Nigerian Public Universities and Exploitative Revenue Policies

24^th January, 2016

 By: AmirAbdulazeez

B

efore we proceed to digest the topic at hand, it is inevitable to note the contemporary knack for quantity at the expense of quality that dominates and generally defines our tertiary education sub-sector in particular and the education sector in general. We now boast of many universities that largely fall short not only of international standard, but even of African standard.

The number of federal, state and private universities operating in Nigeria and registered by the Nigerian Universities Commission stands at about 130 which rose from 51 in 2005. However, from 2005 to date, none of any of the Nigerian universities managed to make it into the top 500 of the yearly world’s universities ranking even once. In fact, according to an analysis by Premium Times, in the top 800 of the latest rankings, only 1 Nigerian university is present, which is the University of Ibadan, occupying the 601^st position. Even this cannot be seen as an achievement because of the fact that, there are 6 other African universities in the top 500. Whether we accept or reject these rankings, we can’t deny the fact that the continuous flocking of Nigerian students to countries which had few or no any recognized university as at 1948 when University of Ibadan was created or 1962 when Ahmadu Bello University Zaria was created, is a clear testimony to the dwindling quality or unattractiveness of our tertiary education. Further proof to this is the fact that one hardly finds students from other countries coming to Nigeria for tertiary education. Despite all of this, we still have an unprecedented knack for more universities while in reality some need to be scrapped or merged with others.

Coming back to our main topic, the issue of funding is one of the major problems being faced by Nigerian public universities. In fact, it is one of the primary reasons why our universities have failed in many respects to adequately compete with their international counterparts. Poor funding has been directly or indirectly responsible for the poor standard of tertiary education in the country. Nigerian public universities primarily depend on government for funding with different internally generated revenue policies and systems serving as complementary source.

With inadequate funding from the government, many universities rely on aggressive and in many cases, easy and exploitative revenue generation methods to make up for the funding gap. Some of these methods tend to portray the universities as revenue generation agencies rather than institutions of learning. In a bid to bridge the wide funding gap, many Nigerian universities have resorted to charging exorbitant and in some cases ridiculous application, processing and registration fees for their undergraduate and more significantly post-graduate programmes. Such exorbitant fees are been hiked regularly with any slight opportunity. These have partly contributed in making tertiary education very difficult and virtually impossible for the poor Nigerian.

In some universities, students are forced to pay high sums for the use of facilities which are built and maintained by public money. In many cases for instance, students opt for private hostels instead of the university hostels which are more expensive. Some sort of unnecessary fees that hitherto seem strange to many universities are now introduced. These include acceptance fees after admission, aptitude test fees for post graduate admission, post UME and Direct Entry fees and some other fees that give easy revenues. The list of fees is growing periodically and they vary from one university to another. All these are in most cases in return for poor services.

In many universities, students are made to pay registration fees at faculties and departments apart from the central registration fees. The central registration component in itself contains many ambiguous items and provisions which a student may never use or need and yet labelled non-refundable after payment. Apart from all these fees, whenever there is an excursion, practical sessions, research theses defences or special activities, in many cases students are asked to pay or fully sponsor themselves. Penalties in most universities have been reduced to financial. Defaulting like late registration, incorrect registration and change of courses are punished with monetary fines.

With these sorts of easy, unearned and exploitative revenue generation policies, many Nigerian universities are tilting towards commercialization. At an era when education is fast becoming a human right and many countries are working towards giving it completely free to their citizens and universities across the world are offering fully-funded scholarships, our universities shouldn’t be operating like this.

It is true that some of these revenue generation policies are not only exclusive to Nigerian universities, but it’s hard to find public universities in other countries that foist these exploitative charges on students that are their own nationals. May be they can do such on foreign or special categories of students. Some may also argue that these revenue generation policies are carried out with good intentions and are in some cases adequately utilized for capital and other projects in order to facelift and develop the universities. But, should the end justify the means? If universities must develop, then it should never be at the expense of the students, which they were established to serve in the first place.

What is the way out? One thing is starkly clear not only in Nigeria and the developing world but even in the developed world; universities cannot rely and grow from public funding. They must think out of the box on how to generate revenues without exploiting anyone, let alone their own students.

Universities are not only teaching and learning centres; they are also centres for research and innovation- a major component virtually missing in most Nigerian universities. Nigerian universities can work round the clock to make break-through in researches and innovations which they can sell for millions of Nairas and Dollars to private individuals and corporate organizations. Universities can set up consulting centres or units with a bulk of its academic staff serving as quality and reliable consultants. This will attract a lot of revenues to the universities. Universities can design executive courses, trainings, seminars, programmes and workshops for entrepreneurs with the dual objectives of innovation and revenue generation. They can also write and publish books and journals, set up and properly maintain standard printing presses and book shops that provide quality services to the public.

