If anyone had doubted the ability of our egg-heads in this country to put up a fight whenever they think a particular issue is not in their favour, their swift reactions to the removal of the vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, on Wednesday, should be enough to make one have a rethink. Hours before the university’s Governing Council, headed by Babawale Babalakin, issued the official statement on the removal of the VC, the academics seemed to be battle-ready. One could deduce this from messages across social media platforms suggesting the need to fight against institutional regulations…
Author: Olabisi Deji-Folutile
Again, we had a bit of good news as regards the education sector this week with the commencement of assessment of Nigerian universities to determine their readiness for resumption by the National Universities Commission. This was in addition to seeing school doors open again early in the week for students in exit classes to enable them to prepare for their external examinations. NUC Executive Secretary, Abubakar Rasheed, had told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that vice-chancellors had been given a template of protocols and strategies for combating the spread of COVID-19. He said that once the necessary guidelines are put…
The Nigerian Government’s decision to reopen schools for students in exit classes and allow the country to participate in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is a welcome development. It is also heartening to know that the ministry of education has finally come up with a comprehensive schedule for other national examinations. Of course, some people might say the ministry’s response was rather too late; it is better late than never. Some of us are simply excited that at long last, we are getting some clear signals from the managers of our country’s education sector. No doubt,…
It is no longer news that many private school teachers have been at the mercy of kind-hearted people since the Federal Government shut Nigerian schools to limit the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike their counterparts in public schools that have continued to get paid for a job not done, private school teachers have since been deprived of their means of livelihood. In certain cases, husbands and wives work in private schools and both have to rely on others’ benevolence to survive. The other time I was listening to a radio programme and a teacher practically broke down in tears as…
Dear Minister, Permit me without further ado to add my voice to that of many other Nigerians that have been urging the Federal Government to rescind its decision on Nigerian students as regards the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). You have told us that the Federal Government would not allow Nigerian pupils to join their counterparts in other African countries to take part in this year’s WASSCE. Honourable Minister, you may think that you are doing these children a favour by making them lose a year of their lives by not writing the exam, but I’m…
Sometimes, when you think you have heard the worst about what is going on in Nigeria; that is just the beginning of contending with the unimaginable. One time, you hear the President’s wife telling the nation that she doesn’t know the whereabouts of her security aides, at another time; you read a news report of shootings in the seat of power. As you are still wondering if this is some kind of plot in a blockbuster, almost immediately, a government aide confirms the shootings and at the same time describes the incident as minor. As a citizen, you know that…
A few days ago, Madagascar fired its education minister, Rijasoa Andriamanana, for attempted embezzlement. The minister had indicated plans to order more than $2.2m worth of sweets for schoolchildren to mask the bitter aftertaste of the herbal remedy for coronavirus. Explaining how the money would be utilised, the minister had explained that pupils would be given three lollipops each to take after they drink the bitter COVID-Organics concoction that the country developed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately for the minister, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina felt that she was looking for ways to embezzle funds in the education ministry, so…
By now, it should be obvious to everyone that the performance of the Nigerian government and its publicly-owned higher institutions amid this COVID-19 crisis has been woefully inadequate. The advanced countries of the world are today celebrating the “Class 2020 graduates-” the special set of graduating students, who for the first time, in many universities’ history, are having their convocation virtually. What this simply shows is that academic activities never stopped in these countries despite the outbreak of coronavirus unlike in Nigeria where everything had to take a pause. Since it is of no use crying over split milk, the…
I was privileged to attend two virtual lectures this week on the invitation of the Distinguished Professor of Science and Computer Education, Lagos State University (LASU), Professor Peter Okebukola. The World Bank support project is powered by the African Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative Stem Education (ACEITSE) and aimed at offering qualitative and transformative training for African postgraduate students. For the benefit of those who probably do not know Prof Okebukola, he is the Chairman of Council, Crawford University, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Caleb University, President, Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI-Africa), a former Acting Vice-Chancellor, LASU, and…
I don’t think anyone can doubt the commitment of Governor Nasir el’ Rufai to ending the practice of the Almajiri system in Kaduna State. Give it to him, his actions of late have shown that he is indeed tired of seeing child beggars on the streets of northern states. He didn’t mince his words either in a recent interview on Channels Television when he talked about leaving other northern governors behind should they decide to continue to treat the issue with levity. To him, that would be the governors’ business. But as far as he is concerned, the system is dead in…
