It is well known that members of the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body of academic staff in Nigerian public universities, have been on strike for six months. Specifically, the strike began on February 14, 2022. Typical of the union of academics, it ensured that all means of avoiding the strike were exhausted before declaring the industrial action. Other university unions followed suit to avoid being left out in case ASUU emerged triumphant.
The issues are many, and not all of them have to do with money. And in fact, not all the funds mentioned in the dispute between ASUU and Federal Government will go to the pockets of ASUU members. No money goes to the union except the monthly dues it collects from members. It is not the duty of a trade union like ASUU to collect and disburse funds. That is the duty of university administrations.
Let me explain in plain language. But before I do, specific facts are vital.
Although the Federal Government has given licenses for the establishment of many private universities in Nigeria, only about six per cent of Nigerian university students are currently in private universities. More than 90 per cent of university students are in public universities owned by state and federal governments.
Another important note is that there are currently more supporting staff in public universities than operational (academic) staff. Consequently, there are three other unions in public universities apart from ASUU. People usually do not differentiate between ASUU and others, primarily due to Government propaganda. All of these unions are now on strike.
Nigerians may also wish to note that undergraduate students in federal universities do not pay a Kobo as tuition fees as long as they are Nigerians. The very little they pay as registration fees are for services like ID cards, games, hostel, etc.
The issues for which ASUU members are on strike are the same for which the immediate past government of President Jonathan Goodluck commended the union for being patriotic and selfless. One of them is the proliferation of public universities. Does it make sense that the same government that persistently complains of not having enough funds to run its existing universities is continuously establishing new universities in every nook and cranny of the country?
Revitalization of public universities for which an agreement was reached with Jonathan’s government to release N1.3trn in six instalments is what the FG has been using to misinform the public that ASUU is looking for too much money. Thus, any time the FG releases some paltry sum of N30bn, for example, it tells the world that it has given additional funds to ASUU. I think that is why some patriotic Nigerians once agreed to “donate the sum of N18b to ASUU” to call off its strike. This money does not go to ASUU. It is used to carry out projects by contractors appointed by FG or its appointee governing councils.
The only other thing that involves cash is the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement. In case you do not understand this, it is about the condition of service (SALARY AND ALLOWANCES) of academic staff, which the government promised to review every four years. But unfortunately, the promise has not been fulfilled for 13 years.
In 2020 after an ASUU strike, the Federal Government set up a committee to renegotiate with ASUU and other unions. The committee finished its work and submitted its report in May 2021. Regrettably, the report was dumped and, despite ASUU’s constant reminders and follow-ups, was only dusted when ASUU began its strike in March this year. That is when this government realized that it could not pay what was recommended by the committee. The same government set up another committee on the report it is unwilling to disclose.
As a student or parent, you are aware of all of the above if you have been following the engagement of ASUU with the Federal Government. I am only reminding you if you have forgotten.
I am particularly shocked to hear the Minister of State Labour, Festus Keyamo, calling on parents to appeal to ASUU to end the strike. The reason is that they cannot afford N1.2tr ASUU is asking for. When did ASUU ask for this amount? Is it the revitalization fund Keyamo is talking about which ASUU never requested the FG to pay in bulk? If that is the case, why does it have to take FG six months of ASUU strike to state it? Or is it the result of renegotiation for which the FG never called ASUU and said what it could pay? It just doesn’t make any sense.
What about other issues like the UTAS for which the FG has been meeting with ASUU and claiming to have conducted tests with xy results? Is Keyamo also appealing to parents to beg ASUU on it?
And who are these parents? Please let all the government officials involved in this ASUU/FG negotiation mention the number of children they have in public universities and the programmes they are following. Of course, I know the children of Mr President study in the UK. I wrote to advise him against it when his family celebrated the graduation of one of his daughters in December 2019. Whether or not the advice of nonentities like me matters is a different issue. It is the ordinary us that cast the votes to elect him anyway.
Finally, let me remind Mr President that he has only less than a year to leave office. Unfortunately, nearly all his diehard supporters I know have been disappointed. This is mainly due to the people he entrusts with fundamental issues like Security and Education.
On the particular issue of ASUU and sister unions, Mr President seems to be overconfident in the Labour Minister, a southeast politician who was expecting you to anoint him to take over from you next year. When you refused to do it, one of them, who is also in your cabinet, stood before you in the last convention and accused you and your party of injustice. With that, can you rule out sabotage?
Mr President, please use the little time left to correct your mistakes and avoid making another regrettable blunder. Nigerians did not elect Ngige, Keyamo, Zainab or any of those. If not for you, these names would have long disappeared into obscurity. Please remember that most APC politicians who won the 2015 and 2019 elections, especially in the North, won because of you. So, the expectation is high, and the performance is dismal.
I hope Mr President reads this.
Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia wrote from Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via aujibia@gmail.com.
Looking at the reality and how uncertain the future of education is in this country, you, as a Nigerian, should get a solution for yourself. But unfortunately, even though education is a right, not a privilege, the biggest stakeholders (read: government) are not ready to facilitate smooth learning for the sons and daughters of the “common people.”
