Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU: Moderator's Caution

In response to the stage this recurring discussion of years has reached on this group, there is so much I would like to say about the role of the Nigerian university system in my life, in terms of the tension between the ideal and the actual.

In my time as an academic within that system, I demonstrated, through my own actions, aspects of what was good and bad about the system, as well as being a victim of the bad.

I was compelled to go  university through a combination of force and persuasion enabled by my long suffering mother and friends I made in the course of my family's resolve to compel me to attend  university.

 I saw and largely still see the globally dominant  educational system, of which the Nigerian system in its philosophical foundations and methods is a subset, as an escapist response to the fundamental challenge of the quest for meaning that defines human existence, an escapism ignoring the imperative of seeking to know or at least respond reflexively to the fact of being travelers on a journey of which the purpose is unknown, the point of entry on the journey little understood   and its time of proximate termination and  cessation or  continuation from that point  unknown, preferring instead to dally attention on incidental issues emerging in the course of the journey, forgetting the larger picture.

In the light of that fundamental philosophical failure represented by the foundations of the educational system, a failure arising from social and epistemic tensions in the culture where this educational system originated, the  West's inability to develop a broadly appealing alternative to the strictures of religious culture it had escaped through the Scientific Revolution, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, I resolved to educate myself, beginning in a grounding in comparative religion and philosophy, centred in practice of spiritual disciplines in order to penetrate to the metaphysical core of existence.

I wonder how I expressed these ideas as a teenager in Benin-City with only a secondary school formal education feasting voraciously on books in his family's library.It made little sense to most people. My sister, three years younger than me, later on in life described  my articulations on this subject at that time as sounding to her as  intelligent but meaningless.Some other people saw me as needing psychiatric attention.

I stop here. If I write further, I might never post because I will not be able to gather the energy to edit the resulting larger text. The subject brings up a complex of responses I need to sift through.

I close, though, in recalling those lecturers in my BA in the Department of English and Literature at the University of Benin who, through tireless efforts with struggling resources,   brought out the best in a system which I still consider significantly, if not profoundly inadequate, even in its global expression.

thanks

toyin

On 21 August 2017 at 02:27, 'Malami buba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

TF,

It's a different kind of aspiration with academic life, I think. If you keep at it, and go through its rigour, the best essay and a good lecture are part of its spending money. And N500k in Sokoto, for example, is not a bad wage for the level of exertion demanded of us! 

The trick, I think, is to have a significant number of good people, who nurture and channel aspirations into a different but equally fulfilling pathway. At 17, Prof Shehu Galadanci was my VC and role model. As a student, then, I used to stand very close to his parking space to catch a glimpse of the great man. He didn't know this then. He knows now. Collette Clarke introduced me to Hamidou Kane and Albert Memmi, Late Dr Shehu  Lawal forced us to buy Fanon and Rodney after our first History lecture, at which he asked all of us to 'keep our religion outside', and so on. 

Fast forward today, Aspirations and inspirations of my junior colleagues are outside, in spite of our continuing presence (and relative success) inside. In that sense, we've all failed by our inability to pursuade colleagues and former students that there's more to life than 'a meal ticket'. 

On the other hand, most of the VCs I know now cannot match Galadanci's humility, presence and straight back at 80+!  And I'm sure you know many of your friends and former mentees who possessed all the bounties in 4 … and  counting … 

I may be wrong.

Malami

 

On 20 Aug 2017, at 18:36, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Malami:

I need your help

1. Can you stop a lecturer not to aspire to own a jeep and a big house?
2. How did this aspiration emerge? Can we say the Unions created them?

3. Once one buys into those aspirations, where does the money come from?

4. Is the successful lecturer the one who writes the best essays and teaches with dedication or the one who sources for the jeep and the big house? 

TF

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 20, 2017, at 8:50 AM, 'Malami buba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Dear Moses et al,

It helps to spread the net a bit wider, and you'll find at the centre of this continuum/cycle of degeneracy a failed society/system. Its capacity for self-harm is only matched by its ill-will towards decent men and women.

You'll be surprised at the number of VCs, who became, for example,  ministers and MDA CEOs - after a lifetime of student activism and ASUU conradeship in the precious decades. As students, they led local and national unions with the (financial) backing of state and national governments. As academics, they turn their attention to the 'big picture', in order to deflect our attention from massive local frauds and other illegalities. Rare is a union leader who raises specific local  problems of staff and students with the VC (the one and only management that counts)! 

