Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Responding to ASUU's Spokesman - Prof. Sola Adeyeye, Vice-Chair, Senate Education Committee

Professor Afolayan,

I have read and re-read Professor Adeyeye's response to the personal attack on him by the ASUU spokesman, Dr. Ajiboye (please sir, click here, in case you did not see it when Professor Bolaji Aluko posted it). You indict him for I guess bragging about his achievements, wife and family and then turn around to analyze and agree with at least 5 of his ideas, How can you say that a piece that has five substantive recommendations that you happen to agree with, is not substantive enough. Your standards are high sir, and I thank Olodumare that you were never my teacher. I would still be selling akara in the marketplace today.

First of all, what is there to brag about contributions to a tax-sheltered annuity. It is a defined contribution, for heavens' sake, not a defined benefit. You get what you and your employer put in, and as we know, may your ancestors help you during an economic downturn. If he had a defined benefit where he got a retirement salary for life regardless, and he talked about it, that would be bragging. And why should he not be proud of his children? What is so wrong with that? If he doesn't brag about himself, I am happy to do the oriki for him. There are professors and there are professors, Professor Adeyeye, my Awo, is a double professor. Let us not leave the sublime for the ridiculous sir, to quote the prof.

Dr. Ajiboye should be embarrassed. A cardinal rule in mass communication is to be sure of your facts. If you are going to mouth off, you better know your facts. Knowing Professor Adeyeye, if ASUU's mouthpiece had called him about his drop-dead gorgeous and uber-smart kids (they are!) he would have supplied him all the facts plus receipts. Some people are just lazy. Pay me, he brays, he doesn't want to do the job. Professor Adeyeye is miles above that yeye man's pay grade, let him face me, his equal in the trenches, I will show him where his sun doesn't shine. Nonsense.

 

I do thank you for seeing much value in what the prof has written. There is nothing original in our educational system, so Professor Adeyeye has a right to point to other models. Dedicated taxation is a popular way of raising funds for just about anything in the US. Some institutions and/or school districts even have taxing authority. So, a taxation on imports dedicated to education is not far-fetched. Professor Adeyeye's analysis shows up ASUU and the government as both unserious entities. This is the first time someone has seriously talked about funding sources. In my local government area, or county, here in the US, the local government is responsible for the bulk of the funding of our operating budget ($2.2 billion) and the capital improvement program (CIP) budget ($1.55 billion over 6 years). By law, the operating budget alone cannot be less than the previous year's. it is the law, And the budget is over 50% of the local government's budget. It is the law. When you add the annual CIP, it is close to 60%. Those on the expenditure side (management and union) are just as interested in the numbers as those on the revenue generation side. That is the model that Professor Adeyeye is familiar with and he is saying, perhaps it should be tried. 

What is sad about all this is that absent the systematic looting of communal funds by all and sundry, Chief Obafemi Awolowo's vision of universal primary education could have been extended all the way to the tertiary level. I personally believe in a free and affordable public education from kindergarten through college. It is too late now for all that. We do not have the money and we must think of ways to tax ourselves, to borrow the money (yes, you will have to float bonds, etc.) ASUU is invested in this 19th century culture of entitlement and privilege. Those days are gone, folks. 

Ideally, people should be asking hard questions: Where are the demographers for projecting enriollment? Where are the budget specialists for each institution? Where are the strategic plans, annual budgets, etc? Maybe it is me, I worry too much, but if these academicians know how much damage has been done to our institutions by various ASUU and government regimes, they would be asking for heads to roll and for real work to commence. And mark mu words, there will be no progress unless ASUU is decentralized and the punishing cookie cutter approach that penalizes all students is ended, Four months of indolence, no position paper worth reading from either side, we are here making cute little petty comments about each other. That is sad.

Finally, I must admit to a certain pessimism, having listened to much of what has passed for debate on the subject. There is no immediate future for relief. ASUU will get something and the old dispensation will continue. If you are too poor to escape their clutches, too bad. Hope that your offsprings' offspring are lucky. What is happening in Nigeria has happened elsewhere. It is gentrification of the worst sort. It happened in America, remember? The thugs came from England, raped and pillaged the place, and America was built, On the backs of Native Americans and slaves. It will take 500 years of this bullshit for Nigeria to become a nation of equal thieves. Then, the accountability systems will be built. Until then, let us continue to jaw-jaw and in private thank Orunmila that our children were spared this hell that belongs to other children. 

I have said my own. My children are not there. They are away from the scene of a most heinous crime. I thank my ancestors on their behalf. God will judge ASUU's case, insha Allah! Be well, sir.

Na me,

- Ikhide

   

 

On Monday, October 28, 2013 5:34 PM, Michael Afolayan <mafolayan@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Reading this posting of Professor Sola Adeyeye further underscores the pettiness of Nigerian politics and the sickening model of what the Yoruba call "ignoring the deadly leprosy while giving undue attention to mere skin rashes!" But to be fair, I have to say I am not privy to the relationship between ASUU and/or ASUU's point person and Senator Adeyeye, which precipitated this unpleasant write-up. I did not follow the conversations that generated this response; if there was one on this discussion group, I missed it. In all honesty, it may have been a part of my huge gallery of spam mails (I know if I saw the name "Adeyeye," I would most likely be drawn to that mail). Therefore, that I may not become an "agbejo enikan dajo" (one whose judgment is based on a one-sided appeal), which would always make one's judgment to be seen as warped, I should just make a surface comment here.

