As I write this I am holed up in a room in what the Manchester Business School calls its executive programme hotel accommodation service. It is a return to a

city where I studied for a full year, and from where I shuttled to Liverpool for research studies for another three or thereabout. Now I have done the shuttling again because upon landing at Manchester airport, I first went to the house in Stockport to reconnect. It is the longest I have had to stay away from the house since I returned, but that’s another long story in my life; a jigsaw puzzle I am not able to piece together; only torn inside my heart by its outcome and impact. God help me, I pray!

The return to the academic atmosphere of Manchester, especially its prestigious business school, and standing on the famous long Oxford Road taking in the view of the breathtaking development that has taken place at the university and in the city; and looking at my old department and remembering my lecturers - Sue Ralph, Robert Houlton (whom we simply called Bob as he wore no hair - like LASU professors are won’t to do, I am told -), brought it all home: what it means to be educated in an environment where people understand what it means to run an academic institution as high as a university.

Sitting in class at this executive programme even brings it further home; the failure of business education in Nigeria. Why it is that, indeed, there is probably only one business school in Nigeria (the Lagos Business School) and that all the others offering what they purport to be MBA programmes (can you imagine that LASU also offers an MBA! Tufia kwa!), from UNILAG, to UNN (where I first went to and was lucky to experience good teachers in Professors Ekwelie, Chude Okonwkor, Dr. Emenyonu and the old horse, Dr …), to Ibadan, OAU, ABU and the others, are probably just doing the heads of their students in. For, had they not been to a proper business school but finished in one the ones parading themselves as offering business school education, upon getting into a real business school, they would have become revolutionaries and returned to demand their money back from those who had cheated them all those years! I shall hold my peace for now and continue with the worst case of them all: LASU!

FEEDBACK: LASU is a DISGRACE! It should be closed down!

Sometimes, it can be quite humbling when you put out a little piece hoping that someone somewhere, who is able to do something about it, reads it and acts on it, only to get responses from far and wide; from people who think it is a worthy cause to pursue. I don’t know if BRF, yes, Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State, read last week’s Starters in which I tried to ‘drag’ his name into the frame with regards to the horrific stories coming out of his state’s university, LASU. As a deeply intellectual man, I expect that if he read it, he would act; not like a military dictator, but simply to put a strong word across to those directly managing the university to get their act together and be seen to be operating a university and not some backwaters sweatshop in some obscure part of the world! Until something is done, I think LASU remains condemned to a position of DISGRACE in the global academic community, and all employers of labour must see it as one of the institutions dragging us down as a country, especially in the area of academic development. And you can say, without any fear of contradiction, that it is one higher institution of learning in this country (and there are many, by the way) where pseudo-academics clearly are unable to make the connection between ‘town’ and ‘gown’. I bet the academics there produce crap research, whether it is in the sciences, liberal arts or social sciences!

I have written twice about the huge failure at that university to deal with a 10-year backlog of graduates who have not been issued with results after sitting final examinations; where its Senate cannot see the urgency in organising emergency sessions to clear these results; where vetting departments have gone to sleep and created a conduit for corruption among its administrative staff who are extorting money from desperate students and issuing them with false statements of results; which employers, upon going for verification, have been found out and sacked as a result. I understand that someone was jailed for three years recently for presenting one of these fake documents issued by LASU staff. Another policeman forfeited his promotion because he was unable to present a true statement from LASU showing that he truly graduated from the school. Can a university display a credential more DISGRACEFUL or worse than this?

Indulgees who have followed this campaign to get the fake academics at LASU to act, have sent in texts, email and called to express their support. Some of those directly affected have told of their frustration. One human resource manager at a firm in Lagos just advised me not to worry about the LASU situation. He said he does not even consider applications from LASU students, even if they made a first class! That’s how bad the situation is. Fashola needs to sort this out, big time. Otherwise, Eko o ni baje! will become Eko yii ti baje gan an! In other words, the university that is supposed to produce quality manpower for the state is so out of synch with the ideals of the government that either the state will have to look elsewhere for quality manpower, or, forced by the need to employ its people, will just make do with the crap that LASU produces!

I have reproduced feedback from some indulgees and passers-by who felt strongly enough about the matter to put down a few words.


http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/starters/23177-back-in-machester-after-six-lasu-wont-go-away-

blackmailing d lagos ivory tower will not solve your problem,did anybody force u to go to their part -time sch ,y going to their part-time sch since u knew lasu part-time is useless ? that mean u yourself u are a useless output, be informed that lagos state univ is fast growing,best state univ in d country, had best law faculty in nig. my dept alone is characterised with alot of scholars having prize in ICAN EXAM

^^^^^^

Is this response meant for me or for the article writer?

both,

Before i say anything further, i need to ask you this, are you in the system either as a student or a lecturer? (admin too)