An Apology to My Students
Obododimma Oha
An Apology to My Students
Obododimma Oha
I have been on strike for quite sometime now and a number of things have suffered: the lectures, the experiments, the class seminars, etc. You have also suffered emotionally especially because you were about to commence your examinations when I suddenly put down my red pen and banged on the table and said, “Damn it, I’m going on strike!” And I went on strike. You were surprised, but humbly believed that I must have done it for your own good and that it would be over soon. You put down your pens too, just after writing your matriculation numbers on the answer booklets. Our conversation was thus interrupted, and I am sure that surprised you too, for you know me for hating the interruption of conversations, especially “academic” conversations. I am sure you have not forgotten my long lectures on how learning and all knowledge work have to be a continuous and coherent thing. I need to apologize to you for this behavior of mine that is neither in tandem with my character, nor with learnedness. I need to apologize to you also for the more painful interruption of our highly valued, examination-type of conversation. You know me for having special regard for evaluations, which I always insist are experiments that must be allowed to produce reliable results, results that should be used in making the learning process better and better. With my absence from the classroom for weeks now, you must have started searching for the meaning of all my theories and philosophies about the non-negotiable necessity for creating a healthy society through the production and transmission of knowledge.
I do not want to defend my action in rendering this apology, for that would greatly undermine my purpose here. Moreover, you are already familiar with the powerful and convincing argument I offered when I commenced the strike – the fact that Government has to touch up my salary and also provide facilities for a more effective and result-oriented university education in Nigeria. I would, however, like you to take this whole painful episode as part of the learning, for indeed, our nation is a school where we all can learn some very crucial life skills. Nigeria is both the school and the challenging subject to be studied. In that regard too, the Government of your country is already a case study. Your politicians are case studies on democracy and its hijack. I, too, should be considered a case study on knowledge production and its contradictions, especially given the litany of strikes that characterize my professional life in Nigeria. So, I would like you not to be idle but to see yourselves as being on a serious fieldwork.
I know I have failed you in a number of ways and must take responsibility for your inclination to look for heroes among politicians, armed robbers, kidnappers, and other groups that do dark things. I know that I always told you how hardworking my own teachers were, how they loved their profession, and how people knew and respected them for the quality of their minds, their preferences, and actions. I am not quite sure that I have fared well enough to make you want to become a teacher like me. Is it my new-found interest in “pastoring” a church or” imam-ing” a mosque instead of giving good attention to my lectures and supervising your projects properly? Is it my new-found desire for flashy cars, which I change like Christmas dress in order to show other lecturers that I am in a different class? Is it the less attention I now pay to books? Is it my gradual transformation to a businessman? Is it the tendency to begin to check my lectures and other academic inputs in terms of Naira and Kobo? Is it the casual way I do my job, going into the class to teach unprepared and without updating the ideas that I present to you? Is it my inability to challenge you intellectually to make you have respect for learning? Is it my preference to belong to various committees and devote more time to meetings than to academic activities?
I have always told you that we do not just teach what is in the books but that it is through our lives that we teach, or that it is our lives that (we) teach. How true, though ironical! I am asking the Government to provide physical facilities that would make my work really begin to work – and that is quite rational and legitimate – but I have also performed the act of contrition as recommended by my confessor and have realized that I also need mental and behavioural facilities to demonstrate fairness to you as my students, to your poor parents who are also victims of bad governance, and to God who is actually my employer.
I know that in our country in these strange times, we seem to lack the capacity to say “sorry” when we err. I want to depart from that arrogant posture and tell you sincerely that I have erred in my tactics. I wish to let you know that I will soon call off this painful strike, as a sign that I care for you and that, even though my request that Government should see education as a priority is legitimate, I am also concerned about my own image as a teacher. I am concerned about how my life and conduct as a teacher would help you to learn to have respect for learnedness and interest in the future of our society. May you continue in the love and pursuit of wisdom.
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Obododimma Oha
http://udude.wordpress.com/
Dept. of English
University of Ibadan
Nigeria
&
Fellow, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies
University of Ibadan
Phone: +234 803 333 1330;
+234 805 350 6604;
+234 808 264 8060.
