Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[emeka...@yahoo.com]

Dear all,
For those who are won't to crucify ASUU for the current strike you may go through this gory pictures and decide whether this is your dreams for the Nigerian Universities. When the chips are down we should also ask our colleagues who end up as Vice-chancellors how they superintend over such mess. We must not let the rest of the world see this.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Innocent Igwilo <igwil...@yahoo.com>

Sender: nisebn...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:04:09 +0100 (BST)

To: chik...@yahoo.com<chik...@yahoo.com>; victoren...@yahoo.com<victoren...@yahoo.com>; tetre...@yahoo.com<tetre...@yahoo.com>; ubaoj...@yahoo.com<ubaoj...@yahoo.com>; uche...@yahoo.com<uche...@yahoo.com>; emeka...@yahoo.com<emeka...@yahoo.com>; uded...@yahoo.com<uded...@yahoo.com>; cnezek...@yahoo.com<cnezek...@yahoo.com>; jeme...@yahoo.com<jeme...@yahoo.com>; eze okonk<ejok...@yahoo.com>; josephine nebedum<joss...@yahoo.com>; ugochukwu g<ugochuk...@yahoo.com>; adindu...@gmail.com<adindu...@gmail.com>; Apbch<appliedbiochem...@yahoo.com>; Dr. Ozumba<nwao...@yahoo.com>; chik...@yahoo.com<chik...@yahoo.com>; tetre...@yahoo.com<tetre...@yahoo.com>; ubaoj...@yahoo.com<ubaoj...@yahoo.com>; uche...@yahoo.com<uche...@yahoo.com>; emeka...@yahoo.com<emeka...@yahoo.com>; uded...@yahoo.com<uded...@yahoo.com>; cnezek...@yahoo.com<cnezek...@yahoo.com>; jeme...@yahoo.com<jeme...@yahoo.com>; eze okonk<ejok...@yahoo.com>; josephine nebedum<joss...@yahoo.com>; dr. ejeatuluchukwu obi<ejeat...@yahoo.com>; okpogba<okpogb...@yahoo.com>; enemuoh frank<ene...@yahoo.com>; Dr. Ozumba N<nwao...@yahoo.com>; jimb...@yahoo.com<jimb...@yahoo.com>; PROF. UFEARO s<csuf...@yahoo.com>; amaks2...@yahoo.com<amaks2...@yahoo.com>; dr.okoli<ikeo...@msn.com>; ugochukwu g<ugochuk...@yahoo.com>; adindu<bench...@yahoo.com>; umeoguaju francis<ad...@ufumes.com>; prof. eneanya<cene...@yahoo.com>; prof ewuim<cew...@yahoo.com>; okoye e c<ec.o...@unizik.edu.ng>; dr. ogbo f<fran...@yahoo.com>; icuzo...@yahoo.com<icuzo...@yahoo.com>; Obiora Ikpeze<ikpe...@yahoo.com>; io.i...@unizik.edu.ng<io.i...@unizik.edu.ng>; okonkwo j chike<jame...@yahoo.com>; prof okigbo r<okigb...@yahoo.com>; ogoke toochukwu<tooc...@yahoo.com>; unizikbio...@yahoo.com<unizikbio...@yahoo.com>; Enemor Victor<victor...@gmail.com>; nisebn...@googlegroups.com<nisebn...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: Innocent Igwilo <igwil...@yahoo.com>

Subject: Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please find attached the level we are now in Nigerian universities. This is now or never to SAVE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES.

 

Innocent O. Igwilo (Ph.D)
Senior Lecturer

Department of Applied Biochemistry,

Faculty of Biosciences,

Nnamdi Azikiwe University,

P. M. B. 5025, Awka.

420211

Anambra State,

Nigeria.

+234 8036780058

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Ikenna Okonkwo <bioko...@gmail.com>
To: "okonkwo...@googlegroups.com" <OKONKWO...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Ikenna Okonkwo <bioko...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, 5 October 2013, 14:49
Subject: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, October 4, 2013

The deplorable state of our Nigerian Universities in photos

Unbelievable! Please read the photo captions in green. See more photos...

Despite being the giant of Africa and being the most populous nation in the African continent, no Nigerian university is listed in the top 1000 best schools in the world. That is because our education system is a mess. The deplorable infrastructures in some of our schools have been captured in photos.

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[emeka...@yahoo.com]

[onyima blessing]

I remember every girl suffered candida because of these infectious toilets  in the university hostels. None escaped it, no matter how neat we tried to be,as long as you visited the toilet, you must contact one disease.
Blessing.

---

From: "emeka...@yahoo.com" <emeka...@yahoo.com>
To: "USAAfric...@googlegroups.com" <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 12:34 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
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[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

These photos are terrible, to say, the least!