Whether we like it or not, remote learning is now the new normal in the education sector across the world. It doesn’t matter whether Nigeria is still struggling with it or not. Even, in several other aspects of our lives, we are gradually getting used to doing things remotely. COVID-19 has thrown up challenges and technology has been deployed to tackle them. For example, some banks held their Annual General Meetings virtually in the midst of the total lockdown in most parts of Nigeria last week. The judiciary also sat remotely and gave a few judgements. I learnt the Institute…
President Muhammadu Buhari was presented with two difficult choices early this week as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on – a choice to continue the lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory to further curtail the spread of the pandemic; or a decision to relax lockdown in these states and the FCT for businesses to reopen. Each of the two choices had its own consequences. Although the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, didn’t quite express it, one could feel his pains while responding to journalists’ enquiry on when the economy was likely to be unlocked during one of the…
For almost three weeks now, Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have failed to move their classes online as directed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu. We know that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who are supposed to upload their lecture notes online, are still on strike, but polytechnic and colleges of education lecturers are working. Yet, there are no online activities in these institutions. Could it be that the education minister has equally moved on since it appears he is also no longer talking about the matter again? Recall that the minister had through teleconferencing with all…
It’s amazing how some people are responding to the challenges posed by this COVID-19 pandemic. A university in Japan just developed some robots to represent its graduating students at their convocation ceremony. This was done to beat the social distancing measures brought about by the pandemic. A team of robots with Ipads for faces would be standing in for students of the Business Breakthrough University (BBT) in the capital city of Tokyo in Japan. The students would be controlling the robots’ motions remotely from home using computers as they collect their certificates on their behalf at the graduation ceremony. According…
At long last, the Nigerian government has directed all tertiary institutions in the country to work out modalities of taking their classrooms online. It is not as if this is a spectacular achievement on the part of the government, but at least, it is a positive response to the calls I have been making as regards the need for Nigerian institutions to migrate online as being done in other parts of the world to minimise the negative effects of their forceful closure due to COVID-19. In saner climes, tertiary institutions won’t wait for the government to teach them their jobs.…
It is no longer news that COVID-19 has brought untold disruption to a classroom education in almost every part of the world. Going by statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as of March 28, 2020, over 1.7 billion students in 120 countries and 60.2 million teachers were out of school due to closure of educational institutions in response to the pandemic. This, the world body says, has impacted nearly 90 per cent of the world school population. This is bad news even in nations that have access to online education, not to imagine in a…
The world is facing its most trying and unprecedented times as the last few weeks have been most challenging for almost everybody. What started in Wuhan, China, as an epidemic, has put the entire world in disarray. Major streets across the globes have become empty. Both the rich and the poor are being ravaged by the plague of COVID-19, which the World Health Organisation has rightly described as a pandemic. Workplaces have been shut; religious and social gatherings banned and many countries are on total lockdown, in a bid to curb the spread of this viral disease. Expectedly, schools are…
Of recent, a preponderant number of Northern elite have been talking about the social and security threats posed by the army of out-of-school children otherwise known as the Almajiris in the North and the nation in general. Prominent Northerners, including the deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have expressed concerns over the menace that has denied so many children in the region their rights to basic education. Some time ago, Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, disclosed that the horrors locked in the Northern forest were a result of children denied an education. Similarly, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and…
I have heard many people argue that First Class has become cheap in Nigerian universities. They posit that some universities now distribute it as ‘pure water’ and that private universities are most guilty of this unwholesome practice, as some of them use it as a business strategy to keep attracting students. A lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, University of Abuja, Dr. Ben Ugwoke, once reportedly averred that universities awarded first-class to make their products “competitive.” Similarly, the Dean of Post Graduate Studies, Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Umaru Pate, believes the trend is worrisome. In a recent report in Daily…
Call it a mere coincidence. You might be right. You may even choose to see it as just a positive response to some constructive criticisms – that could also be true. Whichever way one decides to look at it, the decision of Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to ban Almajiris from begging on the streets of Kano, a few days after he was bashed for appointing special assistants on street lights, is a positive development. Recall that Ganduje had appointed three people as Senior Special Assistants on Street Light Matters last week. The appointees were saddled with the responsibility of…
