Poland

Poland denies nationals arrested in Nigeria waved Russian flag

By Sabiu Abdullahi 

The Polish government has refuted claims that its nationals, arrested in Kano, Nigeria, displayed the Russian flag during a protest.

The six students and their lecturer were detained on August 6, along with six Spanish nationals, for allegedly participating in the #EndBadGovernance protest. 

Peter Afunanya, spokesperson for the Department of State Services, stated that the Poles were arrested “because of where they were found during the protests and for displaying foreign flags.”

However, the Polish foreign ministry denied this allegation, saying the group “merely took photos” and did not participate in the protest. 

The students, who were on an exchange program at Bayero University, Kano, are being held on unclear charges.

The University of Warsaw has made their release a top priority, with the Rector, Alojzy Nowak, in contact with the detainees. 

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Jakub Wisniewski has pleaded for their safe return, expressing skepticism about the Russian flag claim.

“I personally find this claim hard to believe. We are urging for their safe return home, where their loved ones are anxiously waiting for them.” 

Former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Professor Bola Akinterinwa, advised the Polish government to be patient and allow the investigation to be completed.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Poland, Omooba Ayoola, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to facilitate the release of the students and their lecturer.

Ambassador Joanna Tarnawska: A change of narrative  

By Ahmadu Shehu, PhD

For the first time in history, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Poland, H.E. Andrzej Duda, visited Nigeria on 6th September 2022. Apart from being a landmark in history, this visit has renewed the longstanding alliance and friendship between these great nations and has substantially reduced miscommunications and misperceptions among the citizens and officials of both countries.

The visit has yielded bilateral agreements of enormous importance to both nations, especially on agriculture and technology transfer. Moreover, judging by its history and relationship with Nigeria, nay Africa, Nigeria and its sister nations stand to gain more level playing ground in bilateral negotiations with Poland than many other more advanced western countries. This, however, is a topic for another day.

The resilience of the Polish – Nigeria relationship was tested in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As the Russian army steadily and mercilessly advanced toward major Ukrainian cities, foreign residents scampered for safety across all Ukrainian borders in search of safety. Thousands of Nigerians, mostly students, found themselves at the Polish border, which was already overwhelmed by destitute refugees struggling to cross into Poland. The scenes and images of the border control points shall never be missed!   

While a lot of misinformation and deliberate spinning of Poland as a racist, intolerant country was being cooked and distributed, the Polish diplomatic mission in Nigeria busied itself with solutions and helping Nigerians trapped in this conflict. A few days later, news surfaced that Polish officials were actually particularly kind to all citizens, especially Nigerians who were given special treatment by various missions based in Poland.  

Back at home, Polish companies and financiers have landed significant business deals to ramp up Nigeria’s solid minerals sector to ameliorate the foreseen global energy crises occasioned by the war. In addition, the Polish agro sector looked at Nigeria as the next solution to the food crises, raising the hope that the Nigerian agricultural value chain would become a global competitor.

Tracing the roots of Poland’s contribution to the growth of Nigeria’s tertiary education in the ‘60s, ‘70s and even ‘80s, several Nigerian universities have found valuable opportunities to collaborate with major Polish universities in various academic fields.

The Nasarawa State University, for instance, had a significant project that translated the works of a Polish scientist whose contributions to the Nigerian academic community cannot be quantified. Several first-class Nigerian universities, such as Bayero University, Kano, have maintained a functional MoU with the University of Warsaw for many years.

In line with its cultural heritage and educational development support, the Polish mission in Nigeria built a specialized school to support Almajiri and out-of-school children in Kaduna State. Although many foreign non-governmental organizations do these kinds of projects, Poland is the only country to start this foresighted initiative as part of its foreign mission activities.

The Polish mission established and sustains a vibrant Polish Alumni forum, which is meant to foster and strengthen the understanding between the citizens of the two countries. Nigerians who studied, trained or visited Poland in a working capacity discuss relevant issues of interest to Nigerians in Poland and the bilateral relations and areas of cooperation between the two countries. This initiative has led to mutually beneficial opportunities for Nigerians and Polish people willing to study, live or do business in either country.    

Polish – Nigeria relations is a sixty-year-old business that stood the test of time. However, to whom do we owe this enthusiastic revival of the friendship between these crucial countries? The bulk stops at the table of Her Excellency Joannah Tarnawska, the Poland ambassador to Nigeria.

Tarnawska is an African-born and bred Polish lady with a degree in African studies from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw. Mrs Tarnawska is currently doing a PhD in economics, with a research interest in economic issues in Africa.