Okwy Okeke
Dear Sir,
Thank you for taking time to write, we really appreciate your gesture. We know this was no easy task, being that you, as well as your students are all hostages of the dinosaur that claims to speak for you and us…
Yes, we have suffered hugely; emotionally, and some more. To illustrate, one of us may lose his family heirloom, the piece of property that has been in my family since Eze Nri abolished “Igbu Ichi” in the 18th century. As you probably never knew, he mortgaged it to the local money lender for 6-years, his plan was that his first year salary after Youth Service will defray the loan, however, he have spent 6-years for a four year program, and for no fault of his, he may lose the land that 9 generations before him kept within their family. He is at cross-roads and may have to do something extreme to raise N250,000.00 to offset the loan, do you think it will be ok for him to kidnap the Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty dean’s son, after all, he made N100,000.00 from each of the students he admitted via the dean’s list. I present this dilemma to you because you know that he is not a criminal, but won’t his father curse him to pick his grey hair with sorrows to hell if he finally loses the land; He claims to already hear the father's voice scolding him, “…but I told you not to borrow money to go to school, when the rest of your mates are headed to the motor parks for a quick buck…”
We must also mention to you that we am not impressed by the timing of your strikes. I thought that given the much we know today, you and your colleagues (that sounds better than the rogue organization that claims to represent you and us at Abuja) would have been more nuanced in your approach – maybe time the strikes to fall during the breaks, well that will be impossible because past strikes have made a mess of school year across the country, then, maybe keep teaching through the end of the session, but withhold final year students results to cripple the NYSC program, that way the fat-cat government contractors’ who incidentally are the ruling party’s financiers will be denied their bi-annual feeding frenzy; can you imagine the magic their pressure will bring to bear on Abuja? Then, you and your colleagues did not consult us, maybe you never imagined we could brainstorm being that some of the officials of that rogue organization refers to our relationship as that of parents/minors, but not to worry, what is forgiveness if not for mutual gain…, so, maybe you and your colleagues, I mean the rational ones who we see are in a clear majority keep teaching until we wrap up the year, that way, we may have a clean break, even transfer to private universities for those that can afford it, or take other options before us, which you must agree makes better sense than leaving us, the poorest of the poor in the society holding the short end of the rope once again, besides, such simple show of consideration will go a long way to galvanize most, if not all of us and our parents behind you and your colleagues, unlike the present situation that is caused by a clique, a minor clique at that, that believes in tactless approach to complex issues.
We hear you on the issue of government under-paying you, it is all clear to us, and not just you, but also our parents that work in the Police force, Federal/State/ Local Governments, Customs & Immigration, Airport Authority, Television Authority, etc. For this reason, we disagree with you going on strike “alone.” The government needs to address the issue of poor pay for her workers, a problem we come across in Nnamdi Azikiwe’s experience as a teacher before he quit to stow away to the U.S.A. more than 80 years ago (see My Odyssey by Nnamdi Azikiwe), it was also the same problem Chinua Achebe (he was your colleague) highlighted in No Longer at Ease, so, as you will agree, two heroes of your world already touched on this issue which pre-dates both of us, that suggests that the solution can not be an isolated industrial actions by university dons, rather, it must be addressed at the highest level in order to take care of everyone that works for a wage in this country. As an aside, what value will their be in this country if University dons receive 500% salary increase, and education get 25% of the budget as demanded by that organization both of us have agreed not to mention by name lest their rascals that are too self-absorbed to properly mark out their assailant be set upon us, while the Police, Customs, Doctors, etc continue to earn sub-par salaries, would that not turn the universities into the next Niger Delta with kidnappers gunning for the students, lecturers, and their kids to kidnap for ransom? We say this because some of our friends may not blink to do so if you “move upstairs” and leave us to rot in hell. We must be careful about what we wish for, or we may just get them. This matter of pay must be addressed holistically in order not to set up the school for untold violence.
Sir, it is not often we disagree with you, however, the opening lines of your third paragraph is so condescending we suspect it was written by some of your colleagues that mouth off for a living while teaching what they were not paid for, or was it your appeasement to that insignificant rabble-rousing section of your colleagues that you must co-exist with? We do not look for heroes among armed robbers, politicians, etc as you may think, just as many of you that endured the strikes of the 90s and have become dons today, nothing has changed since then, and hopefully, nothing will in that regard.
