ASUU has been on strike now for months. Some cowboy bankers, whom I refer to as yahoo yahoo bankers have been playing funny with the banks they are supposed to manage. They have either given out unsecured loans to friends and cronies or coveted the money into their own pockets, living beyond their means. The Nigerian government through Sanusi, the new CBN governor had doled out about N400 billion naira to rescue the banks, and now it has also dished out another N200 billion to rescue some other fragile banks in the country. The perpetrators of this heinous act, who were about to put pain and agony on the faces of the poor and unsuspecting depositors, were arrested and detained, but in a typical Nigerian melodrama, most, if not all of them, have been released on bail. They are not likely to get back to detention; not on the account of that offence any longer. The media show has been used for some credibility gimmick; Farida Waziri of the EFCC has done some bravado and gained some political mileage from the detention and trial shows; and life has gradually resumed back to normal for the bankers and their detractors.
A paradox of governance in Nigeria is that a government that has no money to increase the funding profile of Nigerian public universities, has suddenly found billions of dollars to rescue some banks from failure, which was due to the deliberate irresponsible and criminal behaviour of some bankers and their collaborators. It is not only the bankers that are smiling. Militants in the Niger Delta are also having a field day. They have used the strength of counter-force - a tactics well understood and deployed by the Nigerian state to negotiate and extract material concessions and largesse from the state. Nothing looks juicier these days than to be a militant. A recent piece I read in The Guardian, the writer satirically titled his/her article, 'Mr. President, I am a Militant". A nation that keeps its children out of school, but curdles and subsidises those who steal and hold the gun, is a nation that defines no future or prospects for itself.
The crisis in the Nigerian university system and the response of ASUU to it, is another issue altogether. To say that there is a crisis in the Nigerian University system is really an understatement. As someone who was part of the system for about two decades; as an ASUU activist who followed ASUU around the length and breadth of the country, even to the point of risking my life, I am well positioned to appreciate the magnitude of the problem. But in an article I wrote around 2004 titled "Beyond the ASUU Strike", there is need to appreciate the enormity of the problem and the solutions we may suggest to it. My argument in that piece was that the crisis in the public university in Nigeria has taken a life of its own. Although, it was a crisis triggered by the state given the onslaught on the university system especially by successive military regimes in Nigeria, but the crisis has assumed new and frightening proportions. The crisis now has both internal and external dimensions.
It is true that public universities are not well funded; but it is also true that there is tremendous corruption, perversion and stealing in public universities in Nigeria especially by university authorities. There are universities in Nigeria located in capital cities that run multiple campuses, generate funds running into billions of naira, but cannot boast of standard facilities, equipment and conducive learning environment. Many vice chancellors have become demi-gods and have built fiefdoms for themselves; a merit based reward system is lacking in the system; what matters for professional mobility is not sound academic prowess, but proximity to the vice chancellor and his cronies. A George Bush mentality reigns in the governance of many universities - "you are either with the vice chancellor or against him/her". Intellectual discourse, critical dialogue, ideas contestation and vibrancy of knowledge production have become anathema to university culture in Nigeria. An anti-intellectual environment has emerged in the Nigerian public university, for which it is a crime to be knowledgeable. A few years back, when Dr. Segun Osoba was retiring from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), and a colloquium was organised in his honour at the University, he was asked why he was leaving the system despite not being of retirement age. His response was very moving. Osoba, said, "I saw the university system grow, and I contributed to that growth. Now the university is about to crumble, I do not want to be part of it. If I cannot save it, I will take my leave". In a dignified honourable way, Osoba retired from the University of Ife. Many more have also left!
Those we can regard as scholars in the Nigerian university system today have become few and marginalised; they are lonely but unpopular voices in a wilderness in which political academics, academic traders/contractors and academic bureaucrats are the lords of the manor. I would share with you two sets of generational cases, in which those who give pride to the system are pilloried and victimised. Abdul Raufu Mustapha and Jibo Ibrahim are some of the most profound political science scholars on the continent. Given internal politics and squabbles at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaira, both of them were frustrated out of the system. Jibo Ibrahim, a brilliant and refreshing academic, is today being underutilised as the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), in Abuja, and Abdul Raufu Mustapha had to leave for England to continue his academic career as a university don at Oxford University. Two younger generation scholars - Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare were also equally frustrated from the Universities of Ibadan and OAU respectively, and are now academic migrants teaching in American universities. Scholarship is seriously endangered in the current conjuncture in the Nigerian university system.
What is the point that I am trying to make? My argument is that ASUU struggles will have to proceed at two levels. The first level is to legitimately demand for better funding from the state in order to allow the system to run. Without adequate funding the system cannot survive and grow. The second level of the struggle is to engage in internal cleansing of the system. ASUU must demand for accountability and transparency in the management of university funds; a reward based system must be instituted, which allows the best and the most engaging minds to flourish, and run the system; while also ensuring a restoration of the academic essence-critical discourse, and vibrancy of ideas and knowledge in our ivory towers. Our public universities are fast losing their strength and vitality, which we cannot be indifferent to.
ASUU is presently at a critical conjuncture in its history and struggles. Its demands have to be more inclusive and reflective. It must be willing and prepared to confront the internal challenges in the system and make critical reappraisal of the dynamics. The fact that the government for several months has not responded to ASUU demands, is raising questions about perceptions of relevance and priority. With the existence and flourishing of private universities, the university landscape has changed dramatically. ASUU cannot afford to be indifferent to this development.
The demands of ASUU are legitimate, and the government must respond to them. It is not a demand to subsidise bank Robin hoods; it is a demand for the present and future of the younger generation. But to whom much is given, certainly much is expected. ASUU must question and challenge the internal configurations in the Nigerian university system.
By:
Dr. Adejumobi, Associate Professor of Political Science, and African Governance Expert lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment