It is interesting to me that 9 new universities are announced, while the others continue to suffer from inadequate (an understatement at best) funding and infrastructure supports. Having studied and worked on Ibadan’s and Nsukka’s campuses and visited a few other campuses, I have some understanding of the continued unstable state of affairs for university faculty, staff, and students. This makes me uncertain about the logic in opening more universities without also attending in a substantial way to the existing universities. Obviously Nigeria has the population to make good use of the new universities, but how is this going to improve the quality of education for anyone, when everyone is so severely underfunded and what funding is available is often misused or the maintenance of facilities is woefully neglected? I applaud the individuals who do everything in their power to maintain the quality of education in spite of the economic, administrative, and political realities, but the system should be more accountable for itself. What is the “master plan” to improve the overall condition of Nigerian universities?
Sincerely,
Jamaine Abidogun
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mobolaji ALUKO
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 8:48 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Prof. Aluko,my condolences!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: ||NaijaObserver|| [Naijanet] Fwd: Prof. Aluko,my condolences!
To: Salihu Mustafa <salihumustafa@gmail.com>
Cc: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com, NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>, OmoOdua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>
Prof. Salihu Mustafa:
Top of the day to you!
Although I meant to write to you PRIVATELY, since you have now intervened in this matter PUBLICLY, I hereby PUBLICLY inform you that I INTEND to invite you to serve on my Implementation Team for the planning of the federal university of Otueke, in order for me to tap into your experience as both as a fellow Engineering Professor and a former Vice-Chancellor of another federal university in Nigeria. This is another small but worthy opportunity for you to serve Nigeria - but in Bayelsa State.
We have never met, but we have spoken on the phone once or twice before now, and have exchanged a lot of emails over a number of issues over the years.
So do save me the problem of writing to you privately, and accept or reject my offer publicly.
I look to read from you shortly.
Bolaji Aluko
Announced VC of FUO or OFU
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Salihu Mustafa <salihumustafa@gmail.com> wrote:
Toyin.
Though I do not like the situation described, that is, everyone for himself, however, I sympathise with the emotion that it evokes.
On the issue of inbreeding, I got convinced that it is not a good practice after listening to a public lecture delivered by an eminent medical doctor, a professor of medicine and former Vice-Chancellor.
In the lecture, he pointed out that any society, nation or institution that practices inbreeding will not progress. He drew instances of some diseases inherited which are propagated through inbreeding. In the lecture, he very well defended his policy of opening the doors of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria while he was the VC to all Nigerians and foreigners, both during admission and appointments. He also drew our attention to the fact that, America, convinced of this, and in order to avoid the menace of inbreeding, encourages immigration to the country and allocates quotas through lotteries to every region and ethnic group in the world.
And recently, keeping animals in the zoo was found to be detrimental to wild animals resulting in their gradual extinction hence, recourse to allocation of game reserves.
Toyin, it is indeed sad that these practices are partly responsible for the decline of Nigerian universities over the years, most of them prefer to cling to their primordal sentiments and unknowingly,sliding into oblivion, with none of them among the 1,000 universities rated in the world.
Malam Wane
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 2:06 PM, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> wrote:
Mallam Wane,
What is the level of commitment of the government to government funded universities in those places you compare with Nigeria?
How helpful to the creation of quality education is what you describe here " moreso, that, where federal universities are located citizens of the state tend to cling to them as their God given manna for which, they dictate both staff appointment and student admission into them, at the exclusion of other states".
I get the impression that you need to examine your argument more carefully.
On a less critical note, you seem to be demonstrating sensitivity to the culture of resource allocation in a place like Nigeria, where entities like local governments, states and universities might be created, not on the aspiration to maximum efficiency, but as a focus of access to resources.
