Education

By Muhammad Sabiu

A National Youth Service Corps Member by the name Sani Umar Yakubu has on Thursday 25th November 2021, or in fulfillment of his community development service commissioned renovated twin toilet facility in Community High School Afaha Obong, Abak Local Government of Akwa Ibom State.

While commissioning the renovated toilets, Umar who hails from Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State, said the facility represents his contribution to fight against open defecation, citing the United Nations Statistics of over 47 million individuals practicing Open defecation in the country.

He added that the gesture follows a successful sensitizations to about five schools namely: Government Technical College, Abak, Comprehensive Secondary School, Ediene; St. Mary’s Practicing School, Holy Family Secondary Schools, Church of Jesus Christ Atai Otoro, market etc on the negative implications of open defecation.

The corps member, who encourage other corps members to embark on similar project, said that it will ensure development of their host community for legacy during the service year and that the project was executed with support from his sponsors Engr. Inyeneowo Umanah of Lean On ME Nigeria and Muritala Mujjib, a business man in Abak market also commended the support of Elder Umah T. Udiong, principal Community High School Afaha Obong.

While commending the effort, the principal community high school Afaha Obong Elder Umah T. Udiong appreciated the corps member on the project, noting that their students will make adequate use of the facility and ensure cleanliness. “This project comes at a time that I was under pressure to provide a good toilet facility, most especially to the staff of the school.

“When the project manager walked into my office to indicate his interest to renovate the toilet facility, the joy inside me knew no bunds. I still do not understand why he chose this school for this project, given that this is not his place of primary assignment but one thing I know is that God works in a mysterious way”, he said.

The Honorable Commissioner for Education Akwa Ibom State Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet who was represented by Dr Aniete Ikot commended the corps member for his staginess and passion to the service for his fatherland stating that if every corps member is determined to execute a project that will impact their host community positively, the entire country will be a better place.

By Uzair Adam Imam

A lecturer with Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Ibrahim Bello Kano (aka IBK), has described the Nigerian universities as entirely unsuccessful and unproductive, adding that both the lecturers and students are good plagiarists who solely depend on online resources.

Prof. IBK raised this argument on November 25, 2021, at the 3rd Social Sciences Public Lecture organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences, Bayero University, Kano.

However, the lecture generated responses, which eventually led to a debate among the audience. While some of the audience members agreed with Prof. IBK, others disagreed with him.

In response to the debate, IBK lamented, “Some professors never bother to read new information in their declared research field of interest. Only very few among our colleagues keep their head above the stagnant academic pool.”

He added that in Nigerian universities, some lecturers give lectures to the students, who pretend to take down notes. “When it is time for class tests, the assignment or examination, the students migrate en mass to online searches for relevant information,” he stated.

IBK, who seemed to have been speaking from his heart, described how sad he feels seeing lecturers and students openly plagiarising online academic materials.

“Students openly plagiarized online academic materials and pass them off as their own hard, independent research. Some of the lecturers are in relatively the same situation.” He lamented.

The lecture had many influential personalities both within and outside the university in attendance. Some of them included: The Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Prof. Sagir Adamu Abbas, represented by Dr Musa Auyo; Prof. Abdullah Uba Adam, former Vice-Chancellor, National Open University, Prof Ahmad M. Tsauni, among many others.

By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

The alarming rate of insurgency, banditry and kidnappings are rising across Nigeria without any sign of abating.

These myriads of insecurity challenges have been inflicting wanton damages on the country’s political, socio-economic, and educational institutions.

Initially, the prime targets of kidnappers are wealthy individuals who can afford a ransom of any sum to regain their freedom. But nowadays, the narrative has since dramatically changed, as individuals who live from hand to mouth have now become the targets of these blood-sucking demons.

Worse still, this heinous act has been extended to the education sector, looking at how mass abductions of students have become a norm.  These students end up in the kidnappers’ den and get subjected to different forms of torture, leading to the premature death of some of them, while the lucky ones that survive usually go a long way battling with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) due to the horrific experience they were exposed to.

According to the latest edition of Nigeria’s National Security Strategy (NNSS) 2019, a document released by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno, it was emphasized that kidnapping, armed banditry and militia constituted about 40% incidences of national insecurity in Nigeria.

Reports have indicated that several schools have come under attack by bandits since late last year in which innocent students were horrifically abducted. Records have shown that 20 attacks had been carried out on some Nigerian schools in which about 1,436 children were kidnapped and 16 dead, while 200 children are still unaccounted for.  It is with dismay that many schools were closed, thereby pushing the country’s education system on the cross.

