dasylva do apart from play a central role in celebrating the phenomenon of one of the greatest scholars in history?

Great scholars are best known for their ideas, for the impact of their scholarship. A few, like the Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam, like Henry Louis Gates Jr at Harvard, like Molefi Kete Asante at Temple, are also known for building scholarly institutions, Salam for theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy and the International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs in Pakistan, Gates for the WEB Dubois institute at Harvard and Asante for his work on Afrocentrism. Scholars may also be known for those they have inspired and a fewer number perhaps, for those they have mentored.

When faced with a scholar who has achieved more in his scholarship than the collective effort represented by Africanist historians before him, according to the view of a scholar of history I discussed this with some years ago, who also plays a central role in founding or and/running scholarly initiatives across continents and whose mentees, people whose career he has contributed to shaping fundamentally are in significant number, what less should be done that create institutions inspired by such a scholar?

thanks

toyin

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Toyin Adepoju,

Celebrate your heroes all you want. In fact deify and worship them. That is your prerogative. But don't then turn around and blame them and people like them who left the country for the woes plaguing the Nigerian university system. That is disingenuous at best. And hypocritical. You can't be railing at "Andrews" for allegedly abandoning the system and creating room for the recruitment of charlatans and frauds while also celebrating the likes of Falola, who is an Andrew and is arguably who he is today because he "Andrewed." I'm not saying he wouldn't have been a great scholar. But his stature, fame, and visibility as a scholar would not have been nearly big as what it is and the resources available to him would definitely not have been as great. Here, I'm not simply talking about material resources but also symbolic capital/resources. This is political economy of knowledge production and North/South epistemic asymmetry 101, but of course we all want to pretend not to understand these dynamics. I won't break it down for you, sorry.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

And let me even add two more cases to further discredit the "majority are innocent" nonsense.

1. A very brilliant friend of mine who is even a silent member of this forum finished writing his PhD dissertation about six years ago in UI, where Professor DaSylva is dean. I saw the dissertation. It is brilliant, a much better dissertation than the one written by most of us who make noise on this forum. What has kept him from defending this dissertation? Corruption. When he had a well paying job, everything was going well and he would travel to Ibadan with money and other goodies to present to his advisers along with his chapter. Then, as he was finishing, he left his job and the money dried up. He could no longer send money to them or take money along with him on his trips to Ibadan. That's when the games began. They manufactured new, silly processes for him to navigate and dropped innuendoes that money could get him across to a defense--money which he no longer had. He inquired repeatedly why they would not schedule his defense but got no satisfactory answers. I was mad when I heard the story, but surprisingly he was not too mad, accepting his fate and saying that he knew how the system worked and knew that leaving his job might put his PhD in jeopardy. I am deliberately withholding some details of this story because he could be identified and retaliated against, but while he's been waiting futilely for a defense to be scheduled, he has gone on to do several other things and now seems resigned never to earn the PhD. Until he comes up with money to "finance" the processes they invented, there will be no defense. They probably have even revoked his studentship. This is pure corruption.

2. A cousin of mine is in a similar situation at the university of Jos, although his situation is a bit better because he has a job and is gathering the financial resources to ameliorate the problem. He has been working on his PhD for a good part of eight years and now has a dissertation to defend. He's had a dissertation to defend for two years now, but they won't schedule a defense because they want to keep him going to Jos every month or so. Why? Because whenever he goes to Jos they require him to go and "see" them with money and gifts. Whenever they, his advisers, travel to Abuja where he lives, even for their own private business, he has to book and pay for their hotel accommodation no matter how long they're staying. They simply call him and tell him that they'll be in Abuja for so and so days. He told me that throughout the program, whenever there was a forum (prospective defense, seminar presentation, etc) he had to feed and entertain the entire department, and since he had to present each chapter, he had a caterer on standby to cater to these events. He also had to save up for them. Currently, he is saving up a significant amount to give to give to them so they'll finally schedule his defense. When I told him to defy them he said to do so would be to kiss the PhD goodbye and pointed to several other people, including a former colleague of his, who played ball and eventually finished.

Another friend of mine in the STEM field vowed never to do another graduate program in Nigeria after what he went through for his Masters. His adviser made him a slave and his own personal ATM. Thankfully, he's now in Wales doing his PhD.

Are all these practices not being done by entire departments/faculties? Are these individual acts of a few bad eggs. Are these fraudulent and extortionist activities and the attendant commercialization of the academic advising business within NUC guidelines?

These things make my blood boil and I'm convinced that had I remained in Nigeria I may never have obtained a PhD because I'm not sure that I would have gone along with this blatant corruption. How do we blame "Andrews" or the government for these crimes with a straight face? We have to place the blame squarely where it belongs--with lecturers and university administrators who are destroying whatever remains of higher education in the country.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Is it really true that those who went abroad in the academic exodus have no share of the blame for the current problems of Nigerian university education?

If everyone had left, would the system still exist?

In the face of a human power shortage, is Ademola Dasylva inaccurate in suggesting that this brain flight is partly accountable for the entry of wrong entrants into the university system?

How valid is Moses Ochonu's approach of They in the diaspora, living a life of sanity, in sane systems, which nationals of other countries fought for over centuries to get to their current positions, from the one classroom that constituted Harvard in  its earlier period, for example, to its current status, and the Others in Nigeria, living in and wallowing in a self created hell?

Yes, the Nigerian academic situation can be horrible, with the academics at times their own worst enemies. Treating students and junior lecturers as prey, too given to meaningless infighting, unable to form a united front in the face of a global challenge that is the place of African academia in the global order, along with living in what, to a significant degree, is a near desert of academic publishing houses and bookshops, inadequate Internet access and other resources for maximising academic productivity.

Anyone who takes off from this highly challenged situation may be commended for their creativity in self preservation. Is it realistic for everyone to leave? Are those left behind necessarily those who are not good enough to leave?

No.

Dan Izevbaye was one of the most prominent scholars of African literature in the 70s and 80s. A superb teacher, we were fortunate to have him teach us on his sabbatical at the University of Benin.

Academics in Nigeria need to own their own narrative. People should fight for what they identify with. When, at a PhD seminar in my university in Nigeria, I was ambushed by my supervisor and senior members of staff bcs they saw me as presumptuous, as I understood the situation, I told them why I disagreed with them,  and resolved that PhD program was not worth my further attention bcs I did not believe my self value should be sacrificed in the name of whatever they had to offer in the name of a PhD. Were there no other universities in Nigeria where one could do a PhD? Or in the world?

I believe in the power of agency. I am of the view that the nefarious practices of the kind Moses describes have to be fought on a number of fronts, rather than toeing Moses' line of only indicting those who are guilty, vital as that is.

One of our problems in Nigeria is the culture of fear. Browbeaters and vampires feed on that fear. What makes a PhD in a particular university so valuable that a student becomes a departmental ATM, as Moses describes of a particular scenario? Such economic power suggests that that student has enough economic force to have access to a range of opportunities that preclude having to get a PhD from the department or university in question.

Questions of convenience could be at play, but are they not outweighed by such a horrendous level of exploitation? Should we not be more willing to take risks and damn such predators?

There now exist different ways of getting a PhD. Europeans, particularly the English, have developed the PhD by Publication route. The PhD is awarded on the basis of a string of publications in peer reviewed academic platforms unified by a covering essay. The candidate is not required to have been resident in the country or the university where the PhD is awarded. The fees paid are much less than for the conventional PhD. A lot of info on this can be found online.

The PhD concept, as a whole, is very valuable but is at times overly rigid in its method of administration. It may be overly given to the inadequacies of the master-apprentice model, and in some contexts, to straitjacketing understood as required for the student to reach mastery of the discipline, not leaving enough room for individualized exploration and serendipitous  discovery. In this regard, England seems to be leading in exploring more individualized, more flexible approaches.

thanks

toyin

 

On 14 March 2018 at 04:36, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Moses,

You are a bully.

What is a bully?

A person who uses unwarranted attacks to get people to behave the way he wants.

Your attack on the person of Dasylva is uncalled for.

While you celebrate your Andrewing that has enabled you achieve ABC, it would seem the person you accuse Dasylva of worshiping achieved much more than you have done while at OAU in the loathsome Nigerian system as compared to your achievements in paradise of the USA.

Nobody is going to disagree that the Nigerian educational system has serious problems, but such problems will not be addressed by the condescending, perpetually attacking, bad mouthing , crude mentality you recurrently demonstrate.

You have righteous indignation but little more. You do not demonstrate the qualities of a leader. A leader is a person who is able to convince others of his point of view. Your approach is to spit on the entire group you address and expect them to be shamed into submission.

While you ululate in castigating the horrors of the Nigerian university system, I am yet to read a word from you on your delicate status as a Black man in the USA,  a person who has to place the documents indicating his rights to his own house in a readily accessible place so that if law enforcement asks for it he will produce it easily, or risk being handcuffed and sent to jail like Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the most prominent scholars in the US, you have to learn how to move your hands in order to make your vehicle documents available to the police when they stop you on the road, lest you are shot in fear of being about to retrieve a gun as you reach into the car to produce the documents, a context Black people have had to learn in the wake of anti-Black killings by police and as  Nigerian/American arts scholar Sylvester Ogbechie describes of his practice in his blog Acronym, your children cannot play with toy guns bcs the image of  a Black child holding anything resembling a firearm could attract the deadly attention of the police as has been demonstrated again and again....the list goes on.

So, bros, your indignation is appreciated. But please stop attacking individuals you dont need to attack. Also, do us the favour of developing a comprehensive understanding of the place of the Black person in today's world, from a troubled Nigerian educational system to your flight to the US and your delicate circumstances there and share the complete picture with us. Your indignation will have more meaning in that broader context.

thanks

toyim

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Moses,

You are a bully.

What is a bully?

A person who uses unwarranted attacks to get people to behave the way he wants.

Your attack on the person of Dasylva is uncalled for.

While you celebrate your Andrewing that has enabled you achieve ABC, it would seem the person you accuse Dasylva of worshiping achieved much more than you have done while at OAU in the loathsome Nigerian system as compared to your achievements in paradise of the USA.

Nobody is going to disagree that the Nigerian educational system has serious problems, but such problems will not be addressed by the condescending, perpetually attacking, bad mouthing , crude mentality you recurrently demonstrate.

You have righteous indignation but little more. You do not demonstrate the qualities of a leader. A leader is a person who is able to convince others of his point of view. Your approach is to spit on the entire group you address and expect them to be shamed into submission.

While you ululate in castigating the horrors of the Nigerian university system, I am yet to read a word from you on your delicate status as a Black man in the USA,  a person who has to place the documents indicating his rights to his own house in a readily accessible place so that if law enforcement asks for it he will produce it easily, or risk being handcuffed and sent to jail like Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the most prominent scholars in the US, you have to learn how to move your hands in order to make your vehicle documents available to the police when they stop you on the road, lest you are shot in fear of being about to retrieve a gun as you reach into the car to produce the documents, a context Black people have had to learn in the wake of anti-Black killings by police and as  Nigerian/American arts scholar Sylvester Ogbechie describes of his practice in his blog Acronym, your children cannot play with toy guns bcs the image of  a Black child holding anything resembling a firearm could attract the deadly attention of the police as has been demonstrated again and again....the list goes on.

So, bros, your indignation is appreciated. But please stop attacking individuals you dont need to attack. Also, do us the favour of developing a comprehensive understanding of the place of the Black person in today's world, from a troubled Nigerian educational system to your flight to the US and your delicate circumstances there and share the complete picture with us. Your indignation will have more meaning in that broader context.

thanks

toyim

[Obododimma Oha]

Moses, just an important question: if the issue of excess workload
(indeed, extra "food for bele") had not arisen, would Mr Ugwuoke have
told the world that lecturers in Nigeria do not do their research but
choose to take pepper-soup, drink beer at the staff club, chase or
abuse young girls, etc? Think of his choice of this allegation as a
weapon in the current battle! Na bad bele!

-- Obododimma.

>>> USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

>>> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>>> Early archives at
>>> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>>> ---
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>>> Groups
>>> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>>> an

>>> email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
>> M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
>> M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
>> Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
>> Department of English,
>> University of Ibadan.
>>
>> Fellow,
>> Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
>> University of Ibadan.
>>
>> COORDINATES:
>>
>> Phone (Mobile):

>> +234 8033331330 <+234%20803%20333%201330>;
>> +234 9033333555 <+234%20903%20333%203555>;
>> +234 8022208008 <+234%20802%20220%208008>;
>> +234 8073270008 <+234%20807%20327%200008>.

>> Skype: obododimma.oha
>> Twitter: @mmanwu
>> Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/
>>
>>
>> --
>> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
>> To post to this group, send an email to

>> USAAfric...@googlegroups.com

>> To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@
>> googlegroups.com
>> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

>> email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
> --

> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

> 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
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

> email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

While at Otuoke, I had occasion to call two colleague VCs and a Registrar on behalf of three undergraduate students.- at Ekiti and Benue States state and federal universities - to try to settle certain egregious issues. Only one of them was resolved satisfactorily.

One quickly senses that students in Nigeria - especially female students - simply do not seem to have any viable recourse when they have issues - either of  harrassment,or  lack of grade reports, or incorrect grsdes., Etc,, independent of the Registry and Faculty Offices.  I do not also think that female lecturers protect female students enough.

There is a real need to create legislation for an Office of Ombudsman in Nigerian Universities, with some senior heft,  who will fight for students without fear or favor.  In my second year at Otuoke, I defined such an office,. But the Registrar stated that there was no such office in the University staff roster, and no salary scale for such.  I had to reconsider.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

 Pennsylvania vote shows that Trumpism has its limits — even in Trump country

4 / 43

The Washington Post

Robert Costa4 hrs ago

SHARE

SHARE

TWEET

SHARE

EMAIL

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  
• 

Slide 1 of 12: Republican Rick Saccone, center,  makes his way through a gang of cameras and reporters as he heads to the polling place to cast his ballot,Tuesday, March 13, 2018 in McKeesport, Pa.

Previous Slide Next Slide

Full screen

1/12 SLIDES © Keith Srakocic/AP Photo

Republican Rick Saccone, center, is makes his way through a gang of cameras and reporters as he heads to the polling place to cast his ballot,Tuesday, March 13 in McKeesport, Pa.

2/12 SLIDES © Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Supporters of U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb react to the results coming in during Lamb's election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election against Republican candidate and State Rep. Rick Saccone in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

3/12 SLIDES © Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Supporters cheer as they watch election returns at an election night event for Conor Lamb, Democratic congressional candidate for Pennsylvania's 18th district, March 13 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

4/12 SLIDES © Drew Angerer/Getty Images

(L to R) Conor Lamb, Democratic congressional candidate for Pennsylvania's 18th district, and his grandmother Barbara Lamb exit the polling station after she voted at Our Lady of Victory Church, March 13 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

5/12 SLIDES © Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Campaign volunteer Chloe Chappell checks early election results at an Election Night event for GOP PA Congressional Candidate Rick Saccone as the polls close on March 13 at the Youghiogheny Country Club in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania.

6/12 SLIDES © Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Supporters of U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb react to the results coming in during Lamb's election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election against Republican candidate and State Rep. Rick Saccone in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

7/12 SLIDES © Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A supporter carries flags and photos of Conor Lamb at an election night event for Conor Lamb, Democratic congressional candidate for Pennsylvania's 18th district, March 13 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

8/12 SLIDES © Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Republican Congressional Candidate Rick Saccone arrives to vote in the special election to fill the 18th Congressional District seat vacated by Representative Tim Murphy at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church on March 13 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

9/12 SLIDES © Alan Freed/Reuters

Bobbi Bauer, of Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, watches election results on a monitor during Rick Saccone's election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election between Republican Saccone and Democratic candidate Conor Lamb in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

10/12 SLIDES © Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Supporters of U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb react to the results coming in during Lamb's election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election against Republican candidate and State Rep. Rick Saccone in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

11/12 SLIDES © Alan Freed/Reuters

U.S congressional candidate and State Rep. Rick Saccone thanks supporters at his election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election between Republican Saccone and Democratic candidate Conor Lamb in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

12/12 SLIDES © Alan Freed/Reuters

Tyten Springer, 8, left, and his sister, Lowen, 10, of Hunker, Pennsylvania, sing the national anthem during Rick Saccone's election night rally in Pennsylvania's 18th U.S. Congressional district special election between Republican Saccone and Democratic candidate Conor Lamb in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 13.

12/12 SLIDES

Slideshow by photo services

Load Error

The neck-and-neck result in Tuesday’s special congressional election in a reliably Republican Pennsylvania district revealed that the appetite for President Trump’s style of politics may have its limits in the land of shuttered steel mills and coal mines that has been the core of his support base.

The president went all in for Republican candidate Rick Saccone, a seemingly safe bet in a district Trump had carried by 20 percentage points in 2016.

Trump visited there twice in recent weeks. He dispatched his eldest son. He sent top White House aides. Yet, with all that political capital on the line, the president watched his favored candidate finish, in effect, in a tie in what should have been an easy win.

Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post

The razor-thin vote count — three months after Democrats picked up a U.S. Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama and coming on a whirlwind day when Trump tried to wrangle control of his administration by ousting his secretary of state — left Republicans feeling jittery just months ahead of the midterm elections.

And, with Democrat Conor Lamb coming close to a once unthinkable victory, other Democrats running this fall in Trump-friendly districts may find a formula to boost their hopes of retaking the House.

“We should be able to elect a box of hammers in this district. If we’re losing here, you can bet there is a Democratic wave coming,” said veteran Republican consultant Mike Murphy, a Trump critic.

Uncertainty now pervades the party that Trump leads.

Tuesday’s effective tie, coming in the aftermath of Trump’s ­aggressive push for steel and aluminum tariffs that were backed by both Pennsylvania candidates, suggests the power of the president’s hard-line trade stance to rally his voters is no longer a given.

The failure to secure an outright win also adds to an aura of negativity surrounding the president. Political storms accumulate seemingly by the hour, from the exit of mainstream figures inside the West Wing to the drip-drip developments in the Russia investigation to new revelations in the saga of a $130,000 hush agreement between a porn star and the president’s personal ­lawyer.

Lamb’s vote total wasn’t a sporadic burst of liberal energy in a blue state where faded Obama stickers still cover bumpers and the Trump resistance thrives. It was a sign of weakness in the beating heart of Trump’s political base — a place where red “Make America Great Again” caps were worn proudly throughout the last presidential campaign and where passion for the economic protectionism that Trump has made his creed rivals the passion for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But Lamb, a 33-year-old ­retired Marine and attorney with a chiseled jaw and centrist pitch, was able to peel away voters from Saccone, 60, a Republican state lawmaker, in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.

Trump’s tariff plan, his raucous rally in the district over the weekend, the Republican-authored tax law, the blizzard of television ads from conservative groups linking Lamb to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and the visit by Donald Trump Jr. to a candy-making facility on Monday — none of it was enough to secure a victory Tuesday night for Saccone, whom Republican and White House officials have snidely described as “Mr. Generic ­Republican.”

To Trump allies, the poor showing Tuesday was not a reflection on the president, but instead a reminder that the GOP should be embracing candidates who emulate the unscripted former reality TV star in the Oval Office.

“You can’t run a standard campaign,” former Trump campaign adviser Ed Brookover vented. “These kind of regular, Republican establishment campaigns, running as a conservative, isn’t going to work.”

The potential breakdown could be a rupture point in the Trump-Republican relationship that has so far held together.

For months, congressional Republicans have looked on uneasily as the White House has erupted with tensions and as Trump has fumed at foes and friends on Twitter and elsewhere. They have worried that the president and their party seemed alarmingly adrift, lurching between one policy fight or personnel drama to another without much legislating or political command.

Nevertheless, most Republicans have hesitated to worry too much, at least publicly, since the president appeared in polls to have a solid grip on his core voters in areas like Pittsburgh’s southern suburbs — the voters Republicans are counting on to turn out in droves this fall and stave off a Democratic takeover. He had overseen the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and signed the sweeping tax law that they had craved, which reassured them along the way.

