Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:36:44 +0000
Dear Prof. Aluko,
I am genuinely worried at your recent appointment as one of the VCs
for the newly created federal universities, and disturbed by the
avalanche of congratulatory messages from colleagues,friends and well
wishers. No doubt,you eminently qualify but that is not the issue. I
see a deliberate distraction by political schemers of the ruling
party playing on the naivity of the citizenry. Have you sat down to
weigh the implications of such political abracadabra the power of
pronouncing 9 universities into existence as if they were 9 bottles
of beer? I wonder where colleagues kept their memory and simply
jumped at celebrating a cleverly orchestrated Trojan horse or Greek
gift. On Federal appointments: Tai Solarin of the blessed memory and
the People's Bank, Wole Soyinka and the Federal Road Safety
Commission, Prof Sam Aluko and the National Economic Intelligence
Committee,etc., and most recently, Prof. Jega and INEC. The story has
been the same, frustration for lack of tools to work with, for lack
of the right people to work, undue interference from Government, etc.
The first three were deliberately nearly disgraced out of office. It
was their pedigree and good reputation they had built for themselves
over the years,their dedication and passion for their beloved nation
that bailed them out! Jega's is still a question of time, and that is
almost predictable, except there is a divine intervention. The case
of stolen DCMs, registration manipulations and other desperate moves
by the do-or-die politicians are mere tip of the iceberg. Sufficient
to remind Jega that being an academic or a former President of ASUU
does not make him a magician that is capable of running an efficient
INEC given the existing structure he met on ground.
Prof Aluko, you are more or less a moving encyclopedia of information
on Nigeria and as such possesses an impressive knowledge on how
Nigeria has continued to be misruled by the current ruling Party,so I
actually thought that you would turn down the offer on the grounds
that(1) creating a Federal university in every State of Nigeria is
the least of options to cater for many of our youth seeking
university admission,(2) existing Federal universities could be
better funded, expanded, and equipped to accommodate more
students,(3)the so called money given to establish each new
university is inadequate to develop a world class Faculty of Science.
Besides, don't be deceived as contractors appointed by the same
government agents are already laying ambush to pounce on the money so
that less than a third of the money will finally end up doing the
work on the site. If the project finally fails,guess who will carry
the blame? You of course. That is the tradition here. I think well
meaning Nigerians should insist that Federal govt should be concerned
more with making all our redundant refineries work, repair our road
network, make the trains move on our railways again, and find
permanent solution to electricity generation and distribution(4) FG
should create employment opportunities for our youth. Alas, a nation
without visionary leadership perishes. The well wishers,no doubt,may
have had good intentions,but it also puts a question mark on the
fragile principle of followership. How come suddenly we all forgot to
remind ourselves that most Nigerian universities have severally been
described as 'glorified secondary schools'! The same
proprietor-government of the Federal Universities no sooner than it
announced the creation of additional 9, that President Jonathan
suddenly turned a super hero, Ikole people were at war in the course
of which lives were,as usual,wasted! A country where every house is
its own local government- must produce its own water by bore hole or
buy 'pure water', must generate its own electricity, construct its
own road,provide its own security "vigilantes", will find it very
hard to convince discerning minds that creating additional 9 Federal
universities is capable of solving all the problems highlighted above
or remove the pathological greed in most if not all the serving
politicians in Nigeria.
My fear with your kind of appointment has always been that when good
people like you accept FG's Greek gift, you not only end up being
messed up, your credibility is all they need to legitimize the many
crimes they are committing on daily basis against all Nigerians who
do not belong to the ruling class.
So my dear brother Bolaji, I love you so much,but as things are right
now,my condolences.
Demola Dasylva
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
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