As is common with many agencies, corruption and mismanagement is surprisingly also responsible for wastage of resources in many Nigerian universities. The universities managements must in addition to the prudent management of scarce resources, block leakages and wastages to pave way for a corrupt-free university system. A typical example is how some university staff use public facilities to do external work and don’t remit earnings from these works to the management. Revenues can be saved from this.

The federal and state governments in collaboration with the university managements can work to make the universities attractive especially by improving standard and publicity, so that international students would find them worth to study in. With this, the extra fees charged foreign students would increase revenue. This will also keep Nigerian students to study in Nigeria and the large sums of monies they use to study abroad will be used to develop our universities here.

The Federal Government should stop issuing licenses to many of the private universities largely considered incompetent. Alternatively, they can make special legislations and provisions for them to function as units, schools or faculties that offer special courses in public universities, with such universities supervising and internally regulating them. In turn, they pay a percentage of the proceeds they make from those courses to the host university.

The need for Nigerian universities to migrate away from some of their revenue generation policies is imminent even though it can only happen gradually with other alternatives being introduced and tested. In as much as public universities may want to generate revenues, they should consider their integrity in the short-run and reputation in the long-run. Public universities cannot be sustainably funded through such policies and with the trend at which they are continuing, the boundary between them and the private universities may disappear sooner or later.

  

Mallam Amir is on Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

Defection: Can Ayade Survive the Broom Revolution in Cross-Rivers State? By Inyali Peter

 By: Inyali Peter

S

ince the dawn of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria in 1999, Cross Rivers has arguably been a strong hold of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP). The first democratically elected governor of the state in the current dispensation, Mr. Donald Duke ensured that all the political heavyweights in the state at the time and a few officials who were elected through other platforms defected to PDP. Some who had divergent views to Duke’s philosophy were either made to resign or go on political oblivion.

During this time, the defunct All People’s Party (APP) which was the major opposition party in the country had a formidable force in the state to the point of producing the Speaker, Rt. Hon Gabriel Adah who unfortunately became the first casualty of  Duke’s hatred for opposition. Adah who was elected under the platform of the APP to represent Obudu State Constituency was very resistant in dumping his party for the then ruling party which was waxing stronger to take over the entire political structure of the state.

For those who know him, Duke will go any length to get what he wants. This was the case with Adah who was impeached as Speaker few months into his reign. The impeachment practically laid the foundation to the sixteen years reign of the PDP in the state as a few members of the State House of Assembly who came under the platform all dumped the party and joined PDP for fear of being tagged an enemy to the then most powerful governor in the country. Senator Owan Enoh who was elected under the APP to represent Etung State Constituency but has now gone to have a more successful political career with the PDP is a good example. It was even rumoured that the impeached Speaker, later joined the PDP.

This development however built a solid foundation for Duke’s successor and the immediate past governor, Senator Liyel Imoke who graciously lead the state to become the leader and front burner of the  PDP agenda in the South-South geo-political zone of the country. Perhaps, Imoke didn’t have much to do than to consolidate on the structures left by his successor to make sure the state delivers hundred percent to the party in every election; a task he maintained throughout his eight years tenure.

Besides, Imoke at some point was not regarded as just the leader of the PDP but the de-facto leader of all the political parties that existed in the state. This is because all the major political decisions made by him were made to bind on other alternative parties in the state. For instance, the zoning formula of PDP was always going to bind on other parties like the case of the governorship election in the last elections.

Because of the dominance and might of the PDP in the state during his regime, the party primaries were largely regarded as the real elections as anybody who coast home to victory was as sure as anything to win the general election which in most cases was a confirmation to the decision of the party.

But despite this, Imoke was widely criticized of undermining the decision of senior party stalwarts especially if it was contrary to what he personally wanted. In different occasions, he was accused of being too rigid and dictatorial in the way party flag bearers were elected during primaries.  This became obvious in the last elections as so many PDP faithfuls left the party for Labour Party to test their popularity but as usual Imoke ensured all PDP candidates returned elected in the State.

Now Imoke and Duke are no more in the saddle but a new kid in the block in Senator (Prof.) Ben Ayade. Contrary to what the former governors had, the new dispensation of Ayade has witnessed a gale of defections that has prompted political watchers in the state to question the long term future of the PDP in the state. Within his seven months governorship, more political juggernauts in the state have crossed from the PDP to the All Progressive Congress (APC) than the sixteen years of Duke and Imoke join together. Maybe this is because the state has never being known as playing opposition to the government at the centre.