 

Kwabena

---

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Those pictures vindicate those who criticize ASUU, for they substantiate the argument that ASUU's perennially AMBIGUOUS campaign for more "funding" for higher education has not solved the infrastructure problems that make STUDENT LIFE uncomfortable and LEARNING harder, despite the release of funds, no matter how limited, over the last decade and half. Do these pictures not show clearly that the funding has not been targeted at projects that have the capacity to improve the conditions and wellbeing of students? And is that not ASUU's fault, for failing to designate specific projects in the agreements and following up on them?  In other words, either ASUU has been using the vague rhetoric of "funding" to glamorize its pecuniary demands, or, as Bolaji eloquently surmised, ASUU has often failed to tie its funding requests to SPECIFIC projects, especially those that would bring more comfort to students and enable them to learn better. ASUU has instead preferred general principles, vague funding agreements, "agreements to recommend," and ill-defined and general funding demands. As long as ASUU gets its pecuniary demands for allowances and other perks met, they don't bother with the infrastructural funding that affect students and learning--and that they claim to be fighting for. It's a classic case of deploying the rhetoric of funding to legitimize more quotidian demands. In all honesty, does anyone believe that if the earned and unearned allowances (the final figure that VCs supplied, per Bolaji's numbers), had been paid in full, ASUU would have gone on strike? As student infrastructures have deteriorated, ASUU members' perks have clearly improved, begging the question of whether ASUU has paid as much attention to infrastructural needs as its members' welfare. After all, these infrastructures are almost exclusively student-related and rarely detract from lecturers' personal comforts. The pictures, almost all of them depicting depressingly poor student conditions, buttress the argument that students and their welfare have never been part of ASUU's discourse and have thus never made it into ASUU menu of demands. This is tragically ironic, since the object of the ASUU struggle, to the extent that it is a genuine effort at reclamation, should be to create conditions for good learning, leading to the production of good graduates. What's the point of having well paid lecturers if students live and study in poor conditions and if the quality of instruction continues to be so bad as to foreclose on possibility of sound learning? All of these factors--quality instruction, lecturers' welfare, students' welfare/conditions, equipments--go together to determine the quality of education we're giving our youths. The problem is that ASUU seems to want to pick and choose the ones that affect its members and to neglect the ones that affect students and their interests directly.

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


---Mohandas Gandhi

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

Moses:

 

Pardon my ignorance: I have always believed that such strikes, whether in Ghana or Nigeria, seek to wrestle the salaries, etc. of  the teaching staff from the government. Does the ASUU go on strike because of the deterioration of infrastructure? 

 

 

Kwabena 

---

[kenneth harrow]

dear kwabena, moses
can't we say the teachers' salaries are part of the infrastructure, to follow up kwabena's thought. that is, if the teachers think that their salaries are not part of the "infrastructure," then they won't think they are obliged to do all things we think are necessary to have a university function as it ought.
i've been, more than once, at universities where faculty thinking themselves underpaid took on other obligations that paid them supplements to their salaries--like translation, for instance. ultimately they became, to be honest, only part-time teachers, only part-time available to their students, only part-time willing to update their courses or the books they taught.
if they aren't paid--like in the congo--they'll get paid by other means than state salaries. and they will be only as devoted to the teaching as their pay compensates them to be.
but if they are paid properly, and continue to act like part-time teachers, then they imagine that they are not central to the infrastructure, that they are somehow privileged to perform separately from the chalk or the desks.
i.e., they have to be paid properly for the system to work; and they have to assume the responsibilities of what being paid means, which is to be full-time, totally devoted to the work, like the chalk.
people should be modest. chalk is pretty nice as a symbol for a teacher.
ken

-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

[Biko Agozino]

http://massliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/10/oppositional-governmentality.html

By Biko Agozino

A common ground would be for the majority and the minority parties in Congress to pass a revenue-creating bill to end the Bush era tax cuts for the one percent of the population that do not need tax cuts and to deploy the extra revenue towards expanding the Affordable Care Act so that even more needy Americans could be covered and towards the rebuilding of public infrastructures to create jobs that would add to the recovery of the economy. To oppose a law that seeks to make anything like health more affordable to the people is an excellent  good reason why the American Presidential Constitution evaded the provision of an official Opposition Party. 

W.E.B. Du Bois was nearly jailed for trying to set up a Peace Movement during the era of McCarthyism but he was able to convince the US Supreme Court that peace does not belong exclusively to any enemy foreign country and that all human beings (including Americans) should be seen as peace lovers without any opposition to peace from any country. The same should be the case with making health care affordable and with raising revenue for the government to fulfill its obligations to provide equal protection of all. The Republicans are spinning this to suggest that President Obama does not wish to negotiate but he should agree to negotiate for increased revenue with which to make affordable care even more affordable as even ignorant people who oppose Obamacare for ideological reasons still confess that they support the affordable care act.

To read on, visit the link and feel free to leave a comment:

http://massliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/10/oppositional-governmentality.html

[orunmi...@yahoo.co.uk]

Moses,
It may interest you that in 2012, ASUU demanded that universities be well funded and that monies released to universities be directed at specific projects so that university administrators be held accountable for them. ASUU only demanded that its members be involved in the monitoring exercise not spending.
Based on this, the government set up a committee called the NEEDS ASSESSMENT COMMITTE made up of Government representatives drawn from relevant ministries, agencies and parastatals including office of finance and budget, education ministries and ASUU. The Committee was headed by Governor Suswan of Benue state. It was this Committee that went to all public universities with the exception of the newly established ones, to verify the true state of things. It was this committee with ASUU members serving as members only, that arrived at the current amount of 1.3trn as what was needed to bring the system close to acceptable standards of those universities being attended by children of those looting our treasury.
Based on this, an MOU was signed on implementation. What ASUU expressed in 'general terms' on progressive funding of university through increased budgetary allocation from what it was in 2009 when ASUU-FGN signed the agreement was anchored on infrastructure, research and sundry issues. The allowance that is now seen as a problem was and is part of it. The agreement was meant to return some level of credibility to the system so that brilliant minds like you and so many others on this list would find it worth your while to apply to teach in Nigeria and help raise the standard to what it was when most of you were in those schools.
The government promised to implement the Needs Assessment Report by releasing 400bn in two installments and 300bn as last tranche. One year after, the level of that implementation is what led to the current strike action.

