Education

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

The management of the Kaduna State University ( KASU) on Friday condemned a statement attributed to the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who has described state-owned universities as quacks.

The university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Adamu Nuhu Bargo, in a statement on Friday, said, “ASUU, represented by the unguarded vituperations of its chosen President, is not actually struggling for a better educational system in Nigeria but for personal and irresponsible aggrandisement”. 

Mr Bargo further said that “for the benefit of hindsight, KASU is a new generation University and the second most-sought State-Owned University as well as the fastest growing in Nigeria”.

“The general public may wish to note as follows:

1. KASU is recognised by NUC as a standard University.

2. KASU has some of the best brains that are competing favourably with their counterparts around the globe. The world’s No 4 best polymer chemist is in KASU.

3. Lecturers in KASU have attracted grants both locally and internationally and are highly rated.

4. KASU graduates are rated among the best in the world and enjoy scholarships from different parts of the country and the globe.

5. KASU has members in ASUU, and it is unfortunate if the ASUU President is saying that they are quacks while enjoying monthly check-off fees from their salaries. Does this not give a good reason for every reasonable academic staff in the University to pull off from the Union for this labelling and stereotyping?”

By Sabi’u Muhammad

One of the imams of the National Mosque, Abuja, Professor Ibrahim Maqari, has criticised and rubbished the conduct and nature of work of Nigerian university lecturers, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Commenting on the issue of the ongoing ASUU strike, the controversial cleric queried the work of the university lecturers arguing that it does not yield any fruitful results.

In a 2-minute video clip in Hausa that went viral on social media, Maqari boasts, “No one would claim I don’t know university system. If anyone says so, it’s up to him.

“However, I had some knowledge of this position. This position presents several opportunities for disagreements and miscommunication. This work, as we’re calling it, is. In the name of work, what are we doing in the universities? The studies are where? There is no action taken.

“They steal and lie about everything. Each of them plagiarises the work of others. It’s all falsehoods, I assure you (wallahi).”

The retired academic stresses that most of his colleagues only feign carrying out research, but they don’t actually do it. He also laments that they only make an effort to have their papers published just to be promoted.

“It might be claimed, for example, that you are supervising or conducting research. That is false! except for a tiny minority, nothing is being done. They may be acting” (the research). But 80% of them aren’t doing it, which proves that they aren’t doing anything.

“When you see someone performing research, he’s pursuing promotion; therefore, he’d gather the works of his students or joint papers and enhance them to publish as his work merely to be promoted.

“His pen stopped after he was promoted! Did you get the point? How many people, after receiving a professorship, write 100 pages? Visit the universities to confirm! It would surprise you. I’m positive they’re 2/10. After that, 8/10 of researchers leave the field because their primary goal was to advance their careers.

“Like lecturing, it’s tough to find somebody who can complete 10 credit units weekly for a 6-hour course. It’s not much more than that, but I’ve forgotten. We’re down to 4 or 2 credit units, just like you. I took only 4 credit units over around three years.

“Before class, there is no preparation work to be done. It is entirely false. It’s been a 20-year-old handout. There is no investigation. The handout has been ingrained in each student’s memory.

“He has been teaching the same thing for nearly three years, and he is still teaching it now,” he said.

By Muhammad Aminu

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has unveiled ten textbooks authored by Nigerian scholars.

The books, which were TETFund-sponsored, were aimed at reducing over dominance of foreign publications in the nation’s higher education institutions.

Speaking at the event in Abuja, Minister of Education Adamu Adamu said the dependence on foreign academic publications portends great danger to the nation’s education sector, adding that boosting indigenous authorship would address the problem.

The minister, who was represented by the State minister of education, Goodluck Nana Opiah, said: “The paucity of indigenously authored and produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s tertiary education institutions is a known fact over time. Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions became dependent on books published outside the country with the attendant consequences of the pressure on the demand for foreign exchange.

“It is equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired. It is therefore expected that nurturing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas that take cognisance of our local environment and sensitivities but will also safeguard national pride and reduce the demand for foreign exchange,” he said.