You can now begin to see the connection between the various crumbling structures of a failing society at all levels. Local cases of sexual harassment, cash-for-answers, contract inflation and forgeries are too close to the authorities, i.e student leaders, union leaders, the VC and ultimately the power brokers in the locality where the university is situated. Add the damage of zero perks to agitating staff and the picture of a union  of malfunction becomes perfectly formed! 

In my experience, the election of  a 'rougue' union leader, whose focus is the local issue of academic malaise and adminstrative incompetence is as rare as the metaphoric Hausa hab'o 'nosebleed'. Reforming this incestuous (your word, Moses) and incapacitating system requires the election and appointment of local 'nosebleeders'; but with Union leaders, who are also heads of departments and chief imams, there's a long, long way to go! 

(I know, because I am here, and have been (on/off) for more than three decades!)

Malami

On 19 Aug 2017, at 22:55, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

Oga moderator, are you saying that the ills of the Nigerian academy that we have been outlining are products of larger societal forces? If so, is that not a cop out and a recipe for inertia and helplessness? Do we wait until these larger forces are extirpated before we expect or demand better from ASUU and its members? That would be music to ASUU's ears. It would also amount to exculpatory pandering to our colleagues in Nigeria. Perhaps before your important questions come into play, we need to first persuade our colleagues to take responsibility, hold themselves accountable, acknowledge the enormity of the rot beyond the familiar rhetoric of funding, and quit being defensive.

Not sure I get the logic of the reference to Senators and the police. Are we wrong to expect that academics who write tomes criticizing the excesses of the two groups should do much better in their professional lives and in their obligations than those they criticize?

And what is odd is that many of our Nigeria-based colleagues seem to have two separate scripts on these problems, one private and one public. It is understandable, but it still rankles. In private, the defensiveness gives way to brutal honesty. You know this as well as I do. I guess their attitude is analogous to your "don't empower our enemies" and "don't ruin the chances of the honest ones who want to apply to things on this side of the water."

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 3:45 PM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Small  questions for you to move the argument forward:

1.  What forces and processes create values and habits that we find disturbing?

For instance, what forces produced the Senators we dislike, and the police that take bribes from us? How do we unleash counter forces and processes to eliminate those things? Why are you not asking me and you to do the reform?

2.  Can an institution, as in the police, reform itself or does it require greater forces outside of it to reform it?

3.  Can the abnormal not become the new normal if 2 does not occur?

TF

 

From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Shola Adenekan <sholaadenekan@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 1:29 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU: Moderator's Caution

 

Prof Aderibigbe, you said "Why don't we all go back home take over from the "never do good" Nigerian ASSU members and live happily thereafter and forever. Just a thought!" If I have a dollar for every time someone gave that response with regards to debates about ASUU's strike actions, I'll probably be a (US) dollar millionaire by now.

 

With due respect, what you wrote  above is a cheap shot. What people like Moses and I are advocating for is actually what we advocate for in Europe and America, which is that it is the duty of academia to be the guiding lighting for societies. It is our job to speak truth to power. What we call for is that ASUU needs to take a closer look at itself and examines its imperfections. University teachers should of course, be well-paid but earnings should be deserved. 

 

ASUU will get its members the pay-rise it is asking for, but what then? Will ASUU fight  the culture of nepotism within its rank? Will it tackle sexual harassment of students (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487380?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)? Will it address the frequent intimidation of junior colleagues and students(http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/students-lament-compulsory-handouts-tertiary-institutions/) ? And what about corruption within the university system (http://www.gamji.com/article6000/news7987.htm)?

 

 

Shola

 

 

 

On 19 August 2017 at 21:33, Ibigbolade Aderibigbe <gbolaade.aderibigbe@gmail.com> wrote:

On a comic NOTE Why don't we all go back home take over from the "never do good" Nigerian ASSU members and live happily thereafter and forever. Just a thought!!!!

 

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 2:09 PM, Moses Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

Nothing right wing about calling out the disruptive  antics of a tactically outmoded union, or highlighting the failings and hypocrisies of its members. Nothing exhibitionist about calling for introspection on the part of conceited colleagues or advocating on behalf of students and parents. Protecting the careers of that honest academic who wants to study in Canada is not as important as protecting the interests of abused, neglected, and poorly instructed students. Those who glibly patronize and justify mediocrity need to take a look in the mirror and recognize their complicity in a rot from which they are safely protected.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 19, 2017, at 12:28 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:

 

"We must always criticize, even express anger, but we must strike the balance, protecting those who do honest work in a difficult environment. And we must be aware that what we say can undercut the application of an innocent woman or man to a school in Canada."

 

 

Agreed.  Well said.  It also throws a shadow on a generation of Nigerian academics -  and not only students.

Don't feed the beast  through exaggerated, self-righteous,  rightwing, intellectual exhibitionism.

 

 

 

 

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
 www.africahistory.net

www.gloriaemeagwali.com

www.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html

Chief Editor- "Africa Update"

www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on

Africa and the African Diaspora

8608322815  Phone

8608322804 Fax

 

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Abdul Salau <salauabdul@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2017 4:24 PM
To: toyin
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU: Moderator's Caution

 

     
 

Any movement which adopts as its beginning compromise is doomed.

 

" The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.  "Frederick Douglass

 

Education just like other institutions in Nigeria such as marriage, family, health care, security, governance, and justice are dead..  What happened is that everybody is feeding on the dead bodies of these educational institutions.    Certain people with material and class interests are pleading for peace.  Where are the people advocating for peace for students, parents, and our country that has been abused and trampled upon by people without human compassion. Education was the first institutional infrastructure that was destroyed before other infrastructures collapsed on top of it.  Education is the foundation which all other things are built upon when it is destroyed symbols of its destruction are everywhere for people to see.   Evidence of the destruct ions are everywhere violence among youths, plights of migrants, kidnapping, corruption of political classes, judges, lawyers,  secession demands, religious fanaticism, ignorance, and anti-intellectualism of youths without socialization which  educational institutions provide. 

 

At this critical juncture when the leadership of ASUU is needed to train and socialize these youths to use their critical capacities to deal with problems confronting us as a nation.   Putting millions of youth out of universities at this time is a recipe for disaster at the highest scale.

 

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 1:15 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:

Difficult to caution discordant voices when things are beyond the pale. Let those who want to grieve do so. This is not a Nigerian problem; it is as global as education is the means to get things right.

 

And that globality is amplified even as the discordant and other voices compete for space in an unending conversation about where we wanna be!

---

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2017, at 5:33 PM, Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinibrahim891@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Toyin for your words of caution on our choice of words:

 

"We must always criticize, even express anger, but we must strike the balance, protecting those who do honest work in a difficult environment. And we must be aware that what we say can undercut the application of an innocent woman or man to a school in Canada."

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

 

On 17 August 2017 at 17:09, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Great friends:

 

Regarding ASUU, and the Nigerian university system, we must be very careful of the words we choose in presenting our disagreements. Words must always elevate, and criticisms must always be measured. Calling our colleagues corrupt, fake professors, rogues, sexual predators, harassers etc. etc., I think, represent word choices that we must not use, certainly not as an umbrella for all people. Our freedom stops where that of another person begins!

 

Our young men and women are mobile: they apply to graduate schools from London to Malaysia, Edmonton to Austin. We want them to grow, and this must be our mission. We want them to receive good education, and we must always protect their future. We cannot tarnish hard workers, honest school teachers who do their work diligently, and think that change will come. Let us identify the misfits and crucify them, but let us not lump the diligent with the corrupt.

 

From Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar to the University of Malawi, I have seen my colleagues carrying 200 scripts to grade—and better believe this, I even requested to join them in grading where the system allows me to. I use Skype to teach for free. The work is hard and difficult for some of  our colleagues, and we must not use words that will torment them. Our words must recognize their contributions to the continent. We are all in the space of underdevelopment, irrespective of our location.

 

Let me tell you personal stories. There is a lady that is based in Michigan State at the moment who narrated how one book that Ken Harrow gave her was decisive in launching her PhD program. I listened to the story and became emotional.  I once met yet another at the Nkrumah museum in Accra, and with three books that I sent to her, she was spurred and she wrote a statement for a PhD admission. She is writing the final chapter of her PhD in a top British university.

 

Nothing is wrong with our brains—it is our resources and how we allocate them that something is wrong with. Let us do small things. Our values may be compromised, against the background of globalization, failed modernity, and incoherent capitalism, but values are never stable—Saul became Paul!

 

We must always criticize, even express anger, but we must strike the balance, protecting those who do honest work in a difficult environment. And we must be aware that what we say can undercut the application of an innocent woman or man to a school in Canada.

 

TF

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

 

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
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/d/optout.