Assensoh has begun by preaching a pan-African vision but concluded by arguing for the university to be cited in what I expect is his his native Ghana.
Dear All:
Some of us from outside of Nigeria --but still "Nigerians at heart", of course -- have been sitting on the sidelines with respect to the timely
and noble idea of establishing a Toyin Falola University (TFU), irrespective of where it will sited. In fact, this scenario brings to mind what
Ghana's late indomitable President Kwame Nkrumah nobly told his fellow African leaders in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, about the need
for Africa unity. As an important analogy, please permit me to digress a little bit from the main TFU topic, but for a good reason!
Historically, it had been agreed upon by the conscious African leaders (at the inaugural OAU conference in 1963) that the organization was to be
established to promote African unity, with Guinea's distinguished civil servant/diplomat Diallo Telli as its first Secretary-General. However,
there was a bickering rooted in selfish motives, which was to damage the active promotion of African Unity, including posturing for the head-
quarters of the proposed "United African States" to be sited in a particular country on the continent. There were many suggestions that were
embedded in dynamic speeches given by the Africa leaders present, most of them wishing that their respective countries would be able to host
the initial union government's capital. In his firebrand 1963 speech (which I digested for my NYU dissertation research), then Ghana President
Kwame Nkrumah -- echoing Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere's embrace of the idea, but on a gradual basis -- made it clear that while he did
staunchly support (or welcome) unity for Africa at any cost, he id not care where it would be headquartered, either in Cairo, Egypt or Bangui in
the Central African Republic (in Emperor Bokassa's future Empire). That was noble on the part of Ghana's then living ancestor (Nkrumah).
For a timely-proposed Toyin Falola University (TFU) to take off without ethnic-cum-clannish hitch, we need to embrace VC Aluko's noble idea (very much
"Nkrumaist idea") of siting the new university outside Nigeria and with a non-Nigerian as its first Head (i.e. VC , Chancellor or President). Thus, we do not
want a leader for a TFU, who can destroy it from within, and I know what I mean based on how President Nkrumah's socialist experiment in Ghana was
destroyed from within by the very close partisan political allies of the Ghanaian leader, individuals who were heaping "Long Live Osagyefo" and "Nkrumah never dies"
Young Pioneer praises and dirges on the progressive Ghanaian leader!
For example, when "Transition Magazine" of East Africa (Ugandan) was in a virtual intellectual coma on its way to a major literary stroke, it was moved to Accra, Ghana, and
our indomitable Professor Wole Soyinka was invited to be affiliated with University of Ghana and to serve as the Managing Editor. The selfless and distinguished literary leadership
given by Professor Soyinka, at the time, led to the healthy revival of "Transition Magazine", which is now proudly published by the Hutchins Center of Harvard University as
"The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora".
In fact, very seriously, some of us won't mind coming out of retirements and semi-retirements -- with emeritus accolades -- to help launch a TFU, possibly in Ghana, where I understand that
there is plenty of land for it from the royal family of the late distinguished Emeritus History Professor Albert Adu Boahen, whose majestic 2006 funeral in deep Ashantiland, Professor
Falola braced all odds to travel to Ghana to attend on behalf of ASA and many of his fellow historians. Of course, I also know several distinguished African scholars and living ancestors,
who can head the proposed TFU whenever it becomes a reality. Above all, I can see the Library and Museum of such a TFU being blessed with tons of SIR Toyin's own publications and the
wonderful archival materials that he and Lady Dr. Chief Bisi Falola own in their iconic Mouse Trap Drive home at Round Rock, Texas!
Please, count my family and me in for a hefty donation in both Ghana Cedis and "almighty" Dollar when the time comes for a TFU to take off. For that, I say Amen for the Christians among
us, but a healthy thank you in advance for our non-Christian brothers and sisters!!
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 7, 2018 7:26 PM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: Fwd: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Conference--Great thanks to Okey Iheduru on the offer of land for the proposed Toyin Falola University.
I admire the trans-ethnic initiative but Nigeria at the present moment is particularly volatile.
Is it not more realistic to seek security first and build idealism from that?
toyin
On 6 February 2018 at 15:33, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
Professor Aluko,
Your suggestions are indeed well taken although I have my doubts about having such a university outside of Nigeria - for the following reasons:
Thanks for your great insights, Sir.