I thank you for bringing up the lackadaisical manner some of your colleagues carry out their assignments, it is a pity, actually a shame, but be rest assured that we will not act as stupidly as that clique we all disdain, the inheritors of talk and act now then think later that brought back the military that became our scourge. We know some of them are making a killing charging Onitsha pharmaceutical dealers an arm and a leg to admit their unqualified wards into the Pharmacy program (yes, that department is an example of how not to run a school/department, we will not get into the reason one of the lecturers there was murdered not too long ago), some claim the donations are for the faculty bus, others insist it is for the laboratory reagents, but one thing is clear; the receipts that are issued could be purchased in any motor park in the country, we know all these and more, but we will not barge into the hotel rooms to maim your colleagues that are victimizing our friends and sisters, no, we will not act that rashly, and that speaks volume for our self-comportment given the bad rap we get in the press, we also will not seize the cars of some of your colleagues that send us to queue up for gas at the stations all day, and night, no, that will be taking the laws into our hands, we are unhappy with the lack of respect and civility that flows from many of your colleagues, a misplaced aggression towards poor students; those that are still trapped in this shell, whose parents are unable to send to colleges across the Nigerian border. I thought those colleagues of yours that are later day imitators of that VC in Kano that forced us to lose an academic session in the 90s, a whole academic session as we say, in the name of striking for better pay but turned around to accept a job from the same government that he fought in spite of that strike not achieving anything. You know, it is for such religion was invented, the parking lot for the things we just can not help and/or change. For all the dons that have abdicated their responsibilities we hand over to a higher force – the natural laws of life that transcends creed!
Finally, may we thank you for this letter, the humility that comes with the apology is noted, and we shall bear our pain in the face of our helplessness knowing that you represent a thinking majority that have been hijacked by the rascally few. Is that not the bane of our society? We thank you, we hope this channel remains open with a view that one of these days, we’ll build a critical mass and push away the crazy bald heads out of this town!
Best, Your Students |
Obododimma Oha
Thanks for your post, Okwy. I suspect the line you referred to is: "I know I have failed you in a number of ways and must take responsibility for your inclination to look for heroes among politicians, armed robbers, kidnappers, and other groups that do dark things." I wonder how what I have written in that sentence is condescending when it is a well-known fact that some (if not many) students in Nigerian universities who have been arraigned for crimes that include armed robbery and kidnapping. The sentence I quoted is simply saying that the failure of the student is also partly the failure of the teacher. That is a tested fact. Or are you saying that some students have not failed in some ways?
If you read "An Apology to My Students" very closely, you will discover that the idea of looking for heroes among the bad and the ugly is not necessarily a generalization, but part of the expression of regret that one's students may have felt disappointed in one's conduct on the job and would not be completely blamed if they misbehave. It depends on how the assumptions your subscribe to, plus the obvious bitterness you bear against university lecturers in Nigeria, allow you to recognize where I am cautiously going.
Okwy, you don't have to be rigid about these issues, as some list members have advised. Imagine me, a striking lecturer, choosing to flog myself the way I have done. What else do you want?
ASUU members are NOT a bunch of trouble makers. Recognize the fact that they have been pushed to this unfortunate limit by the bad government in our country. Moreover, the parents we sympathize with don't seem to be doing much to resist the mess in Nigeria. Why should we continue to accept the rubbish we are given by gangs that rule Nigeria?
Thanks for reading me.