In Nigeria, public university teachers, otherwise known as ASUU members, have been on strike for over half a year, thanks to the government’s failure to listen to their demands. Don’t you think this could make some students forget the names of their respective departments after someday the industrial action is suspended?
In light of these, I honestly feel the urge to share the Indian Government online scholarship with every serious-minded Nigerian who studies—or wishes to study—at any of our strike-ravaged public universities here. The last date for the application for the scholarship is August 15.
Here are five quick reasons why you should apply for the scholarship as follows:
1. Unlike other scholarship schemes, this scholarship—which you can apply for via https://www.ilearn.gov.in/—is fully-funded. This means you do not have to pay even a dime as tuition or a part of it. In addition, you don’t have to know anyone to apply or get it.
2. You only need a good mobile device (preferably a computer) with a good Internet connection to study. This indicates that you do not have to undergo the stress of boarding a flight from Nigeria to India, although it would be a pleasure to go overseas for your study.
3. The word “strike” might not exist in the dictionary of Indian universities. Therefore, one will have hitch-free academic sessions and most likely graduate on time. Moreover, the duration of some bachelor’s degree programs, as indicated on the application portal, is three years.
4. If you are one of the successful applicants, you will get the opportunity to study at some of the best universities in India, like Lovely Professional University, the Indira Gandhi National Open University and so on. The certificates to be obtained will be widely recognised. So, don’t panic over the recognisability of your results after graduation.
5. Unlike here in Nigeria, where you cannot apply for two or more different courses in one university when registering for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), there are universities on the list of eligible institutions for the scholarship that okay an applicant to apply for more than one course. An example of such a university is the Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Please hurry up and apply before the deadline, as this is an opportunity that should never escape your notice.
Muhammad Sabiu is a reporter for The Daily Reality and lives in Bauchi State. He can be reached via sabiucnd@gmail.com.
On my return in April 2012, I reported to my Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed. In a moment of radical inspiration, he asked me to submit every publication and activity in communication to the HoD of Mass Communication, the late Dr Balarabe Maikaba, for possible recommendation as a professor of Media and Cultural communication. In the meantime, a position for a professor was created in the Department of Mass Communication to accommodate my presence.
I was surprised at this as I thought once you are a professor, you stay that way without any addition! The then Dean of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Prof. Adamu Idris Tanko, also welcomed the idea. Dr Balarabe Maikaba wrote a supporting letter. I put in the application and submitted all the papers I had in the new area for external assessment.
In January 2013, I received a phone call from my Vice-Chancellor informing me that assessments of my publications sent out months earlier had returned positive. Therefore, I have been appointed Information and Media Studies professor with effect from October 2012. There was only one wonderful caveat: I was to relocate to the Department of Mass Communication from the Department of Science and Technology Education, where I was then the Head of the Department. This relocation was the most significant move in my academic career. The day I received that letter counted as one of the happiest of my entire life.
I suddenly realized that my earlier desire to be in the Faculty of Science was to become a research scientist. Now, 32 years later, I have become a research social scientist while retaining my scientific focus. Allah truly blessed me. The journey to the first professorship took 17 years (1980-1997), while the second took 15 years (1997 to 2012).
I handed over the Department of Science and Technology Education on April 25 2013, symbolic of my birthday. My new Department and the Faculty overwhelmingly welcomed me when I formally reported on April 26 2013. Even more remarkable, the Communication Studies fraternity also welcomed me – apparently, they have been keenly following my what one calls ‘revolutionary forays’ in media studies.
It was thus an honour to be made a member of the Governing Council of the Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON) and a member of the Association of Communication Scholars & Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN). It was humbling to be in the company of communication giants such as Idowu Akanbi Sobowale, Ralph Akinfeleye, Lai Oso, Umaru Pate, Nosa Owens-Ibie, Hyginus Ekwuazi, Victor Ayedun-Aluma, Eserinune McCarty Mojaye, Abiodun Adeniyi and many wonderful others. It was always a pleasure to meet at various conferences and workshops and appreciate each other.
I was given a huge sparkling brand-new office with all the frills! I have already been teaching Management Information Systems (MIS) in the Department of Business Administration of the Faculty for almost ten years. Additionally, I had been a ‘part-time’ staff of the Mass Communication Department for seven years, teaching and supervising students. So, I was not new to the faculty. For me, being in the Department of Mass Communication was the absolute way to chill out my career to retirement in 2026, in shaa Allah.
So, am I the only ‘double’ professor in Nigeria? It depends on the context. If you are referring to two professorships in two different disciplines (which is the actual context of a double professor), then yes, according to the NUC’s Directory of Full Professors in the Nigerian University System (2017), I am. However, being a professor at two different universities does not count. The second professorship has to be qualified through an external assessment of scientific works in the discipline, a process my Vice-Chancellor at the time and Chairman of the Appointment and Promotions Committee of the University rigorously followed.
Is this the same as Emeritus Professor (some have referred to me as such)? No. An Emeritus Professor is an honorary title given to a professor to show respect for a distinguished career and who has retired (critical qualifier) from the university successfully and honourably. It is neither a right nor automatic. It is a privilege (just like the professorship itself), given at the discretion of the university to an outstanding professor (mostly the university one is retiring from, although an appointment to such position could also be made to the retiring professor in a different university).