I teach in one of the public universities and I know what is and what ought to be. I'm not an old man but I remember protesting against overgrown lawns back then in Ife . I heard some people before me protested when the full chicken they were eating was reduced to half. I'm sure some people on this list can attest to or debunk this. But at least, we had a fairly good number of classrooms, and we didn't have to struggle for seats most times except in classes that were referred to as "Dugbe" classes. Dugbe is a market in Ibadan. So, I leave you to imagine the size of the classes.
Even then, there were times we had to go and fetch water from the stream to bathe and some of us resorted to what we called, "bush attack" to answer the call of nature because of the state of our toilets!
That was over twenty years ago. The level of decay, today, is what you see in these pictures.
On earned allowances, do you think it's morally wrong for a worker to be paid his/her entitlement? I have supervised a number of postgraduate students. The last one was a year ago. Is it morally wrong for me to protest non-payment of my entitlement for fear of being accused of asking for "perks"?

The truth, Moses, is that ASUU is not without its blames but I sincerely believe that part of the process to correct whatever is wrong with ASUU and its members should begin with building befitting universities where anyone who can not operate within university best practices will have to be shown the way out.

Many years ago, a student who was really desirous of learning appealed to me to allow her keep the chair and desk that she was about bringing from home to be kept in my office. Her reason? She wanted to be in front always but try as she did, because the class was always over-crowded with some students peeping to hear or catch a glimpse of me, she wouldn't mind building her own chair and desk! I understood where she was coming from; she was a product of a society that made her build her own desk and chair in her secondary and primary school days. She only wanted to continue at the university. Of course, I dissuaded her from doing it to prevent the embarrassment that her action would have created. You may not believe me but she ended up having to stand in front whenever she missed a seat in front! She's still in touch with me and I still tease her with it.
She was not alone. There were and there are thousands with similar stories. All those who think that ASUU's fight is pecuniary should go round our universities and contest ASUU claims instead of this mud slinging.
On a final note, I have a copy of how the 100bn promised by government has been distributed, at least on paper. My school got about a billion and what it's meant for are classrooms, lecture theatres and laboratories. I'm sure Prof. Aluko can oblige us with the full details.

We must all make our leaders perform their responsibilities to the people. Education is not the only sector neglected by them, other sectors have protested and resorted to strike as last option to force the government to listen. We must put an end to using strikes to make them listen, I agree. We must all come together to fashion other ways to make our rulers responsive to the needs of the masses and not become experts at arm chair criticism.

Tunji Azeez, PhD

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.

---

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

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 14:04:13 -0500

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Segun Ogungbemi]

This is horror and shame. 

SO

Sent from my iPhone

<image001.jpg>

Despite being the giant of Africa and being the most populous nation in the African continent, no Nigerian university is listed in the top 1000 best schools in the world. That is because our education system is a mess. The deplorable infrastructures in some of our schools have been captured in photos.

<image002.jpg>

<image003.jpg><image004.jpg>

<image010.jpg>

<image006.jpg>

<image007.jpg><image008.jpg>

<image016.jpg>

<image022.jpg>

<image012.jpg><image013.jpg>

<image014.jpg>

<image023.png>

<image017.jpg>

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OkonkwoNetworks..........Building NIGERIA of our DREAM
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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

It would seem that Moses' conclusions cannot be ignored.

These pictures project a frightening picture of a kind of reality. 

We need to hear from those managing the universities.

I expect some should be on this group. 

toyin

[Ameh Dennis Akoh]

TA,
Thanks a bunch for this. I totally agree with you. I'm confident that
with the level of well-reasoned debate that this strike has generated
we're on our way to getting it right. While I believe that individual
universities should have their own unions I also think that we are not
yet ripe for it; once a standard has been set then we can move in that
direction.
Shalom.

>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* "emeka...@yahoo.com" <emeka...@yahoo.com>
>> *To:* "USAAfric...@googlegroups.com" <
>> USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
>> *Sent:* Sunday, October 6, 2013 12:34 PM
>> *Subject:* USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian

>> Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns
>> N15,000,000,.00K
>> a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying
>> mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIES
>> ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> Dear all,
>> For those who are won't to crucify ASUU for the current strike you may go
>> through this gory pictures and decide whether this is your dreams for the
>> Nigerian Universities. When the chips are down we should also ask our
>> colleagues who end up as Vice-chancellors how they superintend over such
>> mess. We must not let the rest of the world see this.
>> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

>> ------------------------------
>> *From: * Innocent Igwilo <igwil...@yahoo.com>
>> *Sender: * nisebn...@googlegroups.com
>> *Date: *Sun, 6 Oct 2013 12:04:09 +0100 (BST)
>> *To: *chik...@yahoo.com<chik...@yahoo.com>; victoren...@yahoo.com<

>> *ReplyTo: * Innocent Igwilo <igwil...@yahoo.com>
>> *Subject: *Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our

>> National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>> -
>> Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies
>> WHILE
>> THE UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> Please find attached the level we are now in Nigerian universities. This
>> is now or never to SAVE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES.
>>
>> Innocent O. Igwilo (Ph.D)
>> Senior Lecturer
>> Department of Applied Biochemistry,
>> Faculty of Biosciences,
>> Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
>> P. M. B. 5025, Awka.
>> 420211
>> Anambra State,
>> Nigeria.
>> +234 8036780058
>>
>>
>> ----- Forwarded Message -----

>> *From:* Ikenna Okonkwo <bioko...@gmail.com>
>> *To:* "okonkwo...@googlegroups.com"
>> <OKONKWO...@googlegroups.com>
>>
>> *Cc:* Ikenna Okonkwo <bioko...@gmail.com>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, 5 October 2013, 14:49
>> *Subject:* State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National

>> Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to
>> Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE
>> UNIVERSITIES ROTTENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>

>> *Friday, October 4, 2013*
>> *The deplorable state of our Nigerian Universities in photos*
>> Unbelievable! *Please read the photo captions in green*. See more
>> photos...**
>> [image:
>> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nRYr9Uv45wc/Uk61bxyTewI/AAAAAAACFKw/W-j3iZNCpW4/s1600/BVuw9bkCQAAYjt-.jpg]<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nRYr9Uv45wc/Uk61bxyTewI/AAAAAAACFKw/W-j3iZNCpW4/s1600/BVuw9bkCQAAYjt-.jpg>
>> ****

>> Despite being the giant of Africa and being the most populous nation in
>> the African continent, no Nigerian university is listed in the top 1000
>> best schools in the world. That is because our education system is a
>> mess.
>> The deplorable infrastructures in some of our schools have been captured
>> in

>> photos.****
>> [image:
>> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RAJNfx7d67Q/Uk61d8E7e0I/AAAAAAACFLA/AuZPVXNjk-0/s1600/BVu0HfSCQAAFQhd.jpg]<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RAJNfx7d67Q/Uk61d8E7e0I/AAAAAAACFLA/AuZPVXNjk-0/s1600/BVu0HfSCQAAFQhd.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVhOgMDhn9s/Uk61dYChz2I/AAAAAAACFK4/CLTsbOwlWr0/s1600/BVuwo6TCQAAnGHP.jpg]<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVhOgMDhn9s/Uk61dYChz2I/AAAAAAACFK4/CLTsbOwlWr0/s1600/BVuwo6TCQAAnGHP.jpg>[image:
>> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rKF-NWA8Hz0/Uk61gul5muI/AAAAAAACFLQ/0ZIn43p90Yc/s1600/BVuwQrPCUAAFAPd.jpg]<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rKF-NWA8Hz0/Uk61gul5muI/AAAAAAACFLQ/0ZIn43p90Yc/s1600/BVuwQrPCUAAFAPd.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MwmYw7XWoDo/Uk61fKMc1CI/AAAAAAACFLI/PFYffL9T9Pw/s1600/BVuxfSBCQAAAX_Z.jpg]<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MwmYw7XWoDo/Uk61fKMc1CI/AAAAAAACFLI/PFYffL9T9Pw/s1600/BVuxfSBCQAAAX_Z.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2KTpBARcItY/Uk61iXxi7aI/AAAAAAACFLg/3iCv3V0pTW8/s1600/BVuyzPGCEAAd2G8.jpg]<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2KTpBARcItY/Uk61iXxi7aI/AAAAAAACFLg/3iCv3V0pTW8/s1600/BVuyzPGCEAAd2G8.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3MYGNFbISA/Uk61ht9Yi0I/AAAAAAACFLY/iMetH5DPYqU/s1600/BVuz1vuCUAA7z4z.jpg]<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3MYGNFbISA/Uk61ht9Yi0I/AAAAAAACFLY/iMetH5DPYqU/s1600/BVuz1vuCUAA7z4z.jpg>[image:
>> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7QkO6NuX7Sk/Uk61k-OkbsI/AAAAAAACFLw/KcR03Hxmh7I/s1600/BVuzb4gCMAE3pH9.jpg]<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7QkO6NuX7Sk/Uk61k-OkbsI/AAAAAAACFLw/KcR03Hxmh7I/s1600/BVuzb4gCMAE3pH9.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oj4Igqv_DE8/Uk61jiaszmI/AAAAAAACFLo/F358LsN8r9g/s1600/BVuzJKuCMAAmHX0.jpg]<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oj4Igqv_DE8/Uk61jiaszmI/AAAAAAACFLo/F358LsN8r9g/s1600/BVuzJKuCMAAmHX0.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eQLiU5umM08/Uk64G7oLARI/AAAAAAACFL4/4tNza0dSS7c/s1600/BVu1d2yCEAAvCW7.jpg]<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eQLiU5umM08/Uk64G7oLARI/AAAAAAACFL4/4tNza0dSS7c/s1600/BVu1d2yCEAAvCW7.jpg>
>> ****
>> [image:
>> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ok6YiCERVIs/Uk64JBXuQII/AAAAAAACFME/IWeWCifRivc/s1600/BVu1NGACMAA3vqb.jpg]<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ok6YiCERVIs/Uk64JBXuQII/AAAAAAACFME/IWeWCifRivc/s1600/BVu1NGACMAA3vqb.jpg>[image:
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>> ****

Ameh Dennis Akoh, PhD
Associate Professor of Drama & Critical Theory
&
Ag. Dean, Faculty of Culture
College of Humanities & Culture
Osun State University
Ikire Campus
Nigeria
Email: ameh...@yahoo.co.uk, ojod...@gmail.com, a.a...@uniosun.edu.ng
+2348035992490, +2348050293410, +2347081485254

“We ought not to court publicity for our virtue, or notoriety for our zeal;
but, at the same time, it is a sin to be always seeking to hide that which
God has bestowed upon us for the good of others.” – Charles Spurgeon

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Moses,

Your attack on ASUU after seeing those gory pictures is wrongly placed. First 

ASUU is not the owners of public universities in Nigeria. Second, ASUU is not the one that appoints Ministers or Commissioners whose function is to oversee the wellbeing of education sector including tertiary institutions and universities. Thirdly, ASUU does not appoint governing councils of the universities. 