He commended TETFund for establishing the Higher Education Book Development project to tackle the scarcity of tertiary level textbooks which has before now reached a crisis proportion.

Adamu hailed the Fund for putting in place the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), whose mandate includes collaboratively working with the agency to ensure Nigerian authors churn out quality books.

“TETFund Book Development Fund intervenes in the three key areas of publication of academic books and the conversion of high-quality theses into books, support for Professional Association Journals, and the establishment and sustainability of Academic Publishing Centres (APCs).

“It is worthy of note that so far, seventy-seven manuscripts have passed through rigorous review processes by distinguished scholars and are ready for publication as books. I want to assure this gathering that an additional thirty books will be presented before the end of this year under the TETFund sponsorship programme.

“It will be of interest to note that over 60 per cent of these books are to be published by the Academic Publishing Centres (APCs) established by TETFund,” the minister said.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, who expressed delight over the quality of the ten books, said additional 30 books sponsored by the Fund would be unveiled before the end of the year.

He noted that the agency would sponsor the production of 50 textbooks in 2023.

“We have over 66 manuscripts; what we are unveiling today were published by only one publisher (one printing press) ….., by the time we unveil the remaining 30 in December, you are going to see all the authors cut across the three layers of our tertiary education institutions,” Echono said.

The TETFund boss also revealed that the Fund had provided support to ensure all the Academic Publishing Centres in the country become fully operational.

“There are seven of them across the country. When we came in March, only the University of Lagos academic publishing centre was fully functional and running, a few of them had little issues, some equipment, and other contractual issues, we have resolved all of them now.

“Four have been completed since the last few months, and the remaining we hope to finish by the end of September. The issue of operationalising them, making them self-sustaining is the debate we are having currently because we want them to run as a business enterprise and trying to create balance by focusing on academic publishing and being able to sustain themselves,” he said.

On his part, Chairman of TETFund TAG, Professor Charles Aworh, said 20 TETFund-sponsored textbooks were published in 2014 on different fields with wide acceptance from within and outside the country, adding that three of the ten new books unveiled today were from PhD theses.

He, however, called for more empowerment of the nation’s publishing centres.

“We are on course to publish 40 books before the end of the year, but the only challenge is the capacity of our universities to publish. Authors are ready to publish, manuscripts are ready,” Aworh said.

The high point of the event, which also attracted authors, academic staff unions and heads of education agencies, among others, was the public presentation of the TETFund-sponsored books, which include;1.Principles of Veterinary Surgery: A Concise Text for Veterinary Students 2. Fundamental of Chemistry 3. Fundamental of Public Finance 4.Java for Beginners and Web Design and 5. Programming for Beginners.

Others are 6. The Comparative Method and Civil-Military Relations 7. Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics for Engineers 8. A Guide to Teacher Competence Evaluation 9. Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Nigeria and 10. Motivational Factors and Teachers Efficiency in Secondary Schools.

By ImamMalik Abdullahi Kaga

The rate at which vernacular speaking is becoming rampant in schools (public and private) is so alarming. From elementary to secondary school, our children develop the ability to speak English or Arabic. But, without learning and practising it constantly, you can never be fluent in a language.

English is the official language in Nigeria, yet many people find it challenging to communicate with it. To convey your thoughts or ideas effectively and get well understood by others in many parts of the world, you must have the ability to communicate with the promising language – English because it’s a global language.

It’s regrettable and disappointing that a graduate with a bachelor’s degree or postgrad degree cannot speak or write in the official language appropriately. This, no doubt, results from one’s failure to learn it right from primary and secondary years (childhood). We cannot deny that most of us – northerners – have this weakness. But what could’ve led to this terrible mistake? First, the communication medium in our school days is often our mother tongue (Hausa).

Sadly, most schools don’t emphasise the need to use English to communicate among pupils or students. Some in question subscribe to the idea that (the English) language doesn’t determine one’s intelligence. Arguably, it is not, but we should consider the awful effect of not being able to use it correctly.

To be candid, you hardly find pupils or students communicating in English and Arabic (for bilingual schools) during school hours. For example, some teachers contribute to the escalation of this menace.