-- Obododimma
Tony Iyare
The Guardian, Lagos, Nigeria. September 17, 2009. Op-Ed Pg 59 Gaffe in Gani’s epitaph? By Tony Iyare He was undoubtedly very fastidious about virtually everything around him. But like Alexander Pope, I’ll contend to the death whether he ever perused a draft of his epitaph. If he did, he would have faulted the inscription on his tombstone, Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, Lion of the Legal Profession because it appears to circumscribe his immense contribution while with us. Those who crafted the epitaph of acclaimed human rights icon and legal luminary, Chief Abdul Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, who kicked the bucket penultimate Saturday at 71, obviously do not seem to have done justice to the profound essence of his life. From putting his life on the line to defend our rights and freedom, to deploying the edge of his tongue in the absence of a gun, to checkmating our largely insensitive leaders and their anti people policies, we are celebrating the life of a man who was constantly in the vanguard of galvanising the people. He never wavered from the case of Andrew Obeya who seduced the wife of a worker to Kuje. He was a colossus in the people’s court. For us to savour a better life, Gani was constantly detained, harassed and persecuted. He committed class suicide so that the poor can have armour. He inhaled teargas canisters on our behalf and became sidelined with cancer of the lungs for our sake even though he neither smoked nor drank. So who wrote that epitaph that wanted us to remember Gani only within the precincts of law? Were the lines hurriedly gabbled by a member of the family? Was it the idea of operators of the funeral home? Or was it the sole input of the sculptor who worked on the bust? Is it not intriguing that a man who lived constantly in the eye of the storm on behalf of the people would end up with an epitaph that excludes them? We need to understand that epitaph writing has become too elevated to have been left as some footnote. If we must make mincemeat with any, it certainly cannot be that of Gani, reputed as a foremost masses’ advocate. Apart from bearing only little striking dialection between its form and content, that epitaph on Gani’s tombstone undermines his larger than life image in the struggle of the people against the antics of unpopular governments. It says little of his epic battle to give voice to the voiceless. It is a poor summary of his bold imprint in the struggle for emancipation by the Nigerian people. It is purely reductionist and tends to obfuscate the larger and perhaps more significant contribution of Gani as a renowned people’s advocate. Although he was a brilliant lawyer who handled a record over 5000 cases, many of them pro bono, my fear is that we may end up with only a thin line separating him from other equally cerebral lawyers if we confine his tombstone strictly to his legal achievements. What distinguished Gani from other renowned lawyers was his unique role in wrestling the profession from the near exclusive purview of the aristocrats to the court of the plebeians. For this he attracted the wrath of the cabal of the bar who erected brick walls against his donning the silk. Even though he ought to have become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) more than 20 years ago, he was only conferred with the title by the Legal Practitioners and Disciplinary Committee after it became an embarrassment that one of the greatest icons of the legal profession had been unjustly accorded a leprous embrace. He democratised the law profession by popularising Supreme Court Judgements through the publication of the law reports. Hear his narration in this interview with the now rested National Interest shortly after he was made Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2002, “Time was when only seven people were given judgments of the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court….. I got two of my friends, Chief Debo Akande and Kanmi Isola Osobu, we got the protest signed by many people and we protested that the judgment of the Supreme Court should be made available to all and sundry. Could you imagine on a Monday, we would come to court…and we would not know what the judgment of the Supreme Court was last week or two weeks ago or one month ago. And those seven people who are privileged would come to court with photocopies of the judgments; they would win their cases, not because they are more competent than the others but because they had peculiar access to judgments of power. Even judges would be asking them in the open court, “Mr. So, So and So, could you give me a copy of the judgment?” So they created a cabal of powerful people’’. He explored his legal prowess in the defence of the downtrodden, human rights, democracy and the advancement of the Nigerian society. His frontier was beyond the confines of law in the mould of the dictum of the country’s first lawyer, Christopher Sapara Williams that a legal practitioner lives for the direction of his people and the advancement of the cause of his country. He also drew his radical inspiration from the works of icons like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela, all lawyers who deployed their legal erudition and arsenals to the cause of their people. In Gani’s prosaic words, “a lawyer is not just a bread and butter person. He is not a man who is engulfed and wrapped up in A versus B that is said in court or reduces everything to file and money making. If the people are suffering, a lawyer