One cannot be appointed an Emeritus until they have retired (whether before or at the age of retirement). It is usually conferred (at a ceremony) to those the university feel that despite retiring, they can still add value to the academic programs of the university, either through teaching, research, supervision or other leadership functions. It often attracts a token stipend (not salary), and the office the professor retired from. It is also for life – meaning he stops being an Emeritus when he shifts to the other side of the universe the James Webb Space Telescope would not be able to locate! Here is a list of Emeritus Professors in Nigeria (updating).
How common is double professorship generally? Rare. A limited discussion was held on Quora, where a few examples from some American universities were cited. For instance, Andrew Gelman is a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia and a professor of statistics at Harvard. He has no political science degree at all. His first degree was in physics, and his graduate work was in statistics. He has received the Outstanding Statistical Application award three times from the American Statistical Association, the award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review, the Mitchell and DeGroot prizes from the International Society of Bayesian Analysis, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award. Have a look at this blog to know how he came to be occupying those two chairs.
This answers the question of whether I should be a professor in Mass Communication without a degree in Mass Communication. At the professorial level, it is your output that matters. My own site might satisfy one’s curiosity about what the fuss is all about. As my Vice-Chancellor at the time, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, pointed out when my case was presented in 2012, if anyone is a professor of History and made enough contributions to the field of Physics, they can also apply and be assessed as a professor of Physics.
Oh, I almost forgot. Two professorships? Yes. Two salaries? Unfortunately, no! You get only one salary.
Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu wrote from the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He is, among many other things, the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.
Like a bolt of lightning, a key to open the freedom door dropped literally on my lap through the radio. In 1996 the government of Kano (Nigeria), where I live, was battling with Hausa creative fiction and public morals. One after the other, Islamic sheikhs came on the radio and condemned newly emerging Hausa creative fiction writers as being responsible for poor attention span in schools (and subsequent poor grades) and immorality. They did not indicate how many of the novels they had read, though. Their condemnations caught my attention, for it seems there was a reading culture among Hausa youth – something public culture kept lamenting as lacking among youth.
Reading culture is, of course, an environment where reading is championed, valued, respected, and encouraged. BUT it seems that the reading culture in Kano meant reading school textbooks (if available) and passing examinations. Reading culture? James Hadley Chase, Harold Robbins, Irvin Wallace, Agatha Christie, Denise Robbins, Nick Carter, Joan Collins, Wilbur Smith, et al., anyone? So why not Ado Ahmad, Balaraba Ramat, Ɗan Azumi Baba, Bilkisu Salisu Ahmed Funtuwa? All the objections against Hausa literature were based on the baseless Media Effects Theory, which believes that mass media influences the attitudes and perceptions of audiences.
I, therefore, decided to delve into this ‘problem’ further. It was to be a bridge between cultural studies (popular culture) and education (reading culture).
I eventually traced the production of Hausa novels to the City Business Center in the city of Kano under the proprietorship of Alhaji Abba Lawan Maiunguwa, a childhood friend. This led to Ado Ahmed Gidan Dabino, unarguably the most successful of Hausa novelists, and the forging of a life-long friendship based on respect. I spent about two years in the field, talking, recording, and unarchiving writers, critics and fans of the Hausa creative fiction.
The writers included Ahmad Mahmood Zaharadden Yakasai, Yusuf Muhammad Adamu, Ibrahim Saleh Gumel, Ɗan Azimi Babba Cheɗiyar Ƴan Gurasa, Aminu Abdu Na’inna, Badamasi Shu’aibu Burji, Hamisu Bature, Aminu Hassan Yakasai, Abdullahi Yahaya Mai Zare, Bala Muhammad Makosa, Bashir Sanda Gusau, Bala Anas Babinlata. Female authors of the period included Hauwa Aminu, Talatu Wada, Zuwaira Isa, Safiya A. Tijjani, Binta Bello Ɗanbatta, Binta Maiwada, Jummai Mohammed Argungu Karima Abdu D/Tofa, Bilkisu S. Ahmed, and the most outstanding of them all, Balaraba Ramat Yakubu.
Along the line, I developed the Hausa hooked glottal sound characters (Ƙ, ƙ, Ɗ, ɗ, Ɓ, ɓ) to help in proper Hausa writing on computer word processing programs using Fontographer software. But that is a story for another day. Next, I went to my dad, Muhammadu Uba Adamu (Kantoma), discussed with him my new-found direction and sought his blessings. He readily approved. Not surprising, considering he had always been a radical on his right. Further, my early contact with literature was from his library, as he studied Political History with English Literature as a minor. His approval, and even later, endorsement, gave me courage.
Finally, I summoned enough nerve (remember, it was not my field, and I was aware those ‘in the field’ jealously guard their turf) to write an article and send it to Ibrahim Sheme of the New Nigerian Weekly newspaper. It was titled “Hausa Literature in the 1990s”. It was published in their April 24 and May 1, 1999 issues. It created a tsunami of a reaction.