It was a bargain between Republicans and an unconventional president to move forward arm-in-arm toward the November elections, even if both sides knew the relationship was fraught. Trump may have been vexing, but he was necessary for the party’s chances. Saccone, who wrapped himself politically around Trump in the Pennsylvania contest, was a case study in the survival strategy.

© Keith Srakocic/AP President Trump talks with Republican Rick Saccone during a March 10 rally in Moon Township, Pa. The Pennsylvania U.S. House election remained neck-and-neck between Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb on March 13 despite…

That bargain began to fray as the returns came in Tuesday night and the race in that overwhelmingly GOP district grew tight. Republicans watched with concern — in between frenzied cable-news updates on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s volatile departure — as it became clear that a Democrat was holding his own in the middle of Trump country.

While Republicans still feel steady about much of their argument to voters this fall — the stock market has made gains amid various bumps over the past year and the latest jobs report was strong — they no longer have confidence that the tax cut and the state of the economy alone can lift them to victory if Trump’s political brand is eroding in the places that had been rock solid.

And if Trump is no longer able to be counted on to yank a Republican to victory in this corner of Pennsylvania, where will he? In the coming months, some Republican strategists say they expect vulnerable GOP candidates to figure out how to define their candidacies in local and personal terms.

“Everybody will run for their district. They won’t necessarily run away from Trump but emphasize the parts of the Trump presidency that have been wins for the whole party — taxes, regulatory reform, those kind of issues rather than defending every piece of it,” said former Pennsylvania congressman Bob Walker (R).

Democrats, meanwhile, after stumbling in several elections last year and seeing anti-Trump liberals dominate their ranks, found themselves rallying behind Lamb, a polished and decidedly centrist candidate who said he is personally opposed to abortion and averse to aspects of gun ­control.

Lamb often echoed Trump’s views on trade, in effect stealing back an issue that Democrats have used for decades to rally working-class voters. He raised more money than Saccone and deftly handled questions about Pelosi, promising to oppose her in a leadership race. He associated with Democrats like former vice president Joe Biden, who campaigned in the district.

“It’s that old, western Pennsylvania conservative Democrat that Lamb was able to bring back,” said Patrick Caddell, a longtime Democratic pollster.

    

by Taboola by Taboola 

Sponsored Links Sponsored Links 

Promoted Links Promoted Links 

MORE FOR YOU

Journalistate

Anderson Cooper's Partner Will Make You SmileJournalistate

Undo

Refinance Gold

Tiger Woods' Private Jet Is Far From You'd ExpectRefinance Gold

Undo

Fortune Builders

Free 'House Flipping' Event In SpringfieldFortune Builders

Undo

Kate Beckinsale's Oscars Afterparty Dress Could Basically Stop TrafficPopSugar on MSN

Undo

Kindly Direct Your Attention to the Back of Kelly Ripa's Oscars Dress, Please and ThanksPopSugar on MSN

Undo

This Mom Realized She Gave Birth to a Baby With Down Syndrome in the First 10 Seconds – and Her Response Is So EmotionalSyndrome in the First 10 Seconds – and Her Response Is So EmotionalPopSugar on MSN

Undo

EverQuote Insurance Quotes

Springfield, Oregon: This Unbelievable, Tiny Company Is Disrupting a $200 Billion IndustryEverQuote Insurance Quotes

Undo

Work and Money

Really, a $52 Million Apartment? Can It Possibly Be Worth It?Work and Money

Undo

Luxury Auto | Sponsored Links

The Most Amazing Luxury Cars for 2018 Are Finally HereLuxury Auto | Sponsored Links

Undo

An 86-year-old actress stunned in the same dress she wore 56 years ago when she won her first Oscaryears ago when she won her first OscarINSIDER on MSN

Undo

O.J. Simpson's 'hypothetical' confession sparks social media frenzyFOX News on MSN

Undo

These Parents Have to Go to Court After Giving Their Baby Daughter a Very Common NamePopSugar on MSN

Undo

GlassesUSA.com

These Guys Are Putting Glasses Stores out of BusinessGlassesUSA.com

Undo

HARP Program Quotes

Oregon: Born Before 1984? Government Will Pay Your Mortgage If You QualifyHARP Program Quotes

Undo

Senior Living | Sponsored Links

Luxury Senior Living Options Near Springfield Might Surprise YouSenior Living | Sponsored Links

Undo

Manziel would love to sign with Patriots as Brady’s backupLarry Brown Sports on MSN

Undo

11 Bad Health Habits That Doctors Need You to Stop Doing ASAPReader's Digest on MSN

Undo

Princess Diana's Niece Is All Grown Up and Looks Just Like HerInstyle on MSN

Undo

ConsumersTricks

Forget Social Security! 8 Discounts Seniors Didn’t Know They Could GetConsumersTricks

Undo

Bankrate

The Return of the CD - 2018's Biggest Investment OpportunityBankrate

Undo

The Motley Fool

This Stock Could Be Like Buying Amazon in 1997The Motley Fool

Undo

Previous Next

AdChoices

by Taboolaby Taboola

Sponsored LinksSponsored Links

Sponsored LinksSponsored Links

MORE FROM MSN

Kelly Rowland Bares Her Washboard Abs, Plus Paris Jackson, Lupita Nyong'o & MoreParis Jackson, Lupita Nyong'o & MorePeople on MSN

Undo

Ind. Man Who Fatally Shot Girlfriend After She Rejected His Marriage Proposal Gets 45 YearsShot Girlfriend After She Rejected His Marriage Proposal Gets 45 YearsPeople on MSN

Undo

This is the No. 1 food to avoid at buffets at all costs, according to a restaurant owneravoid at buffets at all costs, according to a restaurant ownerAOL on MSN

Undo

He's 16 and he's gigantic: Meet world's tallest teenagergigantic: Meet world's tallest teenagerFOX News on MSN

Undo

    

by Taboola by Taboola 

Sponsored Links Sponsored Links 

Sponsored Links Sponsored Links 

YOU MAY LIKE

Lonny

Meryl Streep Sells Her Hollywood Hills Home to A-Rod for $4.8 MillionLonny

Undo

Trendchaser

The Real Reason "The Golden Girls" Went Off AirGolden Girls" Went Off AirTrendchaser

Undo

amerisave.com

Direct Lender. Billions Funded.amerisave.com

The Wall Street Journal

Jerry Brown's Legacy: A $6.1 Billion Budget Surplus in California$6.1 Billion Budget Surplus in CaliforniaThe Wall Street Journal

Undo

AdChoices

More From The Washington Post

• 
  The post-Obama generation is done…

  The Washington Post
• 
  Analysis: What legal rights do students…

  The Washington Post

by Taboolaby Taboola

Sponsored LinksSponsored Links

Sponsored LinksSponsored Links

MORE FROM NEWS

Tighter-than-tight PA congressional race too close to callAssociated Press on MSN

​

[DOYIN AGUORU]

Dear Prof Moses Ochonu, 

I am particularly interested in this friend of yours ... the one you refer to in the following narrative:

...When he had a well paying job, everything was going well and he would travel to Ibadan with money and other goodies to present to his advisers along with his chapter. Then, as he was finishing, he left his job and the money dried up. He could no longer send money to them or take money along with him on his trips to Ibadan. That's when the games began. They manufactured new, silly processes for him to navigate and dropped innuendoes that money could get him across to a defense--money which he no longer had. He inquired repeatedly why they would not schedule his defense but got no satisfactory answers. I was mad when I heard the story, but surprisingly he was not too mad, accepting his fate and saying that he knew how the system worked and knew that leaving his job might put his PhD in jeopardy. I am deliberately withholding some details of this story because he could be identified and retaliated against, but while he's been waiting futilely for a defense to be scheduled, he has gone on to do several other things and now seems resigned never to earn the PhD. Until he comes up with money to "finance" the processes they invented, there will be no defense. They probably have even revoked his studentship. This is pure corruption...

I have been actively involved in the process of awarding PhDs in the Faculty of Arts,University of Ibadan and this  involvement from my  Department, the Faculty and Postgraduate school  predates Prof Dasylva 's Deanship.

Kindly furnish me with the details of this candidate so that  I can investigate the claim and report back on this platform. 

Dr. Adedoyin Aguoru,

Department of English, 

University of Ibadan.

[Ezinwanyi Adam]

1. Are there individuals who have used research grants for the purchase of cars and other properties?

The answer is yes. The system allowed and still allows it. No one has ever been disciplined for doing such, at least, such a report has not been or come up in the public domain. When it finally does, people will take their lessons from it.

2. Is this act perpetrated by all (University Lecturers)?

The answer is No. Many lecturers are yet to enjoy the joy and privilege of winning a grant. Some who have won it (even more than twice) have given back to the society what they received.  They have done their best to account for every dime spent and are still putting in much to see that the culture of promoting academic research is sustained. However, as mentioned by Prof. Dasylva, Prof. Toyin, and others, there are a few bad eggs in the system, who in the first instance, are not meant to be in academics. To these few, everything is about money, profit/gain. We cannot exhaust the kind of mischief, corruption and wicked acts such people perpetrate in their respective institutions.

Therefore, we cannot generalize here, it is unprofessional to do so. The truth is that, most times, we know these few bad eggs in our home institutions, but the question is, what have we done and what can we do to bring the desired change?

...I rest my fingers....

Ezinwanyi 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Obododinma,

Abeg leave matter. Of course it is bad belle, but so what? Are the allegations made by the SSANU man not true? Have I not given examples from my own little circle? Has Bolaji Aluko not indirectly confirmed the allegations? Don't kill the messenger (Mr Ugwuoke) please, and don't get hung up on his motive. Focus on his message.

The fact that in two responses on this thread, you have not disputed the allegations advanced by Mr. Ugwuoke speaks volumes.

>>> USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

>>> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>>> Early archives at
>>> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>>> ---
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>>> Groups
>>> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>>> an

>>> email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
>> M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
>> M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
>> Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
>> Department of English,
>> University of Ibadan.
>>
>> Fellow,
>> Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
>> University of Ibadan.
>>
>> COORDINATES:
>>
>> Phone (Mobile):

>>               +234 8033331330 <+234%20803%20333%201330>;
>>               +234 9033333555 <+234%20903%20333%203555>;
>>               +234 8022208008 <+234%20802%20220%208008>;
>>               +234 8073270008 <+234%20807%20327%200008>.

>> Skype: obododimma.oha
>> Twitter: @mmanwu
>> Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/
>>
>>
>> --
>> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
>> To post to this group, send an email to

>> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

>> To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@
>> googlegroups.com

>> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

>> email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
> --
> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

> To subscribe to this group, send an email to

> USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

> email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>


--
--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Dr. Aguoru,

I hate to make this about one individual--my friend. This is a systemic problem with thousands of victims, past and present. Moreover, he did not give me permission to share his sad story here, which is precisely why I withheld certain details that may identify him to his advisers, some of whom may be on this forum. Nevertheless, I will speak with him and if he permits me I will pass the particulars of his case to you privately. You and I are friends on Facebook and as you recall we have discussed some of the issues on this threat in our private correspondence. I know you to be a committed academic of high integrity. I know many others with similar credentials. The problem is that there are far too many corrupt lecturers in the system and far too many innocent enablers who watch the corruption go on without doing anything or even prevent punishment from being meted to guilty colleagues in the name of solidarity. That is the problem.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Bolaji,

I agree with you 120 percent! Establishing the office of the ombudsman is the least we could do in these circumstances because the current system does not offer protection to students, male and female, but female students are particularly vulnerable and victimized. You're right that even female lecturers do very little to fight the sexual harassment of students. This is why I said we have too many enablers who may be innocent themselves but who care little about what their colleagues are doing to students, whether it's extortion, enslavement, or sexual harassment.

The extortion and enslavement is galling. When I went to Benue State University to externally examine some graduate student dissertations, I heard horrible background stories. One particular story in which the student spent more than twelve years and nearly died trying to get a PhD almost brought me to tears. Professor Okpeh is a member of this forum and was the HOD under whom the defenses took place. I do not want to betray confidences but he knows what I'm talking about. The story involves both extortion, enslavement, and sheer wickedness. And of course the student had no recourse. I'm glad that I did the right thing and was one of the agents that helped to right the situation. The culprit even showed up at the defense and tried to make trouble--the audacity! Without even hearing the story, I knew that something was amiss and took appropriate action. Later when I heard the story I felt so much satisfaction that I had put the corrupt brute in his place.

The problem is rampant despite the attempt by some of our home-based colleagues to make us believe that it is perpetrated by a few in isolated incidents. Some of the extortions I outlined in my last post were elaborate operations organized and implemented across entire departments and faculties and involving many lecturers and non-academic staff. How could they be said to be isolated incidents? 

We have a rotten system but instead of calling it what it is people are pandering and massaging the egos of our colleagues.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

I am happy you wrote "indirectly", because I do not have DIRECT evidence that Professor A or Dr. B used his or her research money to build   a house or buy a car.  But if N2 million, N4 million etc is paid directly into an account of a person with many deferred financial obligations, the Nigerian tendency is to praise God for answered prayers by any means necessary.  The spouse especially with join her in such praise worship! 

Bolaji Aluko 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Toyin Adepoju,

First of all, quit being melodramatic. I did not attack Dasylva. I merely pointed out his duplicity of celebrating and blaming "Andrews" in the same breadth. I did not attack his scholarship or integrity. You, on the other hand, have attacked my scholarship and even made a false claim that I've not written about racism and race in America, which I have in two chapters published incidentally in volumes edited by Falola. And if insisting that our students be taught and mentored properly instead of victimized, extorted, and sexually harassed; if insisting that our colleagues who are paid to teach and conduct research actually do those things amount to bullying then I wear the label as a badge of honor.

Anyhow, I know where you're headed. You defenders of the rot are so predictable. When cornered, you try to change the subject and try to put America, a distant white man's country, on trial. You want to derail the conversation and make it about America and racism instead of the rot in the Nigerian university system and the culpability of lecturers and university administrators in it. You executed this distracting maneuver successfully in the past. Today, I won't let you do it. I won't let you make the silly argument that if Moses does not transform into Malcom X and MLK combined and singlehanded solve America's racial problem, he has no right to criticize the evil in Nigeria's higher education sector. Let's focus on the issue at hand. Don't worry about America. America will be fine. My children will be fine; their generation is already marching for a better society. I care about Nigeria, a dysfunctional country where universities are destroying and shortchanging our youths and lecturers are complicit in it. If you want to discuss America and her ills, open a separate thread and I'll be glad to join you there, time permitting, or I may simply refer you to my essays on the subject.

Let me shock you by telling you that I am fully aware that my approach may fray nerves, hurt egos, and harden the hearts of some lecturers in Nigeria, including some friends and acquaintances. That is fine. My goal is to name and shame and create awareness about these problems and to challenge the escapist falsehood being peddled that these are isolated cases being perpetrated by "a few bad eggs." Others are free to take a different approach. In fact I applaud Falola for taking a different approach, even if I'm not entirely convinced that it's the right one. When I discuss the problems of the Nigerian university system with him, he always says that in fact I understate the problem and that he has more scandalous stories than the ones I know. His argument is however that naming and shaming is counterproductive and would simply offend our colleagues whose support we need to solve the problem. I see some of his point, but my comeback is always that, 1) I do not believe that uttering platitudes to our home-based colleagues and pandering to their egos would solve the problem and that it may even amount to enablement and a betrayal of the victims of these misconducts; 2) in any case I believe that both approaches are necessary and complementary--the name and shame and the polite persuasion approaches. I personally do not believe in enlisting culprits and enablers to solve a problem in which they are complicit. I believe rather that you have to isolate and ostracize the wrongdoers and make it difficult and unattractive for innocent lecturers to be enablers and passive bystanders. Anyway, to each his/her own approach.

This brings me to yet another point. You thought you were insulting me when you said I'm not a leader. I laughed when I read the part. Let me shock you by telling you that I actually see it as a compliment, a confirmation of what I've always believed about myself and told my friends and colleagues. I've never aspired to leadership and do not desire it because, as a self-critical, self-reflexive person, I know my strengths and weaknesses and leadership is not a strength of mine. In fact I tell people around me that I do not possess the aptitude or temperament to be a leader. I don't have the patience, and I do not know how to bite my tongue or be diplomatic---all qualities of leaders. I do not know how to flatter people or pander to their egos. I like to say things as I see them. I don't sugarcoat or mince my words. They say when a leader sees something wrong, he tells the wrongdoer, "how can we make this better?" I on the other hand like to say that it is wrong and call it what it is and discard the BS.

This is the reason I have actively resisted leadership positions throughout my adult life. In fact I've told several colleagues in my department that they should not think of me in relation to any leadership position because I do not have the skills necessary to be a leader. I've turned down several leadership positions. Some people are blessed with those skills and make good HODs, deans, provosts, etc. I have never desired any of these leadership positions in my academic constituency. What I've always desired and have never hidden is precisely I am now--and endowed chair. That has always been my highest aspiration in life and career. I'm content. I cannot manage people and egos. I am the director of my institution's new and small Africa program only because I fought for it for more than ten years, disturbing the peace of deans, provosts, and chancellors and so it would have been puzzling for the powers that be if I had turned down the headship of the very thing I had been calling for. 

This is a rather convoluted way to say that you're absolutely correct that I'm not a leader. I seek to disrupt, trouble, question, and change things for the better wherever I find myself. In my fourteen years of being in this profession (not counting graduate school) and seeing chairs and deans conduct meetings, etc, it is clear to me that these people are not agents of positive disruption and change. Their role is to maintain order and the status quo. I could never function in such a role because it would rob me of the independence of asking questions, troubling the waters, probing, criticizing, finding fault, and calling for ameliorative change.

Thank you for confirming for me what I already know.

[Tingir Theophilus Terver]

This is true.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

On the Veneration of Fellow Humans

Personally, I have nothing against venerating another human being. 

When I began my study and practice of Yoruba origin Orisa spirituality, I placed a particularly evocative picture of Wole Soyinka at the back of his powerful ritual play Death and the Kings Horseman, in my shrine, along with such quasi-esoteric paraphernalia as a tortoise shell.

I also hung in the shrine a traditional Nigerian shirt and placed a staff beside it, to represent my maternal grandfather, whom I understand was a great spiritual figure, in the name of identifying with him and perhaps making contact with his spirit to guide me in this journey into a spirituality akin to the one he practiced.

My admiring and even venerating Soyinka's embodiment of a particular cultural achievement  has not prevented me from critiquing him, as with his  politics.

Venerating other humans is an approach to recognizing the sublime uniqueness of creative power in its manifestation of possibilities open to all, but distinctively achieved in a remarkable way by a person,  such celebration facilitating one's actualization of the breadth of one's own potential, the individual example concretising such possibilities in a way beyond theory, faith or unactualised aspiration.

I responded as I did to the  divinisation claim  in this thread bcs, in its harmony with the critique presented by the writer, I saw it as not being presented in good faith.

thanks

toyin 

 

On 14 March 2018 at 18:21, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Oga Moses,

I took you up on your self righteous rudeness which you insisted on consolidating.

Your describing Dasylva as 'worshiping Falola like a god' is a personal and unnecessary attack.

You were given a chance to correct that uncivility but you chose to reinforce it instead.

Why not make your point without such attempts at demeaning someone else's noble efforts?

That's all I need to say to you for now since i have made my point sufficiently about the merits and demerits of your case.

toyin

On 14 March 2018 at 18:06, Tingir Theophilus Terver <theob...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is true.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

What I noticed in my time in Nigeria is that there  is a subtle system of mutual blackmail almost everywhere - and you have to be very careful not to fall into the trap.   This is the principle behind enablement. 

It appears that once you have done something wrong that some or  every one knows about, but you are left off for whatever reason, then you are under obligation not to play holier than thou when others misbehave - and so misbehavior after misbehavior continues.   It may also be that you benefitted from some unmerited activity.   This happens in universities, in the Civil Service, in the National Assembly, everywhere. 

It also breeds incompetence.  You misbehave secretly in an official manner, but only your secretary, or your driver or your Auditor, or a contractor etc knows about.  Immediately, all of those people have some hold on you, and your ability to discipline them for infractions weaken significantly, and they even  can make demands on you. 