Her cultural ties, deep understanding and love for Africa are unmatched. Thus, the amount of success she will record as a diplomat in Africa is promising. Her resilience and understanding of the murky waters of the Nigerian political landscape give her an edge to thrive. The balanced, respectful and dignified way in which the Polish mission now treats Africans will undoubtedly bring back the glory of the Republic of Poland as a true, non-colonial ally of this continent.         

Africa is the future! Therefore, this shall be a win-win for Poland and Nigeria!

Ahmadu Shehu is an Associate Professor at Kaduna State University. You can reach him at ahmadsheehu@gmail.com.

Academic Travails: 17 hours for 20 minutes!

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

The academic world will never cease to amaze me. Let us look at just one example. Take an invitation to present a paper at an international event, as I was in June 2022. This particular event was the 90th commemoration of the establishment of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. About 30 of us were invited, mainly from Europe and Asia, to share experiences on our various studies on orientalism from 29th to 30th June 2022. 

The trip was daunting for me, to begin with. It started with an hour flight on Qatar Airways to Abuja from Kano (my base). I spent another hour or so on the ground at Abuja before taking off for the six-hour flight to Doha, Qatar. I spent over four hours meandering around the terminal at Doha, waiting for the connecting flight to Warsaw. Eventually boarded the five-hour flight from Doha to Warsaw. All told, about 17 hours journey time. Arrived at the hotel jetlagged, weary and disoriented.

Off the following day to the University of Warsaw for the two-day conference scheduled at 9.00 p.m. each day. And it was right on the dot, with welcoming remarks by Prof. Piotr Taracha, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies UW, followed by an address to the conference by Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the Rector of UW. These were followed by two keynote addresses, then appreciation of retiring members of the university community who had been there for over 50 years, including my host, Prof. dr. hab. Nina Pawlak (that’s how distinguished academic titles are labelled in most Eastern European universities). Let’s see what the letters mean; prof stands for professor, while dr is the doctor. To be a hab, however, requires extra efforts.  

To be awarded the academic degree of doktor habilitowany (habilitation), the candidate must have remarkable scientific or artistic achievements; submit a habilitation book which contributes to the development of a given scientific discipline; receive a favourable assessment of their output, pass a habilitation examination and deliver a favourably assessed habilitation lecture. It is after all this that they become professors.  

Nina Pawlak received her PhD in 1983 (Constructions expressing spatial relations in the Hausa language), habilitation in 1995 (Syntactic Markers in Chadic) and professorship in 2007. Thus entitled to prof. dr. hab. status. The habilitation is a post-doctoral experience that is highly formalized, represented by a separate thesis or a compendium of outstanding work in the area that can be evaluated as making an original contribution to knowledge. It takes between four to ten years to complete. Its public presentation is something like an inaugural lecture before a professorship. In most cases, the habilitation is the qualification needed for someone to supervise doctoral students. So far, in Africa, only Al-Azhar University in Cairo seems to offer this route to university scholarship.  

It is the habilitation qualification that will determine one’s path to professorship, but the publications required for skipping it to become a professor directly have to be more outstanding than the habilitation publication. This process shows rigorous respect for original contribution to knowledge in European scholarship. One can still be referred to as prof. dr. in recognition of their scholarship, without the hab. For instance, I was recognized as so by the European Union award of a grant to teach at the University of Warsaw in 2012. The prof. dr. title, used in mainland Europe and some Asian universities, acknowledges scholarship, even without the region-specific hab.  

Now back to the Conference. No ‘Chairman of the Occasion’, or Lead Paper presenter, nor ‘Royal Father of the Day’, etc. Just presentations. Now that brings me to my wonderment about the academic process. After over 17 hours of flight time (and same hours returning back), like everyone else, I was given 20 minutes (which included being harassed five minutes to the end by the moderator) to present my paper titled The Trans-Oriental Express: Receptivity and Cinematic Contraflows in African Popular Culture, and 10 minutes allowed for discussions – and that’s it! 

Thus, you spend weeks on fieldwork and data synthesis, spend hours being ferried from one location to another, and stay for days cooped up in a dingy hotel room (wistfully thinking about your own spacious personal living space!) eat some unusual and often very expensive food. All for 20 minutes of fame! This has been a recurring pattern in all the conferences I had attended.  

So, what is it about, at least international scholarship, that people would rather read what you wrote than listen to you? In Nigeria, paper presenters tend to ramble way beyond their allocated time. Often, the moderator of your session is worried about stopping you because you are a ‘big’ man, even if you are talking out of point. I remember one case in which the ‘Guest Speaker’ was reminded that his time was up as per the ‘program of event’ (sic). He adamantly refused to heed the time and insisted that since he was the main ‘event’, he would only stop when he finished reading the booklet of his lecture, which was 32 pages! Thank God for Smartphones – people just ignored him and shifted their attention to their WhatsApp messenger and came back to earth only after someone started clapping to signal their relief at the conclusion of the presentation! 

