Beyond the language of polemics in Pa Ikihde's article, there is need to seriously rethink the status of the Nigerian university system. There is need for serious soul-searching not just about whether Nigerian academics are doing a lot, rather we should ask if they are doing enough? Yes, are Nigerian academics/intellectuals/scholars really doing enough despite the situation in the country? It is a fact that the Nigerian government has failed woefully in its management of the education system. However, there are areas of responsibilities where academics and their leaders have also failed to demonstrate accountability and creativity in addressing the wider issues in the university system. This suggests that there are saints and sinners on both sides of this debate. But what can we take away from it?
As I read through the threads in this discussion, a number of issues seem to stand out repeatedly in different contributions and I thought they are worth summarising - as I see them - and, hopefully some ASUU Executives and university leaders in the group can take them up for further action. It has been suggested that ASUU needs to:
1. Re-evaluate industrial strike action as a strategy for addressing the demands of the union and the needs of Universities in Nigeria;
2. Develop mechanisms to evaluate the competence, and academic contributions of members within and across institutions;
3. Design means of disciplining members that are identified as morally deficient – rather than shield them from institutional disciplinary procedures;
4. Ensure that former (and active) members who assume leadership roles in universities live up to those ideals that they consistently tout in their active union days;
5. Redefine the intervention of ASUU on national issues beyond the current pre-occupation with pecuniary benefits and institutional autonomy;
6. Submit ASUU members to tests of quality assurance beyond institutional 'home-grown strategies' or regular checks provided by the National Universities Commission;
7. Pursue an agenda that would ultimately make an association like ASUU 'unnecessary and irrelevant' in a 21st century Nigeria; and,
8. Generally ensure that ASUU is more accountable to the Nigerian society at large.
I do realise that I may have ignored one or two that may be important and I can only ask that we continue to add them. Thanks
On Saturday, September 21, 2013 4:49:57 PM UTC+1, Ikhide wrote:
The Academic Staff Union of Universities of Nigeria. ASUU. ASUU is on strike again. Who cares? They are thugs, they are always on strike, nobody seems to know why, except that it involves being paid a boatload of money by their counterparts, those thieves euphemistically called the Nigerian government. ASUU. My contempt for that body of narcissistic thugs knows no bounds. There is really not much one needs to say about how these rogues in academic robes have colluded with any government in power (AGIP) to defraud and rob generations of beautiful children what is their right – a good education. To say ASUU is on strike is to state the obvious, they are nearly always on strike, even when they are at work, they are on strike. Their members want to have sex with every child that walks into their pretend classrooms, when they have satisfied themselves, they pimp their helpless wards, yes, they do, to their friends, constipated generals and pot-bellied rogue-politicians who have too much money in their thieving pockets.
If you don't believe me, Farooq Kperogi has a disturbing piece here on the sexual harassment epidemic in Nigerian universities. You read that piece, and when you have stopped shuddering, you understand why fully less than 10 percent of Nigerian university dons have children living in that mess called Nigeria, let alone inside the filthy chicken coops that pass for classrooms from preschool to the tertiary level. In those criminal hovels, children of the poor and dispossessed are trapped and mis-educated by those whose children are being nurtured in the West. Their children will come back home from North America and Europe on holidays to the pretend suburbs of Abuja and Lagos island, wave a Cold Stone ice cream cone at the wreck built by their thieving parents and berate Nigerians for being wretched Nigerians. They often travel First Class. Ten percent? I made it up of course. I am a Nigerian intellectual. We are lazy like that. It could be less even.Follow me, let's go to the silly website of ASUU right here. Let us visit their officers, all of them mean looking men, except for one harried looking token lady who has the cringe-worthy patronizing title of "welfare secretary." I am sure she does important things for the #OgasAtTheTop of ASUU. Maybe she is responsible for making pounded yam and bringing water so the men could wash their filthy hands. SMH. Yes, Nigeria is the patriarchy from hell, in Nigeria, misogyny reigns even in the 21st century and even among the men of the ivory tower. Hiss. Here's ASUU's list of men "leaders" and one token woman: Dr, Nasir Isa Fagge, president, Bayero University, Kano, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, Vice president, OOU Ago-Iwoye, Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie, immediate past president, IMSU, Owerri, Professor Victor Osodoke, financial secretary, MOUA Umudike, Dr. Ademola Aremu, treasurer, University of Ibadan, Professor. Daniel Gungula, internal auditor, MAUTech, Yola, Dr. Ralph Ofukwu, investment secretary, FUAM, Makurdi, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Iloh, welfare secretary, University of Benin, and Professor Israel Wurogji, legal advisor, University of Calabar. All the men and one woman have horrid looking pictures of themselves on the website, except for Professor Wurogii, ASUU's "legal advisor" who either is too lazy or too busy to provide one. He is perhaps genuinely afraid for his life – not from the SSS but from irate abused students who have spent the past decade trying to get an education from these thugs.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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