It is a systemic problem that one must always watch against, particular with Auditors firm Abuja! 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Oga Moses,

I took you up on your self righteous rudeness which you insisted on consolidating.

Your describing Dasylva as 'worshiping Falola like a god' is a personal and unnecessary attack.

You were given a chance to correct that uncivility but you chose to reinforce it instead.

Why not make your point without such attempts at demeaning someone else's noble efforts?

That's all I need to say to you for now since i have made my point sufficiently about the merits and demerits of your case.

toyin

On 14 March 2018 at 18:06, Tingir Theophilus Terver <theob...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is true.

[Okey Iheduru]

"... You misbehave secretly in an official manner, but only your secretary, or your driver or your Auditor, or a contractor etc knows about.  Immediately, all of those people have some hold on you, and your ability to discipline them for infractions weaken significantly, and they even  can make demands on you. 

It is a systemic problem that one must always watch against, particular with Auditors firm Abuja!" -- Prof. Bolaji Aluko. 

Very well put, Prof. Aluko. You didn't know it, and I refrained from letting you know until now, but I did save you from one of those 'Auditors from Abuja' some time in 2013! Your success as Diaspora VC was paramount in my mind. :).

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Okey Iheduru:

The Yoruba say that a goat that goes to Mecca during Ileya festival and comes back without being "eaten" must thank God........That is what serving Nigeria near the top in an executive position, particularly from the Diaspora,  makes you feel:  like a goat that strayed to Mecca!

Okey, I do not know which of one hundred "Auditors from Abuja" that you saved me from "some time in 2013", but let me thank you for that!  And when I thank God for sparing me from all sorts of things in my Nigerian escapade, I indirectly thank ALL of those human beings known and unknown who He used as his instruments - because God never comes down LITERALLY Himself - except when Christ came - to deliver us!

The University authorities are probably the most harassed institutions in Nigeria, that is why I do not understand when they say that there is financial corruption!.  And if there is, it must be due to COMPLETE CONNIVANCE of auditors.

Just ask any VC. 

There was more than once at Otuoke when "auditors" from Abuja INDEPENDENTLY descended on the University - from Tetfund, from Budget Office, and Auditor General's Office poring over our meager books  - and at the same time we were called to Abuja by the House of Rep Public Accountability Committee!.  And they all want to see the VC and the Bursar - sometimes the Registrar - and nobody else!  We also used the opportunity to report at the Federal Character Commission to submit all of our personnel information !   We had to abandon the three groups of auditors at Otuoke - asking them to rummage as much as they wanted - while we went off to Abuja to respond.

I often found it comical.

You hardly can get anything done because you are responding to one query or the other, as each auditing group tells you that it is doing "its constitutional duty."  At the end of the year, a group comes to see whether you have closed your accounts properly, and at the beginning of the following year, another group comes to see whether those who came to inspect the closing did the inspection properly. In fact, they were often also apologetic that they are troubling you - but it is their constitutional duty, they say.

Part of the reason why I am VERY SUPPORTIVE of the TSA (where all monies are in the Central Bank rather than in deposit banks) is that it spares VCs and Bursars the intense scrutiny of auditors who ALWAYS believe that universities HIDE monies in various bank accounts, and hence make all kinds of suggestions that they can wink and nod at those "hidden monies" if you give them a fat consideration.  I will spare you the details of some askings, or some of my responses to such attempts at blackmail.

And there you have it.  Once again, thank you for your "anonymous" saving action!

Bolaji Aluko

Shaking his head

[Toyin Falola]

My People:

If the students will harass you on Sunday, the teachers’ union on Monday, the junior staff on Tuesday, the chiefs and kings of the area on Wednesday, the unqualified looking for jobs on Thursday, the Muslims on Friday, and Moses Ochonu on Saturday why in the world would anyone want to be a VC?

Who is then left to reform a system in an atmosphere of distrust?

TF

Sent from my iPhone

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

TF:

A university MUST have a VC, so somebody must do the job.  And since it is the pinnacle of administrative positions in a university, some academics will naturally aspire to become VCs, what with its prestige, its perks, its salary (double that of highest paid professor) - and its seeming power. 

But I would sit my enemies and friends down  - particularly my friends, I might skip my enemies, to punish them more  -  to tell them what they would face as VCs of public institutions in  Nigeria.   VCship of private universities is only marginally better - a cousin of mine  was such a VC, and he quit midway! 

You have to fight not to be a glorified Principal, as you are asked to address mundane things that are way below what your intellect should be addressing.  You can be addressing gardeners at 8 am, have a Management meeting at 10 am, be in Senate from 12 to 3 pm, be off to see the Community King and his Chiefs at 6 pm, and have dinner with a Nobel Laureate at 8 pm.  By midnight, your brain is in a funk. 

And the following day, only one of a dozen planned meetings will you have, because you have been summoned to Abuja - or the state capital - the following day - for a mandatory 9 am meeting, with documents requested.  

Haba! 

And at Otuoke, I was lucky to have no Student or Staff Unions for 58 out of the 60 months there!  Imagine otherwise.... 

And there you have it! 

Bolaji Aluko 

[Biko Agozino]

Moderator where is that your hammer? How did you permit people who should know better to abuse the confidential information they were privileged to know by describing the personal challenges of friends, who may have been staging them to hustle some dollars, in such a way that they could be denied anonymity and could come to harm. 

This is unethical conduct and no IRB would approve it if included in research with human subjects. Colleagues should please exercise caution when using disjointed empiricism to shore up outlandish generalizations.

In the US and in Europe, there is a portion of research grants that is paid to the PIs as stipends and they are free to spend them as they see fit. Fraud only arises when they claim direct research costs that they did not incure but the fiscal officers may spot such an error and refuse to reimburse them.

To brag about saving a VC from an auditor is to confess being an accessory to corruption and the VC should stop bleathing that he was the goat saved from sacrifice when we know that it is the lamb that is preferred.

Biko

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--

Ademola O. Dasylva,PhD
Professor of African Literature, Oral Poetics & Performance;
Coordinator, Ibadan Cultural Studies Group;
Board Chairman & Convener, TOFAC (International);
Rm. 68, Faculty of Arts,

& Dean, Faculty of Arts,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria..

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@ googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/ group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/ conferences/africa/ads/index. html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Being  a VC is is very big thing in Nigeria.

You are like a god.

I never knew the VC in my time at Uniben to go out of his office without moving in a car, and with an escort.

There is this new private university in the SW, in rich but relatively small grounds, where I am yet to see the VC move about on his own in the times I have been there, if moving about on foot, he does so in  an entourage, in a vehicle, with a vehicle entourage.

This contrasts with my experience in SOAS, University of London, where the VC, whom I knew bcs I had taken the pains to be informed, stood in the courtyard and no one noticed him bcs most students and perhaps even some staff did not know him.

The image remains indelible in my mind of the VC of University College, London, one of the most resourced and most highly regarded universities in England,whom I also knew bcs I had attended a talk he gave, where he had declared we foreign students as contributing half of the running costs of the university,  was walking to his house, alone at close of day, passing the SOAS courtyard, where, of course, no one paid him any attention, being unknown to them and even if he was, it would be no big deal to them, his athletic strides taking him to his house as I watched.

Observing that even the admissions officer of a secondary and sixth form school in England was mystified by Cambridge university admissions procedures, their selectivity operating at practically the same legendary level as that of Harvard, attracting the striking Hitler parody in which Hitler rages that even though he controls half of Europe, he cant enter Harvard, I went round the various colleges, interviewing the admissions officers, and wrote up my interviews in "Cambridge University Admissions: Empirical and Non-Empirical Assessments".

One of my most informative  interviewees was an engineering PhD who was admissions officer in a particular college, a man of supreme and yet down to earth pride in his institution, telling me the story of a rich father of a candidate who wanted to know what it would take financially to get his child into Cambridge, only to be told the consideration was not monetary but the combination of creativity and academic knowledge demonstrated by the student.

Yet, if you see this admissions officer as he moves about in Cambridge you would consider it a credible description if he is presented  to you as a jobless or a lowly paid man as described by one person I pointed him out to, on account of his markedly uncaring style of   dressing.

After a public lecture in Cambridge, an elderly man walked up to me  to express appreciation of an observation I had made during the lecture. 'I have also written a book on the subject' he said. Oh, a pensioner who writes in his spare time and has been able to bring out a book, I concluded, noting the polythene bag he was carrying and his extremely casual and not particularly smart clothes, although also observing what I saw as the incongruity between his appearance and the kind of respect he was being given by passing younger people  who were very smartly dressed. 'Why not come for lunch with me at King's College?", he suggested to me as he rode away on his bicycle.

On going for that lunch, I discovered  he was one of the foremost professors of the university and that book he referenced was a major publication by Harvard University Press, a story I narrated in 'The White Haired Man with the Polythene Bag'. 

Nigerians dont take the VCship thing lightly at all. An ethnically centred struggle for the University of Benin VCship some years ago, in which the Benin indigenes insisted their own indigene must become VC, their ethnicity not having had any VC in all  the years since the university's founding, saw Benin advocates of this vision depositing the invocation paraphernalia of the fearsome Ayelala deity, a deity created centuries ago through a human sacrifice, if I recall correctly,  at the main gate of the university in pursuit of their vision. Even the state governor and the Oba, if I recall correctly, weighed in in support of the ethnic vision.

After the Benin people got their VC, the bursar who seemed to have a conflict with the VC once met another juju concoction on her doorstep. 

I recall the brutal fight, mobilising students and academic staff, to remove Alele-Williams as VC of Uniben,   in order to install her deputy VC in her place as it later turned out, Alele-Williams being a woman who had been brought there as VC bcs of a deadlock in the struggle for the VCship created by  infighting among the  professors, as I had been told. As a junior lecturer, I was mesmerized by the speeches loyalists of the DVC made in ASUU meetings, but till today, more than a decade later, I cant recall what exactly she was was supposed to have done to warrant such intense attack. What I recall is one professor castigating  as 'juju sculptures' the superb sculptures she commissioned and which lead from the main gate into the university in a majestic procession. 

I suspect that in a world in which most people do not have ready access to such basics of modern life as tap borne water in their homes, and no stable electricity, these struggles for VCship are partly struggles for access to resources, as Aluko has described, and in an environment with a challenged research culture, becoming a VC could be seen by many as the pinnacle of an academic career. 

The heroic image of the scholar has dwindled significantly in the Nigerian university. Since the problems of the 70s and 80s, I wonder to what degree is replicated with contemporary scholars in Nigeria the days of famous scholars, famous for scholarship, and, at times, for institutional leadership, from Kenneth Dike to Claude Ake to Bala Usman to Biodun Jeyifo. I have encountered some names that resonate beyond their universities, but not particularly loudly.

With the professorship in Nigeria a ceiling beyond which, to the best of my knowledge,  there is nothing to aspire to beyond managerial positions, there is a need to re-conceptualize and re-incentivise the professorship in terms of academic leadership as demonstrated by the development of novel ideas,  the building of scholarly partnerships and innovative academic programs, among other possibilities, as well as the creation of forms of recognition of such accomplishments, ideally accompanied by economic value that will make a real impact in the life of the professor.

Would this be possible without a strong academic publishing industry? How would these novel ideas be disseminated?

The humanities or social sciences professor, in its original formulation in the German university, as the PhD and the concept of a research university are also German formalizations in the history of Western academia, according to one view, is a person who 'professes' a vision of the world through the lens of their discipline or a confluence of disciplines. Correlative to this is a radical view of science  presented by entomologist- scholar of ants- Edmund Wilson, who declares in his autobiography that the significance of a scientist's achievement is assessable in terms of how the following sentence is completed-  ''He/she[ the scientist] invented or discovered........"

A central value I observed in the Toyin Falola@65 conference being held in Nigeria in the midst of the intense pageantry congregating academia, royalty and government, is the demonstration of such recognition purely for academic achievement, no connection with business, politics or even university administration. It was glorious.

Central to that achievement. however, is the mountainous book publication record of the person being celebrated. Ali Mazrui did not write as many books, but he was famous on account of the impact of those books and his essays and his controversial documentary  Africa: The Triple Heritage. Alexis Sanderson, Oxford professor of Hinduism, has published no book that I know of, but even a layperson like myself can guess why he is a professor in a book centred academic culture, on account of the fantastic detail of those essays and their groundbreaking character in relation to  the subjects they address.

We need a powerful journal and book culture in Nigeria if we are to build a robust academic culture.

thanks

toyin

 

[Shola Adenekan]

Dear Moderator,

Every time Moses or any concerned person raise the issue of corruption in our (Nigeria) academia, they are vehemently lambasted. This is now a common trend. I have come to the conclusion that academics are no better than the politicians they love to condemn. This is true in the context of Nigeria as well as in the context of Europe and North America. I think we need to drop this pretence that we are more honest than politicians. I don't know which Nigeria people grew up in, but the story Moses told is all too familiar to me, and to those I know. 

Instead of actually addressing the issues that Moses raised, people are attacking the messenger without proffering a solution. Others have resorted to bringing in irrelevant subjects just to divert attention from the issue of corrupt practices in academia.

I don't know where Moses gets the strength from, but kudos to him for sticking to his guns. In my view, we are all the better for his candour. 

Ire o!

Shola

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Shola Adenekan:

Not everyone is attacking Moses - certainly I am not, even though I strive to give some nuance to his denunciation.  Those who are criticizing him for whatever reason - mainly because of his generalizing stridency, which he confesses he does for good reason -  have the right to do so, and Moses is responding accordingly.  Academicians, many of who are on this forum, have a penchant for debate, and sometimes truculent debate.

I grew up in a university home - my father a professor, my mother a senior administrator -  and some of what are reported to be going on now were ALSO going on then, even though to a much lesser degree.  Military incidence, tough economic times and just general moral decay have seeped into all sectors of Nigerian society, and the universities have not been immuned.

But please, despite all, Nigerian academicians are far better than politicians, far far better.  At least, that is my experience.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

[Toyin Falola]

My people:

 

1. All societies have insiders who understand everything that outsiders say. Alas! There is nothing we say that our brothers and sisters in Nigeria don’t know and say!
2. All societies, from time immemorial, don’t want outsiders to say the same thing that insiders say, as if they are wiser than them! The Ijebu like parties, and the bigger they are the more the merrier but they don’t want an Ibadan man to say so. The Ibadan are wasteful and funny, as you can see the jokes about them on Whatsapp on a weekly basis. As an Ibadan man, I know that I am not supposed to laugh!!!
3. All societies care about what you do, not what you say. Families, friends, kins, villages want you to do something. If you don’t do something, what we say tend to be treated as hostilities. At Ibadan the chiefs and kings have thanked me for writing books but they say “Oloye, come home to create jobs, we don’t want to read those long books anymore!”
4. Words are important, and the ability to master their nuances in societies that are organized along patriarchal lines are important. Moses will be amused if I were to tell him how many call me or speak to him to figure out the use of his words and I will say “I am not his father!”

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)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

This is true.

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

 

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Shola,

You're the one with the energy to work off on "suffer head" people who would rather raise non sequiturs and attack me than face the issues plaguing the higher education sector in Nigeria. It's clear that they're more angry at me for broadcasting the problems and their complicity in it than they are at the problems. And, of course, you should know by now that all these reactionary attacks are water off my shoulders. I've been on this cause for a decade or more now. The usual suspects have thrown the kitchen sink at me to try to shut me up. It didn't work in the past. Why do you think it will work now that I have even more damning evidence of the rot?

Professor Falola, I'm indeed amused. Tell them to reach out to me directly. My email is here. I'll even give them my phone number for a chat. No need for them to cowardly and gossiply (is that a word?) seek you out about my use of words. I'm coming to your conference in Austin later this month, so please connect me to these people so they can hear from me directly and so they can tell me to my face what they want you to say to me. Yeye dey boom.

 

Shola Adenekan:

This is true.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

 

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[O O]

In an Amos Tutuola-manner, our professional politicians and professional politicians drink from the same well. 

As I have repeatedly noted: the conscience of the typical Naijirian (aka the “THEY” or the anonymous “ONE”) has no beef with corruption — “THEY” SIMPLY WANT THE WHEEL OF “FORTUNE” TO PASS THEIR WAY. Tic Tac To!!!!!!?????? By any means necessary.

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Biko Agozino:

You put on your comical hat this morning, probably in some retaliation!

No, Biko, Okey Iheduru did not violate ANY confidentiality!  If somebody talked bad about me behind my back, or wanted to hurt or harm me in any way, and he was able to intervene on my behalf, I thank him, and thank God for him.  If because lambs are preferred, and I being a goat, I was left bleating and "un-eaten", I thank God too for being an un-preferred beast!

You see, 2013 was a special year for me as VC at Otuoke. and for all the other new universities.  In the first year 2011, we all were not in National Budget, and much of our money was spent through the National Universities Commission.  The N1.5 Billion grant allocated to each university too was also largely unspent that year, being a planning year.  By 2012 we were not only in the National Budget, but we had started building up our staff (both academic and administrative), and much of the N1.5 billion start-up money given to each university had started to be spent.. All of us admitted students too in 2012, with some opening classes in July 2012, and Otuoke in October 2012. 

So when 2013 came, by March, April May of that year, auditors of all kinds (from MDAs and from the NASS)  from Abuja DESCENDED on all of the universities like locusts, seeking to know how we had used - or were using - the money, and ready to wink and nod in case some untowardness was found, and maybe we wanted to be "forgiven" :-).  I waved off a few.

And of course, like ALL auditors, you cannot BUT find SOMETHING wrong somewhere, but not all wrong things - eg incomplete records of decision-making or incomplete internal consultations  (usually the VC having to make decisions unilaterally in order to speed matters up, etc.), an improperly posted transaction, a money advancement beyond agreed amount, etc. - is corruption, and you must be prepared to defend your decisions, sometimes based on "doctrine of necessity." and a commitment to avoid such infractions in the future.  And defend I was ALWAYS prepared to do, because from Day One, I knew what I was getting into in the finances department, .

Even those audits were not enough.  As you can see, even as late as April/May 2017, the present government set up a panel:

    https://www.360nobs.com/2017/04/nigeria-constitutes-panel-new-federal-universities/

    Nigeria Constitutes Panel For 12 New Federal Universities

     "....The statement said the terms of Reference for the Committee’s assignment are to determine the actual amount released to the NUC by TETFund as take  off grant for projects for the 12 universities. Others are: to identify and confirm the number of contracts awarded, including contract sums under the take-off grants...."

The report of the panel was out in November 2017, even though none of us former VCs have seen it yet.

 https://www.naija.ng/1136705-7-man-panel-submits-audit-report-12-varsities-established-by-goodluck-jonath.html#1136705

Federal government receives audit report on 12 varsities established by Jonathan

"The audit panel also said the total number of students’ enrollment in all the 12 universities stands at 40,614 with only about 32% of the lecturers having PhD degrees. Similarly, it said the guidelines by the Public Procurement Act, PPA, were duly followed in most cases in award of contracts in the institutions while there were also few of breaches. Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, the chairman of the panel, on Tuesday, November 21, in Abuja while receiving the report, said the issues of students’ accommodation and accreditation of courses would be looked into quickly to ensure that the institutions were repositioned on the right pedestal."

You can be sure that if something seriously untoward were in the report, we would have heard about it already - but we are still waiting! :-)

Biko, I am writing all of these not to be self-righteous, but from the standpoint of a Diaspora fellow who went into the university community in Nigeria and experienced issues first hand as VC.  I knew much of what I would face, but certainly not all.  The next person facing the same situation should be better armed.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

My people:

Just a small note about the need to avoid generalizations:

Twice, when the University of Ife was new, there were no bank accounts. Once, money was transferred directly to the personal bank account of hezekiah oluwasanmi to run the university.

Anyone who says or thinks that oluwasanmi will take a cent out of it must be sent to Aro mental hospital.

We must divide the country into ethical phases, and the current age may be the worst.

Nigeria has moved from a low trust society to a no trust society. In general, low trust societies lack the capacity to develop as development requires a large element of trust in people and institutions.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

TF:

But the same VC Prof. Oluwasanmi (1966-1975) was hounded out of office - or at least left embittered - when a building fell down on campus, and he was (wrongly) accused of corruptly conniving with the building contractor!

