₦airaland Forum

Our university dons can't advance research,all their intelligence is used in organising bazaars in the name of honourary degrees.
It is such a shame.

25 Sep 2011
With the level of rot in our country today, it is no surprise that honourary degrees from our universities are now practically on auction for those who can pay regardless of whether or not such individuals have made any contribution to the society, or even to the institution bestowing the honour.

While we accept that it is the prerogative of the universities to choose who they wish to honour, it is unacceptable that campus administrators would turn this time-honoured tradition to the big racket that it has become.Ordinarily, honourary degrees are supposed to be conferred on those who have distinguished themselves in one area of human endeavour or the other. It could be in recognition of their contributions to academic research and learning, sports and the arts or in community service and philantrophy.

But nothing can be more cynical than bestowing honour on public officials just because they hold specific offices where big patronage could be dispensed. It is in this light that we view the recent award of honourary degrees in Management Sciences by the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to the duo of Godswill Akpabio, Governor of Akwa Ibom State, and Diezani Allison-Madueke, the Petroleum Minister as we fail to understand the criteria that recommended them to the NDA authorities, an institution established for training our military officers.

In an advertisement congratulating Governor Akpabio for the “great feat”, one message enthused that “the little boy who could not gain
admission to the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, has today obtained a Doctor of Science in Management from the NDA.” In the case of Mrs. Madueke it was touted to be yet “another first for the Amazon” being the first woman ever to be so honoured by the military academy. Her other first was being the first female Petroleum Minister. Now, if one was not a governor and the other Minister of Petroleum, would the NDA have honoured them? Incidentally, in June this year, the University of Port Harcourt awarded a Doctor of Science degree to the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.

But on the same day and at the same venue, Vice President Namadi Sambo, who represented the president, announced a N3 billion special federal government grant to the university. The timing and place of the announcement of this “special grant” raises serious moral questions.

We place it on record that the abuse of honourary degrees did not just start today. It is one of the problems of our title-conscious society, where everyone wants to have one chieftaincy title or bogus academic honour appended to his/her name without earning it. Yet we hold, and very strongly too, that there should be integrity in the conferment of university honourary degrees on citizens including the president, governors and their spouses. We recall that soon after Barrack Obama assumed office as President of the United States of
America in 2009, there was a debate at the Arizona State University where he was to deliver the Commencement Speech as to whether or not he was suitable for an award of honoris causa.

At the end, the university authorities ruled against awarding him one. In spite of that, Obama still went ahead to deliver the Commencement Speech. If such had happened in Nigeria, the vice chancellor would probably be arrested with the university’s approval withdrawn.

Perhaps our universities have chosen to shamelessly commercialise their honourary degrees in view of the paucity of funds available to them hence they have all turned their annual graduation ceremonies into fund raising events. For no sooner is an awardee decorated than he/she calls on his/her “friends and associates” to line up and announce their donations in support of the awarding institution. Yet, no transformation will take place in our country if all manner of characters, including school dropouts and 419ners can easily procure university honourary degrees.

With such debasement of scholarship, we can now understand why there are only three Nigerian universities on the list of Africa’s top 100 universities, and the one adjudged the best is on number

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-abuse-of-honourary-degrees/99171/

dayokanu:
Can you tell someone more intelligent to help you put your thoughts into words? Cos it doesnt seem you passed primary school exams with this kind of English you are writing.

It could be communication or thinking itself

you are a life long case

AjanleKoko:
Secondly, that line about being bashed by foreigners is kinda funny. One way or another, we are all getting bashed by forces beyond our control. It's what we get out of the bashing that matters. You are getting bashed in Nigeria by fellow Nigerians, while others are getting based by foreigners.

echoes the sentiments of a friend who said he would prefer to be discriminated abroad and live a quality life as a professional than live in Nigeria where he is discriminated as an indigene of a minority tribe in Northern Nigeria.
He said "all na discrimination but one dey yield result and i know which".

reindeer:
So what eventually happened to the people who bombed the last Independence celebrations and killed innocent people?
Is this government still denying that MEND did it?or was it Boko Haram disguised as MEND?

High Chief Raymond Dokpesi

I don't know about GEJ but i would be horribly disappointed if Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma commends me.
I would weep if the sort of commendation i seek is from men like the Bongos of Gabon.
Something must be seriously wrong if these are the kind of commendation the president basks in.
More importantly, these clowns mentioned above do not live in this country and their commendation are not more valid than those of the common man on the street.
What else were they expected to say?that GEJ is doing a horrible job?Have you seen the cra p Zuma is doing in SA?