Some teach using vernacular, while others aren’t willing to prevent pupils or students from speaking it (vernacular). However, some unwisely claim that the students need a clear explanation of the treated topic. Hence, they use the local dialects to explain. This, however, doesn’t justify explaining lessons in local dialects because educationists have many teaching strategies.

Accordingly, teachers have this “disgusting” habit of speaking to students in the local dialects during class hours or break time. The students respond equally in the local dialects. During break hours, students communicate in the local languages without fear of being caught and penalised for that because the schools they attend don’t impose or simply disregard the rule.

If the abovementioned issue prevails, the coming generations will most likely succumb to the temptations to communicate in their mother tongue. Therefore, school proprietors and their managements should wake up from their deep slumber and confront this issue head-on, which helps deteriorate our education standard.

I believe teachers and prefects are the most powerful “tools” that could influence the students to comply with this because they play vital roles in shaping and correcting the students/pupils if they tend to stray.

ImamMalik Abdullahi Kaga wrote from Borno State University via abdullahiimammalik@gmail.com.

By Sulaiman Maijama’a

If not because of the dogged determination and great perseverance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in defence of education in Nigeria over the years, public universities in the country would have since been in a dilapidated condition with poor infrastructure, poor remuneration of staff.

Moreover, the universities would have been stocked with unqualified teachers, just like what is happening to our public primary and secondary schools or perhaps worse than that. Those who misconceive ASUU, for its struggles, as being selfish know nothing about what education takes to be efficient.

It is common knowledge that people who had the luxury of attending private primary and secondary schools in Nigeria earn more prestige than those who attended public ones. This is so because the quality of education in public schools at the basic level has since been diminished. But the reverse is the case at the university level; products of public universities in Nigeria can show a trick or two to their counterparts who are produced by private institutions. This is to the credit of the ASUU.

The Union, despite the meagre resources it receives and the poor funding the universities suffer, is able to produce professionals who are rising and shining in respective disciplines globally. Notwithstanding this feat, the union has been pushed over the years to go into industrial action at the detriment of students and the action by the ASUU is always greeted with criticisms from the public domain.

As a university student, the fact that our academic pursuit is being elongated owing to strikes is paining, and so, I agree wholeheartedly that strikes embarked upon by the ASUU almost annually are not the best solution and not the best way to put pressure on the government to meet its demands but, to crucify the union for its doggedness is not fair at all. If we ever dug deep to understand how much education costs in the countries across the globe and compared it to the demands of the striking ASUU members that are yet to be met for over a decade, for which they have always protested, we would discover that education in Nigeria is as worthless as a waste dump.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation, for any nation that wants to adequately meet the demands of education, 15 to 20 per cent of its annual budget should be earmarked for the sector. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s budget for education has always fallen below the recommended benchmark.

Despite the daunting tasks and the challenges that are posing threat to the sector and the need for additional funding, President Buhari’s 2021 budget share for education is the lowest in ten (10) years. Out of N13.08 trillion budgeted for the year, only N742.5 billion, which is equivalent to 5.6 per cent, was allocated to education, which is the lowest allocation since 2011. This is about half of what President Jonathan earmarked for education in the 2015 budget.

In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan allocated 9.3 per cent of the total budget to education. It was further increased to 9.86 per cent in the 2012 budget; elevated to 10.1 per cent of the total 2013 budget. It was 10.5 per cent in the 2014 budget, and the same President Jonathan earmarked 10.7 per cent of the 2015 budget, which happened to be the highest in the last decade.

However, when President Muhammadu Buhari came on board, in his first budget in 2016, the education share was cut short drastically to 7.9 per cent of the total budget, and in 2017, it was reduced to 7.4 per cent of the total budget; in 2018 it was 7.04 per cent, while 7.05 per cent of the 2019 budget was allocated to the sector and in 2020 it was 6.7 per cent, and 5.6 and 7.9 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

While former President Jonathan had every year increased the budget share for education throughout his stay as president from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to the highest 10.7 in 2015, President Buhari has been drastically reducing the budget from 7.9 in 2016 to the lowest 5.6 in the 2021 budget.