I want to take this opportunity also to thank Prof. Pamela Smith for her nice, generous comments. Given the publication track record of the Pan African Univ. Press, I suspect that the proceedings would soon be available.
Gloria
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliProfessor of History
History DepartmentCentral Connecticut State University
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2018 11:14 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: ConferenceProf. Gloria Emeagwali:
First, I am a Chemical Engineer, not an Economist. I often have to make that correction - for filal reasons.
Secondly, the NUC publishes a document for the establishment of Private Universities, which shows all the hoops they have to go through. Company registration, money in the bank, Consulting and Registration fees, cost of land and facilities, and initial hiring of staff before a single student is admitted could easily cost N10 billion. Thereafter, depending on the number of Faculties and Programs, desired student population history, desired student to academic staff rstio, and non-academic staff to academy staff ratio, as well as operating costs, you may need another N2 billion per year. A private University cannot likely recover 10 percent from school fees. I would advise that the University raise funds by all ways necessary - donations, crowd funding, investments - but put away a substantial amount - say N5 - 10 billion - locked away in an investment account that should be depended on to pay for operating costs and significant scholarships fir students.
Setting up a Private University in Nigeria is not a tea party.
All in all, a University Establishment Implementation Committee should be set up to finetune all the above.
Finally, let me repeat what I wrote far below:. A TFU need not be considered for setting up in Nigeria.
Bolaji Aluko
Quote--
Prof. Aluko,
As a former VC and an economist, what would you consider a reasonable estimate for establishing a university in Nigeria? True this would differ according to location, cost of land, the number of faculties established and even the faculties themselves and ideology(Adepoju). Even so a working estimate would be handy whether the financing methodology is crowd funding, philanthropic donations or group investment.
G.
Unquote
On Monday, February 5, 2018, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
Okay Iheduru,
I was a 9-year-old when I first came to Igboland - to Nsukka ( now in Enugu State) tagging along with my parents. I was an 11-year-old when my father led av train of non-Easterners out of Igboland when, on the eve if secession, Ojukwu's government announced publicly that it could not linger guarantee the safety of nion-Eastterners. A few months later, my father was to return with a peace delegation led by Chief Obafemi Awolowoi to plead with Ojukwu and his advisers not to secede, to no avail. One thing left to another - a three year fractruicidal civil war that was completely. Just six years after the war ended, I was a 21-year-old when after my first college degree I did one-year national service at Aba ( then in I'm State, now in Abua State), where. I also did community service at Ohaioara (now in Ebonyi State). More than 40 years later, I still read about MASSOB.and IPOB, with episodical intellectual support herabouts.
No, Okey. I am not obsessed about Biafra, but I was involved in my own way. No, I did not hear bombs fall around me, or list relatives or known ones in dozens or in hundreds - I lost some but that is not disqualifying to have Biafra always in my view, if you know what I mean.
Nimi:
I know how politically correct we " Nigerian intellectuals" try to be in company, but I thought it was too early in the discussion for Country-squire Okey Iheduru to be offering his community land to TFU. After five years as VC in a community that offered 200 hectares of land in the hometown of the sitting President for a federal University, that University will not hear the last of that gift for 200 years! It will be a gift that must keep on giving, and that must be constantly explain it's purpose.
As to thinking out of the box, why must TFU be even in Nigeria, since it has a pan-African spirit? Ethiopia? The Congo? Yes, Rwanda!
Why not even the USA? Imagine a pan-African University in the US, set up largely by African emigres! What a story! We might get AU backing, - or eschew it if too intrusive.
And there you have it!
Bolaji Aluko
On Monday, February 5, 2018, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:
To say that I expected this angle to the idea of TFU would be an understatement, but I'm glad Prof. Wariboko understood my intent and has amplified and endorsed it here. Taking his intervention further, what a wonderful nation building master stroke it would have been last Friday had President Buhari renamed University of Abuja after the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme? Don't get me wrong, I'll take whatever gesture Nigerians genuinely extend to the former Vice President who we all agree was among the finer leaders we've had. Yet, it's about time we -- intellectuals -- start thinking outside the box.
