On the lighter side : The Muhammadu Buhari University
Cornelius Hamelberg
Hopefully the university will be well-staffed, well funded and provide a good environment for learning and research
Hopefully, a university where they would teach students about human rights, democracy and their civic responsibilities with regard to reversing the brain-drain etc.
This special emphasis after listening to Kemi Badenoch on CNN this evening
In my view, no doubt at all - we cannot discount the probability that the renaming of the University of Maiduguri must be partly a political ploy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to garner some more popularity for himself, for his party and his immediate predecessor, our dearly departed Muhammadu Buhari, with the noble intention of not only securing the votes in Vice President Shettima’s Borno and InshAllah winning the next Presidential election.
Again dredging up the old question, “What’s in a name?”
In Freetown, Sierra Leone ,there’s the improbable Sani Abacha Street…
Dear Everybody, what could possibly be wrong with renaming University of Maiduguri “Muhammadu Buhari University” ?
Verily, what could possibly be wrong about naming a Military Academy or University in Maiduguri, “Muhammadu Buhari University”? The fear that it could inspire, encourage or produce future coup-makers or the hope that it could produce good citizens and another batch of democratically elected Presidents of Nigeria?
Should it be better to name such a University after some English Lord ( Lugard for example) King, or Queen , a heartbeat away, or someone that has no real, indigenous & patriotic connection to the country or to the institution ?
Of course, there are all the presuppositions in that famous “The Idea of a University”, and depending on what motivates the existence of the University in question (ostensibly to serve the needs of the nation) or the sort of curriculum or agenda that should serve that purpose, does it matter so terribly, if the name Maiduguri is replaced by Muhammadu Buhari?
Taking my cue from Professor Okafor’s Malcolm X quote, I’d suggest that subsequent questions about Brother Buhari must be about his patriotism, sincerity and integrity…
Since Maiduguri ,the capital of Borno State, has always been centre-stage, was and probably still is the epicentre and headquarters of that eventually notorious outfit known as Boko Haram and it was Brother Muhammadu Buhari who, especially in his first term , succeeded considerably in cutting them down to size and improving on the insecurity situation he inherited , isn’t it fitting that the University or Military Academy in Maiduguri should be named “Muhammadu Buhari University”, in honour of Muhammadu Buhari - just as we have on a considerably lesser scale Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto ?
My starting point here is Ojogbon’s level-headed assessment of the earthly remains and what was the former glory of our Brother Muhammadu Buhari
For dramatic effect - HASHEM ( The Supreme Dictator ) for example at Mt Sinai (“Thou shalt have no other Gods”, etc “For I am a very jealous God” etc) and on many other occasions, and not only Shakespeare has been known to be hyperbolic at various points in time, for example during Mark Antony’s funeral oration:
“O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me.
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.” [weeps]
Re - “The quality of mercy is not strained”
At the risk of sounding banal, facetious,
or not deadly serious, let us humbly endeavour
to temper whatever modicum of wisdom we may possess,
with some mercy. He who feels it knows.
Feels what? Kowtows? Knows what?
Once upon a time, as reported ,
they questioned John the Baptiser
“Speak to us plainly: Are you the Messiah?”
No hagiography here : From the very beginning of his first democratic term, Brother Buhari said it so clearly “ Don’t expect miracles !” He could have added, like Jesus,
“An evil and adulterous generation” would like to see signs and wonders (miracles)
Speaking as one of those formerly designated as a “Buhari-ite” in this forum, far removed from hagiography, I daresay I still deserve a hearing in this freedom of speech / freedom-to-think zone. There are those who advance the idea along lines such as that our Brother Buhari “was not a man of erudition”, others have said worse things about “ the Ummi Prophet “, and I suppose on similar loose grounds / extravagant views would object to the trade union department of any Nigerian university being named after Pa Michael Imoudu or William Shakespeare who unlike the Buckingham Palace Professor of English, at least knew “small Latin and less Greek” but still wouldn’t mind a university at his hometown in Barbary being named or being naked after him.
For those who have the time, I’d like to direct our attention to Chapter 9 of John Fowles’ The Aristos - the chapter titled A New Education
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Buhari enabled Boko Haram by disparaging the GEJ govts efforts against them.
Buhari govt also seems to have had a policy of integrating former Boko Haram fighters into the Nigerian army.
It was GEJ who limited the activities of Boko Haram not Buhari.
The policies of Buhari two time national leader also seem to have been more anti than pro education, particularly higher education.
--
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.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/d679621e-29f3-4548-9911-26e740ae8226n%40googlegroups.com.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Buhari's govt was an active enabler of the greatest national security crisis in Nigeria apart from the civil war- the ethnic cleansing campaign of Fulani militia and violent Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt and their nation wide campaign of terror, extortion, murder, and internal colonisation.
Cornelius Hamelberg
The abduction of the Chibok girls was during Goodluck Jonathan’s watch. It was widely reported that he was a slow in resting to that kidnapping
Muhammadu Buhari 's campaign against Boko Haram was not as ineffectual as you would like to believe
Hopefully, since the war against Boko Haram was not supposed to be a war of total extermination, in that light, the integration of former Boko Haram fighters into the Nigerian military could be viewed as a better approach…
Brother Buhari was “ anti-education”?
Please furnish us with the evidence that would substantiate such a negative view of reality
To all intents and purposes: Muhammadu Buhari's education policies 2015 - 2023