Several schools in Northern Nigeria have been raided by bandits in which mass students were abducted. Notable among them are Government Science Secondary School Kankara, Katsina State, Government Girl Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State and Government Science College, Kagara in Niger state. In addition, bandits have also stormed and kidnapped students from tertiary institutions in Nigeria, such as the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka and Greenfield University, both in Kaduna State.

The continuous infiltration of Nigerian schools by bandits, especially in Northwestern Nigeria, is pervasive and disastrous. Currently, students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kujama in Kaduna State and Federal Government College, Yauri, in Kebbi State are still being held in bandits’ camps for more than four months with a slim hope of ever regaining freedom. Meanwhile, the abducted pupils of Salihu Tanko Islamiyyah School, Tegina, in Niger state, did regain their freedom in August after spending about 88days in bandits’ enclave.

UNICEF raised the alarm not long ago, saying that at least one million school children across more than 37 schools in Nigeria are afraid to return to school. According to the agency, the fears by the children were a result of insecurity in the country, especially abductions that had taken place in some schools across the country.

Reports indicated that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. For every five children that are not attending school globally, one of them is Nigerian. And this is mainly attributed to the danger the students face in their school from the anti-educational forces.

However, the question that is still begging for an answer is, what are the necessary measures taken by the government towards preventing the recurrence of kidnappings in our schools?

Albeit, armed groups, have since proliferated and become more sophisticated over the years. Henceforth, enhanced coordination between state and federal governments will surely improve the response to banditry and general insecurity. Part of this strategy should involve the use of early warning and early response systems involving the federal government, state governments, local vigilantes and community leaders.

Honestly, it will be apt should the Federal Government return to the drawing board to invigorate the earlier established Safe School Initiative program. The Safe School Initiative was unveiled in 2014 in Abuja during the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA) by the Nigerian government in collaboration with the United Nations to rebuild, rehabilitate and restore normalcy in the education sector. It was launched in May 2014 after the abduction of more than 270 Chibok girls from their school in Borno State.

The program was established to build community security groups to promote safe education zones, consisting of teachers, parents, police, community leaders and young people. In the longer term, the program will further focus on bolstering the safety of schools by providing school guards and police in partnership with Nigerian authorities, training staff as school safety officers, and providing counsellors to schools at risk of attack.

Additionally, this initiative constituted a series of research, campaign and programmatic activities in collaboration between Theirworld and the Global Business Coalition for Education to raise the profile of safe schools and learning environments in times of conflict and emergencies.

The policy had been successfully launched and recorded tremendous successes in some countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Latin America. Safe School Initiative offers supervision, services and teaching in saving children’s lives in the short term and helping them develop in the long term.

Presently, it is heartwarming to learn that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has commissioned an all-female squad mandated to safeguard schools from any harm by either bandits or kidnappers. This is part of its efforts to promote the Safe School Initiative and provide full-proof security for schools as directed by the federal government.

However, the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawal, has lamented that the Safe School Initiative program in Nigeria was designed to fail. This is because the Education Ministry was not involved in the funding or application of funds for the program, as the Ministry of Finance handles all these activities entirely.

The time is long overdue to stem the tide of banditry and kidnappings, as Nigeria must be liberated from the hands of ‘aliens who have turned to blood-sucking demons.’ Otherwise, this will retard the bright future of our children and the country they tend to inherit.

Mukhtar wrote from Kano State via ymukhtar944@gmail.com.

By Khadija Muhammad

The national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed concern over how the Federal Government of Nigeria is handling the demands of the universities unseriously. Together with other union leaders, he expressed their dismay at a press conference in Abuja on November 15, 2021.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) issued a three-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to address all issues as agreed in the December 2020 Agreement.

ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this on Monday while addressing reporters in Abuja.

The president warned that the union might be compelled to embark on another nationwide strike should the government fail to implement the Memorandum of Action signed with ASUU before suspending the last industrial action.

According to the ASUU President, all the issues, including unpaid academic earned allowances and the universities revitalisation fund, have not been addressed almost one year after an agreement was reached.

The ultimatum is part of the resolutions reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU held in the nation’s capital.

It can be recalled that ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike in March 2020 following its disagreement with the government over the funding of the universities and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), among other issues. Accordingly, it had proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace IPPIS. But in a bid to get the lecturers back to class, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, convened a series of meetings with leaders of the union and relevant government officials.

Amid the strike that lasted several months and negotiations that ended in a deadlock, the government and ASUU later signed a Memorandum of Action in December 2020. This led to the suspension of the protracted industrial action that lasted nine months. However, not after the government offered a cumulative N65 billion to the lecturers to address earned academic allowances and revitalisation of universities.

