While I am sceptical about Chidi's methods of coming to his conclusion that most Nigerian lecturers are predators, I identify with his argument that in a system largely run by lecturers and in which the danger of mutual support in evil is real, failure to address these challenges leads to their proliferation.
His lucid description of such a situation emboldens me to urge the group of alumni of my former dept at the University of Benin to keep pressing for the University to transparently address the petition we sent to them some years ago on behalf of a group of female students alleging sexual harassment from male lecturers in the dept.
The University had insisted that the students must travel to Benin for the hearing while we urged that such an arrangement was logistically unrealistic and fraught with security dangers and suggested remote interviews instead, but they did not budge.
Now that the lessons of Covid are ingrained, we can argue that no one can realistically argue against remote interviews, particularly since those former students making the allegations are either in different parts of the country or in various parts of the world.
We would also be able to make the kind of argument Chidi is making, referencing the fact that one of those accused in the allegations was later implicated in a particularly scandalous sexual harassment allegation in which the plloice had to be involved and the lecturer suspended.
If the earlier petition had been adequately addressed, would it not have decreased the likelihood of such a later occurrence?
I am also emboldened by Chidi's summation on the need for transparent addressing of the systemic implications of this subject beceause I had become a little sceptical of that effort I've been involved in on account of the time it's taking, particularly since I was accused by this same lecturer as being on a vendetta against the dept, having left there in frustration even as my former colleagues are now professors while I am nowhere to be found in academic distinction, as he put it, and the story going the rounds of people from my village, which this same lecturer is from, that their only person in such a prime position in that dept is being undermined by me, the varied pressures people undergoe in seeking justice when circumstances are not oriented towards justice.
If one is pushing for the subject to be adequately addressed, the question could be asked, " what is your motivation?" "Why not let it lie?"
Chidi's sunmation on the systemic dangers of the stituation enlivens my own sensitivities.
I am very proud of the heroic efforts of most of my teachers in my BA at the dept of English and Literature, University of Benin, in the days of SAP and beyond, when academic salaries were little and books scarce.
In my journeys across the University of Kent, SOAS and UCL, those teachers I met there were not more intelligent or more consciencious than Ogo Ofuani, Odun Balogun, Chinyere Okafor, Opene, Victoria Ola, Onwuemene, Romanus Egudu, Okpure Obuke, Victor Longe, Rasheed Yesufu, Steve Ogude, Richard Masagbor, Titi Ufomata, those teachers who made my BA memorable.
I should be able to contribute to helping maintain positive values such people stood for.
Thanks
Toyin
On Sun, Sep 4, 2022, 16:42 Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think Chidi is in a position to realistically argue that most lecturers in Nigerian universities, across North, South, are predators.An argument based on conjecture.He's arguing that the University system is so rigged that this predatory culture prevails.No research. Stories he has heard.What is the scope of the stories he has heard?Who is in the best position to assess these issues?Why is it that when these subject is discussed on this group, and such absolutisms are being thrown around, the representatives of those being so condemned maintain a careful silence.Are there no lecturers in Nigerian universities on this group?It is an act of heinous cowardice to be silent when the group you are a part of, the system through which you earn a living, is being so castigated.You should have the self respect, the regard for your choice of profession, to take a stand and say "yes, we are really as we are being described" or to say "no, we are not as we are being described" or " these are my own observations about the situation".There is no dignity in silence in such situations.My responses to such denigrations of Nigerian academia on this group will now consist of examining the psychology of a group of people who pretend not to see when they are being publicly demonized.Yes,the Western universities are much more enabled but the beginning and the end of success, particularly in scholarship, is attitude. Vision.What kind of vision may be possessed by a person who cannot find his voice when his contistuency is being painted as putrid?Or are some people thinking that "let me stay quiet in my corner doing my own thing?"The image of the collective shapes the individual.ThanksToyinOn Sun, Sep 4, 2022, 16:01 Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Babatunde, Oluwatoyin,I have no need to demonize Nigerian university teachers. I wish majority of them change from their unwholesome ways of treating students. I also wish that the system handles well the cases that would be reported so that when next they happen the victims would have the confidence to report.The main issues here however are not even that these maltreatments happen, but that they happen at the scales they do and that majority of the victims do not have the confidence to report.The weakness of the system(mostly run by lecturers) in handling this problem points to systemic corruption which gives impetus to these lecturers to maltreatment students in many ways at the scales they do.My daughter graduated and now working as a Journalist because she has a father who can fight for her. Have we pondered about the many who do not have anyone to fight for them, who would have been graduates today and earning decent living but who dropped out, out of frustrations from these lecturers?A system in which only those who have people to fight for them survive is a very bad system and needs to be reformed urgently.Thanks.-CAO.