Unbeknownst to me, the debate about the merits (or lack of) of Hausa creative fiction had run its course in various Hausa language newspapers and magazines. Hawwa Ibrahim Sherif fired the first salvo in an interview with Ibrahim Sheme, published in Nasiha, on September 6 1991 (some eight years before my own article).
Following on from her views (and she was a writer herself), two camps emerged – those who did not see any merit in the novels, and those who believed in them, the latter, perhaps understandably, was made up of mainly authors themselves, such as Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, Yusuf Adamu, Kabiru Assada, etc. In 1998, Novian Whitsitt, an American student, even submitted a PhD thesis on Hausa creative fiction with a focus on Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu. His thesis was titled The Literature of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu and the Emerging Genre of Littattafai na Soyayya: A Prognostic of Change for Women in Hausa Society.” It was submitted to the African Studies Program University of Wisconsin-Madison.
You could therefore imagine the fire I came under; An Educationist was venturing into Hausa literary studies. Some accused me of being an ignoramus who knows nothing about Hausa literature (true), and others accused me of encouraging immorality (not true).
To get rid of my accused ignorance, I adopted two methods – both facilitated by my being a true believer in science and its methods. The first was rooted in the ethnology of Hausa cultural production. This approach was based on Victor Turner’s exposition of the ‘anthropology of experience’, itself based on Wilhelm Dilthey’s conception of ‘what has been lived through’. The approach enables the exploration of how people actually experience their culture and how those experiences are expressed in forms as varied as narrative, literary work, theatre, carnival, ritual, reminiscence, and life review. To get a closer look at the cultural production, it was necessary to be embedded in the process.
I started by identifying what was more or less a Bohemian cluster of Hausa fiction writers hanging out at City Business Center, Daneji, Kano city, along Sabon Titi. Then, I embedded myself into their cluster and observed what they were doing – inspiration for their stories, discussing plots for stories, typing, artwork, printing, marketing, etc. This went on for almost five years from 1998. As a result, I gained deep insights into their creativity and concerns. I also read quite a few of the fiction they produced to gain a more immersive experience.
In this process, I did not rely on secondary data but became a primary data gatherer myself. This came in good stead much later when I submitted a paper to a journal based in France. The editor wanted me to provide references for some of the narrative encounters. I pointed out that I was the reference and used Turner’s field study framework as a basis because I was there. The editor accepted, and eventually, the paper was published.
For the second method, I launched myself into a self-study of Critical Theory from the roots: to reflect on and critique society through literature. There were four varieties of such theory: new criticism, poststructuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, and Marxist theory. I delved into the first two, deeming that the other two do not apply to my data. I became a student of Jürgen Habermas and his “Structural Transformation of Public Sphere”, in which I see Islamicateness in expounding the boundaries of the public sphere. Stuart Hall and his critical works in cultural studies provided another roadmap to understanding the reception of media texts. Marshall Hodgson’s essay on the idea of “Islamicate” societies seemed to mesh perfectly well with my own sites of contestation of media production, distribution and consumption. Anthony Giddens and his Structuration provided an excellent introduction to Agency.
I thus refused to cage myself within Nigerian Hausaist (for which I am not one) delineation of Hausa studies into apparently mutually incompatible divisions of Literature (Adabi), Language (Harshe) and Culture (Al’ada). I said ‘apparently mutually incompatible’ because if you are versed or specialized in one, you are not expected to know much about the other. In other words, you should ‘stay behind the yellow line’!
And so, the battlelines were drawn, and for almost five years to 2004, New Nigerian Weekly and Weekly Trust pages were awash with what Ibrahim Sheme referred to as The Great Soyayya Debate. I was in the thick of it. But, since the debates were on pages of newspapers and therefore meant for the general readership, I focused on simply defending the right to write rather than the morals of the contents (for which, in my opinion, show cleanliness) or the grammatical sophistication of the writers. They have a right to write and thus write the rites to right the wrongs they perceive in society – after all, the genre is referred to as ‘adabi’ (reflection).
Only four people at Bayero University believed in what I was doing. Isma’ila Abubakar Tsiga, Sa’idu Ahmad Babura, Abubakar Adamu Rasheed and Ibrahim Bello-Kano – all from the Department of English and European Languages. Ibrahim Bello-Kano, or IBK as he is popularly referred to, was the Seminar coordinator in the Department of English and European Languages in 2001. He invited me to present a paper at their Departmental Seminar, which I agreed to and presented in January 2001. It was the first academic presentation of my research. I was understandably nervous because I was presenting something on new terrain to people fully trained and versed in it. However, the paper’s title, Tarbiyar Bahaushe, Mutumin Kirki and Hausa Prose Fiction: Towards an Analytical Framework, introduced something to the polemics besides just moral indignation.
