Education

By Uzair Adam Imam

Eleven additional academic courses have been approved for Igbinedion University, Okada, by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

The development was made public on Friday by the institution’s Registrar, Mr Friday Bakare, in a statement made available to journalists in Benin.  

Bakare disclosed that the NUC’s approval to commence the new programmes is contained in a recent communication to the University by the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.

The courses included: “B.Sc Industrial Chemistry, B.Sc Cyber Security, B.Sc Pharmacology, B.Sc Software Engineering and B.Eng Environmental Engineering.

“Others are B.Eng Mechatronics Engineering; PGD, M.Eng & PhD. Civil Engineering; PGD, M.Eng & PhD. Petroleum Engineering; PGD, M.Eng & PhD. Computer Engineering; M.Sc & PhD. Sociology; and M.Sc & PhD. Geography and Regional Planning,” he said.

He states that admission into the new programmes will commence from the ongoing 2022/23 academic session.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has suspended its eight-months-old strike.

The union disclosed this in a press statement signed by its president, Emmanuel Osodeke, on Friday.

Speaking on the reasons for the strike suspension, ASUU said the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila were imperative for the suspension of the strike action. The union argues that their demands were not satisfactorily addressed .

The statement partly reads: “While appreciating the commendable efforts of the leadership of the House of Representatives and other patriotic Nigerians who waded into the matter, NEC noted with regrets that the issues in dispute are yet to be satisfactorily addressed.

However, as a law-abiding Union and in deference to appeals by the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, and in recognition of the efforts of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other well-meaning Nigerians, ASUU NEC resolved to suspend the strike action embarked upon on 14th February 2022.

Consequently, all members of ASUU are hereby directed to resume all services hitherto withdrawn with effect from 12:01 on Friday, 14th October 2022.”

By Uzair Adam Imam

Bayero University, Kano (BUK), has emerged as the first in the north on the Times Higher Education 2023 World University Rankings list. 

Topping the list in the north, BUK is the fourth in Nigeria, with the University of Ibadan emerging as the best in the country.  

The University of Lagos is the second, while Covenant University is the third in the ranking in Nigeria. 

BUK, being the first varsity in Kano, was established in 1975. It currently has over fifty thousand students.

The University of Oxford emerges as the best university in the world, followed by Havard University, the University of Cambridge Standford University. 

BUK students, alums, and some of the university’s lecturers took to their social media spaces to jubilate the success.

By Uzair Adam Imam

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday told the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other tertiary institution-based unions that the Federal Government would not sign an agreement it can not implement.

The President disclosed this on Friday, September 7, 2022, during his last budget presentation in Abuja.

Buhari said his administration alone could not provide the resources required for funding tertiary education.

The Daily Reality reported that the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered members of ASUU to resume work with immediate effect.

He added that, rather, the government remained committed to the implementation of agreements reached with staff unions within available resources.

He was also quoted to have said: “The government notes with dismay the crisis that has paralyzed activities in the public universities in the country. We expect the staff of these institutions to show a better appreciation of the current state of affairs in the country.

“In the determined effort to resolve the issue, we have provided a total of 470.0 billion in the 2023 budget from our constrained resources, for revitalization and salary enhancements in the tertiary institutions.

“Distinguished Senators and Honourable members, it is instructive to note that today Government alone cannot provide the resources required for funding tertiary education.

“In most countries, the cost of education is jointly shared between the government and the people, especially at the tertiary level. It is imperative therefore that we introduce a more sustainable model of funding tertiary education.

“The government remains committed to the implementation of agreements reached with staff unions within available resources. This is why we have remained resolute that we will not sign any agreement that we would be unable to implement. Individual institutions would be encouraged to keep faith with any agreement reached in due course to ensure stability in the educational sector.

“Government is equally committed to improving the quality of education at other levels. Recently, we implemented various incentives aimed at motivating and enhancing teachers’ development in our schools. In the health sector, the government intends to focus attention on equipping existing hospitals and rehabilitating infrastructure. Emphasis will also be on local production of basic medicines/vaccines.

“As human capital is the most critical resource for national development, our overall policy thrust is to expand our investment in education, health and social protection,” he added.

By Aisar Fagge

Ten school drop-out youths sponsored by Aminu Magashi Garba Foundation completed training on Thursday at the Centre for Technology Development, Kaduna State Polytechnic.

The graduated youths undergo eight weeks of training and four weeks of internship in automobile repairs.

The foundation also presented the youths with starter kits by the Director and Finance Manager, Sulaiman Umar Jalo and Maimuna Abdulrahman.

However, the youths would also undergo a one-month internship to acquire more practical skills in automobile repairs.

The foundation said this would provide an enabling environment to further explore opportunities/partnerships to support them secure admission and acquiring National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) certificate.

The Daily Reality gathered that the sum of 1200000 was paid by the foundation to train the youth on automobile repairs.

The Nigeria court of appeal sitting in Abuja has ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resume classes and call off the strike immediately.