In any case, the Buhari/APC-led administration’s lackadaisical approach toward education is indisputably disastrous to the lofty dreams of young Nigerians to attain global recognition academically. How could a serious government that values education give only 5 per cent of its annual budget to the most sensitive sector like education? This is beside the series of outstanding memoranda of understanding the government signed with the ASUU in 2009, 2013 and 2017, as well as the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of 2019 and 2020, but yet to be implemented. How on earth could you expect the ASUU not to be aggrieved?

And now, the Minister of Education is further fuelling the disagreement by telling the ASUU members that their six months denied salaries during which they were on strike would not be paid, making reference to the “no work, no pay policy”. I don’t know the provision of law on this, but my concern is, how can you come to meet with a union of intellectuals like ASUU and dare to tell them that this is the final government’s offer and that there is no need for negotiation; it is either they accept or reject it? This is highly ridiculous.

In my view, education is a treasure. Whatever huge amount of money is invested in it, it will definitely pay off eventually. A member of the Senate Chamber, whether or not they raise a motion, whether or not they contribute to a debate, earn a whopping thirty 30 million or thereabout monthly. This is minus all other illegal earnings which are obtained through leakages and corruption. In comparison to academics, a professor who spends his life sacrificing his time and pleasure doing research to contribute to knowledge does not earn a mere five hundred thousand a month, with all the inflation.

I don’t want to dwell much on making comparisons with the fortune allocated to the National Assembly. But, if such an amount of Naira notes which is beyond imagination, would be given to the National Assembly, why can’t the Federal Government meet all the demands of the ASUU to proffer a lasting solution to this lingering strike that is jeopardizing the future of the Nigerian youth, wreaking havoc on the economy and threatening the fabric of our social structure?

It is evident during the EndSARS protest in 2020, when students were on strike, that the strike was a contributing factor that fueled the agitation, which later turned tragic. Had it been the youth who were mostly the ones at the forefront of the demonstration who were on campuses, busy coping with their academic activities, the move would not have been accepted to such an extent, and therefore, the government would have easily controlled it.

As the saying goes, “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. Now, the 2023 forthcoming elections are fast approaching, and the youth are bored doing nothing and, therefore, can indulge in anything that comes their way. Who knows what could possibly be the next trend if the youth remain idle?

The Federal Government must understand and appreciate the value and power of education, respect all agreements reached with the ASUU and invest more resources in the sector in order to save the future of young Nigerians. This is because, without education, man is like an animal.

The ASUU, on the other hand, needs to understand that strike is nothing but a calamity to education. They should adopt amicable and diplomatic ways of engaging the government. “When two elephants fight, grasses suffer the most”.

Maijama’a is a student at the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, kano. He can be reached via sulaimanmaija@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Hundreds of job seekers from different parts of Nigeria trooped into Kano State Thursday to jostle for the West African Examinations Council (WEAC) jobs.

The examination body was hiring assistant registrar, accountant, quantity surveyor, registered builder and network administrator, among other posts.

The job seekers sat for a computer-based aptitude test organized by the examination body at a CBT centre along Gwarzo Raod in Kano.

Unemployment is one of the lingering issues currently flogging the Nigerian graduates, making it a serious challenge, especially to the government.

A recent Bloomberg report shows that unemployment in Nigeria has surged to the second-highest on the global list, jumping to 33.3%.

Unemployment alarming

Musa Musa Dangwangwani, surprised by the number of applicants who trooped into the state to sit for the CBT, said the unemployment rate in the country is alarming.

Dangwangwani, an applicant from Katsina State, said, “Despite the high unemployment rate, job opportunities are very scarce. I’m therefore pleading with the government to provide job opportunities in the country.

Another applicant from Kogi State told our reporter that the issue of unemployment in Nigeria is seriously killing graduates, urging the government to do the needful to mitigate the problem.

‘The future is bleak’

“We have a lot of graduates out there that already lost hope. If you speak to them about any job opportunity, they will tell you they don’t want to apply for any because they are rigged out.