While many people have blamed the former governor for the PDP melee, insinuating that the party is having a hangover of the process that produced the party’s flag bearers in the last elections, some have said that the leadership style of the incumbent governor was behind the nightmare. Ayade has been accused of running the state as a personal business thereby disregarding advice and opinions of senior party members.

Amongst other defections, what has really thrown the state into total acrimony is the recent defection of the governor’s kinsmen and major financiers in the last election to the APC. A former two time member representing Obudu/Bekwerra/Obanliku Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon Paul Adah,  led a team of who is who in Obudu, the local government of the governor to defect and subsequently register with the APC.

What was more shocking during their official defection on Tuesday, December 29th, 2015 at Begiande ward 1 in Obudu Local Government Area of the state was the mammoth crowd that came out to celebrate the decision of the former lawmaker and other political bigwigs who have crossed to the APC. This development has since caused discontent in the camp of the governor as it was rumoured that all his efforts to truncate the event hit the rocks.

One of the detectors whom I contacted said that leaving the PDP was a big burden which he has taken off his neck even as he explained that his decision was hinged on the insensitivity of the state government to address urgent issues of public interest.

This outburst is however not strange because as role model to so many young people, it was best for him to embrace the change mantra of  President  Muhammadu Buhari which has favoured the state in terms of appointment than any other government. Also, it is imperative for some of these defectors to let their supporters know that they are not part of the inconsistent administrative policies of governor Ayade.

However, some of these people who are from the same local government with the governor should be commended for their bold steps and decision to go to the APC.  They should also brace themselves for attacks and abuses but as true Cross Riverians, we have seen clearly that we are not in the best of times because of the directionlessness and cluelessness of the governor. Before we crucify them, we must appreciate the fact that as leaders and politicians, there is nothing as bad as not satisfying what the people you represent, the people who believe in you would want. So it is better for people to know that they are not part of this government in the state than to appear very big as people who can add to the development of the state yet cannot do anything.

Before I get condemned by the social media punks of the governor, let me state that I'm not completely happy with the development especially as it's coming from his immediate constituency (his LGA). However, it has become crystal clear even to the blind and audible even to the deaf that the government of Ayade clearly lacks direction and the governor has so far displayed ignorance in government through what a political activist called “aluta style" governance.

As a professor with a very successful business history, it's unfortunate to imagine that a systematic marginalization of party members associated with his perceived enemy has been adopted as the best approach to transforming the political instability in the state to a near perfection stage. The people leaving now clearly have the choice between going extinct politically or joining forces with the opposition political party to serve the state from the sinking ship of Ayade's leadership.

My interaction with his kinsmen especially his major financiers during the elections shows that his inability to listen to advice has brought unprecedented embarrassment to the people. I'm also aware that many people are scrambling to join those who have left PDP for Ayade to build a new platform for the future wellbeing of Cross Riverians.

There's also strong rumour that the most popular senator from the state in the 8th National Assembly who meritoriously is the chairman, senate committee on finance is undergoing a sustain consultation to dump PDP for APC. If this happen, it will be the biggest blow to Ayade because a good politician would not temper with a man who defeated the then sitting Senate Leader. Let me leave that sensitive reports for now till I gather more facts.

Before I end this piece, let me also remind us that within just seven months of Ayade's governorship, the former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, former governor, Mr. Clement Ebri, former house of reps member, Earnest Irek, the immediate past chairman of the State Board of Internal Revenue, a governorship aspirant in the last elections who until his defection was the Caucus chief of PDP, Obudu chapter, Dr. Peter Oti, Chief Bullem as well as the most popular governorship aspirant and the son of the paramount ruler of Obudu, Prince Gody Jeddy Agba and a host of other prominent politicians in the state have all joined the APC.

Now that we are counting months to the local government elections in the state and considering the calibre of people who have left the once most popular party in the state,  Cross Riverians are waiting patiently to see if the governor have the political structure and wherewithal to survive the broom revolution in the state.

Inyali peter wrote from Calabar

Inyalipeter@gmail.com

An Open Letter to Zinedine Zidane

5^th January, 2016

Dear Zizou,

Forgive me for making this letter open, but I had no other option since my inability to afford a flight and discuss with you one on one at the Santiago Bernabėu also coincided with my failure to get a reliable phone number or email address with which to communicate with you. Well, even if I had succeeded in getting any of the aforementioned, I doubt if the communication barrier between me and you would’ve allowed for any meaningful and effective discussion. However, with this letter, I hope you’ll employ those translators you’re relying on to communicate with Gareth Bale to help you interpret the contents of this letter at your own convenience.

