Month: August 2022

By Yusufu Musa

Watching Prof. Ibrahim Maqari’s outburst the other day made it difficult to respond to several inquiries. One of these is whether solving all the problems ASUU is bringing home will fundamentally alter the perception of the higher education system and transform our universities into those we hear about in Europe and North America.

On February 14, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) announced the start of a four-week roll-over strike that has since been extended three times. However, the issues brought up by Prof. Maqari are not ones that ASUU is examining. Instead, the union is concerned about the subpar working circumstances of its members, the proliferation of institutions, and the appalling physical and technological facilities of public universities.

Maqari alienated his old coworkers by criticizing them. He accused them of working only three to four hours a week, failing to undertake significant research, and engaging in academic fraud to further their careers. Unfortunately, I lack the means to substantiate his broad assertion because intellectual property theft is a severe legal matter. Thankfully, the targets have responded to him with detailed arguments.

I’m arguing in support of his assertion that lecturers should do the duties for which they are compensated, such as quality research and teaching if they want to be paid like Harvard professors who put in long hours. Because when a lecturer declines to instruct, the pupils suffer as a result.

I believe the next battle is one that students should win on their own. There is an internal conflict at the university. University students, who are primarily young people, can ensure that lecturers are held accountable. Still, they don’t always seem to reject the behaviour of some instructors, about whom ASUU appears unconcerned despite the proverb that “charity begins at home.”

ASUU is fighting its own battle but never agrees there are bad elements in the university system that should be fished out. 

The allegorical story Animal Farm by George Orwell struck a chord with me because of how the author captured the naivety of the oppressed in the figure of Boxer. Napoleon never fails, according to Boxer. This is a ball of fire that allows himself to be fooled. In actuality, he is the manor farm’s strongest animal.

Since then, critics have said Boxer represents the Soviet Union’s working class under Stalin’s rule. Members of this group contributed to Stalin’s rise to power. What took place in the end? Boxer became so weak that he was used and dumped. He believed the “thing with two legs” to be his enemy and agreed to help destroy the farm’s owner, only for his persuaders to grow more oppressive.

Consider Nigerian students to be Boxers because they believe ASUU is always right.

While it is true that Nigeria is not working, we are all equally to blame. We understand the system rather well because we are students at the institution.

Prof. Maqari revealed the other side of the story, but ASUU was not pleased. ASUU is bringing the gospel to the government house even though they also require it.

According to Qur’an 2:44: “Despite reading the Book, do you preach holiness but fail to uphold it yourself? Why don’t you understand?”

Through a lecturer, I learned that someone had proposed in one of his university’s senate sessions that professors be required to periodically take an exam so that administration may determine if they are still “professing.” The contributor worried that his colleagues would stop performing research once they received the title. For fear of the professors leaving for other universities, his recommendation was flatly denied.

When they notice that a promotion exercise is getting closer, some professors realize they need to compose a paper. When they do, no one will read the pieces they publish in a departmental journal. The articles are created for promotion rather than to contribute to the scientific community.

I recently visited a department head in one college of education. I noticed some journals on her bookcase. I told her I wanted to submit an article for their upcoming issue. Try to guess what the HoD said. She said that the journal was only released during every promotion season.

Government investment in universities may not change much because some teachers’ unethical behaviour is not being monitored. Even worse, individuals who should be watching for such unethical behaviour believe they are always right. According to them, only the government and students engage in destructive behaviour. Who will then stand up for students?

Students should reject any proposal to restructure the university system without establishing a framework to monitor the behaviour of the teachers. The battle for a functional university system goes beyond having lovely lecture halls, modern labs, and libraries.

Junior academics, resentful of their seniors, do most of the work. Because they are overseeing their PG dissertations, they treat them like slaves.

Even in the classes these powerful lecturers teach, the juniors are tasked with grading the written assignments. A junior lecturer would be seen grading papers for eight courses.