So trust was not total even then! 

Bolaji Aluko 

[Biko Agozino]

Ewu VC,

Retaliation for what? Na me call you goat? I stand by my call for ethical caution. The auditor snake seen by one man easily turns into a dancing python. In your defensiveness you forgot that my cautionary note is actually in the interest of the scapegoat who should be assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Biko

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Nyanwuruede Agozino:

And you are crazy like a fox, with 'enwe" moves!

And there you have it!

Bolaji Aluko

Having s belly laugh

[Ademola Dasylva]

The original allegations have not been refuted, no. The problem I have with my friend,  Moses, is with his overgeneralization which he vehemently defends,  unsuccessfully though. The instances that Moses cited can still not be said to be the norm in any Nigerian university that is worth the name. Besides being a one-sided narrative, I can state  categorically that so many things could be responsible for why a candidate is denied being put up for defense, so many reasons that are outside what some of those candidates referred to might have alleged or insinuated. Besides, they are mature students and I expected them to have explored the possibility of approaching some very serious senior Professors in the Faculty for intervention. 

That is not to deny the existence of such crimes in many of our universities, though. For example, I served as Chairman of the Panel 'E' of the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee, UI.,  for ten years, and for which I got an Award. Serious cases like the ones under reference, or rape,  sexual abuse,  exam malpractices, abuse of office,  fraud, etc, etc.,   were investigated and culprits were appropriately sanctioned. A Professor was sacked barely a year to his retirement for admission racketeering, and other fraudulent acts. University of Ibadan has a unique tradition, and any student who feels exploited or is abused,  etc.,  is free to approach  Faculty Counsellors for a redress. Some cases of lecturers like that were handled by my panel and dispensed with as appropriate.

When I used the term "andrew", I didn't mean to cast any aspersions on colleagues who left the country at the time they did. It was beneficial to them, and to some of us too. So I didn't mean to blame them either. Rather, as Dr Toyin Adepoju correctly read my intention, I simply traced the origin of the decay we now experience to that critical gap left as a result of the mass exodus. May I also add that it was not only miscreants that came into the university system,  so many of us did too. I remembered I joined UI to replace Professor Isidore Okpewho, who, unfortunately, passed on some months ago. So the idea of "andrewing" shouldn't be misconstrued to always mean something in the negative. So if Moses finds it objectionable he can save his steam for another day,  and be less combative. 

I still insist though on cautioning overgeneralization. I am never a desperate person, nor am I desperate to keep my university job at all cost.  The moment there is no more room to improve the system, and aberrations take over the system, I'll fling the job back at the system. This short story might interest Moses: 

As a young lecturer and Acting Head of my Department I  dragged a former Dean of my Faculty before the Disciplinary Committee for abuse of office. It was not heard of before then, but I won because I had my facts. Another example,  perhaps like a Nollywood film:

 Some 13 or so months ago, a court case I initiated in 2011 against some criminals, a syndicate of admission racketeers was concluded. A junior staff of UI and 4 other outsiders were found guilty and jailed between 2 and 5 years. I was the one that accidentally broke into the syndicate that had been operating for 11 years. It was strange that people who knew about the crime didn't care a huge,  and for fear of their lives.  I got the support of the former Vice Chancellor though, the syndicate was so powerful that it hired six defense counsels led by the former Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly. My life was threatened twice, it was reported in the local dailies and the electronic media.  I risked whatever I had, including my life,  just because people like me refused to give up on the system.

 I can tell you Moses,  there are others too,  in UI and  across other  Nigerian universities working round the clock, sacrificially giving their all, to ensure that we maintain some sanity in the system and the sanctity of our callings. You asked what I would do if the powers that be decides to impose a mediocre staff on me. Academic staff?  There are approved procedures and nobody, no matter how highly placed will try something different with me. If that should happen at all, I shall fling their deanship back at them,  and quit in protest. I do not have to tell you how much embarrassment and damage  I can cause those agents of decay. 

 Therefore,  it will not be proper for you, or anyone for that matter, to overgeneralize that academics on this side of the fence are passive, complacent, docile,  unresponsive and irresponsible as you have insinuated in your reactions. It is unfair to say the least. 

DAO

Ademola O.  Dasylva,  Ph. D
Professor of African Literature,
Oral Poetics & Performance,
Department of English;
Coordinator,  Ibadan Cultural Studies Group (ICSG),
Convener & Board Chair,
TOFAC (International),
Room 68, Faculty of Arts,

& Dean,  Faculty of Arts,
University of Ibadan,  Ibadan,  Nigeria.

...

[Toyin Falola]

But for TOFAC in Lagos at the time, Prof Dasylva would have lost his life.

There is no such system in the world where everyone is bad, except as clusters of criminals. There are even religious fundamentalists in all systems who work daily to seek heaven.

Here in Texas, Nigerians are regarded as fraudulent, but the majority of us are not fraudulent. Many see three blacks together in the US and they get frightened. The three may be professors of distinction.

How to protect the good in any system and seek productive alliances with them is the key to transformation.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

[Ibukunolu. A. Babajide]

Dear Moses,

When I entered Obafemi Awolowo University of Ife in 1978 there was a research project of the Agriculture Faculty

Called The Goat Research Project.  They had more cars and vehicles of all sorts than the number of goats they were

meant to research.

Going by the number of cars alone Nigeria should be the World’s number one goat producer today.  Sadly, the cars were badly maintained and the goat research did not travel very far.

So as far back as 1978 there is some truth in this SSANU man’s claims.

Cheers.

IBK

Sent from my iPhone

On 11 Mar 2018, at 10:15 PM, Anthony Akinola <anthony....@gmail.com> wrote:

Good news from a great African nation.

Anthony Akinola

Oxford, UK

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 9:27 PM, Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aass...@indiana.edu> wrote:

​Africa

What’s the World’s Fastest-Growing Economy? Ghana Contends for the Crown

By TIM MCDONNELLMARCH 10, 2018

Continue reading the main story Share This Page

• Share
• Tweet
• Email
• More
• Save

Photo

Street salesmen in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The country is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

TEMA, Ghana — As recently as the 1980s, the West African nation of Ghana was in crisis, crippled by hunger after a series of military coups. But it has held peaceful elections since 1992, and its economic outlook turned considerably brighter about a decade ago, with the discovery of major offshore oil deposits.

Now, as oil prices rise again and the country’s oil production rapidly expands, Ghana is on track to make a remarkable claim for a country mired in poverty not long ago: It is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year, according to the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Brookings Institution.

Its projected growth in 2018, between 8.3 and 8.9 percent, might outpace even India, with its booming tech sector, and Ethiopia, which over the last decade has been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies thanks to expanding agricultural production and coffee exports.

According to the I.M.F.’s projections, only Bhutan, with a minuscule economy, and Libya, whose war-ravaged economy plunged in recent years, may have a higher rate of growth this year.

In January, Ghana’s benchmark stock index achieved the world’s highest rate of growth, 19 percent, according to Bloomberg.

Continue reading the main story

ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story

And oil is not the only resource helping to drive Ghana’s economy. Cocoa is Ghana’s other natural bounty, and producers are piggybacking on the oil boom.

Edmund Poku, the managing director of Niche Cocoa, said his processing factory in Tema, an industrial suburb of the capital, Accra, already has contracts to sell all of the powder, butter and chocolate bars it plans to make in 2018.

Photo

Laborers weighing and loading bags of cocoa beans in Akyekyere, Ghana. Cocoa sales are helping lift the country’s agriculture sector. Credit Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor, via Getty Images

“This is the first year we’ve done that,” Mr. Poku said as employees in white lab coats ducked into his office from the factory floor for the day’s marching orders.

Inside Mr. Poku’s noisy chocolate factory, crews of technicians sat behind banks of computers, operating machines that roast, grind, boil, press and blend hundreds of pounds of cocoa beans every day.

His factory embodies the goal of economists and technocrats across Africa: a local enterprise that offers hundreds of well-paid, skilled jobs and uses cutting-edge technology.

Mr. Poku has doubled his factory’s capacity in the last two years and plans to hire another 100 workers this year. He predicted other business sectors would also have the opportunity to expand.

“Once people see that the economy is growing, banks and investors will be more willing to see Ghana as a good place to make investments,” he said.

While the country is on a roll now, economists and other experts have urged Ghana to avoid the so-called resource curse that has plagued other nations that rely too heavily on the extraction of petroleum and minerals — industries often associated with graft and corruption.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was elected in late 2016 on a wave of discontent over the economy, has pledged to heed that advice, and to funnel oil revenues into education, agriculture and manufacturing, to diversify the economy.

In his recent State of the Nation address, Mr. Akufo-Addo called the agriculture industry the “backbone” of his development agenda and said that factories like Mr. Poku’s have been the “takeoff point for industrialization in most developed societies.” He said he also plans to expand incentives for cocoa processors.

Photo

Imported containers in the Tema Harbor area, outside of Accra. If the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

Cocoa sales are helping lift Ghana’s agriculture sector, which at the end of last year posted its best quarter of growth since 2010, driven by a bumper cocoa crop. Cocoa prices, along with prices for another of Ghana’s exports — gold — are rising again.

The cocoa processing industry is expanding to take advantage of an influx of raw beans, said Eric Amengor, the deputy research manager at the Ghana Cocoa Board. Applications for permits to build new factories are flooding in, he added.

But critics say that a program to set up new factories across a range of industries — one in each of Ghana’s 216 districts — has been slow to get started.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

The Interpreter Newsletter

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

Sign Up

You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

• See Sample
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime
  

Growth in industries like finance and health care has also lagged, in part because government investment has been restricted over the last few years, in order to correct for years of overspending. After an initial oil boom in 2011, an overextended public payroll and increasing debt interest payments drove the country into a deep budget deficit when oil prices fell.

But today, Ghana seems to be getting back on stable budgetary footing, analysts said.

While the long-term goal is to diversify the economy, the main reason behind all the current optimism in Ghana is still oil.

In the last 18 months, two major oil fields off Ghana’s coast have started production. In 2017, production jumped to nearly 60 million barrels, resulting in oil export revenues 124 percent above the previous year, according to central bank statistics.

In September, Ghana won an offshore boundary dispute with neighboring Ivory Coast, which is expected to clear the way for further oil exploration. Exxon Mobil signed an exploration deal with the government in January.

The boom has some experts worried.

“If you suddenly see a resource bonanza coming, there’s a tendency to spend money you don’t have, and that has been the case in the Ghana situation,” said John Page, a senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution.

Photo

Houses under construction in the neighborhood of Cantonments, in Accra. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

At the same time, Mr. Page cautioned, if the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports and lead to a slowdown in manufacturing investment.

What happens in Ghana could hold lessons for other West African countries, including Senegal, which recently announced discoveries of oil and gas off shore, and Mauritania, which has signed an exploration deal with Total, the French oil company.

While Ghana may have a shot at claiming the title of fastest-growing nation this year, it will still have to prove it can parlay its oil boom into high-quality jobs and sustainable growth.

“It’s our hope that our leaders can use these resources strategically,” said Alhassan Atta-Quayson, an economist at the University of Education in Winneba, in Ghana’s western coastal region, not far from the offshore oil wells. “So far, not much has been done. You don’t feel the effect of Ghana being an oil-producing country.”

Across the nation, many ordinary citizens feel left out of the economic expansion.

The unemployment rate, although below the average of 7.4 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, increased from 4 percent in 2011 to 5.8 percent last year, according to the World Bank. Among youth, the rate is as high as 11.5 percent.

On the streets of Accra — where the population has increased by nearly one million in the last decade, to 2.7 million, as people pour in from the countryside in search of work — optimism can be hard to detect.

Kekeli Aryeetey graduated from Pentecost University College in Accra several years ago with a degree in finance. She was laid off from a microfinance firm, and then from a travel agency, before deciding to open a shop selling bulk rice and palm oil.

As a student, she imagined her future in an air-conditioned office with a decent salary and annual vacations. Her income now is about $67 per month, below the national average of $115. She is waiting for the oil money to trickle down.

The government “speaks very big,” she said, “but in terms of our daily activities, I don’t see anything. You can go to school, get a qualification, but it’s not enough. We’re still struggling for jobs.”

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Great one:

Same for cocoa research, same for palm oil research, same for forestry, same for all of them.

We call it the syndrome of a bureaucratic elite. Whether it is in the creation of states or local government or of a state university, always connect all these institutions to a bureaucratic elite who sees those institutions as avenues for job creation, maintenance of modernity, and the reproduction of status.

Until you revamp the ideology, you can multiply the examples, but the system won’t change. Even the debates here is about its sanitization—corruption minimization since there is no such thing as corruption elimination in that context--, and not even the serious conflicts that will crush the ideology itself.

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)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

 

Photo

Street salesmen in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The country is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

TEMA, Ghana — As recently as the 1980s, the West African nation of Ghana was in crisis, crippled by hunger after a series of military coups. But it has held peaceful elections since 1992, and its economic outlook turned considerably brighter about a decade ago, with the discovery of major offshore oil deposits.

Now, as oil prices rise again and the country’s oil production rapidly expands, Ghana is on track to make a remarkable claim for a country mired in poverty not long ago: It is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year, according to the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Brookings Institution.

Its projected growth in 2018, between 8.3 and 8.9 percent, might outpace even India, with its booming tech sector, and Ethiopia, which over the last decade has been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies thanks to expanding agricultural production and coffee exports.

According to the I.M.F.’s projections, only Bhutan, with a minuscule economy, and Libya, whose war-ravaged economy plunged in recent years, may have a higher rate of growth this year.

In January, Ghana’s benchmark stock index achieved the world’s highest rate of growth, 19 percent, according to Bloomberg.

Continue reading the main story

ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story

And oil is not the only resource helping to drive Ghana’s economy. Cocoa is Ghana’s other natural bounty, and producers are piggybacking on the oil boom.

Edmund Poku, the managing director of Niche Cocoa, said his processing factory in Tema, an industrial suburb of the capital, Accra, already has contracts to sell all of the powder, butter and chocolate bars it plans to make in 2018.

Photo

Laborers weighing and loading bags of cocoa beans in Akyekyere, Ghana. Cocoa sales are helping lift the country’s agriculture sector. Credit Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor, via Getty Images

“This is the first year we’ve done that,” Mr. Poku said as employees in white lab coats ducked into his office from the factory floor for the day’s marching orders.

Inside Mr. Poku’s noisy chocolate factory, crews of technicians sat behind banks of computers, operating machines that roast, grind, boil, press and blend hundreds of pounds of cocoa beans every day.

His factory embodies the goal of economists and technocrats across Africa: a local enterprise that offers hundreds of well-paid, skilled jobs and uses cutting-edge technology.

Mr. Poku has doubled his factory’s capacity in the last two years and plans to hire another 100 workers this year. He predicted other business sectors would also have the opportunity to expand.

“Once people see that the economy is growing, banks and investors will be more willing to see Ghana as a good place to make investments,” he said.

While the country is on a roll now, economists and other experts have urged Ghana to avoid the so-called resource curse that has plagued other nations that rely too heavily on the extraction of petroleum and minerals — industries often associated with graft and corruption.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was elected in late 2016 on a wave of discontent over the economy, has pledged to heed that advice, and to funnel oil revenues into education, agriculture and manufacturing, to diversify the economy.

In his recent State of the Nation address, Mr. Akufo-Addo called the agriculture industry the “backbone” of his development agenda and said that factories like Mr. Poku’s have been the “takeoff point for industrialization in most developed societies.” He said he also plans to expand incentives for cocoa processors.

Photo

Imported containers in the Tema Harbor area, outside of Accra. If the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

Cocoa sales are helping lift Ghana’s agriculture sector, which at the end of last year posted its best quarter of growth since 2010, driven by a bumper cocoa crop. Cocoa prices, along with prices for another of Ghana’s exports — gold — are rising again.

The cocoa processing industry is expanding to take advantage of an influx of raw beans, said Eric Amengor, the deputy research manager at the Ghana Cocoa Board. Applications for permits to build new factories are flooding in, he added.

But critics say that a program to set up new factories across a range of industries — one in each of Ghana’s 216 districts — has been slow to get started.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

The Interpreter Newsletter

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

Sign Up

You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

·         See Sample

·         Privacy Policy

·         Opt out or contact us anytime

Growth in industries like finance and health care has also lagged, in part because government investment has been restricted over the last few years, in order to correct for years of overspending. After an initial oil boom in 2011, an overextended public payroll and increasing debt interest payments drove the country into a deep budget deficit when oil prices fell.

But today, Ghana seems to be getting back on stable budgetary footing, analysts said.

While the long-term goal is to diversify the economy, the main reason behind all the current optimism in Ghana is still oil.

In the last 18 months, two major oil fields off Ghana’s coast have started production. In 2017, production jumped to nearly 60 million barrels, resulting in oil export revenues 124 percent above the previous year, according to central bank statistics.

In September, Ghana won an offshore boundary dispute with neighboring Ivory Coast, which is expected to clear the way for further oil exploration. Exxon Mobil signed an exploration deal with the government in January.

The boom has some experts worried.

“If you suddenly see a resource bonanza coming, there’s a tendency to spend money you don’t have, and that has been the case in the Ghana situation,” said John Page, a senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution.

Photo

Houses under construction in the neighborhood of Cantonments, in Accra. Credit Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

At the same time, Mr. Page cautioned, if the Ghanaian currency strengthens as a result of oil exports, it could place domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage to imports and lead to a slowdown in manufacturing investment.

What happens in Ghana could hold lessons for other West African countries, including Senegal, which recently announced discoveries of oil and gas off shore, and Mauritania, which has signed an exploration deal with Total, the French oil company.

While Ghana may have a shot at claiming the title of fastest-growing nation this year, it will still have to prove it can parlay its oil boom into high-quality jobs and sustainable growth.

“It’s our hope that our leaders can use these resources strategically,” said Alhassan Atta-Quayson, an economist at the University of Education in Winneba, in Ghana’s western coastal region, not far from the offshore oil wells. “So far, not much has been done. You don’t feel the effect of Ghana being an oil-producing country.”

Across the nation, many ordinary citizens feel left out of the economic expansion.

The unemployment rate, although below the average of 7.4 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, increased from 4 percent in 2011 to 5.8 percent last year, according to the World Bank. Among youth, the rate is as high as 11.5 percent.

On the streets of Accra — where the population has increased by nearly one million in the last decade, to 2.7 million, as people pour in from the countryside in search of work — optimism can be hard to detect.

Kekeli Aryeetey graduated from Pentecost University College in Accra several years ago with a degree in finance. She was laid off from a microfinance firm, and then from a travel agency, before deciding to open a shop selling bulk rice and palm oil.

As a student, she imagined her future in an air-conditioned office with a decent salary and annual vacations. Her income now is about $67 per month, below the national average of $115. She is waiting for the oil money to trickle down.

The government “speaks very big,” she said, “but in terms of our daily activities, I don’t see anything. You can go to school, get a qualification, but it’s not enough. We’re still struggling for jobs.”

 

 

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Dear Obododinmma,

Why are you personalising this matter.  Leave this messenger and focus on his message.  I know those who give sex for marks.  I know that many give bribes for marks too.  I know people who brandish degrees and have not stepped in a classroom once!

Your denial is equally beating the death knell of our universities!  Change begins with the acceptance that change is needed.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622)
ibk...@gmail.com

On 12 March 2018 at 04:49, Obododimma Oha <obod...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, Moses, how does one begin to deny what has been asserted by a union leader who is aggrieved over a compensation paid to another professional? He has his eyes on money, envious of that other professional's compensation. Let him assess his own service and how he has been contributing to the growth of the university system in Nigeria. Or, rather to its death through his attitude to work and public statements, like the type he made about the corrupt tendencies of lecturers in Nigeria.

Oh, I should be thinking of changing my 1978 model of Volvo 244 GL,taking another wife and an ozo title with the fat compensation I was paid!

-- Obododimma.

On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:41 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, no be talk am o. The SSANU official may be a bit melodramatic and may be exaggerating a bit, but what he says is common knowledge, unfortunately. I know one scandalous case involving an international funding agency. I've heard of others. The corruption in the Nigerian university system has many faces. The SSANU man may be motivated by the grievances of his non-academic staff members but he speaks the truth. I personally know people who confessed to never having been in a classroom or doing an assignment or writing an examination after enrolling in an undergraduate program but through the giving of enormous bribes to lecturers were able to graduate. One that I know of in fact lived in a different city Nigerian city with her husband and children and simply sent money to take care of the lecturers.

Now, let the denial, deflection, and qualifications begin.

University lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses, drink beer – Ugwoke, labour leader ON MARCH 11, 20187:33 AMIN EDUCATION, NEWS51 COMMENTS …Says prostitutes from Italy bribe to graduate with second class upper By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja 

Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugwoke, National President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has accused those saddled with the administration of universities of gradually killing education through corruption. Labour He claimed that female students abandon their studies to do prostitution abroad, especially in Italy, but end up graduating, sometimes, with second class upper degree because they bribe lecturers with lorry loads of cement when they come back. Besides, the SSANU National President, who is the Chairman of Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Educational Institutions, NASU, and the SSANU, said some university lecturers use research grant to buy big cars, build houses and drink beer, while little or nothing is done on research. This, he said, was the reason for the mega rally university non-teaching staff had that took them to the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Assembly where they called for investigation into university administration across the country. Ngokwe told Sunday Vanguard, “The mega rally is to sensitize the public about the plight of the university system as some people are gradually killing education through corruption in Nigeria. They don’t want any probe. We have asked government to set up Visitation Panels to all the universities that are overdue, let them study what is happening in the universities and unravel the corruption taking place because they are collecting IGR and they account to nobody. “We are not even talking about sex for marks, abuse of young girls and money for marks; when some graduating students make 2:1, some of them are not even in the country, some of them are doing prostitution in Italy but they are getting 2:1. “When she comes back and sends a lorry load of bags of cement to the lecturer, she will be awarded ‘A’ in his course. So many unwholesome things are happening in the system. “Let them investigate the research allowances they get which they are using to buy big cars and building houses and a lot of other works are finished at the beer parlour. By 3 o’clock they are already drinking till 11pm, that is where they do the research. “These are things we know and nobody is talking. They are at the staff club drinking beer till 10, 11 pm. Is that where they do the research? Let government investigate the research allowances that are given out in the universities”. The union leader pleaded with the National Assembly to wade into corruption in the university system so as to make the place a proper place for education.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/university-lecturers-use-research-grant-buy-big-cars-build-houses-drink-beer-ugwoke-labour-leader/

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
              +234 8033331330;
              +234 9033333555;
              +234 8022208008;
              +234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[O O]

Correcting MY Mistake in My Earlier Post


> On Mar 15, 2018, at 11:19 AM, 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> To state my point in an Amos Tutuola-like manner, our professional politicians and OUR professional ACADEMICIANS drink from the same well.

[Shola Adenekan]

Hear, hear, IBK!

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Amen, IBK, amen. Coming from you maybe they'll be more receptive to the message. The evidence is overwhelming, the stories too many. When we talk they'll say we're generalizing or overgeneralizing. They want us to say, "eh a few people, a tiny, insignificant group of "bad egg" lecturers is guilty and the overwhelming majority of lecturers are ethical, but, first of all, that would be egregiously mendacious, and second of all, even if it were true, a few bad eggs are a few too many when we're talking about educating our young ones and preparing them for the challenges of the future.

[Ibigbolade Aderibigbe]

Thank you Prof.

Your statement captures it all. For me, the issue of generalization is my key departing point for those who construct these criticisms. On this particular issue, by my experiences in both divides, ( the Nigerian system for over two decades and  the United States for over a decade), I must submit that the very source of the charge against the lecturers is at best suspect. Over and above that is to ask what percentage of lectures in the Nigerian Universities actually benefit from the said research funds to warrant the unrestricted generalized headline of putting all Nigerian lectures in a box- Very Unfortunate

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Professor Dasylva,

Thank you for telling us your rich story of standing firm with integrity against the rot. However, it should be obvious that when we advance these criticisms we are not accusing every Nigerian university lecturer of being unethical or fraudulent. I have met you. I do not think that of you. I have lecturer friends in Nigeria, for goodness sake. Some of them are like brothers to me. I have collaborated with them. How can I collaborate with people if I consider them fraudulent or unethical. I've always said I generalize on purpose for effect, because I'm not convinced that only "a few bad eggs" are fraudulent, and because I've become tired of appending increasingly meaningless and often untruthful qualifiers, modifiers, and caveats to signal and indicate degree. If people take umbrage for something I've declared and explained upfront, is that my problem?

The crux of the matter for me though is that:

1) I am not convinced that enough is being done on abuses. Far too many lecturers get off or only get the proverbial slap on the wrist. These are not victimless crimes, so appropriate punishment and justice should be imposed.

2. In most institutions, students have no protections, no advocates, and no recourse. Even where a recourse exists on paper, it is merely perfunctory and there are unwritten codes meant to frustrate and punish students who come forward to report abuses.

2) In many institutions, fraud is the modus operandi, the very method of getting things done. In these institutions, many if not most lecturers and staff have to be involved in the rackets for certain kinds of sophisticated abuses across departments and schools to occur. The case of people people obtaining degrees without stepping foot in the classroom for instance requires an elaborate infrastructure of fraud that transcends the sinister impulses of a few bad eggs.

3) While there are lecturers such as yourself who are willing and courageous enough to take the fight to the fraudsters, sexual harassers, rapists, and unethical lecturers, far too many lecturers are docile and even enable the culture of fraud by doing nothing and/or working to exculpate or prevent guilty colleagues from being punished. Without punishment there can be no deterrence. And if you're an enabler, you're indirectly complicit in the crimes we're talking about.

4) Relatedly, there is no critical mass of innocent lecturers who want to reclaim the integrity of the Nigerian academy. Until this critical mass emerges, the fraudulent lecturers will continue to perpetrate their acts, shortchange our young ones, and destroy our higher education system. 

5) There could be several reasons for the absence of a critical mass of honest lecturers who will hold their fraudulent colleagues accountable. Over the years of discussing this issue online and in person with Nigerian lecturers I've encountered several reasons. We're told that people are afraid for their lives, that the fraudulent colleagues are often powerful and well connected and could harm careers, and that to challenge wrongdoers is sometimes to expose oneself to wrath of their godfathers in university administration or even the political realm, etc etc. I find these reasons unconvincing, even though I acknowledge their validity in certain cases. For me the most compelling explanation I've heard, and it is a very novel and refreshingly honest one, is the one proffered by Bolaji Aluko. Bolaji's idea of mass mutual blackmail makes a ton of sense and explains why evil persists in the Nigerian academy while innocent lecturers look away or even become enablers. These lecturers may not be guilty of the abuses and crimes we've outlined, but as Bolaji said they too may have committed other infractions for which fraudulent colleagues and non-academic staff could blackmail them if they insist on justice and punishment for guilty interlocutors.

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

[DOYIN AGUORU]

My point exactly. 

There are so many absolute statements being made here  without concrete evidence.

This is my 21st year as an academic in Nigeria. Add that to having obtained  four degrees  from three ,very respectable,  Federal universities in Nigeria.

I have seen a bit, if not a lot: the excellent, the  good, the bad and the ugly. 

There are  several unpainted scenarios, for example, students wanting 'things' the easy way and running  into trouble and or getting bitter and cooking up stories ...  that is yet to be painted or accounted for among the sources of the vices listed here .

 

I will not hold brief for the group of actors:  the critics and the criticised, the victims and the victimised, or the particular fellow who initiated this conversation , the fellow who really thinks granting agencies are misguided in making their resources available to Nigerian Scholars (whose government continue to let down in several ways). 

I, however, totally disagree with postures that generalise or create absolute pictures about professionals who I insist are made up of the excellent, the good, the bad and the ugly- these character types, we all know are universal. 

AdeDoyin Aguoru

Department of English,

University of Ibadan.

...

[Windows Live 2018]

Thank you Prof Dasylva. With those of us who knew you from earliest times for dedication and forthrightness we are not surprised at the spirited defence of your turf and similar minded dons made of sterner stuff (indeed we would die suddenly of heart attack were we to discover you have crossed over to the other side!)  

There is no institution where there are no bad eggs but frightening off potential investors into the system on account of the marginal crooked does that system no good or portraying the system as competitively grossly inferior to its peers does no service for those striving within the system.

I attended a meeting last night in an ancillary teaching profession where legislation was put in place in view of the bent 0.001 percentile in the profession to affect and cast doubt on the overwhelming majority of professionally law abiding other members. 

 Those others legitimately complained that it was using a sledge hammer to kill a fly.  The minority cases of infraction should not have been publicized In a manner that it casts doubts in the mind of the public regarding the rest of the law abiding professionals to the extent it casts government as meddlesome.. 

I think we are in a similar situation in this thread which I have followed quietly for some time.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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

From: Ademola Dasylva <dasy...@gmail.com>

Date: 15/03/2018 21:15 (GMT+00:00)

To: Segun Ogungbemi <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>, toyin....@mail.utexas.edu

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use ResearchGrant  to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

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

Ademola O. Dasylva,PhD
Professor of African Literature, Oral Poetics & Performance;
Coordinator, Ibadan Cultural Studies Group;
Board Chairman & Convener, TOFAC (International);

Rm. 68, Faculty of Arts,

& Dean, Faculty of Arts,

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria..

---

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit

...

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

IBK:

My first shock in 2011 was  in Yenagoa, when I went to open a bank account... I will spare the bank's name.  The Relations Officer, an Igbo lady, was excited to see my name and to learn that I was from Ekiti.  "I am a graduate of UNAD!   About six years ago.  I know Ado- Ekiti well! " she said.  As we got talking, she asked "Do you know Dr  X?"  No, I said, but I had heard he was a troublemaker. (more below)  "Hmmm,... That man... He used to trade in admissions and just award grades... And everybody in the university, including the VC feared him..."  Really?... As we continued, she revealed "I went to UNAD classes for only one year - but after the first year, I only went to take exams!"  How and why, I asked,?  "Well, the first year when I was admitted, I quit my job in Lagos and moved to campus to study, but I noticed that my other girlfriends who we got admission together did not quit, and hardly came to classes, but at the end of the first year passed  while I was struggling. So when I asked, they told me how they did it.. People would take notes for them,.... And stuff.  I passed  but have since done some banking certification! "

I just shook my head.... That was an instance in the state university of my state. 

Well, about a year or so before this incident, when Fayemi became Governor of Ekiti,  I had sat on the committee that reviewed Tertiary institutions in the state.  When the VC of UNAD came to give his status report, one of the highlights was he was the first VC to get that Dr. X DISMISSED from the University! 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

PS:  Dr. X is a top politician in Ekiti State today.....his name episodically shows  up big in Ekiti matters. 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

I'm sorry Dr. Aguoru, but your post is exhibit A of the denialism, defensiveness, and defiant escapism that prevent us from reaching a consensus on the many ills of the Nigerian university system. So the new claim is that students are making stories up because they couldn't get what they want. Wow!! So, the many female students raped yearly by Nigerian lecturers are making their stories/accusations up (Bolaji is right that Nigerian female lecturers are very apathetic to female student victims of sexual harassment). By the way, have you seen videos on youtube of lecturers getting get red handed promising sex for marks or attempting to rape their students? So the stories I verified, including one in which I was an external examiner and which can be confirmed by a member of this forum that I named, are made up. The story of two acquaintances who boasted about how they lived and continued their family life in one city and never stepped foot in a university in another city they were enrolled in and yet graduated with 2:1--those stories too are made up. 

Wow, I give up. It is your system. If you think nothing is wrong with it and that it merely reflects a universal picture of "excellent, good, bad, and ugly" then enjoy it. However, as long as I have a stake in Nigeria and in the lives of her youth, I will never stop fighting against the evils perpetrated by lecturers who have absolutely no business being in the academy.

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

 

The scandal raised by SSANU through their leader is another challenge for academia. We have been through this circle severally on this forum especially when ASUU goes on strike. The problem with this sort of public statement from the leadership of SSANU, however, is that it cannot be ignored. It is, therefore, always a problem for some of us even if some others believe it can be dismissed under the tag of “bad belle”. In societies where such occurrence is rare it makes sense to simply institute legal proceedings against the person who made such declaration. I will be damned if there is one academic on this forum based in Nigeria (or who is Nigerian) that will claim that such accusations are completely non-existent. Yet, many are quick to use the same argument of “it’s a few bag eggs”. This argument no longer works. It is increasingly the case that there are actually “a few good eggs”.

 

With this background, Moses’ strong and consistent position this and issues like this can only be commended. I think it requires considerable courage to make some of the points he makes with the power he puts behind it. Colleagues such as Obododimma Oha and Ademola Dasylva and others are well known for their good conduct, exemplary character and integrity but the point being made is that this is not all that we need. The personal examples revealed by Ademola Dasylva are impressive yet even he will concede people who operate at that level are completely insignificant. Therefore, I consider it diversionary when Toyin Adepoju seems to suggest Moses made a personal attack on Ademola Dasylva. I don’t think so and would be surprised if Ademola does. What percentage of colleagues stood up to support him when he took up these fights which our moderator confirms could have resulted in fatality? If only 50 percent would do what he did regularly then we would not be having this discussion at all.

 

The question is how we make the few to become the many. Everyone who does nothing is therefore complicit in this matter. We cannot continue to hope the problems will go away. Successful disciplinary cases are too few and far between. The culture of begging when people err is too widespread. The view that we can beg our way out of every offence or situation is almost embedded in the system. Those who join in pleading for an offender and those who keep silent are complicit. Therefore, the problem has become a monster because each time an offender gets away with it they are emboldened, and others learn to tow the same line knowing they will get away with it. If we add the percentage of active offenders to passive supporters through being complicit we get a large total percentage and that really is the problem.

 

If colleagues continue to deny this problem. If they continue to get angry that somebody is making the claim. And if they continue to say it is being promoted by those in diaspora then this problem will never begin the journey towards its minimisation nay elimination.

 

It took a lot of strong will on my part not to cite more shocking examples like Moses did. And like Bolaji Aluko and IBK pointed out it has been around for a while, only getting completely out of hand. The same impunity in our political life has enveloped academia. Only Adedoyin Aguoru expressed the sort of anger I expect when one’s university is mentioned – actively offering to do something immediately! I believe we need to work a lot more aggressively within our institutions to name and shame, so we can get rid of the monster that this problem has become.

 

 

Gbolahan Gbadamosi

 

[Windows Live 2018]

Moses:

I can understand the ploy of mutual blackmail and this is a surrogate of the IBB ploy.  It was the evil genius who perfected the system of putting the polity in such dicey state that in order to survive you need to cut corners and if you try to criticize his perpetual transition elongation in order to lighten the yoke he sends his hounds after you to ferret out your shenanigans and thereby silence you. (Which was why Aare Abiola was drafted to lead the fray  since he did not live on 2 by 2 inadequate salary.)

However in this particular instance that can be no excuse for not building that critical mass.  For those impassioned to build they must realize from the outset that their main armour is the adage: Those who seek justice at equity must come with clean hands. (Gani Fawehimi did; so does Femi Falana. So does my friend DAO)

To advance mutual blackmail is to imply the majority are implicated. I line up behind DAO and other academics of similar persuasion to repudiate that claim.

By the way I don't think you in any way want to deliberately run the system down. I have realized for a long while now that you want to fight in your truçulent style for a system in which diasporans if so desirous can opt to send their wards home for university education without constantly looking over their shoulders in fear of having sent off their most precious assets into the lion's den.  I'm sure you and I will continue  to work with the DAOs to make this dream a reality within our life time.

 It is only when diasporans are stake holders in this direct and intimate manner that they can contribute their best in shoring up the finances of these institutions with multi-lateral capital inflow thereby uplifting quality across the board. Fear must not stand between us and our ultimate goal.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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

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

Date: 16/03/2018 16:17 (GMT+00:00)

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

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use ResearchGrant  to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

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

Professor Dasylva,

Thank you for telling us your rich story of standing firm with integrity against the rot. However, it should be obvious that when we advance these criticisms we are not accusing every Nigerian university lecturer of being unethical or fraudulent. I have met you. I do not think that of you. I have lecturer friends in Nigeria, for goodness sake. Some of them are like brothers to me. I have collaborated with them. How can I collaborate with people if I consider them fraudulent or unethical. I've always said I generalize on purpose for effect, because I'm not convinced that only "a few bad eggs" are fraudulent, and because I've become tired of appending increasingly meaningless and often untruthful qualifiers, modifiers, and caveats to signal and indicate degree. If people take umbrage for something I've declared and explained upfront, is that my problem?

The crux of the matter for me though is that:

1) I am not convinced that enough is being done on abuses. Far too many lecturers get off or only get the proverbial slap on the wrist. These are not victimless crimes, so appropriate punishment and justice should be imposed.

2. In most institutions, students have no protections, no advocates, and no recourse. Even where a recourse exists on paper, it is merely perfunctory and there are unwritten codes meant to frustrate and punish students who come forward to report abuses.

2) In many institutions, fraud is the modus operandi, the very method of getting things done. In these institutions, many if not most lecturers and staff have to be involved in the rackets for certain kinds of sophisticated abuses across departments and schools to occur. The case of people people obtaining degrees without stepping foot in the classroom for instance requires an elaborate infrastructure of fraud that transcends the sinister impulses of a few bad eggs.

3) While there are lecturers such as yourself who are willing and courageous enough to take the fight to the fraudsters, sexual harassers, rapists, and unethical lecturers, far too many lecturers are docile and even enable the culture of fraud by doing nothing and/or working to exculpate or prevent guilty colleagues from being punished. Without punishment there can be no deterrence. And if you're an enabler, you're indirectly complicit in the crimes we're talking about.

4) Relatedly, there is no critical mass of innocent lecturers who want to reclaim the integrity of the Nigerian academy. Until this critical mass emerges, the fraudulent lecturers will continue to perpetrate their acts, shortchange our young ones, and destroy our higher education system. 

5) There could be several reasons for the absence of a critical mass of honest lecturers who will hold their fraudulent colleagues accountable. Over the years of discussing this issue online and in person with Nigerian lecturers I've encountered several reasons. We're told that people are afraid for their lives, that the fraudulent colleagues are often powerful and well connected and could harm careers, and that to challenge wrongdoers is sometimes to expose oneself to wrath of their godfathers in university administration or even the political realm, etc etc. I find these reasons unconvincing, even though I acknowledge their validity in certain cases. For me the most compelling explanation I've heard, and it is a very novel and refreshingly honest one, is the one proffered by Bolaji Aluko. Bolaji's idea of mass mutual blackmail makes a ton of sense and explains why evil persists in the Nigerian academy while innocent lecturers look away or even become enablers. These lecturers may not be guilty of the abuses and crimes we've outlined, but as Bolaji said they too may have committed other infractions for which fraudulent colleagues and non-academic staff could blackmail them if they insist on justice and punishment for guilty interlocutors.

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Windows Live 2018]

Well said.  Where do we begin? A diasporan- home task force to hammer out modalities?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Sir:

Let me break things down, in my role as only getting involved to advance the debate:

1. A culture of practices and behavior, which some, including you, allude to. In this culture of behavior, good actions of individuals may not overwhelm the culture of behavior.
2. The bad people are so bad that the good have no impact.

 

Strategies:

1. How do we change the systemic?
2. How do we protect the good people who serve as vanguards? All prophets, including Jesus Christ, dealt with this issue.
3.  

Tactics

As we expose the culture and bad people, how do we not alienate the good? If you were to say that Nigerians in Texas are fraudulent, and I don’t see myself as fraudulent, how then do you want me not to feel if you include me among them? If someone were to call Moses a 419 because Nigerians do 419, I will not proceed with the conversation or have anything to do with that person.

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)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

 

--

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[DOYIN AGUORU]

Dear Prof Ochonu, 

I have  responded to your post in colour and numbered  mine  1-7.

I'm sorry Dr. Aguoru, but your post is exhibit A of the denialism, defensiveness, and defiant escapism that prevent us from reaching a consensus on the many ills of the Nigerian university system. 