And to my friend, Prof. Aluko, you seem to instinctively obsess about Biafra as a subject of curiosity; for me it was--and still remains--a lived experience. While you watched from the comfort of your middle class home in Ile Ife; or read from your father's daily supply of newspapers, I was an 8-year old in the thick of an atrocious war, from Imo River through Aba to Okigwe and Mbano. You'd do well to appreciate that Biafra is not an easy subject for many people, let alone an issue to be joked with. I'd like to invite you to review my posts on this list and tell me how many times I've commented or written about that war.
Imo State may be "land-starved" (hence, it's madness to demand for cattle colonies in that state), but not so much that we can't make some available for such a revolutionary pan-Nigerian/Pan-African university. It's worth remembering that Imo people pioneered the idea of private university in Nigeria in 1983, with Dr. Basil Nnanna Ukaegbu's Imo Technical University, Imerienwe, Owerri and Dr. B. U. Nzeribe's John Paul University, Aba. Abolition of these outside-the-box thinking universities was Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's No. 2 agenda item in January 1984.
Finally, there's no reason why a Toyin Falola University at Mbeke, Mbano, Imo State would still not be as Pan-African a citadel of learning in a Republic of Biafra, just as it would in the Republic of Rwanda! And, who says Prof. Aluko would not be welcome and celebrated as the VC, TFU in Biafra?
Regards,
Okey--
On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 9:25 AM, Nimi Wariboko <nimiwari@msn.com> wrote:
There is something radical about Dr. Iheduru's suggestion that TF University should be sited in Imo State. In Nigeria where top Pentecostal pastors collect offerings, tithes, and contributions from all over the country but always site universities in their own states or ethnic areas, his suggestion warns those talking about the TF University not to fall into that trap.
Not only Pentecostal pastors are guilty of this. This is also true of the mainline churches: universities are often sited in the state or ethnic regions of whoever was the denominational head at the time the decision was made. We often talk about politicians not transcending the interests of their enclaves, but citizens and intellectuals are also guilty of the same offense.
Dr. Iheduru by his suggestion or offer of land is challenging Prof Toyin Falola and his supporters to think outside the box. I think this is the "spirit" of his suggestion. Thanks.
Nimi WaribokoBoston University
Okey Iheduru:
Haba! You sha!
Abeg how did you acquire this land - sufficient land - in land-hungry Imo State, my adopted state? Are you now a country land-owning squire? How much acerage is this sufficient land - 100 hectares, 200 ha, 1000 ha? Is this going to be given FOC to TFU?
Biko, Answer me!
And TF is Omo Ibadan proper! Suppose Biafra secedes? Or is this part of a secret plan to cement Imo State to Oyo Stste, "so that re-eventuslity becomes nigh-impossible? You sneaky angel - what a plan, which I support.
And there you have it.
Bolaji AlukoShaking his head--
On Friday, February 2, 2018, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:
Toyin Falola University (TFU)-- fantastic idea worth supporting and bringing to fruition.
Take-off funding would be at least N2 billion or about $5,555,555.00.
We'd need at least 300 promoters, each contributing $18,519 which could be paid in 12 installments of $1,543 during the planning period.
I have land -- sufficient land -- at Mbeke, Isiala-Mbano LGA, Imo State as the future home of the university.
The TFU would be the second private university not founded by an individual, but by a "collaborative", following in the footsteps, but exceeding the accomplishments, of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State.
I sincerely hope folks will take up this idea seriously.
Regards,
Okey--
On Thu, Feb 1, 2018 at 8:57 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
--A great conference, with great scholarly discussions eminent scholars and numerous simultaneous panels.Very well organized indeed.
I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you.
In the next birthday celebration, the cutting of a birthday cake should be accompanied by
celebratory "washing" of the foundation stone or building of the Toyin Falola University.
Funding could be arrived at from grants and donations. The university could
be self- sustainable as a private university. The TF Library complex would be installed in the institution.
Another option for funds is the investor model, whereby 1000 investors contribute
200 dollars each or thereabouts as initial funding - with the expectation of returns on
their investment at a specified time.
Or we can have a community project involving
solar energy, waste disposal, a hospital or medical equipment but the TF University sounds
best to me.
GE
\
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliProfessor of History
History DepartmentCentral Connecticut State UniversityGloria Emeagwali's Documentaries onAfrica and the African Diaspora8608322815 Phone8608322804 Fax
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
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