The primary assignment of ASUU is to look into the welfare of its members in the universities where they are serving. Asking for funding of public universities by ASUU is a secondary assignment. 

The National Universities Commission has a responsibility to the wellbeing of the students. Have they played that role adequately well?

Nigerians should find out from the Head of the Commission. The National Assembly has oversight function over those institutions in the pictures, have they played their role adequately well?

ASUU should have been commended for taking a giant step by making Nigerian public become aware of the rotten situation of the infrastructures on the campuses of our public universities. 

From the pictures we have all seen, tell me how any of the universities can rank among the best universities in the world?

I posted a case at University of Ibadan recently of what I saw in 1985 and 2011 of the decadence of infrastructure and amenities. As an Alma Mater, I felt terribly disappointed. We should have moved forward but that is not the case. We keep on moving backward in retrogressive manner, Moses. 

Perhaps Emeka could have requested for current pictures from universities in the southwest and some universities that the Federal or State governments have properly funded and showcase-the infrastructure in those places. That could have given a balanced view of what is the true picture of the reality of the Nigerian public universities. 

Segun Ogungbemi. 

 
 
Sent from my iPhone

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Despite being the giant of Africa and being the most populous nation in the African continent, no Nigerian university is listed in the top 1000 best schools in the world. That is because our education system is a mess. The deplorable infrastructures in some of our schools have been captured in photos.

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks you very much, Tunji Azeez, for placing the ASUU-student needs in context.

If I might ask, though, those pictures suggest deterioration over a long period  of time.

What do you think of the question of why some of those gains from earlier ASUU demands seem not to have been funnelled to those  facilities we see in the pics?

thanks

toyin

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Tunji,

Please go back and look at the so-called agreements and MOU. Bolaji has done this discussion a great deal of good by posting them earlier. They are broad, fantastical documents of general principles based on assessed needs. They are NOT (repeat, NOT) specific in any sense. They do not address any specific infrastructural needs that affect students and learning. Did you see the section regarding the 1.3 Trillion naira? That section and others demonstrate clearly that the ASUU negotiators did not really care about the funding issue. Why should they, when they don't think students deserve a fair shake as the primary consumers of the products of our higher institutions? The so-called agreement and MOU on funding read like afterthoughts that were haphazardly cobbled together after ASUU got the specific promises and concessions regarding allowances and perks that it wanted. When it comes to the allowances, there is remarkable specificity but when it comes to the funding that ASUU claims as the centerpiece of its struggle, there is shockingly little specificity and plenty of unbelievably bureaucratic nonsense about "agreeing to recommend," agreeing " to take up with the relevant authorities," etc.

I believe in trade unions and I believe that unions have a right to negotiate better terms for their members. But I believe that unions also have a duty to make concessions and sacrifices for the continuity and improvement of the sector in which they operate, in which members earn their living. More importantly, I believe that a union should not lose sight of the human subjects (and consumers/victims) of its members' work, especially when the union wants to be seen not simply as a trade union but as a catalyst for reform.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Kwabena,

That, precisely is the point of my critique--that ASUU is suffering from a crisis of identity. It can't decide what it wants to be, a traditional trade union that fights for the interests of its members (absolutely nothing wrong with that) or a pressure group seeking, as it claims, to repair and reclaim Nigeria's comatose higher education system. It's trying to be both, unsuccessfully, because the Nigerian public is no longer buying it. It wants Nigerians to believe that it is both a trade union and a reformist organization; this is clear from its propaganda and claims over the years. It claims that it is not just interested in bettering the conditions of its members but also in bringing healing and improvement to the entire higher education sector--that it is fighting for a holistic amelioration of what ails the higher education sector in Nigeria. If you define yourself and your struggle in these terms, you surrender the right to be judged solely as a trade union fighting only for better salaries and allowances for your members. You have to include the interests of students (matters of instruction and poor student welfare, as depicted in the picture) in your menu of demands. If you do not and instead make demands on and  go on strike over only those issues that affect the welfare of your members, you can be legitimately accused of simply using the question of "funding" and the idea of "fighting for the reclamation of the university sector" as rhetorical armor to legitimize what is at base a typical trade union demand for better salaries, perks, and conditions for members (again nothing wrong with it if you're honest with stakeholders). This is the problem. 

An ASUU insider gave me an insight into this dilemma recently in a chat witnessed by Okello Oculi (a member of this forum). The insider's argument is that if the union does not make pecuniary demands and only talks about funding, the rank and file will NOT vote for strike. In other words, the rank and file are more concerned with pecuniary issues and those issues shape how they relate to ASUU. Loyal to its members and unwilling to alienate them, the ASUU leadership realize that they cannot simply declare another strike demanding salaries and allowances that may not fly with the Nigerian public, so they tack on the nebulous issue of "funding," to which they actually pay lip service (the proof of this lip service are the pictures). Once the pecuniary demands are met, ASUU acquiesce to vague promises and general principles regarding the "funding" issue (see the embarrassingly wishy-washy so-called agreement and MOU that ASUU is touting as binding documents regarding funding). At any rate, ASUU never actually thinks about students as stakeholders in its struggle and so does not feel a need to press for specific projects that will enhance student welfare. Again, this would be okay if you defined yourself as a trade union, but for obvious reasons ASUU wants to be perceived as more than that. They want the public to believe that their struggle is for a total overhaul of the university system. But because students' welfare and learning are marginalized in ASUU's agenda, the ASUU activists do not see a connection between student issues (poor student infrastructure, poor instruction) and the general decay of the system that ASUU harps on. Because the ultimate goal of producing good graduates is ACTUALLY a secondary (perhaps a tertiary) aspect of to ASUU's priorities, it nevers sees how fighting for those student-centered issues can actually insulate it from the public's angst and suspicion and give it a better footing to cater to its members' needs. Will ASUU be willing, for instance, to pledge itself to some baselines of instructional excellence and ethical conduct for its members? I don't think so, which reinforces the argument that ASUU wants to be seen as the champions of the higher education sector without having to agree to reforms and concessions that actually put students--the primary stakeholders of the sector--at their center.