On the IPPIS tussle, both parties agreed on the UTAS, while the government would pay the university lecturers’ salary arrears on a different platform.

ASUU had on several occasions warned that it would indeed go on strike if the federal government continued to break the promises and throw away all the agreements reached.

By Salisu Uba Kofar-Wambai

By Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi

It has been widely confirmed and unanimously agreed by academics and other educational stakeholders that the culture of reading is fast dying across the globe, especially in Nigeria. This may be the reason why Bayero University, Kano, in collaboration and support of Florida State University, USA, established “The Nigeria Centre for Reading Research and Development” at Bayero University, Kano.

The Centre’s main aim is to encourage, support and upgrade the nature of reading and revive the reading culture, which, according to experts, is the only way and key to development of any nation.

The Director of the Centre, Professor Talatu Musa Garba, disclosed this development today during the opening ceremony of the 3rd National Conference on Children’s Book and the Teaching of Early Grade Reading in Nigeria.

Garba added that “It is my pleasure to announce that the Centre is now focused to develop various courses, in collaboration with the Department of Education, Bayero University, Kano, following the expiration of its collaboration with Florida State University earlier this year.

The Postgraduate Diploma in the Teaching of Reading approved by the university and advertised on the BUK official website has already commenced this academic year, which opened last week, on 1st November, 2021. The Centre has also concluded arrangements to offer the Certificate in the Teaching of Reading beginning in July 2022″.

BUK Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas, revealed that the Nigeria Centre for Reading, Research and Development is now entirely under Bayero University, Kano. He further added that “We in the management pledge to support its operation fully. In this regard, I  am pleased to inform the conference that the construction of the permanent building for the Centre has reached an advanced stage, as the physical structure is currently being furnished and equipped, accordingly. What remains is the landscaping, and the university is making provision for that before the end of the year.

The conference is still ongoing, and it will dwell and deliberate on “Children’s books as tools for the effective teaching of reading skills in the early grade in Nigeria”.

By Muhammad Sabiu

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmed

By A. A. Bukar

Let me preface this with the caveat and confession that part of the reason I recently slow down hobnobbing with professors is my increasing abhorrence of this culture of excessive bootlicking and kowtowing that is creeping into academia and eroding the ideals of independent thought, spirit of free inquiry and detachment that hitherto characterise intellectual discourse. The radical critique of issues and events for the betterment of humanity and irradiating the society is slowly taking a wing, supplanted with overt politicisation of minor issues (and even non-issues). Today, young academics, like myself, are becoming increasingly afraid to express even simple admiration of who they consider as the IDEAL TYPE among their teachers and mentors in academia because of “interpretations”. For this, you can even be reported to the enemy of such a scholar to possibly victimise you “sabida ai yaron wane ne! Ku kyale shi, ai zai zo defence, ai za’ a kawo papers dinsa for assessment”. And on and on. Such pettiness and vendetta. Hence, many – out there – see  Nigerian academics as the worst enemies of themselves and are happy with how FG is dealing with them.

Little wonder whether this culture is obtainable in other parts of the world. Departments are compartmentalised into cliques and camps a la political parties in the larger society. Professors are becoming like emirs fortified by sycophants, making them unnecessarily snobbish and covetous of flattery. PhDs are deliberately delayed or tactically killed because a candidate does not BELONG. A blind eye is turned to obvious wrongs, mediocrity, and crass injustice because “our oga” is INVOLVED. Entitlements and privileges (especially of the younger ones) are stampeded to settle SCORES.

A friend sent me a Jumaat goodwill message, a quotation from Rumi which reads: “Listen to silence; it has so much to say”. How many PhD/MSc candidates do you know writhing in silent pain of frustration? Prof sirs and mas: listen to our silences and that shy smile that says “ba komai sir”. When I was an undergrad, I once overheard my teacher, Dr Gausu, talking about one of his colleagues in Economics, Business or Accounting (I can’t remember exactly) who’d become agoraphobic and almost schizophrenic because of PhD manhandling from a senior colleague. Of course, then I was too inexperienced to understand the heck that was about. They sarcastically even refer to the initials as “Pull Him Down”.

Whether this augurs well for generation, production and dissemination of ideas and knowledge typical of the Ivory Tower, I leave it to your imagination.

For these and more, many ideal intellectuals are on the lookout for escape windows from the suffocating atmosphere of poverty and frustrations taking over academia like a thick cloud on the horizon. Many are “diversifying”, hence diverting their attention from the absolute commitment ideal scholarship demands. Others are increasingly becoming nonchalant – that I-don’t-care attitude of: “if the department or unit fuels the generator set, fine, otherwise I teach the SPSS or Word Processing on the whiteboard”. Elsewhere blackboard. So Nigerian hospitals are not alone; medical practitioners are just a cohort.