Most of our professors would visit the classroom once or twice during our time at the institution to launch a course and hand it off to a junior scholar. Some of them never even tried to educate us. Due to their inflated sense of importance, they are too big to instruct undergraduates. They were seldom ever seen in the departments. Because their mentors don’t have time, graduate students spend years researching at the institution.

Students must understand that nobody would stand up for them. The government may revitalize institutions and increase funds for higher education, but who has the right to oversee professors’ negligence?

Nigerian young, unlike Boxer, are aware of their power, which they used during the EndSARS rally. The youth must speak up and demand changes in education and other areas of national policy that will affect their future. Some of these teachers have our support despite doing nothing. The strike will finish. We’ll return to the classroom, but will the ASUU police its members there as well?

Yusufu Musa writes from Kaduna and can be reached via ymusa4055@gmail.com.

By Hidayah Bashir Dayyib

There’s a famous saying that “learning never ends”. We’re always learning either actively or passively. Learning starts right from birth, at school/college, and even after graduation.

Learning new skills and honing the acquired ones is of utmost importance for one to succeed or stand out in whatever profession, job, or workplace. And thanks to today’s digital world for providing numerous ways of learning than ever before. For example, you can take online courses, watch YouTube videos, attend webinars, and many more.

As we all embark on the learning journey, we focus only on the “learning” and perhaps never think of learning how to “learn”.

There are scientifically proven techniques based on neuroscience and cognitive psychology to help you “learn more effectively” and “learn like a pro”.

Despite our different levels of understanding, these techniques are helpful and productive when applied. These are some of them:

1. Retrieval practice: This is the best and most effective learning technique. It is a way of testing yourself to recall/retrieve from your memory the key ideas and important points,  remembering as much as possible from what you learn (it may be a lecture, a video, reading a book, or solving a problem).

The best way to understand your learning process is through retrieval practice (what scientists call “metacognition”)

This technique will help you learn faster and better and give you a deep understanding of what you’re learning.

2. Pomodoro Technique: It was invented by an Italian Francisco Cirillo and is super simple. The first step is clearing away distractions and setting a timer to 25 minutes. Work as intently as possible during these 25 minutes, and then take a break for 5 minutes. “Taking a brief, five-minute break after approximately 25 minutes of studying can help your brain process new learning, so what you’ve just been learning isn’t overwritten”.

It is required to relax and not switch tasks during the break.

The Pomodoro is flexible. You can experiment with the timing that works best and go with it. This technique is a powerful tool that helps you sharpen your focus and learn faster and deeper.

3. The hard start technique: This technique is used when solving a tricky problem. It is a way of starting a test or assignment with the hardest part. When you get stuck, leave it and solve the simpler problems coming back later to it. You’ll find yourself making progress because your brain has been trying to find a solution to it while you’re away. In addition, the “Hard Start” technique can help you get credit for more challenging problems on tests.

4. Spacing out your learning into smaller periods over several days. Experiments have shown that spacing your learning over several days helps you learn better with less effort. Moreover, pacing out your learning over several days will make your brain strengthen the stored information.

When you use spaced learning, the infirmaries can make their way into your long-term memory.

Fun fact: Regular exercise boost learning

5. Association and metaphor

Metaphor is relating what you’re learning with what you already know. This helps the new knowledge stick better to the brain. A difficult idea can be simple when related to the right metaphor.

Associating what you’re learning with what you already know will help me remember better.

6. Memorisation: memorising information makes you understand it better, and memorising what you understand more easily. There’s a link between memory and understanding.

Best ways to memorise include:

A. Retrieval practice: instead of the traditional way of memorisation by looking or reading the information, try retrieving it from your memory and testing yourself to recall the information. A powerful way of retrieval is using flash cards.

B. Form an acronym or sentence from keywords: This is a powerful and efficient way of memorisation. Play around with the order of words to come up with a remarkable combination. 

C.  Use the Memory Palace technique: it is a technique used by memory champions to memorise incredible information. It involves using an image-based memory technique.