“One has to have a godfather before he secures a job now. But I have been trying my best. Wherever I heard of any opportunity, I apply, believing that one day I will succeed,” Dangwangwani said.

A female applicant from Kaduna State, who did not want her name in print, said the gathering was suggestive of the country’s high unemployment rate.

She said, “The way people gathered here tells me about the high rate of unemployment in the country. The government needs to do something to end this issue.

“Government should revive the number of factories shut down over the years. I think that will really help.

I lost my job due to insecurity – Applicant

An applicant from Bauchi State told The Daily Reality how he lost his job to the security challenge in Nigeria.

He said that was the reason he was now seeking another job.

He said, “I had my business. I’m a network engineer. My job was to provide internet service to the people mining in the bushes, but because of the current insecurity in the country, we can’t risk our lives; thus, I am jobless now.”

The Daily Reality recalls that professionals have argued that there is a need for urgent intervention to save the country from an impending danger posed by the exponential increase in unemployment.

By Kabir Musa Ringim

As a graduate of Computer Engineering and holder of MSc Information Technology, I’m skeptical to write about this topic which is a little bit controversial because of the divergent views of the two school of thoughts about the topic, but that will be explained later in the article.

As the world is currently in the information age – also known as the computer age that began in the mid-20th century, characterized by a shift from a traditional industry established by the Industrial Revolution to an economy primarily based upon Information Technology, the biggest challenge now is the way in which robots (bots) have started taking over many jobs previously meant for humans.

While the innovation of technology has greatly improved our day-to-day activities, it has also proven that we no longer need actual human beings to help with many of the jobs of today in the near future, thanks to robotics.

A robot is a machine programmable by a computer capable of carrying out complex actions automatically. According to the Britannica dictionary, a robot is any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner. By extension, robotics is the engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots.

As its definition indicates, robots are here to replace humans in workplaces, markets, the army, etc. Though robots are still under development, the history of robots has its origins in the ancient world, during the Industrial Revolution, humans developed the structural engineering capability to control electricity so that machines could be powered with small motors.

Already, machines and robots have started replacing humans in many workplaces like banks, industries, markets, and media houses in Nigeria. Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) gave banks the privilege to employ few tellers, while the internet allow them to have few customer care representatives. Nowadays, you don’t need a hardworking secretary to type your work when you can easily dictate to a computer what you wanted to write and get it printed.

Office workers in public and private institutions have already started feeling the heat. A job that 20 persons can handle in a week can be done by a robot in a day. Governments now give less priority to office workers and more priority to health and education sectors when it comes to employment and recruitment. But it is just a matter of time before this status quo changes because both the education and health sectors will soon start experiencing the tsunami of job loss.

In the near future, school doesn’t have to recruit many teachers when a single tutor from anywhere in the world can teach thousands of students online and have their exams and tests marked by a computer program or bot.

Health institutions will soon require the services of a few health workers, medical doctors, and consultants, since a patient can get a prescription for himself by talking to a robot or chatting with a consultant that renders online services, also surgeries can be performed by robots.

Security outfits will face massive job loss with the development of robot police and soldiers. A robot will be stronger, more loyal, more reliable, and more accurate than humans, in addition to it being a machine, as such, emotionless and immortal. One robot can fight thousands of humans on a war front. Already drones are now more preferred than having an air force officer flying a warplane to enemies’ camps.

Media houses like TV and Radio stations don’t need to employ OAPs, presenters, newscasters, and language translators in a few decades to come, because machines and computer programs can handle their jobs. News editors and program managers will simply work on program contents and news and upload them into a special computer program for presentation, translation, and subsequent use.

Same case with employing sales girls and boys at retail stores, shops, and supermarkets. Who will bother to go shopping physically when people can easily order what they want to buy online and get it delivered to their doorstep? Cleaners, houseboys, office messengers, cooks, labourers will all cease to exist because of robots.

Other jobs that bots will take away from humans include, but are not limited to, telemarketing, automated shipping services, sewer management, tax preparers, photograph processing, data entry work, librarians and library technicians, etc.

