₦airaland Forum

Irshittabey: i am confused here,the lagos state bursary minimum amount is 20,000 naira and u do to get it is apply as a student and u get there is no bias all u do is prove u are a logsian and a student u dont need connection

I thought lagosians were supposed to be all the residents?

Garri the 1st: All other states use state of origin... So why should Lagos' case be different??

Are you saying it is ok to make a mockery of the constitution and our claim to being a nation if everyone else is doing it?

And to think that this dude was once a cabinet minister in Nigeria

And even those very low points reserved under affirmative action would be subjected to a very high level of judicial scrutiny by Federal Courts and the proponents of the affirmative action would have to demonstrate both a compelling governmental reason for the program and that their is no other way to address the problem the program was designed to fix. never heard of such before? Blame it on your quota system produced supreme court

dayokanu: Explain to us what affirmative action is

I did already, its either you didn't read what I wrote or you need helping breaking it down. Here we go - lets say points needed to get into the University of California is a minimum of 300, SAT may be accorded 100 points, then High school grades could get another 100, other activities beyond academics (volunteering, talents, et al) might get 50 points, Legacy (your parents graduated from the same college) 25 then affirmative action 25 points. You can now see that affirmative action alone would not even get you started. Quota on the other hand guarantees some people a place regardless of anything else. See the difference? That would be $10 fees for educating you there my friend

PHIPEX: The truth is that you can't eat your cake and have it. These same people that are admitted on a cut-off point of 2 (for the sake of peace and unity) will also be admitted into the university on a cut-off point of 50 and finally become "graduates". They will also use same system to enter our legislative houses and sponsor ridiculous bills and thanks to democracy being a game of number, such bills will be passed and become laws and we are all here wondering why Nigeria is still staggering behind. How much critical thinking do u expect from a leader who graduated from school based on a score of 1%? Why are we building a system that hampers critical reasoning and progressive minds. Even if these systems were put in place in 1914, it's time we get them dismantled otherwise, Nigeria will remain the way it has been since 1914 afterall why should we keep living thesame way but expecting a different result.

This quota system denied me admission in Unilag in 2005 so I know how it feels to see someone who is less brilliant than you secure admission simply because you are from Anambra state. If I had been discouraged I would've been among those roaming the streets while one Adamu from Gombe who didn't study more than 2 pages of his text book enjoys the priviledge of being a graduate. If these people get frustrated after several attempts the same people who got admission on a platter of gold will still mock them for selling spare parts.

Worse still, they will end up in the Supreme Court and hand down the most inane rulings imaginable. Doubt me? Just explain to me how someone that did not run for election would end up being declared the elected governor of a state?

What about all those other citizens of Lagos? I mean all those other kids born and raised in Lagos whose parents work and pay taxes and own real estate in Lagos? Is there not a clause in our constitution that proscribes discrimination based on state of origin? Someone tell me, if the less than 5 percent of "natives" of Lagos are say white people and the rest black, would not the entire black race and the UN and everyone else be complaining of the most insidious form of racial discrimination?

dayokanu: The USA has affirmative action which put away merit and give advantage to educationally disadvantaged minorities

So whats wrong with the Nigerian FG formulating a policy to encourage educationally less developed groups

There you go again deceiving people with fraudulent information and creating false equivalencies. The US affirmative action is not a quota such as we have in admission to the so called unity schools in Nigeria. In fact the US Supreme Court has consistently held that any quota program, no matter how egregiously it seeks to remedy a historical wrong is an unconstitutional infringement on the equal protection clause. That's a real country for you right there!! What affirmative action (and other programs such as for athletes and legacy students) does is accord some extra points to minority candidates which is added to the total points derived from a whole lot of other considerations. Such extra points are usually not much percentage wise and never could on their own qualify a student into a selective school. Even when programs are designed to help minorities, it is never allowed to displace merit as the only anchor upon which a progressive society could be based.