In the memory palace, you create an image of every word or phrase you want to remember and then place these images in a building you’re familiar with. This is a fantastic technique for memorising large amounts of information or data. When mastered, you’ll be amazed and appreciate it.

D. Form memorable mental images is similar to the association technique above. For example, when you try to remember a trip or a moment, it is usually through the images of the events that happened. Our brains function through images. It is recommended while learning a new language.

Which of these techniques do you use to learn? Please share with me the ones you’re fascinated about and would try. Then, as you are submerged in learning, remember to use these techniques to facilitate your learning.

Happy learning.

Hidayah Bashir Dayyib wrote from Kano via hudaelbasheer15@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Aminu

Commuters plying Gwaram-Basirka road in Jigawa state are advised to take alternate routes to their various destinations.

This development followed a bridge collapse along the way due to a heavy downpour the previous night.

The Jigawa state Police Public Relations Officer, Lawan Shiisu, stated this in a terse statement on Sunday in Dutse.

“On 28/08/2022, as a result of downpour over the night, a culvert under Gwaram/ Basirka Road, precisely at Rabadi village in Gwaram LGA of Jigawa State, has been washed away.

“In view of this, road users should seek alternative or use the diversion created by the authority.”

Residents protested earlier this year on the same road that links that part of Jigawa with its neighbouring Bauchi State when a collapsed bridge led to its closure.

By Muhammad Aminu 

Police in Jigawa State have arrested two suspected kidnappers following a raid at the kidnappers’ hideout in Nisan Marke Settlement in Ringim Local Government Area.

The Police, in collaboration with a vigilante group, acting on earlier received intelligence information, carried out the raid successful.

Police spokesperson in Dutse, DSP Lawan Shiisu, said operatives from Ringim Area Command in conjunction with a local vigilante group led by Ringim Divisional Police Officer (DPO), SP Shehu Hamdullahi, acted on credible and actionable intelligence and conducted the operation at the identified suspected kidnapper’s hideout.

He noted that one 45-year-old Muhammad Sama’ila of Madari village in Warawa LGA of Kano State was reported to have been wounded all over his body while fleeing from the suspects.

He explained: “On receipt of the information, a team of Policemen swung into action, visited the scene of the crime and conveyed the victim to the hospital.

“While at the hospital, after regaining his consciousness, the victim revealed that he was Kidnapped on Tuesday 22nd, August 2022, at about 0130hrs from Madari Village in Warawa LGA of Kano State and taken to Nisan Marke Herdsmen.”

He added that when he attempted to escape from the abductors, he was attacked by one of the kidnappers and inflicted injuries on his body.

He said: “On the same date at about 0850hrs, a team of Policemen stormed the Area, where one of the kidnappers named Abdurrazaq Musa, 40 years of Gurgunna village, Babura LGA, Jigawa State was arrested, and the phone that belongs to the victim which was used for ransom negotiation was recovered in his possession.

“Furthermore, one Hassana Jimau, age 30 years of Nisan Marke village, was also arrested at about 1230hrs.

“During interrogation, both the suspects confessed to having abducted the victim with eight other gang members while the effort to trace their accomplices is on top gear.”

According to him, the suspects have been handed over to the team of the anti-kidnapping section of Kano State Police Command for discreet investigation and necessary action.

By Sagiru Mati, PhD 

I’m an academic and, therefore, a member of the adamant trade union known as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been on strike since 14th February. However, I’m not writing to judge who is right or wrong, as both the Federal Government (FG) and ASUU have their share of the blame. Caveat: this write-up does not represent the position of ASUU; all opinions are mine.

To understand the genesis and dynamics of the contention, it is crucial to see the issues through the lens of the theories proposed by Emile Durkheim’s consensus theory, Karl Marx’s socialism and Adam Smith’s concepts of rivalry and excludability, which form the basis of modern capitalism. I will briefly explain these concepts in light of the ASUU-FG imbroglio.