Despite all odds, I love being at the University. It is a place where I feel I naturally belong. And our campuses are still dotted with the IDEAL TYPE (just as there are IDLE TYPES who do not “profess” any knowledge) that constantly bring back to one’s memory my favourite: Edward Said. Critically engaging. Highly unassuming – like Mazrui. Passionate about nourishing the mind; concerned with the public good and Humanity as a whole. People who will unconsciously make you feel you are far from arriving without making you feel embarrassed. I have recently met and enormously admire one such intellectual is Professor Abubakar Mu’azu of the Mass Communication department, UNIMAID.

Interpret this one too the way you like. Report me anywhere. Land me into trouble. I no longer care. But Allah knows whether this is coming from the bottom of my heart or elsewhere. Such as an attempt to curry favour.

After all, what use is admiring people if you cannot tell them or others you do? Or should we hold on till they are no more? Wouldn’t that serve as a token of encouragement to maintain the course and tempo against all odds?

I have earmarked a few other similar intellectuals I will write about in due course on this space. I will unburden my heart about people I feel positively towards. Yes, I will specify those who fit my definition of the ideal intellectual. Part of this is, of course, honesty. Wallahi, no matter how engaging you are, you are out of the equation once it comes to the light you are dubious and too self-centred. If you’re extorting money or sex from your vulnerable students, you cannot be my model. But again, I am not looking out for an angel.

Back to the subject, I have met with Prof Muazu only a few times. One was when he came as an external examiner to my thesis in April 2018 and some months earlier as an accreditation team member for the college I taught in Yobe state. The last, some weeks back. Each, he left me with nothing but admiration and deep respect.

When I phoned my referee and supervisor at undergrad, late Prof Maikaba, to congratulate him on his last promotion, he typically enquired about the progress of my thesis. I told him then, “I was done with viva yesterday and effecting corrections now”. Curiously, he returned with a finder about the examiner. When I replied that it was Mu’azu, he said: “kace an sha aiki”. Toh Bukar. PhD beckons. You can’t wait, especially for one in this business. He admonished me as usual; I giggled, thanked and said my goodbye.

I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to reveal this too. Some hours before the viva voce, my supervisor, Dr Binta Kasim Mohammed, called alerting me “to prepare very well. Because the external examiner brought is extremely thorough and critical”. Sir, you are appreciated and held in high esteem not only by nonentities like us but also by your colleagues. But my assessment of you from afar is that: these things matter little to you (if at all) – out of humility.

From both you and the late Maikaba, I graduated with distinction. But each time we met, you left me feeling inadequate, making me wonder ‘when will I arrive?’. Parts of this are the books you recommend, which I never read, or know not exist. But somewhere in WHERE I STAND, Sheikh Gumi has opined along this line that knowledge is such enigmatic that the more you learn, the more you realise that you know very little. I wonder whether you feel something similar sometimes. Yes, despite the accomplishments. In just your last visit, you recommended, as the situation warranted, many texts. Among these are Peter Winch’s THE IDEA OF A SOCIAL SCIENCE AND ITS RELATION WITH PHILOSOPHY. Then the POSITIVIST DISPUTE IN GERMAN SOCIOLOGY. The latter is such a rare collection – in fact, my first time to meet Adorno, Habermas and Karl Popper in one place. Both books remind me of similar stuff I read from the staple of Claude Ake and Yusuf Bala Usman of blessed memory.

In this vein of characteristic modesty, you specifically asked me to read Ben Bagdikian’s MEDIA MONOPOLY after the viva voce in order to steel my argument on the influence of profit drive in media content production. A copy of my thesis still carries your adorable handwriting suggesting the title and other points. But little wonder you never drew my attention to the fact that you have written extensively on media in peacebuilding until my curiosity took me to the internet and a bookshop where I stumbled CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND THE MEDIA IN NIGERIA  – a book coedited by you and Gani Yoroms. This was despite your awareness that my thesis is squarely about this matter of controversy. Quite recessive indeed.

With the crisis engulfing Nigerian Universities (the worst I have ever seen) and academics running helter-skelter for greener pasture, I equally wonder what becomes of the academia after the few of you that remain out of passion pass on to something else or the inevitable great beyond. And especially if this maddening ill-treatment continues from the federal government. Allah Ya kiyaye, amin.

Bukar teaches Mass Communication & Journalism at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.