 

 

With due respect to him as among the finest of them all, the exalted Senator from Osun (my gentle state) stretched and overstretched the micro and the petty at the precarious expense of the macro and the fundamental! I seriously did not know what to make of the wasted valuable time of personalizing political insults from ASUU and having to showcase and defend his education, his IRA portfolio, his Duquesne appointment, promotions, salaries, his family (wife, children) – OMG!  The consequence? The intelligent politician now sounded like the rest of them, having been forced to spend only minimal time discussing the reality of the issue with ASUU and the state of higher education in Nigeria, which he, as an American trained intellectual, knows very well is a dangerous pendulum swinging out of balance, capable of snapping out of the socket of time!

Brother Sola: If you read this mail, I encourage you to go over your write-up and zero in on the part I've highlighted below. I have inserted comments in bold prints – parenthesized and underlined. It is in making the kinds of declarations you made here (not in the defense of your personal and professional life) that could earn you, as a politician, a great deal of dignity, and a place of honor, respect and authenticity in the pantheon of genuine politicians. Everything else gives the painful reminder of typical Nigerian politics that has done nothing but kept us crawling when even those naturally beneath us are already soaring high.

 

Here is my favorite part of it all . . .

". . . Now, even as I did during my contribution on the floor of the senate, let us direct our attention to some practical solutions to this most national pressing crisis. (Yes, practical solutions are what Nigeria needs and it would take literate minds to divert attention to such practical issues – please be aware that my definition of being literate has nothing to do with having been in school).

First, the National Assembly of Nigeria should henceforth appropriate at least 26% of Nigeria's current revenue to education alone (Actually, for a country with so much at stake in all spheres of development, a minimum of 40% should go for quality education – please, go and take a quick read of what the two most advanced nations in quality education are doing with their money – I am talking of Singapore and Finland) . Second, Government in Nigeria, especially the Federal Ministry of Education, has been denigrated into a beast of burden. The metastasis of asphyxiating bureaucracy demands the streamlining of the endless parastatals that drain resources while making little or no contribution to national well-being and progress. (Honestly, I do not understand this second point, but I am confident you know what you are talking about).  Third, to raise revenue for funding a national redemption program in education, all imports should attract a mandatory education tax of one percent. (I am not sure how this is relevant to quality education BUT, again, I trust your judgment on this as well, and until I am able to think and/or read more about similar models, I will say yes to your proposal). Fourth, beginning from January 1, 2014 till December 31, 2018, all workers in Nigeria must contribute 5% of their income as education taxes. Embezzling any amount of these revenues targeted for education should be taken as an act of treason.   This should attract the most severe penalty such as impeachment, imprisonment and perhaps death penalty. (AMEN! Actually, this should not just be a 4-5 year deal; it should be for at least a ten year period, which would make it easier to follow its rend of success or failure, and given opportunity for viable maturation. In addition, the severe penalty should apply to any and ALL forms of embezzlements and misuse of national monies. However, the notice of January 2014 is too short - 2015, may be).   Fifth, the costs for running the offices of all elected and appointed political office holders should immediately be pruned by 50%. Something tells me that the implacable demands by ASUU are fueled by resentment at the cult of obscene privileges which Nigerian politicians have become. But our task is to curb needless privileges rather than add to them. ((YES! And please remember to include the cancellation of the so called Ministries of First Ladies and the inexplicable stealing called "Security Vote!")

Finally, as a member of the Education Committee during my tenure in the House of Reps and now as Vice Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, I have almost always been the strongest advocate for the well-being of Nigerian universities. At a senate hearing not long ago, a chieftain of the Nigerian University Commission disparagingly lampooned academic staff of Nigerian Universities for depending too much on Government rather than obtaining extramural funding as is the case abroad. I was the one who immediately and robustly came to the defense of the academicians. I explained that the comparison was in error for two reasons. First, well funded private grant agencies like Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, Howard Hughes Foundation, etc do not exist in Nigeria. Second, it was egregiously incorrect to assert that most research grants in the USA came from outside government. I pointed out that the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the United States Department of Agriculture were Federal Government agencies from which principally fund research in science, health, and agriculture respectively. With the absence of such agencies in Nigeria, I submitted that it was unfair to blame the academicians." (Thank you; I am 100% with you! BUT Bro., it is for those same reasons that I have to call you out here for comparing your Duquesne experience with what the typical Nigerian university professors have to experience – often left high and dry to fetch for themselves – on their own)!   

In all, I say thanks for what you are doing. Be sure your conscience (the small, still voice) as well as your faith (those inner convictions) are still relevant in your MO, because politics and public service will come and go and there will certainly be a day of reckoning for everyone who participates in the ruining of Nigeria.

Blessings!

 

Michael O. Afolayan

(From Outside Looking In) . . .

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.