Durkheim asserts that humans, as political animals, are innately egoistic, and only the “collective consciousness” – in the form of social facts such as values, norms and beliefs – controls the egoism and ensures the stability of the society. He developed the consensus theory, which studies society holistically rather than individualistically. Durkheim believed that social reality should be found in the collective consciousness, not individual consciousness. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The societal equilibrium is attained through consensus by the parts based on social facts: language, norms, customs, values and so on. The society itself metamorphoses from a simple society that correlates with mechanical solidarity, where individuals are brothers’ keepers, to a complex society that corresponds with organic solidarity, where individualism prevails.

Nigeria is currently in a transition from a simple to a complex society. Hence, unlike a few years ago, it is now easy to distinguish the children of the poor from those of the rich, even if they come from the same family or neighbourhood. Gone are those days when one man in a family provided for his family’s needs and that of his close relatives. The main argument of the consensus theory is that societies don’t always have to resort to raising their contradictions to crisis and then resolving them through conflict.

Socialism advocates the total ownership and control of economic entities by the authority rather than private individuals, with the main motive of maximising citizens’ welfare. Karl Marx, as its proponent, grouped the individuals into Proletariat and Bourgeoisie. The former is the working class, while the latter controls the means of production. The ASUU’s members and students are the epitome of the Proletariat and subscribe to socialism as they fight to improve their service conditions and university funding and reject the idea of transferring the burden of tuition fees on students.

Capitalism is the direct opposite of socialism and promotes private ownership of the means of production, with the sole aim of maximising profits. Adam Smith, as a proponent, explained what goods and services private individuals and authorities should own based on two concepts: rivalry in consumption and excludability.

Rivalry in consumption implies prevention or reduction in the ability of simultaneous consumption of goods and services. Excludability refers to the extent to which non-payers can be restricted from consuming goods or services. If goods or services are rivalrous and excludable, like university education, they should be owned by private individuals. On the other hand, the state should own the national defence, which is, to a great extent, non-rivalrous and non-excludable. The FG, which subscribes to capitalism, has been privatising and commercialising public economic entities since the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in 1986.

The capitalistic FG utilises three tools to manipulate the Proletariat: starve them, don’t educate them and divide them. The FG has been starving ASUU’s members as it has been withholding their salaries since March in the name of the no-work-no-pay policy. Barriers to education have been created by not funding universities adequately. Hence admission seekers may meet all requirements but may not get admitted due to the admission limit imposed by the FG. The FG is trying to divide ASUU by considering registering a splinter union known as the Congress of University Academics.

The FG has recorded little success regarding the first and second tools. However, ASUU has fallen into the FG’S trap, as evident by the recent ASUU Chairman’s no-pay-no-work utterances, which hint at venting their frustrations on students and calling some universities quacks, thereby emboldening the line between the State and Federal universities. Obviously, the FG has divided the Proletariat into State Universities and Federal Universities, and into ASUU and students, even though most students have supported ASUU.

Given the foregoing, we can discern that the ASUU-FG face-off is nothing but the clash between socialism and capitalism in a society transitioning from Durkheimic mechanical solidarity to an organic one. Therefore, ASUU needs to change its modus operandi so that its efforts to liberate the Proletariat shouldn’t be hurtful to themselves. The ASUU Chairman needs to be cautious of his utterances. He should understand that both states-owned universities and students share the same economic class with ASUU: Proletariat.

A recent proposal by the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) to offer ten thousand Naira (10,000.00), and subsequent rejection of the offer by ASUU, indicates that the two bodies are not working together. ASUU alone cannot win this “battle”; it will be a good idea if it involves the NAPTAN. The duo may develop better wisdom and influence to make things happen, as two good heads are better than one.

The FG should fund universities adequately as Nigeria is too unripe for privatisation or commercialisation of university education, which deserves public finance as it is a merit good. The FG should pay the ASUU’s withheld salaries on the condition that the universities run three semesters a year until they compensate students for the striking period.