Let me start by ‘sympathizing’ with you on your recent appointment as the 1^st ever French coach of Real Madrid. I also learnt that you are the club’s 47^th manager in its 114 year history. You are also the 11^th manager to work with coach-sacking president, Florentino Perez. In case you may be carried away, let me also remind you that you’re now the 14^th Real Madrid trainer in the last 13 years. So, as you can see, becoming Real Madrid coach is no longer an achievement. I am sympathizing rather than congratulating you for four reasons.

First, you are being employed to solve a problem, which only the president and his board and not a coach can solve. If Perez and his board have been consistent and kept faith with one team and one coach for at least four years, no one would be talking of any crisis at Real Madrid. You may probably say ‘what does this strange guy know about football and who’s he by the way?’ But Real Madrid’s problem doesn’t need rocket science to solve. If you disagree with me, just study how Barcelona kept faith with Guardiola and a single team and then judge for yourself. Alternatively, you can take a look at Bayern Munich in that regard.

Second, let me be honest with you. I like you very much, infact you’re one of my favourite footballers of all time, but I must tell you that your coaching credentials are far more inferior to that of your last four predecessors in Pellegrini, Mourinho, Ancelloti and even the overestimated Benitez. I understand that top class coaches no longer want to join Real Madrid, that’s why you were considered. That may not be true though, but how about the speculation we are hearing that the club contemplated employing Pep Guardiola? How much more embarrassing can Real Madrid under Perez become? How can a Barcelona playing and coaching legend work for Madrid? If you don’t clearly understand what I mean, let me give you a typical scenario. As a former Real Madrid legend, do you think you’ll be ever considered even for a toilet-cleaning job at the dressing room in Catalonia? I don’t need your answer on this.

Third, for Perez and his board, success or failure doesn’t matter much when it comes to sacking a coach. If I am lying, ask your former boss Ancelloti. The Italian’s crime crime was that he won four trophies including a UEFA Champions League La decima in two years. My real sympathy for you is that, it’s being very very long since we witnessed the sort of love, loyalty and respect any Real Madrid squad gave to any coach like the current one gave to Carlo Ancelloti. In theory, you may naturally get the same respect for the enormous respect you command in the entire football world, but in practice, it’s difficult and you have to work hard to earn it.

Fourth, Real Madrid players seem not to have a good coaching record especially with the club. You are the 18^th (two spells for Camacho counted as one) Real Madrid player that went ahead to become coach of the club. With the exception of Jorge Valdano and Bernand Schuster who won one La Liga title each, none of them managed to win any silverware beyond the lowly Copa Del Rey. Infact, 12 of them won no title at all. Many of them left in disappointing circumstances, particularly Jose Antonio Camacho. Alfredo De Stefano, who by all standards is Real Madrid’s greatest player ever, managed to win only the Spanish super cup in two spells as first team coach.

By now, you might have concluded that I am a pessimist or I am trying to superstitiously predict your failure. No, that’s far from it. I am backing you to succeed even though the Perez presidency doesn’t deserve any success. I am backing you to protect your reputation because failure taints reputation even if after so many successes had been recorded in the past. I greatly respect you for inventing new things virtually exclusive to you in football when you were a player. You, Maradona and Ronaldinho are some of the contemporary footballers that brought new things into football which were hitherto never seen before even though your statistics may not be as impressive as those of Pele, Gerd Műller, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Your nickname in my native Hausa Language is ‘mai yi mata dole’ meaning, ‘one who forces the ball to do his bidding’.

Before you become annoyed with me for too much criticisms without offering solutions, let me remind you that I am a mere spectator, I have never coached even an amateur team. I use to play football when I was 10 or 11, so please expect zero tactical solutions from me. However, I have one advice for you. If your Spanish is good enough which I trust it is, find Pep Guardiola’s number and secretly call him. Ask him how he used the Barcelona Academy, La Masia to achieve, maintain and bequeath success. If that’s too bitter a pill to swallow, just call your last four predecessors and ask them about how and when to prepare for Perez’s irrational hammer.

I wish you good luck and I wish all my prophecies of doom will never come true. I wish Perez will leave and the next president retains you, but if he stays, may he give you the time and room to try your luck which I hope will culminate into you surpassing the achievements of Miguel Muñoz, who in a 15-year reign became Real Madrid’s most successful manager with nine League Titles, two Champions League Titles, two Copa Del Rey trophies and one Intercontinental Cup.

Meanwhile, you don’t seem to be active on Facebook, but kindly ask that guy operating your twitter handle to contact me via @AmirAbdulazeez, he tweets with good English; over time, I can communicate more things with you through him.