But with all that I mentioned above, I’m not in any way trying to spell doom for the next generation of youth that will graduate from schools and start looking for jobs, in a few decades to come. As I have stated from the beginning, there’s a divergent view on the topic. Some people view bots as a weapon to wipe out humans from industries, military, offices, workplaces, etc, while others view it as a great development that will better the lives of humans which is needed to be embraced by all.

For me, humans by nature, since time immemorial, have had survival instincts and no technological development was able to render people jobless. If a job is no longer in existence, humans will always find themselves a better alternative. When industrial machines came into being in the 19th century and replace millions of menial labourers, humans find a way to survive them, the same way robots will be integrated into our daily lives. By the way, it is the very humans that made the machines and the robots not the other way round.

Kabir Musa is the HOD Computer Engineering, Binyaminu Usman Polytechnic, Hadejia, Jigawa State.

By Nura Jibo

During my university days in one of Nigeria’s best and leading universities, I was a victim of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike. As a result, we were stricken academically and made to stay at home for an entire year.

The ASUU-Federal Government face-off continued to linger. We were affected by another two-year strike at different times. Then I wrote a full page in the Daily Trust opinion column of 2 May 2003 titled, “ASUU/FGN Face-Off: Point Blank”.

I don’t really blame ASUU for all the strike actions. Because I know even then, the moribund status of the Nigerian education system had reached its comatose stage. We were given lectures in two of the biggest lecture theatres at my university. And the mammoth student crowd was so overwhelming that one had to sit on the floor to listen to lectures. There was a lack of seats and spaces to patch on and receive lessons. That was nineteen (19) years ago!

Now I don’t want to be lengthy today. Anybody that wants to know the solutions I proffered then could search Google or take time to read my book chapter on Nigeria. It is there on Amazon

To cut the story short, I listened to the haggard-looking and frustrated ASUU President with a sympathetic mind. I saw how Seun of Channels Television tried to balance his reporting with Festus Keyamo’s verbal diarrhoea.

First, anybody watching Keyamo’s take on ASUU knows he is lying! He sounded a pathological one, for that matter. But I don’t blame him because that’s what some Nigerian politicians do to make ends meet! However, as a lawyer and former human rights activist, Keyamo ought to have been careful by minding his language as a custodian of justice.

I am happy the ASUU President debunked and dismissed Keyamo as one of those ‘chop-chop’ guys that rants on government, but after having a lucrative position, they eat and dine from it. And their so-called activism ends there!

Second, Adamu Adamu’s Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education is one of the most corrupt ministries in the world. A verifiable proof and evidence of this is vivid when one wants attestation of their academic documents. The entire people in charge of attestation of university documents are all fantastically corrupt. They charge and collect kick-backs from left, right, back, front and centre! And they would tell you there is no actual price for attestation of one’s academic documents.

Very recently, a very shocking incident happened. Someone was kept aside, probably a former staff of the Ministry, that specialises in being a money liaison negotiator between one of the women directors that work in that attestation section in the Ministry and anybody that comes for attestation of documents. That guy (name withheld for now but will be released in my subsequent analysis) is extraordinarily corrupt and charges a considerable amount of money in the name attestation!

I wanted to expose these ills and terrible ineptitudes to Adamu Adamu by intending to painstakingly go and meet him personally at his office the way we used to meet at late Dr Mamud’s Tukur house in Kaduna at Raba Road. But I decided not to because he may ask his secretaries not to usher me in. The rest of this story is a menu for another day. Now let’s come back to ASUU Strike.

As it is, Adamu Adamu has lost respect and the so-called radical reformer he thinks he was. Because for him to preside over an education ministry that is the biggest in Africa and allow corruptible ministerial staff to keep reigning and painting a terrible image of Nigeria in the name of attestation of documents shows a lack of concern and total negligence of holding public office on Adamu’s part!

Therefore, little wonder when he ignores ASUU’s demands because during his struggle days to make both ends meet, he was an ardent ASUU supporter. But now, he has joined the bandwagon of Keyamo’s “Kiya Kiya” in the name of public service!