Sagiru Mati, BSc (BUK, Nigeria), MSc, PhD (NEU, North Cyprus), wrote from the Department of Economics, Yusuf Maitama Sule University Kano, Nigeria. He can be reached via sagirumati@yahoo.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Over 75 secondary schools in Zambara State were closed due to the menacing security challenges bedevilling the area over the years.

A permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Kabiru Attahiru, made the disclosure Saturday in Gusau while reading a goodwill message during a two-day meeting.

It was gathered that the meeting was held to sensitise the National Policy on Gender in Education (NPGE) and was organised by the state’s Universal Basic Education Board in partnership with UNICEF.

He stated that the schools had been closed since September 2021 following attacks on two girls’ schools in the state.

He added that the state government is working very hard to ensure the reopening of the schools that were shut down due to threats by bandits.

Zamfara has become the epicentre of banditry and kidnapping, the development that widowed many and orphaned thousands of kids.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, suddenly turned against the union the moment he was appointed a minister.

The union said the education minister supported ASUU’s agitations, including their industrial actions, before he was appointed to this position.

Prof Lawan Abubakar, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi Zone, disclosed this on Friday at the University of Jos, Plateau State.

Abubakar decried the way Adamu has been misleading other ministers and the public about the union’s action.

He also called on Nigerians to hold Adamu and the Federal Government responsible for the incessant strike.

The Chairman quoted Adamu to have said in 2013, “This nation owes a debt of gratitude to ASUU, and the strike should not be called off until the government accepts to do and does what is required.

“So, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off the strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy.”

The professor went on to say Adamu had also said that whatever he wrote on ASUU, he had totally believed in it, even now that he is a minister.

He said, “You may recall that when asked to make his comments on ASUU’s submission to President Buhari on Tuesday, the 9th of January, 2020, Adamu Adamu said he totally agreed with what ASUU presented, upon which note President Buhari handed him ASUU’s document and directed him to come up with a proposal for an amicable solution.

“For the same Adamu Adamu to now lead his colleagues, the other ministers, to misrepresent facts and mislead the good people of Nigeria against ASUU is rather unfortunate. 

“It is the highest level of unpatriotic disservice a minister would do to his nation, particularly in a sector like education which is the backbone of the development of any country.

“If this is the way to end the ASUU strike, ASUU-Bauchi Zone is taking exception to it and assuring Adamu Adamu that he is wrong; he has rather succeeded in undermining the future of Nigerian youths and Nigeria. If it would take him six (6) months to only come up with this deceit as a solution to the strike, we then have the right to ask whether he really was serious with education or stage-managing it.

“It has now come to bear that the minister had all along been deceiving everybody since 2017, as far as ASUU’s agitations in the tenure of this government are concerned.

“We want the general public to know that the Federal Government through Adamu Adamu did NOT approach ASUU with any reasonable and acceptable solutions to the issues in the contention that led to the current strike,” he stated.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Following their conviction on a two-count charge, the Nigerian Army fired two soldiers assigned to the 241 Recce Battalion, Nguru, Yobe State.

Lt. Col. Ibrahim Abdullahi Osabo, the acting commanding officer of the battalion, stated that the accused were found guilty on two counts: failing to complete military responsibilities and acting in a way that jeopardized service discipline.

Before being completely dismissed the suspects had their ranks downgraded from lance corporal to private.

Remember that after allegedly killing a renowned Islamic cleric named Sheikh Goni Aisami in cold blood, Yobe State police detained Lance Corporal John Gabriel with service number N/A13/69/1522 and Lance Corporal Adamu Gideon with service number N/A13/70/6552, both assigned to 241 Recce Battalion, Nguru, Yobe State.

• Title: Nearly All The Men in Lagos Are Mad

• Author: Damilare Kuku

• Genre: Fiction

• Date of Publication: 2021

• Page: 198
• Publisher: Masobe Books

• Reviewer: Aliyu Idris

It is the author’s debut. It entails twelve short stories narrated in cooperative narration; almost every story revolves around a subject regarding the woman or feminine gender.