The court issues the order today Friday, and the appellate court said ASUU should obey the order of an industrial court which directed the suspension of the strike before seeking to appeal the judgment.

Details later.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Thursday vowed to sue the Federal Government for registering bodies to checkmate its activities.

Recently, the federal government has officially registered two new academic unions in Nigerian Universities as trade unions.

The bodies are the Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics (CONUA) and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA.

The counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana, disclosed this on Thursday when he was featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

Falana said the registrations of the two unions as illegal, saying; “ASUU is going to court. It is going to be the National Industrial (NIC).”

By Uzair Adam Imam

Over two thousand people, including university lecturers and students, graduated from the Engausa Global Technology Hub.

The graduates were trained in various skills ranging from science and technology.

The founder and chairman of the technology hub, Engr. Mustapha Habu Ringim, disclosed this in an interview with journalists on Wednesday to mark this year’s United Nations World Teachers Day.

Engausa was founded in 2019 and registered in 2022 and recorded numerous successes in teaching people various scientific and technological skills to depend on themselves and become employers of labour.

Engineer Habu said English and other languages inhibit learning progress, especially in northern Nigeria.

He stated, “It doesn’t mean that we are not developed when we teach in our mother tongue. Knowledge can be taught using any language.

“Later, one can learn any other language he feels interested in, like English, Arabic or French.

“But it is not wrong to learn in your mother tongue, as many people perceive. For this reason, we, among others, admit even almajiri, who have no background in western education and are school dropouts, into Engausa Global Technology Hub and teach them in Hausa.

“Today, many such dropouts and almajiri have become teachers in Engausa. They even teach university graduates, MSc and PhD holders as well.”

We give emphasis on the practical aspect

Unlike in tertiary schools and other institutions of learning, the Engausa Global Technology Hub gives emphasis on practical aspects than theories.

This, however, enables the students to fully understand the subject matter rather than mastering theories and definitions of concepts.

Ringim added, “More than 90 per cent of what we do in Engausa is practical. The theoretical aspects do not exceed 10 per cent.”

Unemployment worsens insecurity in Nigeria

Ringim also argued that the rising insecurity in Nigeria is not unconnected with the high unemployment rate in the country.

Insecurity has been one of the ongoing challenges facing Nigeria, especially in the northern part, over the years.

He stated, “We need to know that teaching our youths some skills is one of the panaceas to the lingering security challenge in Nigeria. Therefore, society needs to welcome inventions of this sort.

Engausa is gaining global recognition and support from Federal Government and academics like Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu, Prof. Hafizu Miko Yakasai, and Engr. Isa Musa Gumel, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, Dr Binta Usman, Dr Hauwa Muhammad Bagaje, among others.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, consoles with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying their genuine requests had met with deaf ears in Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar stated this in a statement he issued and signed on Wednesday in celebration of the United Nations’ World Teacher’s Day.

Abubakar’s impassioned statement decried about the incessant strike which has been eight months now since lecturers shut down public universities to press their demands home.

He stated, “I wish to observe this all-important day by identifying with Nigerian teachers. I wish to identify with them in their moment of grief occasioned by poor working conditions over the years.

“Specifically, I use this medium to console Nigerian university lecturers whose genuine requests have met with deaf ears, and who have now stayed for over seven months without salary.

“Teachers are the backbone of a nation. They are the bedrock on which national development rests. Indeed, many educators have opined that, no nation can rise higher than the quality of its education system, and no education system can rise higher than the quality of its teachers.

“This means that no nation can make any meaningful progress in any sector without having well-trained, experienced, happy and well-remunerated teachers. A situation where some states are owing teachers’ salaries of up to five months, or even more, is unacceptable,” he stated.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.

The major newspapers published the speech delivered by the president at the “Fourth National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector” on the 4th of October 2022. In the speech, the president said, “corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector, and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.” The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is the union on strike, so the newspapers reported it with headlines that “Buhari accuses ASUU of corruption”.

The president definitely does not have a thorough understanding of the issues that led to the strike else he won’t call the struggle for the proper funding of the universities, better conditions of service for lecturers, the release of the white paper on the visitation panel reports, among other important demands as “flimsy reasons”. It is sad and most unpardonable that the president has got no proper information on the structure and workings of the university. Otherwise, he would have queried that ridiculous and false statement when the speechwriter presented the speech to him for presentation. So unbelievable that our president is not aware that ASUU is not the same as the university management.

To correct this unfortunate misinformation from the president, in the university, there are heads of departments who are academics who receive N50,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. We have the Deans and Directors who are also academics which is the next level of leadership in the university. The Directorates receive N60,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. Is the misappropriation of these N20,000 per month, which comes irregularly that is corruption by ASUU members?

Then, we have the principal officers, which include the Vice-Chancellor (an academic), the Registrar (a non-academic), and the Bursar (a non-academic). There is also the Council chaired by an appointee of the government. You can’t appoint politicians looking for jobs as University Council chairs and blame ASUU for corruption. ASUU is just a union and does not manage the affairs of the university. Then, there is the Presidential visitation panel that is meant to visit the university every 5 years to check the management of the resources of the university.