Yours Madridsta,

AmirAbdulazeez

The Illegality of PMB’s Honour at Kaduna State University By Dr. Mohammed Jibo Imran

By: Dr. Mohammed Jibo Imran

O

n Saturday, December 12, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari shocked the Nigeria’s academic community when he went to Kaduna State University, KASU and received an honorary doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) barely seven months after his inauguration. On the surface of it, one would be tempted to ask: is the president being honoured for his records of yesteryears or is he being honoured for his performance in the last seven month? If it is for his past records, the natural question is why now and why by KASU? That university existed for over a decade, why didn’t they honour Muhammadu Buhari last year or five years ago? If the honour is as a result of his present assignment, what has he done this far to earn him a honoris causa? Isn’t it a case of moral corruption for a serving president, who has a lot of favours to dish out, accept to receive an undeserved honorary doctorate degree from a state university whose vice chancellor was, in the last six months, queried by the Visitor to the University about three times?

Is it the case that, after the KASU formula, that the president will not attend the convocation ceremony of any university unless that university include the president as one its recipients of honorary doctorate degree. How not, since over a dozen universities have held their convocation ceremonies since the coming of PMB to office and he attended none, it is therefore safe to assume that his failure to attend was because they have not honoured him with a degree. These include the University of Ibadan, University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal University Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, etc. And none of them received the respect of the presence of the president. Now that KASU has shown the way, any university that wants the president to attend its convocation should simply include the president in the list of the recipients of its honoris causa. They are sure to have the president coming in person to be decorated.

The question is where is the shock? The president action is shocking for three reasons. First, his receiving an honorary doctorate degree, from any Nigerian University, while holding and elected public office is immoral, illegal and a crass violation of the existing regulation guiding the award of honoris causa in Nigeria’s University System. Section 2.0 subsection (a) of the famous Keffi Declaration which was enacted on the 24th September, 2012 by the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) stated that: “AVCNU member-universities hereby make it a policy not to honour with honorary degree anybody holding political office (elected or appointed) while such officers are still in service.” President Buhari violated this rule and the president is an honourable man, apology to Shakespeare in his histo-drama book, Julius Caeser. 

In 2012, worried by the spate of irregularities and the erosion of academic culture and university tradition especially in the indiscriminate award of honorary degrees in the university system, the vice chancellors of Nigeria’s federal, state and private universities met at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi and resolved, collectively, that the age-long best practices of university culture be restored and maintained. It was the case that politicians, public office holders and all manner of money-bags and favour-flaunters will be conniving with governing councils, vice chancellors or visitors to state universities all in the bid to cajole or hoodwink the university into awarding an undeserving honorary degree. It was so rampant that the credibility of any honoris causa by any Nigerian university was suspect. The Nigeria’s academic community was relieved when the Keffi Declaration on “Sustaining Academic Tradition in Nigerian Universities, Including Guidelines for the Award of Honorary Degrees” was made. It was even more refreshing seeing that all the federal universities, all the state universities and all the private universities at that time have signed the declaration. 

But the action of President Buhari of accepting honoris causa, in complete violation of the Keffi Declaration, has done one of the greatest damages to the university system since the enactment of the declaration in 2012. The president has just killed the Keffi Declaration and therefore open the floodgate of irregularities and moral corruption in the award of honorary degrees. Will the president refuse to accept another honoris causas from other universities? No. All the remaining 140 universities will now line up with their ceremonial academic robes ready to decorate the president with honorary degrees. It will be a moral dilemma for the president to refuse to accept after receiving one from a sister-university. And not only that, the president cannot stop his cabinet members, other public officer holders, and including civil servants from haggling-and-bargaining to ‘buy’ honorary degrees and even stand on the same podium with the president to be decorated. The era of immoral impunity in the award of honoris causa has effectively returned. And it was declared open by the action of Mr President.
Second, and even more disturbing is the fact that Kaduna State University is not competent to award honorary doctorate degree to anybody. Information available on the National Universities Commission website indicates that there are only 22 out of 40 state universities with approval to run masters and PhD programs. KASU is not one them. How can you have an honorary doctorate graduands when you don’t have the regular program with regular students pursuing doctorate studies? More so, the Keffi Declaration, section 2.0 subsection (e) stated explicitly that: “A university shall not award honorary degrees if it has not graduated any PhD or has no postgraduate school or program”. Because the president is an honourable man, I dare say that his idea of change is about changing the rule, it will be safe to say that he received a 419 degree that is not recognised by the NUC, a government institution under his watch. 

The question is how many people graduated with PhDs at the 12th December convocation when President Buhari was decorated by KASU? Have KASU ever graduate a PhD since its establishment? When did they get the approval from the NUC to commence the PhD program? How could KASU award what it does not have? Why should NUC keep mute at this illegality and gross abuse of regulation?