From the book title, you may sense that it’s questionable, derogatory and disrespectful to men. However, the book exposes the sufferings of women and how the men of Lagos behave, especially towards women. It involves the story of sacrifice, endurance, rape, patriarchy and phallocentric, deceit and betrayal. Women are presented as saints. But, as it happens in reality, some characters found in some stories are the reason for their suffering.

Another crucial issue highlighted and promoted in the book is the concept of feminism. Just like contemporary feminists, I am not flabbergasted to find out that one of the author’s inspirations to produce the book is a feminist (Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie).

Almost every female writer who writes in any genre of literature promotes feminism right from the 19th and 20th-century feminists such as Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and Kate Millet down to the present-day feminists.

Because contemporary feminist writers do not stick to one feminist ideology but many subcategories. For instance, every story in the book has a different class of feminist ideology. For example, the first story titled “Cuck-Up” uses Amazon feminism to potray how defiant women are despite appearing weak and passive.

The last story in the book, “Independence Day,”  uses cultural feminism, showing women’s kindness and gentility.

Eco-feminism in the story “Anointed Wife” emphasises that patriarchial societies are detrimental to women.

Charles E Brazzler, in his book Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice Fifth Edition, asserts that it’s the view of contemporary feminists that subjugation of women still exists worldwide. Issues such as rape, prostitution, social injustice, early marriages, polygamy etc., the feminist writers continue to add their voices to protest through their pens and papers.

It should be noted that feminism has been broadly international in scope, and many local and general factors dictate its disposition. For example, writers from Arab traditions such as Fatima Mernissi and Leila Ahmed have attempted to articulate a feminist vision distinctly marked by their specific cultural concerns. The same is true of African-American feminists such as Alice Walker and feminists of Asian heritage such as Gayatri Spivak (Habib 2005:669).

By Muhammad Abubakar

As the 2023 election comes closer, these politicians will begin to follow you for them to carry out their political ambitions and later run away from you. This happens after they have used you in a way that you will completely lose your dignity in the eyes of the world. And in the end, you will regret it. The biggest loss in your life is that: you are now valuable to them, right? They can give you whatever you request from them but don’t think that after the election they would again do something useful for you or your family.

For that, youth should wake up from this slumber. Something happened in my presence during the 2019 presidential election, which ultimately weakened my opinion about political involvement. There were two guys I had seen fighting with lethal weapons in their hands, and I was sure nothing could stop one of them from dying if stabbed with the weapons. The saddening thing is that none of them passes twenty-two years of age.

It’s time to know where it pains in your body and who pains you in your societal endeavour. Even if you have never attended primary school in your entire life, you will not want something bad to happen to you. For the sake of the almighty God. What sort of life are you (the youth) living?

If you look at the current situation of this country, you will understand that those politicians you are gambling with your life on do not care about your existence. Had it been they cared, they would not have held their arms watching you and your nation’s economy going to the dogs.

Although there are reasonable and competent among them, eighty per cent of them out of a hundred are unarguably incompetent. Therefore, a thoughtful and caring leader will never give his people illegal drugs or any accidental subject during the campaign to achieve his goal.

Another awful thing is that; the deterioration of the academic sector in this country is beyond human imagination. But yet, no good action has been taken upon that. Frankly speaking—I don’t know the specific role those politicians (who have been elected as the leaders of our dear country) play in their offices. However, it’s clear now that everyone understands the government’s negligence and I-don’t-care attitude towards the education sector.

Without a doubt, if their children were studying here in Nigeria, they wouldn’t have allowed this lingering ASUU strike to last this long. Let me repeat; youth should wake up from their slumber. Youth should know who is their foe and who likes them.

I now advise the youth to make sure that they sustain their voter‘s card (PVC) to vote for the right leader in the upcoming election.

Muhammad Abubakar is an essayist and port. He wrote from Jos, Plateau State, via muhammadabubakar01002@gmail.com.