[Ikhide]

Moses,

These pictures have gone viral thanks to Linda Ikeji's blogs (here). If you really want to be depressed and lose yourself in unending despair go past the pictures and read the comments. If you find one commentator there that can write in passable English, please share the good news with me. Nigeria is becoming a rogue state where mediocrity is at best an asymptote - people are operating at levels of unthinking that would have been inconceivable two decades ago.

As for those pictures, they sure look familiar to me. I graduated from the University of Benin in 1979 (Biochemistry). When I got there in 1976, I was awed by a beautiful place of learning. By 1979, the place was bursting at the seams, the authorities could not keep up with the enrollment. Squatting was the order of the day, and soon, decay started to set in. The Junior Staff Quarters became a slum of sorts where we all repaired to for food, and anything else that kept a student together. Again, Moses, many of those pictures, believe it or not are familiar to me. There are structural reasons why we don't seem to invest in a maintenance culture. Na today?

Thanks to social media and ASUU's critics (they are legion) people are now awake to the unspeakable damage ASUU and our rogue "government" have done to tertiary education. I have even worse news. We do not have the capacity to do what must be done to stem and then reverse the damage. Government will end up releasing money to our "reformers" and the money will be most likely looted like the funds before were looted.

The first thing to do is to cut out the bullshit. We need to get to work. We need demographers who can accurately predict enrollment trends - in each university.Every institution will need a planning unit, a maintenance unit, a facilities planning unit and a construction unit, as well as a functioning unit that handles the operating and capital budget. And a real procurement unit. Again, I ask, what makes up the N1.3 trillion number? Where are the spreadsheets per institution, per building? 

ASUU and our "government" are still operating Soviet era management techniques, top heavy, overly centralized and horribly inefficient. It is choking Nigeria's tertiary educational system. You should all be panicking. That country needs a bloody revolution. It will not happen of course. More than likely, real progress will start when the rich are through eating the poor. Nonsense.

Good night. 

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

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

---

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

To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 9:28 PM

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIE

Tunji,

Please go back and look at the so-called agreements and MOU. Bolaji has done this discussion a great deal of good by posting them earlier. They are broad, fantastical documents of general principles based on assessed needs. They are NOT (repeat, NOT) specific in any sense. They do not address any specific infrastructural needs that affect students and learning. Did you see the section regarding the 1.3 Trillion naira? That section and others demonstrate clearly that the ASUU negotiators did not really care about the funding issue. Why should they, when they don't think students deserve a fair shake as the primary consumers of the products of our higher institutions? The so-called agreement and MOU on funding read like afterthoughts that were haphazardly cobbled together after ASUU got the specific promises and concessions regarding allowances and perks that it wanted. When it comes to the allowances, there is remarkable specificity but when it comes to the funding that ASUU claims as the centerpiece of its struggle, there is shockingly little specificity and plenty of unbelievably bureaucratic nonsense about "agreeing to recommend," agreeing " to take up with the relevant authorities," etc.

I believe in trade unions and I believe that unions have a right to negotiate better terms for their members. But I believe that unions also have a duty to make concessions and sacrifices for the continuity and improvement of the sector in which they operate, in which members earn their living. More importantly, I believe that a union should not lose sight of the human subjects (and consumers/victims) of its members' work, especially when the union wants to be seen not simply as a trade union but as a catalyst for reform.

[blargeo...@gmail.com]

This is the reality of life in Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions. The level of infrastructure decay is worse than what the attached pictures evince.

The rot that infested the head of the Nigerian fish has now consumed the whole fish, tail and fin included.

The tragedy is now a farce!

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tovad...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 22:33:41 +0100

To: cc: USAAfrica Dialogue<usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

[shina7...@yahoo.com]

"I believe in trade unions and I believe that unions have a right to negotiate better terms for their members. But I believe that unions also have a duty to make concessions and sacrifices for the continuity and improvement of the sector in which they operate, in which members earn their living. More importantly, I believe that a union should not lose sight of the human subjects (and consumers/victims) of its members' work, especially when the union wants to be seen not simply as a trade union but as a catalyst for reform."

MEO

Oga Moses,
Again, you nailed the issue with conciseness. I wrote recently elsewhere that ASUU is locked in what we can call the union-imperative. If as Prof. Ogungbemi just posted, ASUU is a union concerned with the welfare of its members, then there is a serious problem.

I see the dilemma as that of how to square that union-imperative with the claim to agitate for the rehabilitation of higher education in Nigeria. How, that is, ASUU can successfully manoeuvre in the interstice between its members and the students as the 'non-ASUU constituency'.
I don't think this is a genuine dilemma, as your comment revealed. These aren't mutually exclusive objectives. Yet, the emphasis on the allowances/salary component of the Agreement seems to ring alarm bells.