Perhaps it is time for us as Nigerian academics to move from this dense didactic approach to presenting papers – where you are often expected to give ‘theoretical framework’, ‘research questions’, ‘methodology’ (to appear ‘Scientific’ even if there is no Science in your conclusions) before you get to the actual data itself. And most annoying, you are also expected to give totally useless ‘recommendations.’ I had arguments with moderators and participants in Nigeria on the last point where I am asked about my ‘recommendations’ after my presentations. I often reply that I don’t have any recommendations – I present my data and my interpretation. How it goes is up to you. For instance, what can I recommend to a person who based their own narrative creativity on intertextual appropriation, thus creating a meta-narrative? That it has happened is fascinating enough. That I brought it to your attention is sufficient enough in knowledge discourses. In wider international scholarship, participants are more interested in exploring other aspects of your data.  

I think our approach to conference presentations in Nigeria has vestiges of the didactic educational experiences we were grilled through. Under such an academic ecosystem, all research is geared toward policy and governance. It is time for a paradigm shift – cut down the number of minutes on presentation, and focus on the epistemological virtues of the presentation! Oh, and cut-off the prof’s microphone when he seems about to torture his audience beyond his allocated 15 to 20 minutes!

Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu is the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.

Racism: Poland at it again

By Usama Abdullahi

I didn’t want to talk about this. But my mind is sick of it and wants me to spell it out. My piece centres on racism today. It’s something that most of us are barely familiar with. Yes, most of us, who haven’t travelled to the white world, know next to nothing about it. Some of us might not know that this ill-treatment against black people exists. While others, like me, do hear and read about it either on television or in newspapers. 

As a kid, I knew nothing about racism. Neither did I ever acknowledge its existence. It is because I was too young to understand what that meant. I used to think that the whites were superior humans that accord us, the blacks, some respect. But, contrary to my little kiddish thoughts about the whites, a vile or an irresponsible white man loathes this glowing dark skin. This blessed skin that wrestles all sorts of skin threats or irritation, someone from the other part of the world has aversions for it. 

This skin that withstands the sun’s heat, someone who’s driven by hatred for the faultless black men, considers it hell. I came across the word Ku Klux Klan at 12. At the time, I had Longman Dictionary with me. I would carry it wherever I go. So when I first took a glimpse at the then unfamiliar word, I paused for a while. Afterwards, I proceeded to read its meaning till the end. I couldn’t believe it at first. 

True. I couldn’t believe that there used to be a secret society during the 20th century which supported white supremacy in the Americas. This outlawed secret society fights the blacks and drives them out of the United States despite being legal citizens. I’m glad that this fraternal group is now defunct. But the problem is that racism is feathering again. It is fast dominating the white world. Some of them, the racists who have no respect for individual differences, honour its stay. They see nothing wrong when a black person gets badly treated because of his skin.

Sadly, we are entangled in a world that supports baseless animosities toward the people we share different views, faith or race with. The world we dwell in is a respecter of evil. We live to dine at the expense of our oppressed brothers from other parts of the universe. We see skin colour as a barrier to our unity and coexistence. Hence we look at each other with intense disgust. Unknowingly, this racism kills our hope to live a meaningful life.

Last year, we were hit by the tragic news of an African-American man who had his fate crushed in the hands of a cruel white policeman. The news filled up the media until it captured public attention. Concerned black folks, particularly the deceased’s bereaved family, went through hell as a result. As a result, many people took their outrages to the streets, protesting against racism with the hashtag, “Black lives matter”. And they were assured of drastic measures to prevent such by the American government.

Considering America’s quick intervention on the matter, we thought the issue of racism was laid to eternal rest, but it, like Lazarus, has been resurrected. We saw the uproar and slighting comments which trailed the media over the failure of Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho to score during the penalty kick of the Euro 2020 final. We also saw the unusual treatment against Zouma over a minor offence on his cat, costing him millions of dollars. And, unfortunately, Poland is at it again.

It’s sad to watch how the blacks were denied entry into the train conveying people from the war-ravaged Ukraine to Poland. Despite the threats they face, the racial prejudice in these racist morons prevails and has got to the point of favouring the Ukrainians over Africans or blacks – as if they aren’t all humans in need of urgent aid. Racism is a disease that bites deep into our hearts. It is also a barricade that holds back our progress as humans. So, It’s high time we stopped promoting racial discrimination.

Usama Abdullahi wrote from Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached via usamagayyi@gmail.com.