1, That is your opinion and I think you are free to express it. 

I have my opinion about your absolute statements and generalisations which I have freely expressed. 

So the new claim is that students are making stories up because they couldn't get what they want. 

2,Again, I think that is your opinion. I  not making a new claim but drawing your attention to the fact that the narratives of students who seek easy ways of acquiring grades or degrees they have not earned nor worked for exists but is not included in your observations and claims. I do  not disagree with any of your claims but yours do not make any of my observations untrue. 

From undergraduate programmes to professional and  doctoral programmes  one finds students who are willing to cheat and circumvent procedures if they have  or are given opportunity to do so.That, of course, is why the class of academics you refer to as well as  the other class of  non- academic staff take advantage of their unwillingness to do things right. 

This is also the reason these villains attempt to make it a practice and will, really in most cases, take advantage of  persons who are gullible or unfortunately  not knowledgeable  about processes and procedures in the university system. 

Wow!! So, the many female students raped yearly by Nigerian lecturers are making their stories/accusations up (Bolaji is right that Nigerian female lecturers are very apathetic to female student victims of sexual harassment). 

3,This is also your opinion which as I have earlier stated you are free to have or hold.

As I have said, I am not going to narrate my interventions or lack of it on this platform because it is not before us. I am , however, aware of several interventions by individual women and academic units , for instance in the University  of Ibadan ... the Gender mainstream office intervenes  on such matters. 

I dare say  disregarding such interventions is another example of those generalisations. 

By the way, have you seen videos on youtube of lecturers getting get red handed promising sex for marks or attempting to rape their students? So the stories I verified, including one in which I was an external examiner and which can be confirmed by a member of this forum that I named, are made up. The story of two acquaintances who boasted about how they lived and continued their family life in one city and never stepped foot in a university in another city they were enrolled in and yet graduated with 2:1--those stories too are made up. 

4,I also want to reiterate that I have not once implied that any story is made up by you or by any one for that matter... I have seen/ heard menfolk take undue advantage of women and those in power abuse their office... but the point is still that you really are limiting your  audience to a single side of the story.

Wow, I give up. It is your system. If you think nothing is wrong with it and that it merely reflects a universal picture of "excellent, good, bad, and ugly" then enjoy it. 

5, If  I know you a bit, I can take a bet that, you have not and do not plan or intend to give up. The next statement in your following sentence confirms this. 

I am a part of the system. I boldly say  'not  I only' , several other persons labour hard to ensure  that the forms of  corruption and bad leadership that has eaten deep into the  fiber of the Nigerian society does not take over the University system and over two decades of my life has gone into doing that. 

I think your absolute statements  make  nothing of those efforts and the tremendous impact it has had and it is having on tertiary education in Nigeria. I also insist that that side of the story must be captured to put things in proper perspective. 

However, as long as I have a stake in Nigeria and in the lives of her youth, I will never stop fighting against the evils perpetrated by lecturers who have absolutely no business being in the academy.

6,Without doubt , there are  persons who have absolutely no business being in the academy in Nigeria  and that, I again say, is not limited to Nigeria.It also  does not mean that several of such persons have not migrated to other countries and act as if they have had a change of intellectual capabilities or laundered morality or character  simply because they have escaped from the shores of Nigeria. 

The real difference is made because systems abroad do not permit  such  corrupt practices and punishable offences are rarely treated with the proverbial 'slap on the back of the hand' . It is because of such villains that  unscrupulous fellows get admitted into the universities and can  stay away and still earn degrees whether good or bad.

Truth is, bad leadership and corrupt national  practices reproduces in every  facet of a nation. All the same  principles  never fail,where the value system  is right  or where even a few persons continue to push for what is right. 

7,I am  still interested  in investigating the claims made about the postgraduate program of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ibadan. 

I am certain that the Disciplinary Committees in place will take this up promptly and the Postgraduate Committee of the Faculty and  the Postgraduate School will come to the rescue of the oppressed candidates and ensure they are awarded the degrees they have earned.

I must add that my department  has one of the biggest postgraduate programs in the  discipline in Nigeria and I have interacted closely with candidates in the department in the last few years. 

I have in person  observed the actors;  the excellent, the good, the bad and the ugly.  

AdeDoyin Aguoru,

[Obododimma Oha]

USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use Research Grant to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

M

Moses Ebe Ochonu

Well, no be talk am o. The SSANU official may be a bit melodramatic and may be exaggerating a bit, but what he says is common knowledge, unfortunat...

Show 58 read messages

Obododimma Oha

to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
5 minutes ago

Details

Surprised that you read a denial in my response! How and why should I deny what is mere general allegation full of fallacies? Why should I admit/accept what is inadmissibleaccept/unacceptable, especially when there is proof that the so-called (bad) messenger is speaking from a rotten pit of bias, like a quarrelsome kid trying to spread the fight...?

Abeg, assess your messengers! For you to know how to consume what you read or hear. To gormandize discourse properly.

Ah, where has Critical Thinking gone, after taking a plate of peppersoup at a Nigerian joint?

-- Obododimma.

[Obododimma Oha]

Surprised that you read a denial in my response! How and why should I deny what is mere general allegation full of fallacies? Why should I admit/accept what is inadmissibleaccept/unacceptable, especially when there is proof that the so-called (bad) messenger is speaking from a rotten pit of bias, like a quarrelsome kid trying to spread the fight...?

Abeg, assess your messengers! For you to know how to consume what you read or hear. To gormandize discourse propery.

Ah, where has Critical Thinking gone, after taking a plate of peppersoup at a Nigerian joint?

--- Obododimma.

On Friday, March 16, 2018, Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

Aside from the fear of physical harm, the blackmail may not even be because you have done something wrong.  Just the fear of embarrassment that you could be lied against via a wild written petition to high quarters has a chilling effect on doing the right thing of either reporting or punishing wrong doing.  

In Nigeria, you are guilty even after being proven or "proven" innocent when accused of financial matters, because there ls an underlying  belief that you used that very money that  you allegedly  stole to buy your innocence! 

At Otuoke, in 2013 or 2014, a Bursary staff took money fraudulently from three students who had paid their school fees late on the promise that he would slip their fees through.  But he never paid them into the school coffers, and he never told that tovthe students.  So when exam time came four months later and fee payments were being checked, the three students were refused accreditation to sit exams, and they were shocked, showing clear proof of giving money to the Bursary official. He quickly confessed, and started to beg, saying he would pay the money in.  The Registrar and I insisted that he must be suspended with half pay pending further investigation, which later resolved to dismiss him.  After first threatening that he had a powerful godfather, he started to beg further, to our deaf ears.  

After two months or so, later, after the suspension,  the Bursar and I got a letter from "higher authority" HA  in Abuja, saying a long petition of financial infractions had been received against us!   From the nature of the contents, it could only have been written by a Bursary insider,  framed in such a manner that legal things looked illegal.  When we asked for the identity of the petitioner, we were told those are never disclosed.  We were also told however  that the HA had gone to confirm the address on the petitioner  but it was non-existent, but their rules were to investigate all petitions, even if they don't physically know who the petitioner is! 

We responded to all the allegations - and I have not heard back from the HA for five years now - but the incident does send a chilling effect showing  the length people would go in retaliation.  

That is why you will some times hear "Eh, just leave him alone!  He may send someone after you... He may lie against you..... He will " meet his own"  in future (translating a common Yoruba saying) ... God will punish his deeds, not you... "

And there you have it.....all this in a new University! 

Bolaji Aluko 

PS:  One lesson that I learnt in Nigeria was not to subject infractions ONLY to internal university discipline if it involved criminal behavior.  Report the incident IMMEDISTELY  to the Police to handle.  So if a student or staff is accused of rape or theft or destruction of property, make a police report while also giving it internal probe. I warned all students about that during Matriculation addresses  

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Moses,

I think what your critics are saying  generally is that you are not objective enough in your criticism. I have been in Nigerian education system since 1985 with the determination to contribute to the quality of teaching and training of both undergraduate and postgraduate students in several universities in Nigeria and Kenya. Given the nature of human beings, it is not possible to have absolute moral beings. That is to say, you cannot find all lecturers to be moral.

Yes, there are a few bad eggs among these lecturers who are corrupt but you cannot use them to condemn and ridicule those who have remained behind to raise the standard of our universities. 

Nigerian university Lecturers and Professors work under a very substandard condition with poor pay. Of recent, University teachers are owed salaries of five or six months. Is it not a way of devaluing  academic currency?  In the US where I had taught for a couple of years,  it never happened. 

What we need to do is to encourage those of them who are interested to attend conferences and workshops,  which TF has been doing over the years. Some of them could even be assisted to teach for nine months or possibly assist them to get some research grants in the US or Europe. When they see how things are being done outside Nigeria, it will probably have positive effect  in their approach to teaching and research.  

More importantly, Moses the way you addressed Prof. Daslyva, a very senior colleague and Dean of Faculty of Arts at UI is unacceptable. Secondly, those of us who are close to TF appreciate his contributions to human capacity building in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. I am not aware of those who worship him but if people do, it means he deserves it. And it is probably because his  attitude and character are magnetic of veneration and worship. I believe you can emulate him as well. You can use your position and influence to empower your colleagues wherever they are.   

Finally, Moses please control your temperament in your contribution to knowledge. 

I wish you good luck. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi. 

Sent from my iPhone 

On Mar 15, 2018, at 4:53 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Shola,

You're the one with the energy to work off on "suffer head" people who would rather raise non sequiturs and attack me than face the issues plaguing the higher education sector in Nigeria. It's clear that they're more angry at me for broadcasting the problems and their complicity in it than they are at the problems. And, of course, you should know by now that all these reactionary attacks are water off my shoulders. I've been on this cause for a decade or more now. The usual suspects have thrown the kitchen sink at me to try to shut me up. It didn't work in the past. Why do you think it will work now that I have even more damning evidence of the rot?

Professor Falola, I'm indeed amused. Tell them to reach out to me directly. My email is here. I'll even give them my phone number for a chat. No need for them to cowardly and gossiply (is that a word?) seek you out about my use of words. I'm coming to your conference in Austin later this month, so please connect me to these people so they can hear from me directly and so they can tell me to my face what they want you to say to me. Yeye dey boom.

On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 9:13 AM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

My people:

 

1. All societies have insiders who understand everything that outsiders say. Alas! There is nothing we say that our brothers and sisters in Nigeria don’t know and say!
2. All societies, from time immemorial, don’t want outsiders to say the same thing that insiders say, as if they are wiser than them! The Ijebu like parties, and the bigger they are the more the merrier but they don’t want an Ibadan man to say so. The Ibadan are wasteful and funny, as you can see the jokes about them on Whatsapp on a weekly basis. As an Ibadan man, I know that I am not supposed to laugh!!!
3. All societies care about what you do, not what you say. Families, friends, kins, villages want you to do something. If you don’t do something, what we say tend to be treated as hostilities. At Ibadan the chiefs and kings have thanked me for writing books but they say “Oloye, come home to create jobs, we don’t want to read those long books anymore!”
4. Words are important, and the ability to master their nuances in societies that are organized along patriarchal lines are important. Moses will be amused if I were to tell him how many call me or speak to him to figure out the use of his words and I will say “I am not his father!”

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)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

 

From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of bolaji aluko <alu...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 9:02 AM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use Research Grant to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

 

 

Shola Adenekan:

 

Not everyone is attacking Moses - certainly I am not, even though I strive to give some nuance to his denunciation.  Those who are criticizing him for whatever reason - mainly because of his generalizing stridency, which he confesses he does for good reason -  have the right to do so, and Moses is responding accordingly.  Academicians, many of who are on this forum, have a penchant for debate, and sometimes truculent debate.

 

I grew up in a university home - my father a professor, my mother a senior administrator -  and some of what are reported to be going on now were ALSO going on then, even though to a much lesser degree.  Military incidence, tough economic times and just general moral decay have seeped into all sectors of Nigerian society, and the universities have not been immuned.

 

But please, despite all, Nigerian academicians are far better than politicians, far far better.  At least, that is my experience.

 

And there you have it.

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

 

 

On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 12:40 PM, Shola Adenekan <sholaa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Moderator,

 

Every time Moses or any concerned person raise the issue of corruption in our (Nigeria) academia, they are vehemently lambasted. This is now a common trend. I have come to the conclusion that academics are no better than the politicians they love to condemn. This is true in the context of Nigeria as well as in the context of Europe and North America. I think we need to drop this pretence that we are more honest than politicians. I don't know which Nigeria people grew up in, but the story Moses told is all too familiar to me, and to those I know. 

 

Instead of actually addressing the issues that Moses raised, people are attacking the messenger without proffering a solution. Others have resorted to bringing in irrelevant subjects just to divert attention from the issue of corrupt practices in academia.

 

I don't know where Moses gets the strength from, but kudos to him for sticking to his guns. In my view, we are all the better for his candour. 

 

Ire o!

Shola

 

On 15 March 2018 at 09:49, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Being  a VC is is very big thing in Nigeria.

 

You are like a god.

 

I never knew the VC in my time at Uniben to go out of his office without moving in a car, and with an escort.

 

There is this new private university in the SW, in rich but relatively small grounds, where I am yet to see the VC move about on his own in the times I have been there, if moving about on foot, he does so in  an entourage, in a vehicle, with a vehicle entourage.

 

This contrasts with my experience in SOAS, University of London, where the VC, whom I knew bcs I had taken the pains to be informed, stood in the courtyard and no one noticed him bcs most students and perhaps even some staff did not know him.

 

The image remains indelible in my mind of the VC of University College, London, one of the most resourced and most highly regarded universities in England,whom I also knew bcs I had attended a talk he gave, where he had declared we foreign students as contributing half of the running costs of the university,  was walking to his house, alone at close of day, passing the SOAS courtyard, where, of course, no one paid him any attention, being unknown to them and even if he was, it would be no big deal to them, his athletic strides taking him to his house as I watched.

 

Observing that even the admissions officer of a secondary and sixth form school in England was mystified by Cambridge university admissions procedures, their selectivity operating at practically the same legendary level as that of Harvard, attracting the striking Hitler parody in which Hitler rages that even though he controls half of Europe, he cant enter Harvard, I went round the various colleges, interviewing the admissions officers, and wrote up my interviews in "Cambridge University Admissions: Empirical and Non-Empirical Assessments".

 

One of my most informative  interviewees was an engineering PhD who was admissions officer in a particular college, a man of supreme and yet down to earth pride in his institution, telling me the story of a rich father of a candidate who wanted to know what it would take financially to get his child into Cambridge, only to be told the consideration was not monetary but the combination of creativity and academic knowledge demonstrated by the student.

 

Yet, if you see this admissions officer as he moves about in Cambridge you would consider it a credible description if he is presented  to you as a jobless or a lowly paid man as described by one person I pointed him out to, on account of his markedly uncaring style of   dressing.

 

After a public lecture in Cambridge, an elderly man walked up to me  to express appreciation of an observation I had made during the lecture. 'I have also written a book on the subject' he said. Oh, a pensioner who writes in his spare time and has been able to bring out a book, I concluded, noting the polythene bag he was carrying and his extremely casual and not particularly smart clothes, although also observing what I saw as the incongruity between his appearance and the kind of respect he was being given by passing younger people  who were very smartly dressed. 'Why not come for lunch with me at King's College?", he suggested to me as he rode away on his bicycle.

 

On going for that lunch, I discovered  he was one of the foremost professors of the university and that book he referenced was a major publication by Harvard University Press, a story I narrated in 'The White Haired Man with the Polythene Bag'. 

 

Nigerians dont take the VCship thing lightly at all. An ethnically centred struggle for the University of Benin VCship some years ago, in which the Benin indigenes insisted their own indigene must become VC, their ethnicity not having had any VC in all  the years since the university's founding, saw Benin advocates of this vision depositing the invocation paraphernalia of the fearsome Ayelala deity, a deity created centuries ago through a human sacrifice, if I recall correctly,  at the main gate of the university in pursuit of their vision. Even the state governor and the Oba, if I recall correctly, weighed in in support of the ethnic vision.

 

After the Benin people got their VC, the bursar who seemed to have a conflict with the VC once met another juju concoction on her doorstep. 

 

I recall the brutal fight, mobilising students and academic staff, to remove Alele-Williams as VC of Uniben,   in order to install her deputy VC in her place as it later turned out, Alele-Williams being a woman who had been brought there as VC bcs of a deadlock in the struggle for the VCship created by  infighting among the  professors, as I had been told. As a junior lecturer, I was mesmerized by the speeches loyalists of the DVC made in ASUU meetings, but till today, more than a decade later, I cant recall what exactly she was was supposed to have done to warrant such intense attack. What I recall is one professor castigating  as 'juju sculptures' the superb sculptures she commissioned and which lead from the main gate into the university in a majestic procession. 

 

I suspect that in a world in which most people do not have ready access to such basics of modern life as tap borne water in their homes, and no stable electricity, these struggles for VCship are partly struggles for access to resources, as Aluko has described, and in an environment with a challenged research culture, becoming a VC could be seen by many as the pinnacle of an academic career. 

 

The heroic image of the scholar has dwindled significantly in the Nigerian university. Since the problems of the 70s and 80s, I wonder to what degree is replicated with contemporary scholars in Nigeria the days of famous scholars, famous for scholarship, and, at times, for institutional leadership, from Kenneth Dike to Claude Ake to Bala Usman to Biodun Jeyifo. I have encountered some names that resonate beyond their universities, but not particularly loudly.

 

With the professorship in Nigeria a ceiling beyond which, to the best of my knowledge,  there is nothing to aspire to beyond managerial positions, there is a need to re-conceptualize and re-incentivise the professorship in terms of academic leadership as demonstrated by the development of novel ideas,  the building of scholarly partnerships and innovative academic programs, among other possibilities, as well as the creation of forms of recognition of such accomplishments, ideally accompanied by economic value that will make a real impact in the life of the professor.

 

Would this be possible without a strong academic publishing industry? How would these novel ideas be disseminated?

 

The humanities or social sciences professor, in its original formulation in the German university, as the PhD and the concept of a research university are also German formalizations in the history of Western academia, according to one view, is a person who 'professes' a vision of the world through the lens of their discipline or a confluence of disciplines. Correlative to this is a radical view of science  presented by entomologist- scholar of ants- Edmund Wilson, who declares in his autobiography that the significance of a scientist's achievement is assessable in terms of how the following sentence is completed-  ''He/she[ the scientist] invented or discovered........"

 

A central value I observed in the Toyin Falola@65 conference being held in Nigeria in the midst of the intense pageantry congregating academia, royalty and government, is the demonstration of such recognition purely for academic achievement, no connection with business, politics or even university administration. It was glorious.

 

Central to that achievement. however, is the mountainous book publication record of the person being celebrated. Ali Mazrui did not write as many books, but he was famous on account of the impact of those books and his essays and his controversial documentary  Africa: The Triple Heritage. Alexis Sanderson, Oxford professor of Hinduism, has published no book that I know of, but even a layperson like myself can guess why he is a professor in a book centred academic culture, on account of the fantastic detail of those essays and their groundbreaking character in relation to  the subjects they address.

 

We need a powerful journal and book culture in Nigeria if we are to build a robust academic culture.

 

thanks

 

toyin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 15 March 2018 at 00:06, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

TF:

 

A university MUST have a VC, so somebody must do the job.  And since it is the pinnacle of administrative positions in a university, some academics will naturally aspire to become VCs, what with its prestige, its perks, its salary (double that of highest paid professor) - and its seeming power. 

 

But I would sit my enemies and friends down  - particularly my friends, I might skip my enemies, to punish them more  -  to tell them what they would face as VCs of public institutions in  Nigeria.   VCship of private universities is only marginally better - a cousin of mine  was such a VC, and he quit midway! 

 

You have to fight not to be a glorified Principal, as you are asked to address mundane things that are way below what your intellect should be addressing.  You can be addressing gardeners at 8 am, have a Management meeting at 10 am, be in Senate from 12 to 3 pm, be off to see the Community King and his Chiefs at 6 pm, and have dinner with a Nobel Laureate at 8 pm.  By midnight, your brain is in a funk. 

