Re: {Disarmed} USA Africa Dialogue Series - Decapitated Academia and a Diminished Nigeria

Opinion

Recently, I wrote a poignant book review on Anyanwu's volume, The Politics of
Access: University Education and Nation-building in Nigeria, 1948-2000, that was
published in African and Asian Studies. Against the backdrop of this work (and
my observation of the country's tertiary education system as long ago as the
1960s), I find this submission to be very refreshing. Some colleagues in this
list have expressed their concerns over some of the matters raised in this brief
essay. I hope that these issues would be taken seriously—not only in Nigeria but
also other African countries that are facing a similar malaise.

Moreover, it might be useful to put together an encyclopedia containing a brief
bio of scholars listed here (and others) if one is not planned yet. I believe
such a volume would be an invaluable contribution to the history of the
country's educational development.

Ike Udogu
Happy New Year!






----- Original Message -----
From: "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, December 30, 2012 3:46 pm
Subject: {Disarmed} USA Africa Dialogue Series - Decapitated Academia and a
Diminished Nigeria
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Adagbo Onoja <adagboonoja@gmail.com>

> *Decapitated Academia and a Diminished Nigeria*
>
> By Adagbo Onoja
>
> As long as the world order rests on a system of nations, some
> nations will
> aggregate and project more powers than some others. What explains this
> hierarchy of ordination and subordination? Answers used to include
> population, geography, military capability, natural resources
> profile and
> land mass. Today, that is ancient International Relations. Military
> capability is still the fulcrum and ultimate guarantor of state
> power but
> it is not superior to leadership, knowledge power and a
> manufacturing or a
> productive economy in that order. That's the new International
> Relations.
>
>
> Let's take an example. In spite of her current socio-economic
> turbulence,the United States of America is still the greatest
> military power around.
> But its leadership of the post Cold War did not roar on the wings
> of its
> military capability but on its knowledge power.
>
>
>
> Nothing can subtract from Francis Fukuyama's brilliance but nobody
> can also
> deny that there is element of empire intellectualism in his 'End of
> History' as the paradigmatic edifice upon which George Bush's "New
> WorldOrder" was erected. And when it was discovered that something
> was missing
> from the Fukuyama edifice, Samuel Huntington entered the story. He
> took on
> Fukuyama in an essay titled, "The Errors of Endism". Subsequently,
> therewas a paradigm shift from endism to the "Clash of Civilisations".
>
>
>
> The point here is that, with these two gentlemen, the US won the
> paradigmatic warfare as all subsequent framing of the post Cold War
> wereeither agreements or disagreements with theirs. That is how a
> super power
> settled the paradigm tussle by deploying the intellectual authority
> of two
> of their best minds who though retained the scholar's autonomy even
> whileserving the system, consciously or otherwise.
>
>
>
> This US example was how we also started here in Nigeria. Remember
> the great
> methodological and theoretical revolt at Ibadan against European
> ethnocentrism, culminating in the Ibadan School of History, to
> mention an
> example. Then bring in the ABU, Zaria School of History which added
> valueto Ibadan's in the radical, if not revolutionary, direction.
> The leaders of
> the Ibadan revolt and most of the big names in that generation in the
> Humanities complex were, with few exceptions like Eskor Toyo and,
> later,Mahmud Moddibo Tukur, Festus Iyayi, etc, those referred to as
> bourgeoisscholars. But even then, they all located their
> scholarship in the mission
> of the Nigerian State, deploying the academic's toolkit to very
> patrioticends.
>
>
>
> By age and knowledge, I stand nowhere to produce any credible or
> exhaustivelist of that generation from the late 1970s to early
> 1990s but their first
> sub-set would include, among others, S.G Ikoku, Kenneth Onwuka
> Dike, Ade
> Ajayi, Takena Tamuno, Bolanle Awe, Saburi Biobaku, Emmanuel Ayandele,
> Adiele Afigbo, Ojetunji Aboyade, Pius Okigbo, Sam Aluko, Chukwuka
> Okonjo,Eskor Toyo, Billy Dudley, Eyo Ndom, Nkenna Nzimiro, Anthony
> Asiwaju, Wole
> Soyinka, Chinua Achebe (and the whole lot from the arts), Mahdi
> Adamu, Akin
> Mabogunje, Obaro Ikime, Saad Abubakar, Okon Uya, Mahmud Tukur and
> Eme Awa
> whom I understand to be the grandfather of Nigerian Political Science.
>
>
>
> Then the second sub-set would include the Peter Ekehs, Omafume Onoges,
> Claude Akes, Justin Tseayos, Fred Omus, Isawa Elaigwus, Bolaji
> Akinyemis,Ibrahim Tahirs, Ibrahim Gambaris, Ahmadu Jalingos, Kyari
> Tijanis, Bayo