Adeshina Afolayan

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

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

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 20:28:00 -0500

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

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIE

Tunji,

Please go back and look at the so-called agreements and MOU. Bolaji has done this discussion a great deal of good by posting them earlier. They are broad, fantastical documents of general principles based on assessed needs. They are NOT (repeat, NOT) specific in any sense. They do not address any specific infrastructural needs that affect students and learning. Did you see the section regarding the 1.3 Trillion naira? That section and others demonstrate clearly that the ASUU negotiators did not really care about the funding issue. Why should they, when they don't think students deserve a fair shake as the primary consumers of the products of our higher institutions? The so-called agreement and MOU on funding read like afterthoughts that were haphazardly cobbled together after ASUU got the specific promises and concessions regarding allowances and perks that it wanted. When it comes to the allowances, there is remarkable specificity but when it comes to the funding that ASUU claims as the centerpiece of its struggle, there is shockingly little specificity and plenty of unbelievably bureaucratic nonsense about "agreeing to recommend," agreeing " to take up with the relevant authorities," etc.

I believe in trade unions and I believe that unions have a right to negotiate better terms for their members. But I believe that unions also have a duty to make concessions and sacrifices for the continuity and improvement of the sector in which they operate, in which members earn their living. More importantly, I believe that a union should not lose sight of the human subjects (and consumers/victims) of its members' work, especially when the union wants to be seen not simply as a trade union but as a catalyst for reform.

--

[Adewole Atere]

I have read so much about the ASUU charter of demands which has thrown the Nigeria University System into another round of destabilization. Let me clearly state from the onset that as a member of the union I no longer enjoy the strike weapon, nonetheless as a committed member, I will NOT violate the actions prescribed. 

There are, however, merit in some of the arguments posted thus far. I agree totally that the strike weapon should be substituted. Also, there is a strong merit in the call for the leadership shake up in ASUU. The same set of people who have stared the wheel of the union when some of us were in elementary school (I have put in about twenty years on the job and I did not enter until I was almost thirty years old) are still very prominent. This to me implies lack of mentoring. That also explains the difficulty in devising new tactics.

Nonetheless, I hasten to fault some of the arguments. ASUU and most unions in Nigeria are up in arms against individuals in government who will prefer to ferry the commonwealth of the nation to other climes and get such resources wasted rather than make them useful for the development of needed infrastructure within. So, a bad action will naturally elicit a bad reaction. 

Finally, I disagree with Moses Ochonu that the union is more concerned with its perks than the benefits of the students. Take away the earned allowances and you still have 1.3 Trillion being demanded for infrastructure upgrade. The questions are: for whose benefit is this being demanded?. Who administers it order than the Management to which strong union members are usually not part of?. Is the money meant to be shared by ASUU members?. Even the earned allowances, are they for ASUU members alone or the entire university system? Why does government want to hang ASUU to receive sympathetic reactions from the students and entire country?. We need to be fair on ASUU.

My final word is that the final consumers of academic products have suffered much. ASUU should drop its tough stance while expecting the government to also play its part. Union strategies are not usually the WIN ALL APPROACH. From my part of the country, it is often said that 'if you refuse to end a particular misunderstanding, when will the opportunity for another one avail itself'. Let us sheath our sword for this battle, there will always be other battles. ASUU must note, however, that tNigerians will expect a more intellectual based war next time.

Wole Atere, Ph D

Department of Sociology and Criminology,

Osun State University.

Okuku Campus.

Sent from my iPad

--

[emeka...@yahoo.com]

Tunji thanks for that education, I feel for people like Moses whose reason derive either from lack of knowledge or share hatred for ASUU. If after seeing these pictures he still chooses to blame ASUU then something must be wrong. I am a product of the Nigerian University system. As a biochemistry student I spent four hours (2.00pm - 6.00pm) each day in the laboratory in the 1980s. Today I am a Professor teaching the same course in a Nigerian University and you will be lucky if you had one practical in a semester. By God's special grace and dint of hard work I have been to over twenty universities outside the shores of Nigeria for capacity development and academic tourism. I have been to Universities in neighbouring Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, UK, and North America including Harvard, MIT and U of T. I am very conversant with world's best practices, what we are doing in Nigeria is academic fraud.
I have followed the debate in this forum over the ASUU strike for a while and have refused to express any opinion because I realized that most of the criticisms come from our brothers in diaspora. I did not want to fault them because their reasoning derives from world best practices, too much strike is not good for any system. He who feels it knows it all. I introduced the pictures to this forum to help moderate our perceptions and thoughts. It is therefore worrisome that even after seeing these pictures people like Moses still finds ASUU culpable. Why are we deceiving ourselves? The Nigerian University system can be likened to an entrepreneurial automechanic who set up a workshop to train apprentices. He had model cars which parts he practically dismantled and reassembled as teaching went on. After a long while the cars which were fast becoming obsolette were neither replaced with newer models nor refurbished. Neglected much longer the cars became so rickety and disintegrated and as part after part vanished the car disappeared. The workshop resorted to teaching their apprentices by now drawing cars on blackboard with chalk, meaning that the graduate apprentices see cars for the first time only when they have graduated. To make matters worse the blackboards get bad as they peel off and are eaten by termites and chalks disappear so, it becomes almost impossible to teach the new entrants. This is where we are now.
Brother Moses you are entitled to your opinion but I want you to note that ASUU is just a trade union. What ASUU advocates for is for increased funding. It is not the duty of ASUU to oversee the use of the funds, that is entirely the responsibility of the VC and Council. ASUU is not liked by VC's either and as a union there is a limit to what you can do in monitoring expenditures. It is the responsibility of Government to monitor how funds alloted to agencies are spent. Each year both the Senate and House Committees on oversight functions visit the Universities and in most cases gives the management a clean bill of slate. The Auditor-General's office does the same. This is an annual ritual. How many VCs have been indicted for misappropriation? Non. The VC of University of Abuja is still in office after the national uproar that University elicited over non-accreditation of their programmes. Even the report of the special visitation panel to the University is yet to be released. The fact is that most of our VCs are politicians, of course today VCs are perceived as political appointees. Given that their appointment draw from political capital they share from the immunity of their god fathers. This is not to say that we have not enjoyed the benefit of good academics running the University system. Between 2003 and 2008 Nnamdi Azikiwe University enjoyed rapid growth in infrastructure and academic growth and from the back waters became one of the most popular and subscribed University in Nigeria courtesy of Ilochi Okafor, a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria who gave his midas touch to the University as its Vice chancellor. Mobolaji Aluko's performance at Federal University, Otuoke is also examplary. These are isolated cases. The problem of the Nigerian University system is enormous, we all share from the blame through our actions and inactions. Neither criticism of ASUU nor attitude of passivity and mute indifference will solve the problem. I am involved. I was a one time Secretary of my University's branch of ASUU, I am an ASUU veteran and have been sacked severally over my committment in keeping to ASUU directives and have been recalled severally. I still remain a strong adherent of the Union. I hate strikes but in the circumstance we find ourselves we can not do otherwise. ASUP that was cajoled a few months ago to suspend theirs are back to the trenches. No organization is perfect, ASUU is not, but for now it represents the alternative. It is all about honour and integrity. Let's reason together.