 

And the following day, only one of a dozen planned meetings will you have, because you have been summoned to Abuja - or the state capital - the following day - for a mandatory 9 am meeting, with documents requested.  

 

Haba! 

 

And at Otuoke, I was lucky to have no Student or Staff Unions for 58 out of the 60 months there!  Imagine otherwise.... 

 

And there you have it! 

 

 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Wednesday, March 14, 2018, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

My People:

If the students will harass you on Sunday, the teachers’ union on Monday, the junior staff on Tuesday, the chiefs and kings of the area on Wednesday, the unqualified looking for jobs on Thursday, the Muslims on Friday, and Moses Ochonu on Saturday why in the world would anyone want to be a VC?

Who is then left to reform a system in an atmosphere of distrust?

TF

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 14, 2018, at 5:18 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Okey Iheduru:

 

The Yoruba say that a goat that goes to Mecca during Ileya festival and comes back without being "eaten" must thank God........That is what serving Nigeria near the top in an executive position, particularly from the Diaspora,  makes you feel:  like a goat that strayed to Mecca!

 

Okey, I do not know which of one hundred "Auditors from Abuja" that you saved me from "some time in 2013", but let me thank you for that!  And when I thank God for sparing me from all sorts of things in my Nigerian escapade, I indirectly thank ALL of those human beings known and unknown who He used as his instruments - because God never comes down LITERALLY Himself - except when Christ came - to deliver us!

 

The University authorities are probably the most harassed institutions in Nigeria, that is why I do not understand when they say that there is financial corruption!.  And if there is, it must be due to COMPLETE CONNIVANCE of auditors.

 

Just ask any VC. 

 

There was more than once at Otuoke when "auditors" from Abuja INDEPENDENTLY descended on the University - from Tetfund, from Budget Office, and Auditor General's Office poring over our meager books  - and at the same time we were called to Abuja by the House of Rep Public Accountability Committee!.  And they all want to see the VC and the Bursar - sometimes the Registrar - and nobody else!  We also used the opportunity to report at the Federal Character Commission to submit all of our personnel information !   We had to abandon the three groups of auditors at Otuoke - asking them to rummage as much as they wanted - while we went off to Abuja to respond.

 

I often found it comical.

 

You hardly can get anything done because you are responding to one query or the other, as each auditing group tells you that it is doing "its constitutional duty."  At the end of the year, a group comes to see whether you have closed your accounts properly, and at the beginning of the following year, another group comes to see whether those who came to inspect the closing did the inspection properly. In fact, they were often also apologetic that they are troubling you - but it is their constitutional duty, they say.

 

Part of the reason why I am VERY SUPPORTIVE of the TSA (where all monies are in the Central Bank rather than in deposit banks) is that it spares VCs and Bursars the intense scrutiny of auditors who ALWAYS believe that universities HIDE monies in various bank accounts, and hence make all kinds of suggestions that they can wink and nod at those "hidden monies" if you give them a fat consideration.  I will spare you the details of some askings, or some of my responses to such attempts at blackmail.

 

And there you have it.  Once again, thank you for your "anonymous" saving action!

 

 

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

Shaking his head

 

 

 

 

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 2:58 PM, Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com> wrote:

"... You misbehave secretly in an official manner, but only your secretary, or your driver or your Auditor, or a contractor etc knows about.  Immediately, all of those people have some hold on you, and your ability to discipline them for infractions weaken significantly, and they even  can make demands on you. 

 

It is a systemic problem that one must always watch against, particular with Auditors firm Abuja!" -- Prof. Bolaji Aluko. 

 

 

Very well put, Prof. Aluko. You didn't know it, and I refrained from letting you know until now, but I did save you from one of those 'Auditors from Abuja' some time in 2013! Your success as Diaspora VC was paramount in my mind. :).

 

 

 

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:59 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

On the Veneration of Fellow Humans

 

Personally, I have nothing against venerating another human being. 

 

When I began my study and practice of Yoruba origin Orisa spirituality, I placed a particularly evocative picture of Wole Soyinka at the back of his powerful ritual play Death and the Kings Horseman, in my shrine, along with such quasi-esoteric paraphernalia as a tortoise shell.

 

I also hung in the shrine a traditional Nigerian shirt and placed a staff beside it, to represent my maternal grandfather, whom I understand was a great spiritual figure, in the name of identifying with him and perhaps making contact with his spirit to guide me in this journey into a spirituality akin to the one he practiced.

 

My admiring and even venerating Soyinka's embodiment of a particular cultural achievement  has not prevented me from critiquing him, as with his  politics.

 

Venerating other humans is an approach to recognizing the sublime uniqueness of creative power in its manifestation of possibilities open to all, but distinctively achieved in a remarkable way by a person,  such celebration facilitating one's actualization of the breadth of one's own potential, the individual example concretising such possibilities in a way beyond theory, faith or unactualised aspiration.

 

I responded as I did to the  divinisation claim  in this thread bcs, in its harmony with the critique presented by the writer, I saw it as not being presented in good faith.

 

thanks

 

toyin 

 

 

 

 

On 14 March 2018 at 18:21, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Oga Moses,

 

I took you up on your self righteous rudeness which you insisted on consolidating.

 

Your describing Dasylva as 'worshiping Falola like a god' is a personal and unnecessary attack.

 

You were given a chance to correct that uncivility but you chose to reinforce it instead.

 

Why not make your point without such attempts at demeaning someone else's noble efforts?

 

That's all I need to say to you for now since i have made my point sufficiently about the merits and demerits of your case.

 

toyin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 14 March 2018 at 18:06, Tingir Theophilus Terver <theob...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is true.

 

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

 

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

 

--

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Ibukunolu. A. Babajide]

Dear All,

This thread mirrors the descent of Nigeria into the chaotic abyss of deep corruption she is mired in today.

On 10 March I called a close friend who is a don at OAU. I mocked him about the VC and Bursar being ensnared by the EFCC.  His response shocked me.  He said it was the previous VC who stole and with the proceeds of theft instigated the EFCC with false allegations against the innocent VC.

He went on to say that on the day of arraignment all Faculty on a Friday went to the Court to ensure that the plan to remand in Ilesha prison over the weekend was thwarted and he was granted bail on self recognition only for the spurious charges to suffer from efficient prosecution with insufferable adjournments while the real thieves laugh and benefit from evil.

This also reminds me of the travails of Dr. Nike Grange. A great academic in her field whose reputation was destroyed by the cabal of thieves because she refused to play the corruption ball but her naivety in the corrupt enterprise known as the Nigerian government/civil service cost her dearly.

I see the reason why the honest Joe’s are angry but I also know that they need the help of those outside the system to begin the clean up and sanitization of the system!  If a whole head of state whose sole raison de etre to power is an anti corruption crusade can be caged by a corrupt cabal then we need to seriously put all the intellectual fire power at our disposal here to think through how to cure the metastasized cancer in the Nigerian body politic.

For those in Diaspora it is enlightened self interest.  All places like New York, Geneva, Vienna, Washington, Nairobi and Addis Ababa where Nigerians worked for considerable periods of their lives are now their permanent residences for fear of returning to Nigeria.

All because we and they kept silent and were complicit in our gradual descent into chaos and corruption.  If this thread can cause us all to think deeply and dedicate the next TOFAC to this issue of corruption in all areas of the Nigerian system we would all be striking a big blow for a better country.

We will begin to see improvements in Education, Health, Infra-Structure, and every facet of the country.  Like the Yoruba adage, “Epa npa ara e, o ni oun npa aja, ti aja ba ku, kini epa o je?” The flea deludes itself that it will suck the dog’s blood till it dies, pray tell what will nourish the flea after the dog’s death.

If we all do not stop corruption in Nigeria, corruption will kill Nigeria.

Cheers.

IBK

Sent from my iPhone

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

COMIC BREAK - A young South Sudanese lawyer working under me sent me this just now.  You can see the negative light the bad eggs have put Nigeria.  Whether the author is generalizing or not, the innocent are punished along for the sins of the wicked and evil.  Lesson - How do we clean up Nigeria?

Enjoy!

R.

 

Africans

It comes, as something of a surprise to many Africans to discover that all Africans look the same to non-Africans...  How do you tell a Nigerian from a Kenyan?  And I am not talking about passports or clothing.  The easiest way, of course, is the name, for example Ogunkoya, Ekwekwe or Babangida can only be a Nigerian, a Njoroge, Otieno or Kilonzo must be from Kenya.  Where else would you
bump into a name like Promise, Immaculate or Patience other than in Zimbabwe?  And where do the Dunns come from?  They are surely from Liberia or Sierra Leone.

>

Surely everybody knows that the loud, boisterous and cocky ones are the West Africans; the brooding and sly ones are the North and South Africans; the East Africans always say yes even when they disagree vehemently.  No wonder there have been very few coups in this region.  They have no guts to go against the establishment.  They are also the UN's first choice for Peace Keeping duties worldwide.

>

Forget about the Egyptians and Sudanese who change their continents based on which side of the bread is buttered.  When convenient, and the Petro-Dollar is flowing, they masquerade as Arabs.  When the World Bank is dishing out aid to the third world, they shuffle themselves, cup-in-hand, jostling for the paltry aid given to poor African countries.

>

If you want to be more specific, the Cameroonians will borrow money to buy Champagne.  They can even sell a hole in their pockets to ape the bourgeois.

>

The Ghanaians think they invented politics.  No Ghanaian worth his salt will conclude a conversation without mentioning the famous Kwame Nkurumah or quoting a phrase from one of his speeches.  Even when bargaining at the Bazaar, a 'Kwame' phrase has a magical effect.  The problem is they think that this effect is worldwide!  A dukawalla in Bombay was forgiven for thinking Kwame was a unit of currency in Africa!  But we have to admit that they have some of the best brains on the continent.  Most of them, including their petit women, have all read well from excellent schools worldwide.  They are the only trustworthy fellas on the continent, so they think.  But are they not right?

>

The Congolese think they have the best music and the best dancers.  They have this heavenly feeling that they were brought into this world to Sing and Dance... and please, for your own safety, don't you dare challenge that!  A Congolese can be spotted from afar by the gait of his walk.... and it also depends on the mood of the walker: A Ndombolo walk is a sign of happiness (..also means 'I've just had it'); a Baba Gaston walk is a sign of old age.

>

The Nigerians have a THING about clothes and jewellery.  They are the Indians of Africa; you'll always find a Nigerian in any part of the
world... there is one contending for Mayorship somewhere in remote Russia of all the places.  There is a Nigerian Police inspector in the
Falklands....... and there is a Nigerian Cashier at the First National Bank of Woolongong....(somewhere in Australia) I wonder how long he'll be there before he decides to become fluid with the cash.  They are like cockroaches and will be found in the most unusual places. And they can steal all your money using phony tricks they call 419.  Would you dare pull out your credit card at any financial point of sale in Nigeria?  Or when a Nigerian is the person handling your credit card?  Hmm. then you do not know what you are up to in life!!

>

The Ethiopians think they have the most beautiful women on God's earth (think about it, have your ever seen an ugly Ethiopian Lady?...no, not the post-menopause geriatric one, we are talking about the under 45 or so... hmm).  They pretend to be businessmen and do nothing other than mill around and drink 20 cups of tea daily.  They are all into tea rooms or filling station petrol selling business.  They work for no one.

>

We won't talk about the Somalis for the time being as they are suffering from a severe identity crisis.  How else do you explain a Somalian holding a Kenyan Passport saying he was born and raised in Pand-Pieri (somewhere in Kisumu) while the same gentleman cannot utter the basic general greeting?  Moroccans think they're French and so do the Burkinabe.

>

Algerians hate the French. Sierra Leoneans smile profusely.

>

Liberians can't get over America...they copy everything including Rambo...any wonder they have Rambo-style rumbles in the jungle.  Call it an influence from Hollywood?

>

All East and Southern African countries have more or less the same boring national anthems, but the South Africans sing it the best. Which other national anthem can make your feet loose control and do a jig on their own?

>

The South Africans have thick and springy hair; the Zambians and Kenyans have prominent foreheads.  The Nigerians have thick luscious lips and their females possess some of the widest posteriors.

>

And you want it cheap?  Head to Johannesburg or Cape Town, buy the booze and be ready for the AIDS too!!

>

The West Africans have short memories and never learn from their mistakes; how many times are they caught all over the world on
drug-related cases yet they continue the trade.  How many times are they going to send those silly chain letters asking for bank accounts
and pretending they are sons of Chief so and so?

>

The concept of order and discipline must have been invented in East Africa; the words don't exist in West Africa, especially in Nigeria.... does anyone know how many coups that country has endured?

>

When a cabinet minister is caught in a corruption scandal, he commits suicide in Southern Africa; in West Africa he's promoted after the next coup d'etat.  In Kenya, he is stripped of his Cabinet post for a short while till the dust settles and then re-instated to a higher
Cabinet post which amalgamates his earlier Cabinet post.  In essence, he still controls his earlier Ministerial post by proxy.

>

In athletics, the divisions are easy: from 800m to the marathon the East Africans hold sway; the West Africans are only good at the
sprints.

>

South Africans can only sing.  But when it comes to football (soccer), the North and West Africans dominate the lesser-skilled East
and South Africans.

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622)
ibk...@gmail.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

[Dr. Oohay]

Jacob Zuma to Be Prosecuted on Corruption Charges

By NORIMITSU ONISHIMARCH 16, 2018

Continue reading the main story Share This Page

• Share
• Tweet
• Email
• More
• Save

Photo

Jacob Zuma, ousted as South Africa’s president last month, has used legal maneuvers and the power of the presidency to avoid prosecution over the past decade. Credit Rajesh Jantilal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG — In a severe legal blow to Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former president, national prosecutors announced on Friday that they would reinstate corruption charges against him in a case related to a multibillion-dollar arms deal in the late 1990s.

Shaun Abrahams, South Africa’s chief prosecutor, said there were “reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution” of Mr. Zuma.

The announcement was the latest — though not likely the final — chapter in a long-running corruption case that nearly derailed Mr. Zuma’s bid for the presidency and tarnished the image of South Africa’s governing African National Congress. The deal under scrutiny laid the seeds of a culture of graft that has flourished in recent years.

A skilled tactician, Mr. Zuma rose to the presidency despite the shadow cast by the arms deal — a multibillion dollar purchase to modernize South Africa’s military after apartheid — and other legal problems, including a trial on rape charges. He portrayed himself as a victim and tapped into his deep support among poor South Africans to become president in 2009.

But last month, Mr. Zuma, now 75, was ousted from office after losing a power struggle to his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, who seized on the public’s growing disillusionment with the endemic corruption during the Zuma years.

Continue reading the main story

Related Coverage

• 

  Jacob Zuma’s Legacy Is a Weakened South Africa FEB. 14, 2018

• 

  Jacob Zuma Resigns as South Africa’s President FEB. 14, 2018

• 

  ‘A President I Can Be Proud of’: South Africans Express Their Hopes FEB. 22, 2018

• 

  As Ramaphosa Hails a ‘New Dawn,’ South Africans See More of the Same FEB. 17, 2018

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

“The arms deal was the most graphic loss of innocence of post-apartheid South Africa and it presaged the corruption we are seeing today,” said David Lewis, the executive director of Corruption Watch, a nonprofit organization based in Johannesburg. “This is the first time we are seeing accountability in the arms deal.”

Mr. Lewis called the prosecutor’s decision “significant,” and added: “The biggest cause of corruption is the impunity of the powerful, so this does send the message that, as long as it may take, somebody at the highest level can be held accountable.”

But Mr. Lewis said it would have been more significant if it had been taken while Mr. Zuma was still president, adding that it could be regarded as “victor’s judgment.”

Prosecutors said Mr. Zuma was informed of the decision to bring charges hours before they were announced. But he did not immediately comment.

Mr. Zuma, who was the leader of the party and the nation’s deputy president when the arms deal was finalized in 1999. He has used legal maneuvers and the power of the presidency to avoid prosecution for years.

He was originally indicted in 2007 on 18 charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering, including accepting bribes from a military contractor. At the time, Mr. Zuma, who has always maintained his innocence, was forced to resign as deputy president by President Thabo Mbeki. The case became entwined in a power struggle between the two men.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

The Interpreter Newsletter

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

• See Sample
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime

The arms deal, made by the government of Nelson Mandela in the mid to late 1990s, involved the purchase of naval vessels, submarines, fighter jets and other equipment from European nations. The deal totaled 30 billion rand, or between $3 billion to $5 billion at the time.

Mr. Zuma’s supporters have long argued that accusations of corruption in the case were politically motivated and that he was singled out while other A.N.C. officials implicated in the deal were never charged.

He successfully resurrected his bid for the presidency after the chief prosecutor dropped the charges against him in 2009, accusing his own officials of political interference.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, challenged the chief prosecutor’s decision. But Mr. Zuma successfully avoided prosecution during his presidency.

In 2016, South Africa’s High Court judged that the chief prosecutor’s decision to set aside the charges was “irrational” — a ruling that was upheld by the Supreme Court last year. Legal experts said it would have been difficult for Mr. Abrahams, who was considered close to Mr. Zuma, to not reinstate the charges against the former president.

Pierre de Vos, a constitutional scholar at the University of Cape Town, said the corruption case against Mr. Zuma could yet drag on for years. Mr. Zuma could still mount legal challenges to the chief prosecutor’s decision, including eventually going to the Constitutional Court.

“It’s been the former president’s strategy to use every legal loophole to actually avoid having his case being heard in court,” Mr. de Vos said. “If he has the money for lawyers, he could stay out of court forever.”

In Parliament, Mr. Ramaphosa said this week that the government has spent $1.3 million on Mr. Zuma’s defense in this case. Opposition politicians, who have argued that Mr. Zuma should be forced to pay his own legal costs in this case because it preceded his presidency, said the expenses amount to several times more.

Mr. Ramaphosa said that the government will continue to pay Mr. Zuma’s legal fees but that the former president would have to reimburse the state if he is found guilty.

---

From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
To: "usaafric...@googlegroups.com" <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2018 7:33 PM

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

6,Without doubt , there are  persons who have absolutely no business being in the academy in Nigeria  and that, I again say, is not limited to Nigeria.It also  does not mean that several of such persons have not migrated to other countries and act as if they have had a change of intellectual capabilities or laundered morality or character  simply because they have escaped from the shores of Nigeria. 

The real difference is made because systems abroad do not permit  such  corrupt practices and punishable offences are rarely treated with the proverbial 'slap on the back of the hand' 

Dr. Aguoru,

I have bolded the part that caught my attention in your response. In the entire quoted passage above, you may think that you're firing back at the self-righteous diaspora professor who is attacking the ethics of you home-based colleagues. However, you may be surprised that I actually agree totally with you and that you're indirectly making my point for me. No one not me, not Falola, no one, has an inherent, in-built and consistent capacity to do good and resist evil and its temptations. Even committed Christians fall into sin, otherwise why would there be provision for forgiveness in the Bible? The difference as you rightly stated is the existence of deterrence. That is precisely what we want to see in the Nigerian university system. Deterrence can come from law, from a whistle-blowing culture, from a culture of shame, and from bureaucratic norms and institutions. But there can be no deterrence where there is no punishment for crimes, where there is denial and minimizing of the crime, and where there is mass indirect complicity or enablement for whatever reason. 

No one is claiming superior inherent morality or ethics over colleagues in Nigeria. The difference--the only difference--is what you stated: engaging in abuses and infractions here is extremely costly. We human beings need to be constrained and restrained by law, by faith, and by the threat of punishment or shame, otherwise everyone, including the pope, is capable of evil. Where there are no effective instruments for punishment and redress such as in Nigerian universities, we're basically asking people to police themselves, to operate within an unwritten honor system, which never works. The only people who are able to have integrity in such systems are the few who probably derive their ethics and moral restraint from religious faith and/or the fear of eternal damnation or divine recompense. Even then, we know that religious people fall into sin and crime--they backslide or fall away, to use the lexicon of pentecostal Christianity. So again, to agree with you, we need serious deterrence and we need to eliminate enablement and the indirect complicity of tolerating or remaining docile in the face of abuses by colleagues. That is precisely what I am fighting for. You may not like my style of fighting for this change, but I have stated it upfront that I want to name and shame and have chosen strategically to deploy certain linguistic tools to make my point and call attention to the issues. I will continue to highlight these crimes of Nigerian lecturers against our youths. Kudos to those such as Falola who are using a different tack. We are working towards the same goal and both approaches are needed and are complementary, but know that Falola and I are reading from the same script in that we both agree on the enormity of the problem and that far from denying the problem, he even says it is more serious than what I'm presenting in my interventions. I believe you can't solve a problem without properly highlighting and acknowledging it and that you cannot properly highlight a problem without hurting the feelings of some of those who are in the setting where the problem manifests. The abusive and unethical lecturers must be isolated and the cost of abuses much be raised significantly.