However, soon enough, the massive success of Hausa fiction authors (despite scathing criticism from academic and public culture) emboldened them enough to migrate to the emergent Hausa video film industry. If there is one person to be credited with creating the Hausa film industry, it was a writer, the late Aminu Hassan Yakasai. He was both a novelist, a scriptwriter and a Hausa soap opera star. He and his collaborators, such as Bashir Mudi Yakasai and Salisu Galadanci, launched the first Hausa video film, Turmin Danya, in March 1990. This predated Nollywood’s Living in Bondage in 1992. Sunusi Burhan Shehu, a novelist, established a Hausa film magazine, Tauraruwa, and in a regular column in August 1999, created the term “Kanywood” to refer to the Hausa film industry. It is the first reference to a film industry in Africa and predated “Nollywood”, which was coined in 2002 by Norimitsu Onishi in a New York Times report.
In 1999 Sarauniya Films Kano released the catalytic video film that literally shaped the direction of the industry. It was Sangaya. It was, like most Hausa youth literature, mainly a love story. It was not the story that was significant about the film, however, but its soundtrack with catchy song and dance routines backed by synthesized sound samples of traditional Hausa instruments such as kalangu (talking drum), bandiri (frame drum) and sarewa (flute). The effect was electric on a youth audience seeking alternative and globalized—essentially modern—means of being entertained than the traditional music genre, which seemed aimed at either rural audiences or older urbanites. It became an instant hit. Indeed, the success of Sangaya was as momentous in the history of the Hausa video film industry as Living in Bondage was for the southern Nigerian video films. The Hausa video films that subsequently emerged were predominantly based on cloning Bollywood films and production characteristics – love triangles, gender rivalry, and choreographic song and dance routines. At least until 2007, when the system crashed after the leakage of a private steamy sex video of a popular actress. The entire entry was labelled bad, just like the literature industry. A new censorship regime was instituted that made film production difficult.
Internet became widely available late 1990s, and by 2000 it had become affordable. Before that, we had to rely on the National Universities Commission (NUC) switchbacks to access it. So when Nitel started offering it, we jumped on. Yahoo! Groups was launched in early 2001. A series of discussion boards formed the earliest reiteration of social networks, predating Facebook, which was created in 2004 but became available only in 2009 to us. Seizing the opportunity to create lively discussions, I formed three groups on the Yahoo! Groups platform: Finafinan Hausa, Littattafan Hausa, and Mawaƙan Hausa, from August 31 to November 15 2001. Finafinan Hausa was by far the liveliest.
By 2009 when the discussions whittled away, there were almost 25,000 postings on the board. Other boards did not fare too well. Further, between 2000 to 2009, I chaired thirteen Hausa video film award ceremonies, four of which were organized by Yahoo! Groups. The discussion board really popularized many of the Hausa video film stars. The University of Frankfurt in Germany even dedicated a Library Officer to join the groups and harvest all the comments as examples of public discourse on Hausa popular culture.
All these did not prevent me from participating in educational alphabet soup agency activities, so I was still rooted in Education. Criss-crossing the north, training education officials, writing reports no one read, and working out the next activity. Along the process, I became Head of the Department of Education – rather reluctantly, for I was enjoying fieldwork in cultural production and educational alphabet soup interventions (the latter helped to put additional plates on the table!).
In 1993 the late Prof. Mike Egbon of the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano, visited my office and asked me to help supervise his PhD student who was working on the transfer of communication education curriculum from the US to Nigeria. Between 1991 to 1992, I was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkely. My work focused on the transnational transfer of education from the US to Nigeria, resulting in a book published in 1994 in New York. It was titled Living on a Credit Line: Reform and Adaptation in Nigerian University Curricula. It was my work in the US which I had been discussing at various places within the campus that attracted Mike Egbon, and he appointed me as co-supervisor and internal examiner to his student. Mike Egbon, then, was the one who opened the door for me to enter the Mass Communication department.
While all this was happening, a conference on Hausa video films was held in one of the northern Universities. The conference condemned the films, just as earlier on, the writers of Hausa fiction were also condemned. Many of these writers, using the cheap availability of video cameras, had transitioned from Hausa fiction to Hausa films and, in the process, attracted a lot of mainly non-indigenous Hausa into the industry. But because these elements use the Hausa language in their films and rely virtually exclusively on cloning Hindi cinema, all Hausa films were tarred with the same paintbrush. So the focus of the conference held somewhere in the north was to confirm how bad the films were from cultural perspectives.
However, in August 2002, a group of academicians and members of the Hausa entertainment industry in Kano got together to discuss the state of research on Hausa popular culture and media technologies, with particular reference to the Hausa films. It was meant to be a brainstorming session with various inputs from members overshadowed by the then-current crisis in the non-marketability of Hausa films due to condemnations from the public culture. Further, it was noted that there had been no systematic study of the phenomena from academic perspectives, at least by the practitioners themselves. A strong observation at this meeting was the increasing role of media technologies in popular culture and how Hausa urban communities are refining the concept of entertainment among the Hausa.
The group noted, with concern, a lack of local input into the systematized pieces of research showing the relationship between Hausa culture and popular media as a vehicle of cultural preservation and transmission. In this regard, it was noted some of the most significant advances in this area were made by our foreign Hausaist colleagues. All these researchers have published extensively on Hausa culture and language, and their works are heralded as authoritative accounts of Hausa popular media.