Third, I respect my university teachers very well. They earn my respect any day. Because despite all odds, they made me who I am educationally (academically), politically, socially, realistically, genuinely, “temeritically”, hopefully, audaciously, respectfully, fearlessly, confrontationally, and above all analytically and scientifically savvy.

Ditto Adamu Adamu and the Keyamo’s of this world!

They were well trained and educated by those university lecturers that they betray today in the name of public office.

To be continued!

Nura Jibo is a Lifetime Member of the West African Research Association (WARA), African Studies Centre, Boston University, United States. He can be reached via jibonura@yahoo.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the Federal Government has sorted out issues with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that the ‘no-work-no-pay’ policy is the only condition delaying the truce.

The minister said this Thursday at the 47th session of the State House Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team in Abuja.

According to him, four of five unions in the tertiary institutions across the country had agreed to call off strike within the next week.

Regarding compensating students for time wasted from the six-month strike, the minister said ASUU  should be held responsible for that.

The minister stated, “the affected students should ‘take ASUU to court’ to get compensated for the time wasted.”

By Ishaka Mohammed

Sometime in April 2021, an interviewer told me that there were only five kinds of nouns. She went further to reject some of the concepts I used while trying to disagree with her. For example, she claimed that neither ‘uncountable’ nor ‘mass’ could be used while discussing kinds of nouns. Surprisingly, however, she accepted ‘countable’. Before I could say anything further, she had mentioned her qualifications, perhaps to prove her superiority to me. Although I apologised to her, I wished I hadn’t encountered such a drama, thanks to Covid-19. I’ll explain this in the following story.

Due to my observation of many state civil servants, especially teachers, I’m usually afraid of relying on a state government job in Nigeria. Although I’ve applied for some government jobs in Kaduna State, I’ve never thought of depending totally on any (if employed). Besides, it’s highly unwise to rely on a single source of income.

However, as a private school teacher, my Covid-19 lockdown experience made me see one advantage of government jobs. Government workers received their salaries despite being away from work for months. Unfortunately, it was a different story for most of us (especially teachers) in the private sector.

Most schools in Kaduna had been on lockdown even before the federal imposed the same. I thought normalcy would return within a short time, but I was wrong. I had to stay for five months without a salary but not without food. To complement the assistance from some friends and relatives, I did some menial jobs until I decided to post my story on Nairaland. All I needed was a daily income of N500.

About an hour after posting the story, a lady responded and asked me to chat with her via WhatsApp. I wasted no time, and we reached an agreement. She would send snapped or scanned copies of handwritten notes from Ibadan, and I would type them on my phone and send them to her. We agreed on N30 per page, but she usually paid me higher than that. However, the biggest amount of money I received at the time was N1,200, and it took me three days to complete the task. Moreover, it was difficult typing the contents of the photos on the same phone containing them (the images).

With the lockdown experience, I became so much interested in government jobs. So, when the Kaduna State Teachers’ Service Board (KSTSB) advertised teaching vacancies in December 2020, I responded at once. I was shortlisted for a test, and owing to my high score, my hopes were high. So, expectedly, I was invited for an interview.

I prepared well and looked forward to facing the interview panel, but little did I know that I would be asked a question similar to the number of times President Muhammadu Buhari has been shocked. By the way, despite answering the last three questions correctly, the first one had already created friction between a member of the panel and me.

The woman insisted that there were only five kinds of nouns. I immediately disagreed with her and mentioned more than eight. Surprisingly, she accepted ‘countable nouns’ but rejected ‘uncountable nouns’. I quickly drew her attention to the fact that uncountable nouns are also called mass nouns, but my assertion infuriated her. She claimed that she had never come across ‘mass nouns’, and to prove her authority, she had to boast of the number of degrees she had, with the first being in language arts. I kindly said, “I’m sorry, ma.” However, that was like appointing a campaign director after one has already lost an election. I didn’t get the job.

Since then, I’ve consulted many sources to know how many kinds of nouns there are, but I have

yet to get a definite answer. Should you have an answer to that question, please share it with me.

Ishaka Mohammed wrote from Kaduna. He can be reached via ishakamohammed39@gmail.com.