must be the first to fight to ensure that the suffering is removed. If they are poor in the midst of plenty, a lawyer must find the source of that suffering and fight it so that the people will enjoy the fruits of society’’. No doubt, Gani fought in the courts like a lion but he did that in his view to protest the growing infraction of the rights of the “poor, the needy, the persecuted, the neglected and the cheated” in society. Just a few days before Gani’s final hour, my kids and I held court over some lines of The Choirmaster’s Burial, a poem hinged on how not to dictate the mechanics of honouring oneself . After playing many to their dead, this accomplished choirmaster according to the poem, requested for Mount Ephraim to be sung around his graveside when he finally passed on. The congregation did not see any reason not to grant his wish. Unfortunately, the great choirmaster died in the dead of winter, making it impossible for his wish to be carried through. So he was buried without any tune. I do not know whether he knew the lines of The Choirmaster’s Burial, one of my favourite poems but suspect that because he lived fighting to enthrone a just and egalitaritarian society and pitching for the cause of others, Gani never bothered to write his epitaph like Thomas Jefferson who not only crafted his but also designed his tombstone or Alfred Nobel, who saw a premature version of his. As one of the founding fathers of America, Jefferson had no illusion about how he wanted to be remembered. Author of the Declaration of Independence, Author of the Statutes for Religious Freedom in Virginia and Father of University of Virginia, he wrote as his epitaph. But for the fact that he heard a premature version of his epitaph which described him as a ‘’munitions man’’, Nobel, the inventor of the dynamite may not have conceived of the Nobel Prize. Either as a way of seeking penance through an act of contrition or he got some revelation on his way to Damascus, it was clear to Nobel that he didn’t want to be remembered as a man who invented one of the most lethal tools of warfare. Dr Tai Solarin, renowned educationist and social critic did not leave the writing of his epitaph to whimsical guess either. Days before his feet began to fail, he had scribbled and tucked it into the pocket of his son, Tunde. Here Lies Dr Tai Solarin who lived for humanity, were his lines. However, some like late elder statesman and former president, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe argued that it was indecent and immoral to write one’s epitaph as it amounted to dictating the path of your celebration after passing on. “That should be left to my country men and women”, Zik who cleverly avoided the fate of the choirmaster had counselled. It will be inconceivable for the legal profession to solely claim Gani after his death, the same way we will not abandon the epitaph of Soyinka to the literati if he eventually passes on. Or can we also afford to celebrate the lives of elderstatemen like Zik, Anthony Enahoro or Lateef Jakande merely as accomplished journalists? Many of us are still oblivious that even casket making is now a great art. If we had consulted the famous coffin makers in Ghana who make caskets in the mould of one’s contribution, they would definitely have produced a work of art that reflects Gani’s legal prowess and his great contribution to the cause of the people. They may also not need to look too far in their draft sketch as Akoto Ampaw, the Ghanaian lawyer reputed for championing the cause of students, workers and the underprivileged would have provided the ingredients. A more fitting epitaph that will readily encapsulates Gani’s heroic and towering contribution should read Here Lies the Foremost People’s Advocate. Iyare is Editor-in-Chief, The Gleaner news online. Tony Iyare .
Mobile Phone:: 234-803-304-6943, 234-702-809-1704,
Home Phone: 234-1-850-6335
E-mail: ehia...@yahoo.co.uk
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Okwy Okeke
Doc,
Thanks for keeping this line open, however, we are taken aback by your comment. We thought the first and last paragraphs of our reply paid sufficient tribute to you and your co-travellers that are bringing some reason to bear.
To the other issues you raised - we were miffed at your generalization that is based on less than 1%, probably less than 0.001% of students' behavior, that can't stand the test of statistical extrapolation, it is insignificant and immaterial in the scheme of things to be brought up, and by the same measure we will not tar all academics because of the acts of the insignificant minority that give them a bad rap, besides, it is not institutional, unlike the issues we raised over admission racketeering.
To quote you, we are all for refusing the rubbish from the politicians, however, we insist on due and fair consultation if ASUU is to legitimately claim representation, we also plead with you and your colleagues to rethink your actions with our unsympathetic government as we bear the brunt of your annual wrestling tournaments.
One of your past executives did a great calculation of what a senator earns over and above the university professor though failing to present the income stream accruable to a professor's ward that was illegally admitted and/or passed through the system which by conservative estimate runs at over USD1.5M (that is at about USD35K/year), biased onlookers may see this as hair-splitting, but wouldn't it be wonderful if you come to Equity with clean hands in order not to accept the rubbish from the politicians?