Thus, while the group acknowledged the immense contributions made by these foreign researchers, it saw these researches as challenges to stimulating local scholars into exploring other terrains of popular culture among the Hausa. As a result of these observations, the group suggested a series of activities aimed at creating collaborative opportunities for research between local researchers, practitioners of popular culture (literature, music, film, indigenous knowledge etc.) and international partners. A committee was formed to articulate all these into a conference, and I was made the Chairman of the Committee.
Eventually, on 3rd to 5th August 2003, we held the first-ever international conference on Hausa films in Kano, with the theme of Hausa Home Videos: Technology, Economy and Society. It was hugely successful, attracting presentations from US and Germany in addition to both local film practitioners and academicians. I, Yusuf Adamu and Umar Faruk Jibril edited the papers and a book with the same title as the conference was published in Kano in 2004. The resolution of the conference was to establish a Center for Hausa Cultural Studies. This was meant to be a think tank that would hold monthly events to promote Hausa cultural production in the internet age.
Later, tired of the constant criticisms against me from the film industry despite all my efforts (they believed that by focusing on culture, I was disparaging their art), I shifted my ethnographic focus to music, with a particular focus on the Rap genre which was trending at the time. This community of cultural producers – K-Boyz, Kano Riders, Lil’ TeAxy, BMERI, ClassiQ, Dr Pure, G-Fresh, Haddy, K-Arrowz, the late Lil’ Amir, etc. – proved more welcoming than filmmakers.
By 2004 I had attracted the attention of some colleagues overseas, particularly Brian Larkin in the US, Graham Furniss in the UK and Heike Behrend in Germany. I even wrote a visa approval letter for Heike Behrend, then Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany, to come to Nigeria and conduct fieldwork on Hausa films. Heike Behrend was to later “adopt” me as her son. She is a brilliant ethnologist with a field experience in Kenya and Uganda, as detailed in her excellent book, Incarnation of an Ape. An autobiography of ethnographic research (2020), which itself is a textbook on the anthropology of experience. As she stated in a YouTube introduction to the book, “it was about reversing the perspective and showing how those I meant to ethnograph ethnographed me.”
Thus, when Graham Furniss was asked to nominate participants for a “Seminar on Media in Africa” in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by the International African Institute in August 2004, he nominated my name, and I was accepted. Again, in the same year, he was invited to Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (plainly referred to as the University of Mainz) to participate in the 8th International Janheinz Jahn Symposium “Creative Writing in African Languages: Production, Mediation, Reception”. It was to be held at the Centre for Research on African Literatures, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 17-20 November 2004. Graham had too many engagements for the period and suggested to the organizers that I should be invited – something they accepted. I received an invitation to participate in the conference.
At the first event in Nairobi, I met Heike Behrend, who was also invited, and during an off-conference interaction over a cup of expresso (her favourite rendering of coffee!!) I informed her of my coming trip to Mainz for a conference. She immediately extended an invitation for me to come to the University of Cologne on my way to Mainz and present a seminar to doctoral students on any topic I like. This I did on November 15 2004 and presented a paper to the students. It was titled “Enter the Dragon: Sharī’ah, Popular Culture and Film Censorship in northern Nigeria.”
Vortrag
Note, from the poster, that I was still in the Department of Education. When I returned to Nigeria, I met Dr Gausu Ahmad, then Head of the Department of Mass Communication BUK, who insisted on the paper being presented at their own Departmental Seminar. Before that, I was already teaching Advanced Research Methods to postgraduate students and Online Journalism at all levels. Further, I was already working with a doctoral student in the Department. Unknown to me, Dr Gausu had already recommended my employment as a Part-Time lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication. A letter to that effect was eventually sent to me in November 2005. Earlier, the Department had requested my transfer from Education, but the Vice-Chancellor at the time refused.
The visit to Germany in 2004 was the beginning of a series of travels to various universities as a visiting lecturer/professor/guest speaker etc., in media and cultural production. These included the US (University of Florida, Gainesville; Rutgers State University of New Jersey; Barnard College, Columbia University), UK (School of African and Oriental Studies), Switzerland (University of Basel), Germany (Freie University, Berlin; University of Mainz; University of Freiburg; University of Cologne, University of Hamburg; Humboldt University), South Africa (University the Witwatersrand), and Cameroon (University of Yaoundé).
In November 2008, I was once more invited to Germany for an event. After my event at the University of Hamburg, one of the participants, Nina Pawlak from the Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland, approached me and asked if I would like to visit Poland for three months as a Visiting Professor. I delightfully accepted. The funding was to come from the European Union under the program of The Modern University – a comprehensive support program for doctoral students and teaching staff of the University of Warsaw as part of Sub-measure 4.1.1 “Enhancing the educational capacity of a higher education institution” of the Human Capital Operational Programme, of the EU. After all the paperwork was done, I was eventually offered the Visiting Professor position at the Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland, from March 1 to May 31 2012. I taught two courses: Transnationalism and Identity in African Popular Culture and Oral Traditions in Local and Global Contexts.
Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu wrote from the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He is, among many other things, the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.