If the information they published in their website is correct, why should they allow KASU to award illegal honorary degree even to the resident of the Federation? It is amazing how politicians are always at the forefront of rubbishing our academic traditions and values.

It is very clear that the Visitor to KASU who is the Governor of Kaduna State is at the forefront of this manipulative scheme to rubbish the university system and smear the good name of the president of the country. Or why did he dissolve the governing council of the university simply because they allegedly drew his attention to the illegality and immorality of awarding honoris causa to a serving elected public officer? And the VC who was appointed by Governor Yakowa was rattled to his nerves with an array of queries to get him to accept political interference in the running of the university. How else, given the fact that section 2.0 subsection (c) of the Keffi Declaration states, in parts, that: “…the award of honorary degree shall not be tied to wealth consideration or political alignment…” Who will doubt that after sacking the governing council and sufficiently intimidating the vice chancellor of the university, the APC governor as the visitor to the university, is not bullying his way into forcing the university to award illegal degrees to an APC President and a business mogul exclusively for political and material reasons?
My third reason is even more scary. Is the Minister of Education so incompetent as not to draw the attention of the President to all these violations? Why wouldn’t the minister of education draw the attention of the president to the Keffi Declaration? And to the NUC guidelines on approved universities with graduate courses? Or better still shouldn’t the honourable minister make the moral common sense argument of not accepting a gift from an institution under ones superintendence? Or is it the case that the president, who ruled the country for over three months without ministers, is still living with that hang-over and is taking decisions without consulting the relevant ministers? If the minister of education is kept in the dark on the KASU honoris causa brouhaha, then our country is in trouble. It means the president will be relying on informal and unofficial (most of the time, misleading) suggestions to run the country. If the minister is in the picture and his opinion sought by the president and he misled the president into going to accept and illegal honorary degree, then some punitive action must be meted on the minister. If on the other hand, the minister was consulted and he advised the president against accepting the illegal degree and his advice was jettisoned by the president, then something is fundamental wrong – it means there is a crisis of confidence between the president and his ministers. And the earlier that crisis is resolved the better for our country.

It is important to note that PDP, in spite of its numerous ills had adhered to the Keffi Declaration. Former president Goodluck Jonathan, to his credit – (oh God, remembering PDP and Jonathan again) withstood all the pressures and declined many of such offers.

For me, President Muhammadu Buhari can still save the Keffi Declaration, save himself from further embarrassment and save the university system in this regard by doing two things: one, cause his handlers to issue a public statement returning the illegal and undeserved honorary degree back to the awarding university and stating his commitment to respect and protect the Keffi declaration; two, investigate and punish any persons that have hands in misleading him into this embarrassing misstep. Fighting corruption is not just about stolen wealth. It is about respect for regulations. It is about staying on the moral high-grounds. Over to you “Sai Mai Gaskiya.”

Culled from: Daily Trust

Shia-Military Clashes and the Road to Anarchy By Ahmed Musa Hussaini

13^th December, 2015

By: Ahmed Musa Hussaini

F

or the past 24 hours, I have been keenly following the tragic turn of events in Zaria and the numerous commentaries that follow. It is difficult to exonerate both sides from blame. But what is happening is both avoidable and inevitable: avoidable if we were proactive in preempting emerging conflict scenarios, and inevitable because it was very obvious that Shia activities along the busy Sokoto road are a recipe for clashes.

I have lived in Zaria and had warned about the potential for conflict between the Shia sect and other rival Muslim sects and non-Muslim groups. Two things are very clear in the ongoing conflict: initial Shia provocation and contempt for constituted authority and the Nigerian military's overreaction and high-handedness.

We have to understand the history between the two to arrive at the causes and likely consequences of the ongoing conflict.

But, What Actually Happened?

Shia activities blocked traffic along the ever busy Sokoto road, the COAS convoy was caught in the unfortunate mix and the COAS was personally negotiating his passage when a projectile was hurled at his direction and all hell broke loose. The soldiers guarding the COAS responded with live fire. The Nigerian military called it an assassination attempt on its head because the projectile was metallic and fired from a device. The Shia movement called it an unprovoked atttack on their defenseless members.

But it was not yet over. Military reinforcement later came in as a show of force and in order 'to teach the Shia a lesson.' The rest is now tragedy recorded in a rapidly rising casualty toll.

It is obvious that the ongoing conflict is built on a foundation of decades of distrust between the sect and the Nigerian state and its instruments of power, a distrust that is at the heart of Shia ideology. Events of last year are still fresh in the memories of both the sect and the military, and both sides reacted to the ongoing situation with the cumulative fury of past grievances.