On Saturday, September 3, 2022, 'Mr. E. B. Jaiyeoba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:Oga Chidi,So sorry about your experience.However, lecturers in Nigeria are being judged by the action of a few rotten eggs. Many of the critics border on sensationalism by the writers. Opponents of lecturers are good at releasing negative information when they want to sway public opinion against their foe.I know that it is difficult for the students to speak out when it happens but once they speak out there are a few lecturers dedicated to fighting such predators.In the social sciences, interpretation of statistics is too essential and generalisation from inadequate data is frowned upon. Many people are fond of this.It is necessary to weigh the words to use when one is not very sure.Thanks.BabatundeE. Babatunde JAIYEOBA PhDProfessor of ArchitectureDepartment of ArchitectureFaculty of Environmental Design and ManagementObafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeriaebjaiye@oauife.edu.ng; tundejaiyeoba@yahoo.co.uk; +234 8037880023--On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 6:57 PM Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin,It would definitely not be all lecturers but a greater percentage judging from the accounts of victims and witnesses."Uncritical emotion" you said? Well I am not going to engage you in any academic argument.If you had to beg your very academically brilliant daughter not to drop out of the university because of intimidation by a lecturer with the support of his colleagues because she refused to have amorous relationship with the lecturer in question, you would understand the issue at stake.Thanks.-CAO.
On Saturday, September 3, 2022, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:Oga Chidi,--"ALL LECTURERS in federal and state universities"!Haba!Na wa for you o.Allow me to inform you, sir, without denying wrong doing by some academics- I don't know the percentage- that without ASUU the public university system might cease to exist in any functional sense.These are serious issues to be handled with the critical attention and gravitas required.It's not a time for uncritical emotion.No offense meant.ThanksToyinOn Sat, Sep 3, 2022, 16:36 Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Where would one start to narrate the ugly manner in which ASUU members and in fact all lecturers in both federal and state universities in Nigeria (Mal)treat students.I have a daughter who attended the University of Port Harcourt.There was a time I had to visit a lecturer at home to warn him that if my daughter who was doing very well in her grades up to her third year, fail any of his courses or any course taught by any of his friends, that I would make sure that there would be a public enquiry to be consisted of persons from outside the university.He had threatened my daughter that no matter what she wrote in the exams, that she would never pass any of his courses and that of his friends.Problem was that my daughter refused to be his lover as confirmed by other students who knew about the incident.The above is just a tiny fraction of what really happens. Unfortunately, most of the students in Nigerian public universities do not have people to fight for them, most of those who have, would not report such incidents for fear of persecution by the concerned lecturers and their friends.Thanks.-CAO.I know how many times I begged the girl not to drop out of school because of frustration prior to the warning.
On Saturday, September 3, 2022, <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:Chidi,--Please tell us how ASUU has treated students that has warranted your idea of Karma.Segun OgungbemiSent from my iPhoneOn Sep 3, 2022, at 4:14 AM, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:I am tempted to believe that the way the Nigerian government is treating ASUU is the hand work of karma because of the way ASUU members treat students.-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)
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