Right, it is time to address this issue. I am blessed and honoured to have variously been acknowledged and hailed as a ‘double professor’, ‘dual professor’, the only one from northern Nigeria, etc. How’s that even possible?
The first professorship was in 1997 (Science Education and Comparative Higher Education, to give it its full title), and the second one was in 2012 (Media and Cultural Communication). Two totally different disciplines. I delivered an inaugural lecture for each in 2004 and 2014, respectively. Further, I am both a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Education (MNAE) and a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (MNAL) – a cross-over that is quite rare in Nigeria. A close friend says I am nuts to have two professorships. It’s okay; we used to call him nuts, too, when we were kids. I admit, though, it does take a bit of nuttiness. However, the whole ‘double professor’ thing came about by happenstance, thanks to the innovative, courageous Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, Vice-Chancellor, Bayero University Kano from 2010 to 2015, now Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission from 2016. Here is the whole backstory to the opera in one season of three episodes!
S01EP01: Liftoff
As a senior high school student, I had a target: to become a professor by 40. Given that I was born in 1956, that gave me up to 1996 to do my gig, exit stage left and hopefully seek new directions. Right from elementary school, I had wanted to work in a university after a visit to the house of then Malam Sani Zahradeen in 1966 on the old campus of Bayero University. Awed by the splendour of the house (and quite frankly, the wonderful breakfast I was offered), I decided right there and then the University will be my abode. I was ten at the time.
After going through the grind of schooling and finishing at Ahmadu Bello University, a degree in Science Education (Biology/Physiology) saw me getting employed as a Graduate Assistant in July 1980 at Bayero University Kano. The clock had started ticking – I had seventeen years to contact. I felt like I was in a cryogenic sleep capsule bound for a planet in the Betelgeuse star system, a mere 500 light-years from Earth. A confession, though. Education was not my preferred choice of Faculty at employment. It was the Faculty of Science. Made attractive by a blind ambition to become a research scientist – not a teacher. Plus, many top-notch teachers from the Department of Biological Sciences, ABU, my alma mater, had migrated to BUK during the period. I wanted to continue being their students because of their brilliance (fondly remembered, included Dr Shotter). But as fate would have it, I was employed in the Department of Education.
I did everything necessary to progress through the system, getting a DPhil at Sussex (courtesy of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission) and a Fulbright Senior Scholar residency at the University of California, Berkely, US. I also became a Resident Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center near Lake Como in Italy. Beautiful view, wonderful neighbourhood, made only grisly by the fact that the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1925 to 1945) and his wife (or was it mistress?) Claretta Petacci were executed at Dongo, near the Lake, in 1945. A gruesome tourist attraction whose grimness does not take away the timeless beauty of the area.
Finally, after submitting all the necessary papers for assessment, I was conferred first Associate Professor of Science Education and Comparative Higher Education in 1994, and with more publications, full tenured Professor of Science Education in 1997. I was 41. Missed the mark by a year. Due to the weird BUK politics at the time, the professorship was only announced in 2001 but suitably backdated to its proper date, October 1997. I immediately wanted to give my inaugural lecture, but I was asked ‘join the line’ of others who were to present – all six of them. Eventually, I was asked to come and give mine after three years. I did so on April 24, 2004. It was the seventh in the university. I had wanted it on my birthday, but considering that April 25, 2004, was a Sunday, I settled for Saturday.
When I reached the point of being promoted and awaiting results back in 1996, I found myself interrogating the rest of my life. At that time, university lecturers retire at the age of 65. So that meant I had about 25 years to retire in 2021 – a futuristic date then. I had also crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s in Education, at least as far as I could see. I found myself deeply involved in alphabet soup agencies – you know, USAID, DFID, UNICEF, NPEC, UBEC, WB, etc., mostly talking loudly and saying nothing. I simply can’t see myself day in and day out enmeshed in this process of eventually recommending things to the government through reports nobody bothered to read. If I didn’t find something to do, there was every chance of me becoming truly nuts.
Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu wrote from the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He is, among many other things, the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.
Chevening has started receiving applications from interested persons for its fully-funded one-year master’s scholarships programme, a Facebook post by the scholarship body stated.
Successful applicants will be given the scholarship opportunity to travel and study at a university in the United Kingdom to further their education.
Describing the scheme on its website, Chevening states: “Chevening is the UK government’s international scholarships programme. Funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and partner organisations, we offer awards to study in the UK for one year on a fully funded master’s degree course.
“Successful Chevening candidates come from a diverse range of countries and backgrounds, but they all demonstrate the passion, vision and skills needed to shape a better world.”
Interested persons are advised to click this link: www.chevening.org/apply in order to check their eligibility status and start their applications afterwards.
The saying, “when two elephants fight, the grass gets to suffer,” is nothing but a fact. But unfortunately, in the case of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government (FG), the students are always at the receiving end, and students suffer the consequences of the fight.
At last, ASUU members will get paid and return to classes. What then happens to the students?
In 2020, when ASUU embarked on a strike that lasted for a good nine months coupled with COVID19, what did the students get in return after everything? Nothing! We only got expired rent, a disrupted academic calendar, and some items stolen from our various lodges.