It’s true that the management of the university could be corrupt. There is no doubt about it. But since the administration of President Buhari took over in 2015, the “corruption fighting” president seems to have found accommodation with corruption in the university that it failed to send a visitation panel to any federal university. ASUU was worried about that, and part of the demands of the 2020 ASUU strike was the constitution of the visitation panel to all federal universities. Paradoxically, it took the strike by the union of supposed “corrupt lecturers” for the anti-corruption FG to send visitation panels to the federal universities in 2021 to check “corruption”.

However, a year after the panels submitted their reports, the same FG that is accusing ASUU of corruption has refused to release the White Paper on the panels’ reports for implementation. Part of the demands of this strike is for FG to release the White Papers. The “corrupt ASUU” is pushing the anti-corrupt government to fight corruption in the university. Isn’t that amazing? It goes without saying by its inaction, indifference, and condemnable refusal to set up visitation panels and release the White Papers after ASUU forced it to set up visitation panels to all federal universities, the FG under President Buhari is aiding corruption in our universities.

Meanwhile, you can’t be complaining of corruption but rewarding alleged corrupt people. The former VC of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, that was accused of academic fraud, financial embezzlement, and administrative impunity by the ASUU branch of the university, made the list of the people to be awarded a national honour by the president. Same with the former Council Chairman of the Lagos State University, who, with the VC, deployed the pension of Staff for the purchase of luxurious cars.

Does it make sense to accuse the university managers of corruption and then nominate university managers that were accused of corruption for national honours without taking steps to investigate these allegations? That’s a joke. By the way, what is the correlation between the poverty wages of Nigerian academics with corruption in the universities? Does that explain why Nigerian lecturers are one of the poorest paid in the world?

The president further said that he task our academics to attract endowments, research, and other grants to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education similar to what obtains in other countries. It has been rightly said that “if wishes are horses, beggars too will ride”. It does not take rocket science to know how those universities referenced achieved that. An endowment is not attracted by academics but by the university council and management. President Buhari should stop his trademark and uninspiring blame game and should be talking to the people he appointed as Council chairmen for our public universities.

The truth is, research grants are not attractive using an empty room as a lab. No international donor will fund empty space. Only the existence of avalanches and modern facilities are used to attract grants. When I got a PhD grant in 2008, I took the grant to a university in the UK because they have the required facilities for the research. For the 3 years, the UK university got thousands of pounds through me. That’s a return on investment. What have we put in place to attract such? That’s what we should be worried about. That’s why ASUU is asking for the required funds to be injected into the system to make our universities attractive for grants, as it’s obtained in other countries.

Despite the horrible condition of service of academics in the country, Nigerian academics are winning research grants. An Associate professor at Bayero University Kano recently received a research grant of £969,680 from Wellcome. A senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria recently won a research grant of about 48,000 USD from Geophysics Without Borders. Other researchers from the Federal University Dutse won a grant of $59,930 from The World Academy of Science (TWAS) and €220,801 from the African Academy of Science on renewable energy. These are just a few of the grants won by academics within the strike period.

The president’s speech was focused on ASUU, and the speechwriter chose his words with the utmost malice and mischief. There are sex scandals in every sector of the country. The rehash and blackmail of sex stories in the universities have become much like an expired drug with no potency. The stories of sex for jobs and contracts and sorting jobs and contracts in Abuja are in public space. Every sector has got the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, academia can’t be immune to the ills in our society.

But then, universities are still much better. They have rules and regulations that guide their operations, and they are enforced. Several lecturers have lost their jobs due to sex scandals or other similar offences. But we have a minister in this government that was accused of sexual harassment in 2020. If a student is a victim of such an act on campus and he or she refuses to report for appropriate actions to be taken, then you can’t blame ASUU for it.

Our Union frowns on sexual harassment in all its ramifications in our universities and is up in arms combating this evil. Hence, this speech which is similar to the words of their filthy-mouthed attack dog and other government agents at the presidency at this time, is an indication that it is either the people around the president are not telling him the truth about the strike or the depth of the poverty of sincerity is underestimated.

It is equally indicative that the administration has run out of ideas and initiatives to resolve a simple issue like the ongoing strike action. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, in an effort to bring an end to the 7-month-old crisis, has met with the president. Let’s hope that those agents of destruction around the president will allow him to think.

What baffled me is the fact that the Visitor to the university is publicly lamenting when he has not taken any action for 7 years to address all his allegations against the University. You are the president, sir. Please use your executive powers to solve problems, not passing bucks. Dear sir, you lament everything from the economy to insecurity to education, but lamentations won’t solve our problems. You need to be proactive, sir. You are the president; time is almost running out. Better late than never.

Finally, despite the way that academics in Nigerian public universities are handled, our research outputs are visible in the global research database. If political office holders should make one-tenth of the efforts and sacrifices made by academics in our public universities, they will be celebrated as heroes in office.

Professor Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.