Our position is not rigidity, it is the cry from pinch of shoe as screamed by the victim.
We will leave matters at that until we see you again in class,... |
Okwy Okeke
Dear Sir,
To revisit this matter, we'll like to further clarify our position as it appears you may have misread us.
We are appealing to your humanity, not duelling like opposing attorneys that are paid to push positions. Our aim is to appeal to professors like you to walk away from this endless war with government that produces more casualties than gains.
An investigation into war crimes against the Palestinians in the last round of fighting between IDF and Hamas is a case in point - though it is no secret that Hamas did use human shields, hide arms and fighters in Mosques and international aid agencies locations, the world is still clear that bombing such locations constitutes war crimes, simply by reason of the level of non-combatant casualties. We appeal to you and your co-travellers, those that are morally astute enough to condemn the bombing and strafing of Biafran minors and non-combatants in churches, markets, and international agencies locations, and also cried out against the policy of "hunger as a fair weapon of war" irrespective of whose ox was gored, to consider the human impact/casualties of these annual strikes.
Reading your life experiences, we clearly see that you have always been counted on the side that understands that restraint and/or careful approach to complex matters, especially when the lives of non-combatants are at risk which by no means distracts from the legitimacy of some of your demands.
We do not expect reason from those that will rather murder children and infants to win a vain war, nor understanding from those that will waffle rather than call out a war criminal, so like Bernard Kouchner founded MSF to save lives that Britain would want the world to disregard, we pray you shun the deafening screams of the callous and show us some mercy.
See you in class soon...
Best,
Your Students |
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toyin adepoju
Qansy Salako
[QUOTE] “Valuable contribution from Okwy but on his point on what Profs in Nigeria gain from illegal activities,how widespread would that be to merit being part of the calculation of a Nigerian prof's salary?” [UNQUOTE]…Toyin Adepoju
Toyin, my brother;
Valuable contribution?
Is Okwy’s contribution valuable by logic or by interpretation of our national events as they impact the current deplorable state of our universities?
Forget about illegal activities on campus being committed/perpetrated by few Nigerian professors.
In fact, assume that every dean collects N100,000 on each student they admit to their faculty.
Assume that every lecturer sells handouts and sleeps with their student (make that to include women lecturer vs. their male student).
Assume that every lecturer lobbies for political office and sells their intellect (like Omo Omoruyi) to hand the country over to vagabond citizens for destruction.
Assume all that.
Now, I am interested in reading your own logic as to:
1. Why you would expect a prostitution brothel to produce noble pimps.
2. Why lecturers should just continue teaching students like a clock and at the same time we’re all crying over the quality of education that they are receiving. Why the fault of interruption to students’ education rests solely on the shoulders of lecturers who are themselves struggling to make ends meet materially and intellectually.
3. How lecturers could run their universities by simply sourcing funding privately and outside the reality of a form of government existing in their country.
4. How our universities can transform themselves into ivy league and technology age without some central infrastructures in accordance with some national grid and security?
You may respond to these questions as a family, I just itemized them for sake of clarity and to guide your thoughts.
The reason I direct them to you is that you have expressed some sentiments for the position of blaming Nigerian lecturers over the plight of the students and I happen to expect a good logical flow of thoughts from you.
Thanks.
QS
toyin adepoju
I also am not comfortable assuming all those horrors about Nigerian university lecturers,even as an imaginative exercise.My memory of Nigerian lecturers,including those who taught me in Nigeria,will not allow me to do that.
Okwy Okeke
Toyin,
The illegal activities are widespread, and institutionalized, admission for instance, therefore criminalizing the system.
Admission racketeering accounts for significant number of fresh intakes, this varies widely between departments I must add. Medical College for instance ranks pretty high up there, between Staff, HoD, Dean, Provost, VC, etc admission lists, we have a bazaar that admits unqualified students, and that is different from the internal course switch bazaar, do we need to go on?
U of Illinois which incidentally is my present location is going through its admission racketeering cleansing process that by many accounts at the public hearing appears a mickey mouse play in comparison to what we have, hopefully ASUU members that love to take a cue from the West will start some house cleaning today which is never too late.
Cheers,
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