After the 2020 strike, we never knew that another bigger one would await us soon. However, on February 14, 2022, another strike loomed again with the same demands the government failed to fulfil for nine months. This time around, only God knows our fate; five months strike and still counting, yet no positive response.
The Federal Government does not care about whether the poor masses get a quality education. They deny us our right to education by not providing enough equipment that students are supposed to use, not enough classes for lectures, and the teachers do not get well paid.
The ASUU strike has done more harm than good to the students. Some students don’t always get to serve their father’s land due to the age limit placed on NYSC. Once a student is 30 years they can no longer go for the one-year compulsory service. So many disadvantages come with embarking on this strike.
Because of these endless strikes by ASUU and the negligence of the Federal Government, we now have more cybercrime everywhere (Yahoo-Yahoo!), and some girls are now into prostitution as a means of survival.
We want to be compensated too after everything by increasing the age limit one can do the one-year compulsory service if we can’t get other compensation. At least this should be done.
Fatima Usman is a 300-level student of mass communication at IBB University, Lapai. She can be reached via usmanfatima499@gmail.com.
Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has returned to the classroom.
In photos posted on Gbajabiamila’s Facebook page on Tuesday, July 26, he was seen in a classroom alongside other students at the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States of America.
However, the House of Representatives Speaker’s post did not go well with many Nigerians. Many opined that the Speaker should not be schooling abroad while Nigeria’s public universities are on strike.
“ASUU is on strike, and you’re there posting pictures of being in class. Shame on you,” Ibrahim Abubakar Musa commented.
“Aren’t you aware that university students back in your country are still at home? I don’t wish you luck.” Hassan Muhammad Yahaya, another Facebook user, commented.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on strike on February 14. This has crippled academic activities across Nigeria’s public universities.
It is with excruciating pain that one starts writing something of this nature. It is akin to the pain that hits an inmate upon the renewal of his terms of years in prison. Studying in a Nigerian public university comes with a series of frustrating issues. But for necessity, I seriously doubt if any student would wish to spend more than a year in these problems-wracked public universities.
ASUU has been on strike for about 200 days, and nothing seemed to be wrong until this week when loud voices started roaring in protest of the lingering strike. When ASUU embarked on strike in 2020, Nigerian students spent eight months at home, which sadly prolonged their stay in the university by one year. As ASUU called off the strike that year, students thought things had once again become normal because of the temporary stability of academic activities. On 14 February 2022, the strike news hit our ears while we were receiving lectures in our respective classes. The shock of that news is still in us!
The hope of the final year Law student in public university to make it to the Nigerian Law School this year reached its crescendo before the ASUU strike began. Some of us had already started writing our final year project, while others had even finished. One can imagine the pain of staying for additional two years in the university with no certainty of even rounding up in 2023. It is even more painful when we look at our school ID cards and realise they bear “2021”, our graduation year—seven years for a five-year programme.
As the new session of the Nigerian Law School begins in October this year, Law students in public universities have nothing to do except look at the graduates of private universities and foreign institutions marching into the Nigerian school, most of whom are the children of our leaders. Whether ASUU calls off the strike this month or even backdates it to June, public university students cannot make it to the Nigerian Law School. The year is a waste for us!
What if a miracle would make the public university students make it to the Nigerian Law School this year? And how can this miracle occur? The answer is multifaceted.
Firstly, the Federal Government must be unprecedentedly serious in negotiating with ASUU, showcasing strong sympathy for the condition of service of lecturers and utmost concern for the future of education in Nigeria.
Secondly, the Nigerian Law School’s management should extend its calendar to accommodate candidates from public universities.
Thirdly, after the strike is called off, the management of public universities should rushingly round up the session with some level of leniency to the students.
Lastly, the students must be relentlessly prayerful for the occurrence of this miracle. May these challenges become some form of blessing in disguise.
Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has settled outstanding fees for Kano State students undergoing postgraduate studies in universities in Cyprus and France.
The Governor has also awarded another N3m reward to a student, Suyidi Sani, for his sterling performance in the just concluded Young Nigerian Scientists Presidential Award.
Suyidi, an indigene of Nasarawa local government area of the state, emerged 7th and was the only northerner among the first 10 participants in the competition.
While presenting the money, Kano State Commissioner for Higher Education, Dr Mariya Mahmud Bunkure, said the student had gained admission to study at Bayero University Kano after scoring 303 in the Joint Matriculation Examination.
She said Kano State Government has assured that it will sponsor his postgraduate studies after completing his first degree programme.
She maintained that the state government is committed to uplifting the standard of education to global standards.
The commissioner for youths and sports, Alhaji Kabiru Ado Lakwaya, said the state government was committed to the development of education.
He added that the government had set up a committee to compile a comprehensive report on bursaries where millions of naira had been set aside to clear outstanding internal payments.
While receiving the cash, Suyidi Sani said he would continue to put more effort and do everything possible to be among the best students at Bayero University Kano.
He applauded Kano State Government, the entire state executive council, his parents and teachers for encouraging and supporting him.