The response of the military at the Husainiyyah area was at best, understandable, and can be somewhat justified on the argument of defending the COAS with all options, but the military's subsequent mobilization to Gyallesu, the destruction of Zakzaky's residence and murder of his family members and followers leave much to be desired. It was disproportionate, indefensible and extrajudicial.

There is no doubt that our laws, both Islamic and secular, do not confer or transfer burden of culpability on/to an individual by virtue of kinship to an alleged perpetrator of a crime, much less the power to destroy his house or kill his family or relatives.

The argument that no Nigerian religious group has the right to block traffic (whether civilian or military) is non-debatable, so also is the argument that our Armed Forces should deploy proportionate force in quelling internal conventional uprising. I believe, after securing the COAS passage, arresting Zakzaky becomes an internal security affair that is better conducted by the police and can be effected via simple invitation as both groups were expected to work towards de-escalating the situation.

That did not happen.

It is also true that Zakzaky is to blame for the conduct of his members, for indoctrinating them on a steady ideological diet that secular governments are evil and must be disrespected and held in utmost contempt. He leads a parallel quasi-political movement side by side a spiritual one that is akin to a state within a state with the ultimate aim (in theory) of dethroning the existing order and replacing it with an Iran-style theocracy. This type of teaching is a recipe for conflict and no serious state would tolerate that in the long run.

Superficially, there is no problem in pursuing any ideology one feels strongly about, the right of religion is fundamental and non-derogable. But while Zakzaky understands the difference between his ideological rhetoric and strategic pragmatism of the Nigerian state and its agents, most of his followers don't, and will seek ways to translate their revolutionary rhetoric into actions. That is what was probably in the mind of that lone Shiite that hurled a projectile at the COAS direction. He never realized the true gravity of his action and its symbolic and real implications on the capability and image of the Nigerian army.

There is also a sense of a siege mentality, a persecution complex among Nigerian Shiites that is reinforced by anti-Shia sentiments and discrimination within the largely sunni Nigerian Muslim community. It is true that the Shiites are targeted for some infractions that would be tolerably condoned if perpetrated by mainstream Muslim groups and even genuine Shia grievances are dismissed as the intra-Muslim affair that they are by non-Muslim groups, or as illegitimate ranting of a heretical group by the mainstream Sunni majority. But it is also true that Zakzaky deliberately sought to build his group on that narrative of sectarian victimhood that characterized Shia's evolution through centuries of Islamic history.

It is high time the Shia discard that old fashioned narrative and embrace pragmatism. Religious groups should not operate with impunity. They must respect the existing laws of the country. Religious groups are expected to embrace and legitimize a national master narrative and inculcate the virtues of law and order into their adherents and not promote impunity and contempt for the rule of law and right of others.

Behind this veneer of perennial conflicts between the Shia sect and the Nigerian security agencies is a latent Iran-Saudi and Iran-Israel rivalry at play, and this must be thoroughly investigated if we are looking for lasting solutions. There are many internal and external dimensions or what I call externally instigated internal dimensions to the ongoing conflict which are beyond the scope of public discourse, and which if not handled carefully may snowball into another national security challenge. We must do everything to prevent Nigeria from becoming another battleground for Middle-East geopolitics.

But fundamentally, we have to reexamine the role of religious groups, the military and other security agencies in a truly democratic Nigerian setting. Because if we allow religious groups to operate with impunity, and our security agencies confront impunity with more impunity, then we ask for more Boko Haram, and more Boko Haram we shall get, and we will never cease to wonder why our problems continue to defy solutions.

May God heal our wounds!

Social Media Bill: Between Free Speech and Abusive Speech

11^th December, 2015

 By: Amir Abdulazeez

T

hree apparently co-incidental events happened in quick succession in the past few weeks. The first was the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed’s meeting with Nigerian bloggers and social media influencers in Lagos where he stressed the Federal Government’s resolve to protect free speech, but tasked social media users on self-regulation. The second was the emergence of a mocked photo of an ‘improperly’ dressed Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah which went viral on social media. The authenticity and source of that picture cannot be verified but several netizens kept mocking the Deputy Senate Leader on the basis that he could not properly utilize his wardrobe allowance. The third is the presentation of a draft bill titled “Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and other matters connected therewith,” proposed by no other person but by the same Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC, Kebbi South), and it has passed second reading in the senate.

Outrage and condemnation broke out particularly on social media shortly after the bill-popularly but ignorantly referred to as ‘The Anti-Social Media Bill’-passed second reading. The bill according to competent media sources makes it illegal to start any type of petition without swearing to an affidavit that the content is true in a court of law. It also proposes up to two years in prison, or a fine of N2 million, or both, for anyone posting an “abusive statement” via text message, Twitter, WhatsApp, or any other form of social media.