> Adekanyes, Alex Gboyegas, Mahmud Moddibo Tukurs, Bala Usmans, Okwudiba
> Nnolis, Oye Oyedirans, Adiele Junaidus, Alaba Ogunsanwo, Aaron
> Gana, Sam
> Oyovbaire, Okello Oculi, Alfred Opubor, Biodun Jeyifos, Jerry
> Ganas, Omo
> Omoruyis, Humphrey Nwosus, Nur Alkalis, Asisi Asobies, Munzali
> Jubrils. I
> take liberty to include on this list the following names even
> though they
> were not formally academics/did not remain in academia. They are Liman
> Ciroma, Adebayo Adedeji, Alison Ayida, Patrick Dele Cole and Tunji
> Olagunju.
>
>
>
> Then, suddenly, we started vandalizing ourselves, humiliating our
> own world
> class academics, making the disgraceful statement that they were
> teachingwhat they were not paid to teach. Imagine a military
> commander entering a
> campus in the Western world to suggest that there were certain things
> academics there must teach and others they must not? You can say
> that for a
> military academy or a seminary because they have been set up for
> specificpurposes but not a university even as the universe of
> knowledge is not a
> license for madness. At the end of the day, very many of our best and
> brightest sought 'greener' pastures outside our own shores.
>
>
>
> Of course, there are still many scholars with international
> competitivenessin the system, from the Tanimu Abubakars, Abubakar
> Siddiques, Paul Izas and
> Toure Kazah Toures in ABU, Zaria to Okey Ibeanus at UNN, Iyayis at
> UNIBEN,Alemikas, W. O Allis, Sam Egwus and Pam Shas at UNIJOS,
> Mohammed Barkindos
> at UNIABUJA, Sunday Ochoches at the Nigerian Defence Academy to the
> SolaOlorunyomis, Oka Obonos, Adigun Agbajes and Eghosa Osaghaes at the
> University of Ibadan, the Ayo Olukotuns and Ralph Akinfeles at Lead
> CityUniversity, Ibadan and then the Abubakar Momoh and Odion
> Akhaines at LASU,
> Ochinya Ojijis at Nassarawa State University, Sule Kanos and T. M
> Babas at
> UDU, Sokoto, Umar Pates and Abubakar Muazus at UNIMAID, Yakubu
> Ochefus at
> Kwararafa University and the Ibrahim Bello-Kanos, Ibrahim Muazams
> and Muazu
> Yusifs at BUK. I take liberty to include Eddy Madunagu, Mathew Hassan
> Kukah and the late Stanley Macebuh on this list.
>
>
>
>
>
> Needless saying my listing is not exhaustive. Not only is it
> restricted to
> the humanities complex, it is also mainly those I can recall
> immediately as
> I write. There are many more brilliant minds out there even as
> hopeless and
> depressing as the overall university situation is. The question,
> however,is how many of even the few I can remember and mention
> immediately above
> are in the services of the Nigerian State as academics?
>
>
>
> Of course, Eghosa Osaghae is still solidly in academia, hopefully
> returningto Ibadan after a two term Vice-Chancellorship of
> Igbinedion University,
> Okada but that is no longer the case with Professors Sam Egwu and Okey
> Ibeanu. Osaghae, Egwu and Ibeanu constitute the troika who took
> over from
> Okwudiba Nnoli as leading authorities on ethnicity and ethnic
> conflicts. It
> is an unscientific mindset but not a terrible thing to say that
> whateverthey don't know on the various dimensions of that subject
> is not worth
> knowing.
>
>
>
> But where is Egwu now? He has been grabbed by the UN system. Ibeanu
> toothough with some roots in INEC. Rotimi Suberu, Jibrin Ibrahim
> and Raufu
> Mustapha who should bring up this list are either scholars outside
> Nigeriaor lost to international NGOs. It must be stated though that
> Ibrahim and
> Mustapha did not leave ABU, Zaria of their own will but under
> circumstancesthat are part of the crisis of university education in
> Nigeria. In a
> country where academics rarely return to the campus after extra-campus
> engagements, the outcome of all outward movements is predictable.
>
>
>
> Ibrahim Bello Kano will not leave Bayero University, Kano only
> because of a
> personal disposition. Otherwise, any university anywhere in the
> world would
> gladly open its doors to his extraordinary mastery of the domain of
> Literature. It is such that between him and Tanimu Abubakar, his
> supervisor, no one can say who the master is now. Their case is
> similar to
> asking who, between Eghosa Osaghae and Peter Ekeh, his supervisor,
> is now a
> more remarkable Political Scientist, whether in terms of inter-textual
> integrity or number of publications. There is also Professor
> Olawale Albert
> and his Peace Studies team at Ibadan, particularly their interesting
> experimentation with trans-disciplinarity.
>
>
>
> But these beacons in the system are not only too few, they also
> stand no
> chance of reproducing themselves within the context of existing
> universities. I asked Osaghae recently if he could say that he has
> reproduced himself. I am not sure how he answered the question now.
> I would
> certainly have remembered if his reply was a categorical yes. His
> answercould not have been yes because it is difficult, if not