--

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Segun Ogunbemi,

Other than repeat the tired, discredited, and mendacious canard of "a few bad eggs;" other than whine predictably about "poor pay" as though "poor pay" authorizes a lecturer to abuse, extort, and sexually harass his students; other than invoke haughty gerontocratic entitlements; other than offer me unsolicited and condescending advice about my temperament; other than repeat the facile and pedestrian axiom that one "cannot find all lecturers to be moral" as if anyone had suggested otherwise; other than predictably making this about America and diaspora scholars rather than about the problems plaguing the university sector in Nigeria, what have you contributed to this debate/discussion? This kind of gerontocratic tyranny is precisely the root of some of the oppressions prevalent in the Nigerian academy.

Sorry to disappoint you but I have no patience for it.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

"All because we and they kept silent and were complicit in our gradual descent into chaos and corruption.  If this thread can cause us all to think deeply and dedicate the next TOFAC to this issue of corruption in all areas of the Nigerian system we would all be striking a big blow for a better country."

IBK

Will the same hecklers we're dealing with in this online discussion not show up to prevent what they regard as the  exposure and "exaggeration" of the problems? I guarantee you that the usual suspects, including some of the honest Joes, will swamp the discussion and insist that it's only a few bad eggs, that it's not so bad, that they are changing the system, and that we nosy and self-righteous Diaspora scholars only have to open our eyes instead of criticizing colleagues at home. The denialists, distraction artists, escapists, and minimizers will show up and scuttle a productive discussion on the problem. And yes, even some of the culprits will audaciously show up to disrupt the proceedings. Organize TOFAC panels on political corruption and it will be the most well attended, with Nigerian academics waxing militant and sanctimonious and spouting their memorized 1980s Marxist revolutionary jargons about rapacious leaders who control the means of production and appropriate the surplus value that accumulates to the commonwealth. But organize a panel on corruption in the university system and you may be verbally, if not physically, lynched.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

A small point from the moderator:

A notable intellectual, by the name of John,  faced a similar crisis centuries before. He wrote two amazingly contradictory books: the Gospel of John; and the book of Revelations. Only a professor could have written those two books.

In the first one, where he quashed the Aristotelian lineage with just one sentence, “in the beginning is the word” John presented Jesus in a human flesh: a man who wanted change but in a daily basis so deeply traumatized. Even his disciples questioned him. John pummeled Jesus to pulp. The pain of change will move you to cry.

That the same professor, in his own agony, went on to compose the Revelations, one of the most agonizing read in human civilization, is a lesson.

Nigeria makes John of me: I want change but the cross must be part of it. Hopefully, my life will be cut short not to compose the Revelations.

T F

Sent from my iPhone

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

 What happens  if or when you destroy a  village while trying to save it?

GE

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 11:32 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - University Lecturers Use Research Grant to Buy Big Cars, Drink Beer

 

[DOYIN AGUORU]

Dear Prof Ochonu,

Once again, I am glad that we agree on the basics. I  think each person is  free to  purposefully engage  his/ her preferred  approach or style in confronting these polemical issues. 

Without doubt , there are  persons who have absolutely no business being in the academy in Nigeria  and that, I again say, is not limited to Nigeria.It also  does not mean that several of such persons have not migrated to other countries and act as if they have had a change of intellectual capabilities or laundered morality or character  simply because they have escaped from the shores of Nigeria. 

The real difference is made because systems abroad do not permit  such  corrupt practices and punishable offences are rarely treated with the proverbial 'slap on the back of the hand' 

Dr. Aguoru,

I have bolded the part that caught my attention in your response. In the entire quoted passage above, you may think that you're firing back at the self-righteous diaspora professor who is attacking the ethics of you home-based colleagues. 

 

I  have  tried to see this conversation  as an institutional and not a personal discourse.  I have not once thought you possibly think I am an unethical academic and neither has it occurred to me that you could possibly be 'a self-righteous diaspora professor '! I, however, think it is good that we both acknowledge the existence of the   unethical academics here as well as the self-righteous diaspora professors.

However, you may be surprised that I actually agree totally with you and that you're indirectly making my point for me. No one not me, not Falola, no one, has an inherent, in-built and consistent capacity to do good and resist evil and its temptations. Even committed Christians fall into sin, otherwise why would there be provision for forgiveness in the Bible? The difference as you rightly stated is the existence of deterrence.

  Great. 

Deterrence is what really needs strengthening .Even the worst of us strive to create an impression that they are the best under normal circumstances. It is when the system neither rewards diligence and forthrightness nor punish corrupt practices, unethical behavior, slothfulness and slackness that the worst of us have and celebrate their way. 

 That is precisely what we want to see in the Nigerian university system. Deterrence can come from law, from a whistle-blowing culture, from a culture of shame, and from bureaucratic norms and institutions. But there can be no deterrence where there is no punishment for crimes, where there is denial and minimizing of the crime, and where there is mass indirect complicity or enablement for whatever reason. 

No one is claiming superior inherent morality or ethics over colleagues in Nigeria. The difference--the only difference--is what you stated: engaging in abuses and infractions here is extremely costly. 

Here you have identified the bane of the life of  the Nigerian Academy as well as the Nation.

-  Lack of constraints -

We human beings need to be constrained and restrained by law, by faith, and by the threat of punishment or shame, otherwise everyone, including the pope, is capable of evil. Where there are no effective instruments for punishment and redress such as in Nigerian universities, we're basically asking people to police themselves, to operate within an unwritten honor system, which never works. The only people who are able to have integrity in such systems are the few who probably derive their ethics and moral restraint from religious faith and/or the fear of eternal damnation or divine recompense. Even then, we know that religious people fall into sin and crime--they backslide or fall away, to use the lexicon of pentecostal Christianity. So again, to agree with you, we need serious deterrence and we need to eliminate enablement and the indirect complicity of tolerating or remaining docile in the face of abuses by colleagues. That is precisely what I am fighting for. You may not like my style of fighting for this change, but I have stated it upfront that I want to name and shame and have chosen strategically to deploy certain linguistic tools to make my point and call attention to the issues. 

I will continue to highlight these crimes of Nigerian lecturers against our youths. Kudos to those such as Falola who are using a different tack. We are working towards the same goal and both approaches are needed and are complementary, but know that Falola and I are reading from the same script in that we both agree on the enormity of the problem and that far from denying the problem, he even says it is more serious than what I'm presenting in my interventions.

I also agree. 

We, however,  do not need  to compile several cases. As a matter of fact,dealing properly and effectively with one case and promptly with every case ( on its own merit), will constrain and deter others from attempting any form of abuse. Students who have the tendency and hope to patronise unethical lecturers will then know that there no alternatives.

 For instance,

Rape in the Nigerian constitution till today still attracts a life sentence. How many of the men guilty of such charges ever serve the term? Instead the victims are victimised, stigmatised and the society, most of the times, live happily ever after. 

This and several other platforms that are really pressure groups can take up such matters -investigate, recommend and insist that appropriate punishment be meted on offenders. As academic pressure groups  we should  blacklist 'abusive and unethical lecturers who are 

our ' infamous bad eggs '. 

It is really disheartening to see some of these characters -who do 'know their way' - celebrated in circles where they should be ostracized. 

 I believe you can't solve a problem without properly highlighting and acknowledging it and that you cannot properly highlight a problem without hurting the feelings of some of those who are in the setting where the problem manifests. The abusive and unethical lecturers must be isolated and the cost of abuses much be raised significantly.

I could not agree more. 

My best wishes as we continue in the pursuit of excellence in  the Nigerian academy.

AdeDoyin Aguoru,

Department of English,

University of Ibadan.

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

I apologize for using the Doyin-Moses thread to change the subject.

Preface

I usually receive separate private postings each time there is a passionate issue and many attacks are directed at me. Incidentally my long time mentor on this is Bolaji Aluko, surnamed My People, by Bisola Falola, one of our three site moderators. Aluko takes all darts and his family has been insulted on the Internet at one time or the other. He teaches me how to endure.

Then comes Adeshina Afolayan who, on various occasions, has argued with me in extended various conversations, that because an opinion is shared by a majority, it does not mean it is right. This is why I always instigate and cleverly provoke. And I admire Obi and Moses for their insistence even if I disagree with both of them. Obi and Moses have the capacity to tear down a wall.

Points 

1. In private messages, the moderator is accused of encouraging those in the diaspora to criticize those at home. Not so! I am seeking progress for Africa. I am not the one who calls someone a diasporian and another homelander! 

2. The site is created as a dialogue. From day one, it is a site of serious debates. Nigerians took it over and dented its panAfricanist image. The Black Panther generation will restore it!

3. Use of words has a generational divide. It is not a moderator’s issue.

Affirmations:

Let us learn to take the heat

Don’t see disagreements as bad

Tolerate dissent

Expose unethical behaviors 

Reform intellectual spaces to punish colleagues who bring shame to us all

Praise the good people

Salute courageous students

Women should form unions on campuses different from ASUU and protect the students

At Ibadan, Professor Dasylva initiated a workshop on teaching with an ethical component. Let us turn this into a charter and pursue it.

Crush the mafia who promotes fake admissions and give out fake certificates.

Abolish miracle centers, a name given to institutions that award degrees that no one works for.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Oga Falola,

I can't believe that some of our Nigeria-based colleagues are accusing you of encouraging diaspora folks to insult them. Such home-based colleagues must take themselves too seriously. They must have an inflated opinion of themselves to think that we care enough about them to insult them. It is not them we care about, it is our country and its youths we care about. We only care about them to the extent that they are the agents and culprits in the crimes and abuses we're signaling. That said, let me say that the truth you left out is that these hecklers know exactly what they're doing. They are blackmailing you to silence those of us who are raising uncomfortable questions and critiques about the state of higher education in Nigeria. The Americans call it working the ref, to use a sports metaphor.

I agree with your summary above--every point. I think one could make this a charter. In an earlier iteration of this discussion I did propose the formulation of a student charter or bill of rights. Coupled with Bolaji's idea of the office of the ombudsman and your own suggestions, we may be on to something.

For me, people like Adeshina Afolayan are the true heroes of this struggle. People like him are in the system and yet they courageously refuse to conform to the ASUU orthodoxy. They refuse, despite most of their colleagues incestuously subscribing to the same tired excuses, to join the group think. Adeshina does not do the denial and minimization game. Nor does he participate in the effort to blackmail or silence the diaspora critics. Instead he analyzes the issues dispassionately, blaming internal actors and the tyranny of ASUU that enables corruption to fester and endure while preventing justice and punishment in abuse cases. This is a true mark of intellectual independence. 

We have to recognize that for people like Adeshina, such a stance is risky, fraught with a potentially high personal cost.

It is easy for me or other diaspora folks to rant about the problems. We're located a safe physical and psychological distance away from the scene of the problem. We're not the ones who have to face colleagues who are hostile to us because we buck the conventional narrative of blaming the government, students, diaspora, and everyone else except the lecturers themselves. We don't face any cost or risk for speaking out.

Folks like Adeshina has to contend with colleagues' hostility to them for taking the unpopular position they've consistently taken on the crisis of higher education in Nigeria. Not only that, to be in the Nigerian university system and stay above both the ASUU orthodoxy and the corruption/abuse culture is a testament to great personal character, principle, and courage. As I was saying to Doyin on the other thread, I cannot even guarantee that if I were in the Nigerian system I would not participate in the rot or perpetrate some of the abuses or display unfailing fidelity to the ASUU party line. What keeps me and the Diaspora folks from abusing our positions is deterrence, punishment, and the high personal cost of ethical misbehavior. So, for me when I see people who are in the system and yet are independent and ethical enough to rise above all of its ethical issues and orthodox group think, I'm in awe of them. This precisely why I hold Adeshina in such high regard.

Thus, for me, the heroes are folks such as Adeshina.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

Yes, I believe that an Ombudsman, together with a clear Code of Conduct, with Bill or Charter of Rights not only for Students but for all Staff - Academic and Non-Academic - should be made available and often emphasized, particularly from the bully pulpit of the Vice-Chancellor.  There should also be a fully-functional Legal Office working with the Ombudsman.

One of course hopes that the Ombudsman himself or herself will not need an Ombudsman, because in Nigeria, things get as ee be, at times....

Moving on....

Early in the life of the new Universities in Nigeria,  about 2011 or 2012,  when we were still nine rather than twelve, we the Vice-Chancellors asked all our Registrars to study the Codes of Conducts and Sanctions of various Universities, and to provide a summary compendium that we all could jointly adopt.  FIve of the VCs had been VCs before, four in Federal Universities (Lagos, Maiduguri, Nsukka, Makurdi), and one in a State University (Cross-River).  Three of us were from the Diaspora.  One of the Vice-Chancellors studied what was submitted closely, and provided a Summary Categorization of Breaches of the Code of Conduct and their Sanctions for Staff and Students.  You will find the document attached.

It is only the University of Hell that will contain additional misconducts from what are listed.  The only sanction fit there is of course death by burning. 

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

how can this vision be actualized?-

'Yes, I believe that an Ombudsman, together with a clear Code of Conduct, with Bill or Charter of Rights not only for Students but for all Staff - Academic and Non-Academic - should be made available and often emphasized, particularly from the bully pulpit of the Vice-Chancellor.  There should also be a fully-functional Legal Office working with the Ombudsman'.

Aluko

[Kenneth Harrow]

In our university there is an ombudsman whom students and faculty and staff can consult if they think they have been abused. That person knows the rules and can advise and support them.

If you believe you’ve been abused, you then go to the grievance officer and file a grievance, and formal procedures can be started if it is legitimate.

Probably good to separate those two functions

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/

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Ifedioramma E. Nwana]

Dear Moses,

I can understand your angst on behalf of "Oga Falola".  But when you say you totally ignore a group and do not care enough about them to have time to insult them, I fail to see what can be more insulting.  It is indeed a very big pity that the situation has degenerated to that of "us and them" between the home based and diaspora academics of Nigerian.  I pray and expect the kind of synergy that exist among Indian academics world over (at home and abroad) to exist among Nigerians to the advantage of our youths and country.  There is no doubt that each group (of the home based or diaspora academics) has and plays roles which are due to its location and the other cannot fulfill.  Certainly the diaspora academics cannot from their places teach the local students, no matter how poorly the home based are said to be doing it and the home based cannot have full access to current literature and instruments of research on  issues and topics of concern.  I retired from the university in 2005 and was called on by my professional association to give a lead paper at its, I think, 2013 Annual Conference on insect pest management in urban agriculture!  I called on my friend, Professor George Mbata, at the University  of Georgia and he e-mailed a number of journal articles on the subject and associated topics.  My paper was acclaimed as wonderful. 

There are many reasons why an academic in Nigeria cannot shine to his/her potential. After my PhD from the University of Ibadan in 1975, the same university from which I had obtained my BSc (Agriculture) in 1965, I traveled to the US to attend the International Congress on Entomology in 1976.  The Congress itself was preceded by a 4-week workshop on Insect Pest Management (IPM), which was being promoted then.  The workshop was sponsored by UC & US-AID and involved study tours to about 6 American Universities on the East coast.  There was usually a seminar or lecture before the tour of facilities.  I was moved to make a contribution at the end of each presentation; how else could it have been, the University of Ibadan, Ibadan produced us strong, confident and efficient in those days. In 4 universities I was offered unsolicited job appointments.  I turned them down on the argument that I wanted to go home and do for my people what American scientists had done for their country.   My hosts would end up saying, with a look of sympathy, "I wish you luck".  Now even though I rose to become the Deputy Vice Chancellor of one of the major universities in the country, built a laboratory that is still being used in the university, from proceeds of an externally funded research project, I still feel terribly unfulfilled; somewhere within me I feel that if I had taken any of those offers and utilized the facilities in the US I would have made more impact on science than I have made from my desks in Nigeria. 

I am sorry if this bit of my personal experience bores you.  I have merely stated it to show that those academics at home have enormous tasks which may inundate their ability, time or resolve and those of our colleagues overseas (in the diaspora as has become popular now) can be of immense benefit in assisting the home based with literature, materials and information to improve the services being delivered to our youths and country. 

My dear colleagues in the pursuit of learning to improve our environment, let us cooperate with one another. 

May God bless us all. Thank you.

Ifedioramma Eugene-Mary Nwana

Amawbia, Anambra State.

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@ googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/ group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/ conferences/africa/ads/index. html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Kenneth:

Super... That is why the Independent  Ombudsman (really a Complaints Commissioner or Administrative (rather than Financial)  Internsl Auditor) should work closely with the Legal Office (where the Grievsmce Officer might be lodged). 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Monday, March 19, 2018, Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:

In our university there is an ombudsman whom students and faculty and staff can consult if they think they have been abused. That person knows the rules and can advise and support them.

If you believe you’ve been abused, you then go to the grievance officer and file a grievance, and formal procedures can be started if it is legitimate.

Probably good to separate those two functions

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/

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue

Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Dear Prof Nwanna:

We must separate infrastructural inadequacies in our universities from moral turpitude in those universities.  Even those infrastructural inadequacies should impact the Humanities  and Social Sciences differently from the Physical Sciences and Engineering. 

One might even argue that somehow the infrastructural and moral  deficits in the larger society should not carry over hook  line and sinker into our citadels of learning, that the universe-ality of our knowledge should make us strive for problem-solving skills and global excellence  rather than making mere local comparisons or even joining the locals.. 

That of course is idealistic, but it is idealism that promotes excellence. 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Magnificent story from Nwanna    - 'The workshop was sponsored by UC & US-AID and involved study tours to about 6 American Universities on the East coast.  There was usually a seminar or lecture before the tour of facilities.  I was moved to make a contribution at the end of each presentation; how else could it have been, the University of Ibadan, Ibadan produced us strong, confident and efficient in those days. In 4 universities I was offered unsolicited job appointments.  I turned them down on the argument that I wanted to go home and do for my people what American scientists had done for their country.' 

Superb vision from Aluko- 'the universeality of our knowledge should make us strive for problem-solving skills and global excellence'

Reading the concerns projected in The Toyin Falola Reader, I ask- to what degree are African academics generally and academics in Nigeria in particular striving after 'universality of knowledge' and 'global excellence'?

What is universality of knowledge? What parameters define universal validity? How is global excellence best assessed?

Those demanding a culture of deterrent agst corruption in academia through legal systems are making an important point. Those suggesting that enablement of academics is likely to motivate more positive aspirations, disincentivising corruption, are also correct. The two suggestions need to be synergised.

thanks

toyin

On 19 March 2018 at 13:55, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Prof Nwanna:

We must separate infrastructural inadequacies in our universities from moral turpitude in those universities.  Even those infrastructural inadequacies should impact the Humanities  and Social Sciences differently from the Physical Sciences and Engineering. 

One might even argue that somehow the infrastructural and moral  deficits in the larger society should not carry over hook  line and sinker into our citadels of learning, that the universe-ality of our knowledge should make us strive for problem-solving skills and global excellence  rather than making mere local comparisons or even joining the locals.. 

That of course is idealistic, but it is idealism that promotes excellence. 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

[Ifedioramma E. Nwana]

Dear 'Bola,

You said it all.  I don't want to get into any controversy; no  matter how logical.  Otherwise my main plea would be defeated.  But I think that we could step a bit down from the ideal to the practical with a definite and optimistic expectation that the ideal shall therefore be achieved.  

Love, empathy and determination on all sides is required.

God bless us all.

Ifedioramma Eugene-Mary Nwana

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
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.