The bill reads in part “Where any person through text message, tweets, WhatsApp or through any social media post any abusive statement knowing same to be false with intent to set the public against any person and or group of persons, an institution of government or such other bodies established by law shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction shall be liable to an imprisonment for two years or a fine of N2 million or both”.

Actually, apart from the massive public misconception and suspicion, there is no problem with the content of this bill, but there are four vital issues we should understand and reflect from this emergence of this bill. Firstly, there is massive mistrust between the governors and the governed in Nigeria. This mistrust is getting worse by the day and this is caused by several obvious factors. For instance, the generality of Nigerians tend to by default disagree with the National Assembly on almost everything because they see them as people not serving their interest. As such, we always have a preconceived negative disposition towards many things emanating from our leaders. Despite assurances by the lawmakers that the law is meant to protect Nigerians, the public insists that the draft bill would muzzle free speech and are bent on giving it not the slightest of chances. Secondly, the emergence of this bill once again stresses the fact that we are only interested in making laws and having law officers but not actually committed to enforcing these laws and ensure their strict adherence. For instance, with or without the so called bill, spread of falsehood, abuse and hate campaigns against individuals, groups and institutions on social media or anywhere else are unlawful and anybody caught should be arrested and charged to court by the police; we don’t need any new bill to take care of this. It is that simple. Thirdly, Nigerians are once again demonstrating their gullibility to go with the bandwagon effect. Assumably, more than 75% of Nigerians opposing this bill are virtually ignorant of its content or are basing their arguments on misinformed notions and they apparently don’t care to find out. Most of them are not looking forward to any public hearing on the bill to have the opportunity of constructively ventilating their grievances either on the whole bill or some parts of it. Presently, many Nigerians are calling for the removal of fuel subsidy after they vehemently opposed it four years ago. If we had objectively studied the fuel subsidy issues irrespective of our mistrust for the Jonathan Government at the time, we would have gave it at least, the benefit of the doubt and the subsidy would have been removed long ago, the rest would now have become history.

The impact of the social media on global political development cannot be overemphasized. Through the social media, a revolution happened in Tunisia and Egypt and subsequently led to the popular Arab Spring. Countries like Turkey and Bangladesh had partly tampered with access to social media platforms like Twitter and Whatsapp in fear of the replication of what happened in other countries.

The Social Media is probably the best thing that has happened to Nigeria’s Democracy in the last 16 years. It has helped raised political awareness, increased participation, encouraged debates, promoted accountability and established synergy between the leaders and the led.  President Obasanjo was just lucky that the social media wasn’t as it is today during his time, he would probably have been given a good run for his money. Contrary to views that the social media was deployed against President Jonathan, the truth is that political participation in it reached its peak during his time and no other president would’ve survived its heat. President Buhari is currently in the social media oven and his handlers can best describe how the heat is hard to contend with. However, the level of social media abuse by users in the name of politics is fast undermining the aforementioned gains recorded. The integrity and credibility of the Social Media is becoming a subject of debate. It is fast losing credibility and integrity not for want of good people but for the actions of some people who use it as a medium for all sorts of vices. For this reason, many people have either refused to join Social Media or have chosen to join but remain inactive.

Many average Nigerians cannot simply discuss political issues on social media without insulting each other. This makes the sociability of the social media questionable in the Nigerian context. If we use the so-called ‘social’ media to rain abuses upon each other and others mostly in reaction to falsehood and half-truths, then how social is that social media? In essence, we collectively contribute a lot in making the social media unsocial for Nigerians. The main victims of the vices coming from social media are the youths-most of whose faculties of learning and intuition are still under construction-who find it easy to believe and assimilate what they are being fed with. This portends the intellectual future of our youths in bad light and in serious danger along with potential unpatriotism.

The major problem we are facing is the attempt of many of us to completely divorce online life from physical life. Hence, the assumption that a vice online is not a vice offline. It is most unfortunate that the Social Media Bill issue is coming up at this time, but it is an anticlimax of long term usage of Social media for the spread of abuses and hate campaigns.

While we may oppose this bill for the fear of its disguised use or future abuse in the long-run by authorities to clampdown on free speech, we must self-regulate. We must be concerned about the overall integrity of the platform which offers us the cheapest but most efficient opportunity to express ourselves. The cyber unit of the police must also stand up to its responsibilities. It should be able to professionally police activities online just as they normally police our streets and anyone found wanting should be prosecuted. Any crime online is a crime offline.

Personally, I am vehemently against any legislative provision to ‘checkmate’ activities on Social Media for many reasons, but I think Lai Mohammed’s call for self-regulation should be taken very seriously.