People can say anything about the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, but one thing that is not likely to be taken away from him is his frankness – always honest and direct. He speaks the truth, at least, to his fellow Northerners. His candour is often condemned by the Northern oligarchy, but he doesn’t seem to care. His speech at the 60th birthday of Governor Nasir El’ Rufai of Kaduna State, is a classical example. There, he told his people that the north would destroy itself except there was a paradigm shift in the region. Although some people have…
Suddenly, the wave of euphoria sparked across the social media by the story of Madam Obiageli Mazi of Shehu Sanda Kyarimi 2 Primary School, Borno State, has vanished, no thanks to the tragic massive attack launched on the state Monday night by the so-called technically defeated Boko Haram insurgents. The attack left 30 people dead, 18 vehicles burnt and several women and children abducted, according to the state government spokesperson, Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi. Prior to the Monday attack, a viral video had shown Mazi’s encounter with Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, during the governor’s unscheduled visit to Kyarimi…
On November 27, 2000, 10-year-old Damilola Taylor died on the streets of South London. Damilola was on his way home from Peckham library when he was stabbed in the leg with broken glass by two brothers. He was later found in a condemned building a few yards to his home. For six years, the British justice system searched for Damilola’s killers. In what could be described as a national quest for justice, even career criminals agreed to testify against suspects in the case. Eventually, Danny and Ricky Preddie were convicted for Damilola’s murder. Till date, the murder is seen by…
At long last, my daughter can now use the word ‘severally’ without my adrenaline surging unnecessarily, courtesy of the 29 Nigerian words and expressions included in the January updates to the Oxford English Dictionary. This is a big relief. Apart from having to correct her for repeatedly using the expression which she was probably convinced was right going by the number of people around her that boldly used it, I had another challenge of constantly editing the word in my brain each time I heard it. Unfortunately for me, there was hardly any public or private discussion in Nigeria where…
Finally, the chickens have come home to roost! The misdeeds of Nigeria’s leaders are coming back to haunt them. Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State painted a vivid picture of this during the week when he spoke about the horrors locked in the Northern forest, where anyone could get hundreds of armed men almost for free. He said that the children abandoned in the forest across the north were now coming back to fight the society as bandits. He didn’t stop there. He warned that unless the education of children in this region is addressed, the situation might become worse…
The National Universities Commission has finally unbundled Mass Communication into seven separate degree programmes. The implication of this is that from the 2020/2021 academic session, which used to be Mass Communication in Nigerian universities would be recognized as seven programmes. The seven new programmes may be domiciled in a faculty, school or college of communication and media studies depending on the university’s choice. The new programmes are Journalism & Media Studies, Public Relations, Advertising, Broadcasting, Film & Multi-Media Studies, Development Communication Studies, and Information & Media Studies. Considering how long it took for the NUC to unbundle just a single…
Whenever I hear people describe Nigerian graduates as unemployable, I shiver. I quiver because many a time, such sweeping assertion is made by people who themselves are also products of Nigerian universities, thus wondering if such people realize the implication of their weighty indictment of the system that produced them. I may not be able to give specific statistics on the number of graduates from Nigerian universities working in both indigenous and multinational companies in the country, a casual observation of happenings around shows that many of these companies are filled with Nigerian graduates. Personally, almost everyone I have worked…
I am yet to understand the basis for a new bill on compulsory basic education for Nigerian children when a subsisting Act on the same issue has not been implemented to the letter. The new bill, sponsored by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has reportedly scaled second reading at the plenary session. Mohammed Monguno from Borno State, while moving for the debate of the bill on behalf of the speaker, had said that the bill would ensure that millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria return to the classroom. He also stated that the bill would cure the lack…
If President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, devotes half of the energy invested in fighting the cabal in Aso Rock to pressing for the welfare of the Nigerian child, perhaps, there could have been a significant reduction in the number of the over 13 million out-of-school children in the country. This could also have probably led to a drastic reduction in the number of child brides in the country- the highest in Africa. I am not saying this out of spite but in recognition of the First Lady’s strong convictions and immense political sagacity. She knows how to grab Nigerians’ attention…
I never believed Nigeria was serious about starting a Transportation University until Monday when President Muhammadu Buhari and other government officials commissioned the project in Daura, the President’s home town. The university, according to Transportation Minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, is a response to the question of how Nigeria would maintain and manage its railway infrastructure. The reason was given notwithstanding, the whole gamut of excitement that characterized the groundbreaking ceremony, suggests something else. Going by the way the minister resorted to insults and vituperation on Nigerians that dared to query the rationale for establishing the university in the President’s home…