Moving on from my challenge to you. I am asking the following question beceause I would like to learn from your opinion even though I agree with you. Why do think this is wrong:
"Indeed, I had occasion to point out to one of the older universities during a visit the folly of inbreeding there wherein, all the faculty of one department had obtained their first, second and terminal degrees from the same university in which they were working".
thanks
toyin
On 14 February 2011 12:52, Salihu Mustafa <salihumustafa@gmail.com> wrote:
Folks,
As always is the case, when others are looking at problems on the side
of a coin, others see opportunities on the other side of the coin.
indeed, creating additional universities- others will see as too many;
for us it is not. Reason. Uncle Sam's territory with population only
twice that of Nigeria, yet it has over two thousand degree awarding
institutions. Japan with population similar to Nigeria, has about 600
universities. Similarly, Russia has about 600 universities.
If Nigeria is to aspire to these developed nations, there is every
justification for us to build more degree awarding institutions.
The case of nine new universities, much as one will regard them as
political universities albeit, they are meant to bring balance and
parity in the location of tertiary education in every state; moreso,
that, where federal universities are located citizens of the state
tend to cling to them as their God given manna for which, they dictate
both staff appointment and student admission into them, at the
exclusion of other states. This is happening even in the older
institutions. Indeed, I had occasion to point out to one of the older
universities during a visit the folly of inbreeding there wherein, all
the faculty of one department had obtained their first, second and
terminal degrees from the same university in which they were working.
Coming back to Bolaji's new appointment, I believe he should take it
as a challenge, to bring his wealth of experienec from Uncle Sam's
territory and give a good start to the federal University at Otueke.
Consequent to embarking on this assignment, he may consider it
necessary, to extract few concessions from those he can extract, for
him to implement some policies similar to the way they are being
implemented in Uncle Sam's territory, for at at least the period he
will be in Otueke. If however he overlooks this, and goes along the
Nigerian path of doing things, I am afraid, I will have no option but
to withdraw my congratulatory message, sent him ealier, and
substitute it with the growing condolonce messages.
Malam Wane
On 2/14/11, bunmi fatoye-matory <bunmifm@gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Rahmon O. Momoh <rmomoh@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 1:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [Naijanet] Fwd: Prof. Aluko,my condolences!
> To: Ndubisi Obiorah <nobiorah@gmail.com>
> Cc: naijanet <naijanet@googlegroups.com>
>
>
> Anyone with commonsense will agree that creating new universities would not
> solve our educational problems. It's basically kicking cans down the road.
> Instead, the money would be best spent rehabilitating our schools. Maybe
> they should fire all the current VCs and appoint new ones, but the answer is
> not building new universities.
>
> Our universities started going downhill when general Obasanjo took over in
> 1976. Somehow baba Iyabo hates teachers. Maybe he was badly beaten by
> teachers when he was in modern school, but his hatred of teachers
> contributed to the demise of our educational system. Even when he came
> back, he continued his hatred by firing lecturers without due process, and
> refused to release funds to schools.
>
> If new universities are the solutions to our economy paralysis, that should
> have been achieved with the creations of new states. One of the main reasons
> for new states (like new universities) is to encourage economic growth by
> bring the government closer to the people. Obviously that experience has
> failed like a tailor in a nudist’s colony. Our problems have actually
> worsened with the creation of new states. The federal government spread
> itself too thin to be effective. I expect the same outcome with the new
> universities.
>
> The Bolaji I knew 15 years ago would have rejected this Greek gift. It is
> obviously an attempt to silent a progressive voice on the internet
> forum. Eight
> years ago, Bolaji literally saved Bola Tinubu when the INEC had different
> results on its web site while the public results showed that Tinubu had won.
> He also analyzed several elections that contributed to the success of the
> eventual winners. This appointment will deprive us of that opportunity.
>
> This forthcoming election will be like the last one, massively rigged. PDP
> knew that they have done nothing to deserve reelection, so they will do
> everything (do-or-die politics) to rig this election. Taking Bolaji out of
> the equation is a good first start.
>
> God bless Nigeria!
>
>
>
> Rahmon Momoh
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 6:28 PM, Ndubisi Obiorah <nobiorah@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Toyin Falola <toyin.falola@mail.utexas.edu>
>> Date: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 5:11 AM
>> Subject: Fwd: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Government appoints vice
>> chancellors for new federal universities, Prof. Aluko,my condolences!
>> To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>>
>>
>> From: a.dasylva@ibadanculturalstudiesgroup.org
>> 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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>
>
> --
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>
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