Emeka Ezeonu

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: orunmi...@yahoo.co.uk

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 20:36:30 +0000

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

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

It may be argued that ASUU has a duty to be informed about the specifics in  allowances for its members.

Not only is that the union's  job, such specifics  can easily be defined in terms of particular  parameters. 

Beyond that, can it do more than make suggestions to those whose responsibility it is to run the university system?

Secondly, is it realistic to expect ASUU to be able to make detailed suggestions about infrastructural  issues that differ across universities?

It is one thing to expect more from ASUU, it is another to make sweeping, condemnatory  conclusions from data that is inadequately analysed just because it fits a particular thesis to make those conclusions.

Finally, university funding has been central to ASUU demands since the 1990s when I began to follow the union's activities. 

It is not new.

Thanks

toyin

--

[chum...@yahoo.com]

Toyin,

just to add to what you already said , if government is truly serious that it does not have enough money to pay University lecturers their arrears of earned allowances, then they must rotate or democratise the owing of salaries/allowances now, so that perhaps be the President, the Ministers, Legislators etc. will go without their allowances for a few years while too and ASUU paid for now. This can be repeated until such a time arrears of allowances/salaries can be eliminated completely. Its absurd to ask one group of working citizens to put up with arrears of allowances while some others receive their pay in full plus their thief-thief money.

If government is sincere about the payment of earned allowances as the claim would it take over a few days to come up with the actual figures they said they are waiting for? Or is it a case of the Federal Government plotting trick ASUU into calling off its strike so that the problem continues?

Full payment of arrears of lecturers' earned allowances should be effected immediately, then ASUU should go on to renegotiate downwards its demands on funding universities in view of any verifiable claims regarding inadequacy of funds for investment in public universities in Nigeria.

I don talk my own jare!

Chuma

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

---

From: Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tovad...@gmail.com>

Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 03:36:14 +0100

To: cc: USAAfrica Dialogue<usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: State of the Nigerian Universities in PHOTOS and Our National Legislators earns N15,000,000,.00K a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Go to Abuja and you see Legislators buying mansions with huge monies WHILE THE UNIVERSITIE

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

"Beyond that, can it do more than make suggestions to those whose responsibility it is to run the university system?"

--Toyin

Fine, if ASUU cannot commit itself to following up on or monitoring its perennial demands for "funding" then it should strip it from its discourse, propaganda, and demand and stick to fighting for its members' welfare like most trade unions do. No need to pretend to care about these other stuff that affect students and use that pretend empathy to bolster your self-interested demands. That's plain deceptive--419 in Nigerian parlance. That's the two-facedness of ASUU, the crisis of identity I outlined earlier. You can't eat your cake and have to too, claiming to be fighting for infrastructure and the rehabilitation of the Nigerian higher education sector while recusing yourself, when challenged, from the need for making specific demands regarding the infrastructural and instructional aspects of the decay you claim to want to solve. 

"Secondly, is it realistic to expect ASUU to be able to make detailed suggestions about infrastructural  issues that differ across universities?"

It is disingenuous and hypocritical of you to raise this question. This is precisely why several of us (myself, Bolaji, Ikhide, and others) have made the case for ASUU's decentralization and the localization of grievance and amelioration, a suggestion that you criticized as misplaced. You cannot kick against decentralization, suggested on account of "infrastructural issues that differ across universities" and the different infrastructural and intellectual stations of each university, and then turn around to argue the same thing through your poser that a national ASUU cannot make specific suggestions about problems in individual universities or regional university clusters. You're making the argument for decentralization and localization without realizing and acknowledging it. Thank you!

"Finally, university funding has been central to ASUU demands since the 1990s when I began to follow the union's activities."

That, precisely is the point! With all the "funding" demands of ASUU since the 1990s, we still have recently taken pictures depicting student conditions and infrastructures that have have clearly deteriorated rather than improved. Does that not tell you that making ambiguous, ill-defined funding demands is a failed tactic? Does that not open up two possible explanations--that ASUU is not truly committed to the funding issue and is merely using it for PR or that the demands have been made in a haphazard manner that suggest that ASUU's true priorities lay elsewhere?