> impossible, for any
> academic to reproduce himself within the university environment in
> Nigeriaof today. The reason is simple. In a rentier state like
> Nigeria, what
> matters most is mastering the grand strategies and the tactics with
> whichone can ease his or herself into the circuits that control oil
> rents, (the
> government and transnational oil companies mainly). In a context in
> whichwho you know is more important than what you know, knowledge
> is the first
> casualty. The students are very conscious of this. Hence their
> disdain for
> knowledge because they know they will never need knowledge, hard work,
> merit or talent to succeed in life. So, the academic labours in
> vain.* *
>
>
>
> The second snag is the complete reversal of the fact that, in spite
> of the
> tension between the Nigerian State and the early academics, they
> workedtogether substantially. The climax of this was when IBB
> arrived on the
> scene and harvested over a dozen intellectuals viz Eme Awa and later
> Humphrey Nwosu and Okon Uya, (election management), Akinyemi, (foreign
> policy), Isawa Elaigwu, (federalism), Nkenna Nzimiro, (industrial
> relations), Oyovbaire, (information management), Jerry Gana, (mass
> mobilisation) and many more. Before IBB, there was the late Shehu
> Yar'Aduain the practice of erecting power on in-house
> intellectuals. The twosome
> knew one thing or two about the meaning of power. Today, only very few
> politicians have that facility or the inclination.
>
>
>
> In contrast to that tradition of antagonistic co-operation between the
> state and the academics, there is now a state of permanent gulf
> between the
> two. With the godfathers, fixers and enforcers, who needs to clothe
> poweragain with paradigmatic sorties? Power is now sweeter if it is
> exercisedmost violently or crudely and nakedly. And once that is
> the case, the
> academy suffers because it translates to a state totally
> disinterested in
> especially the academics and functional universities.
>
>
>
> The other side of this same point is the closed nature of Nigerian
> universities. It is difficult to imagine that the University of
> Abuja would
> not seek out a Jibrin Ibrahim, an Okello Oculi, a Sam Egwu, a
> Yakubu Aliyu,
> our very bests in terms of rounded training and the spirit of
> academia and
> all of whom they know to be in Abuja. Above all, the platforms for
> networking are missing in action. We don't have anything like the
> NigerianPolitical Science Association worth the name anymore. Or the
> Sociological/Anthropological, Geographical or Economics etc
> associations.They can't be there and nobody hears them. Yet, these
> are the platforms
> from where scholars fulfil the requirement of shouting instead of
> murmuring.
>
>
> The theoretical deficit of current university education is the third
> worrisome dimension. Nigeria had an excellent tradition of challenging
> received paradigms and methods which all sub-sets of the first
> generationsuccessfully sustained. Apart from that, scholarship for
> its sake was
> contested. The radicals among them, in particular, essentialized
> anti-imperialism as the cornerstone of scholarship.
>
>
>
> This was the ABU School of History mentioned earlier on. All these
> wereproducts of deep theoretical grounding. Then came the World
> Bank and their
> great distaste for theoretically charged courses. In alliance with the
> Nigerian government through the NUC, they so adjusted the courses
> in a way
> that hit particularly at the theory component, imposing a deadening
> uniformity in course units for all the universities, from the first
> to the
> final year. It is a template too global to serve any purpose
> because they
> merely copied the template, unmindful of the historicity of the
> courses in
> those societies which produced the copied templates. One of the
> outcomes is
> graduates without theoretical grooming. But of what use is a graduate
> without that ability? What's the point in going to the university
> then?From which pool would academia reproduce itself?
>
>
>
> This is why Nigeria matches on without a knowledge industry.
> Predictably,it matches on a diminished Nigeria, totally
> dysfunctional manner,
> completely dependent on templates copied from others after having
> lost of
> competitiveness in ALL areas of life. It is an irony too complex to
> unravel, Nigeria being that African country most equipped by God to
> talk of
> a manifest destiny in the Black world.
>
> Personal website:
> www.farooqkperogi.com<http://www.farooqkperogi.blogspot.com>Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/farooqkperogi
> Twitter: @farooqkperogi <https://twitter.com/#%21/farooqkperogi>
>
> "The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being
> eitherproven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
>
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