I am in no mood for bashing GEJ this morning (i have repented), so i wish to applaud he and Nnaji,whatever it is they are doing with NEPA long may it continue.If it is luck,may it not run out.There is a long way to go but i can see progress.

the foreign transfer dept of GTB needs a serious overhauling.
From inept officers who can't provide simple information or provide erroneous info to inaccurate transactions.
something should be done about that unit.

coogar ----> BuffoBill

seems the Owen lovefest is over?

i beg lets move on jare.
What i still don't get is what exactly was the essence of his comments and at this point in time.
If he ends up not playing more than twice or thrice this season,won't he look stupid?

on a related note, Dr. Steadman was referring to the state of his injury not the rehabilitation united put him through which where the injections Hargo is referring to comes in.
Whatever, he should just have fun and move on,we moved on like 2 years ago.

SMH at Owen Heagreves.
I expected much more from him.
How can a club stand by you for three years and you come out with such sour comments.

I wonder what Fergie's response will be?

AjanleKoko:
Well. . . not to worry. Kweku is in jail right now.

you've got mail

^^^^
playing through the middle is not an option because going through the wings is a certainity in this new formation.
making the pitch big and Ashley and Nani being at the crux of our attacking play is the hallmark of the system.

There has been a few informed arguments in the media in recent times that irrespective of how much fun the new united way of play is to the eyes, there is a seeming imbalance in the system.
We seem not to have gotten a balance between our attack and defence.
a look at the number of shots on target in the Chelsea,spurs and Arse games prove a point. it is the hughest number of shots on target at OT in the last 5 or 6 years.
Whether it is down to the makeshift defence,absence of Vida and Rio, Evra's continual denfensive failure,lack of an enforcer in the middle or even our failure to defend from the front properly or just a misguided belief that De Gea is vulnerable from distance.
I am not sure which it is obvious something is not balanced about this fun system.

Like has been alluded to by earlier posts, the problem is not technical but societal and is hinged on endemic corruption and myopia by the ruling class.
I don't even have a big problem with taking a bribe for a road contract.
my problem is taking a bribe for a road contract awarded to your cousin or party leader who knows less than my granny about civil works.
Not only do the power that be collect loads of bribe leaving little for the contractor to do a substandard job, even with what is left the contractor knows next to nothing.
I am sure that JB pay bribes yet are able to do better jobs.
Also what sense does it make for the politicians to collect a large portion of the contract sum that will ensure that the contractor has to cut corner and do a substandard job?

LagBlogger:
I love this thread for one thing, it is a chance for ungrateful businesses and service providers to see how their customers perceive them.

[b]What I would really like though is that consumer rights are well protected and businesses that offer poor customer care should be made to suffer for their insensitivity.[/b]Well done poster.

the easiest and most democratic way to make them suffer is to air your views here and vote with your pocket on subsequent transactions.

Emperoh:
^^^^^

Can we get CQ back? Tired of seeing MP's yes man head all over the duggout!!

i guess there are some n.ude pics of Fergie that MP stumbled upon. he is blackmailing fergie with them.

Henry120:
@poster, would it hurt you to say this road is under-construction,  And all the major roads are also under-construction, you started this thread, so as to spite governor ameachi. Pls tell them, that this road is a 30km road spanning from mile 3 to ada-george junction at mgbouba. And it is UNDER- COUNSTRUCTION!!!!!

that is part of my problem.we are tortured for months while the roads are under construction, at the end we are presented with sub standard roads that collapse after a few months.
i guess it enables another contract to be awarded,probably to the same indigene.
sounds like a case of repeating the class after you fail.

man smith:
no be same thing in port harcourt,getting to work and coming back home is now a nightmare the Gov does not give a dam,instead,he is busy collecting loans for what ever it is he is using the money for,All major roads in ph are bad this one na small.come to okoro road,emenike st,oyigbo and even the almighty aba road same thing.

you forgot Eneka road.
Residents of Woji are still wondering when the gulley by Assemblies of God church will be attended to.
the gulley has been getting bigger for the past 2 years.

i hope that rumuogba road edge of Artillery junction has not been given to an indigene to fix?
this is corruption by different names.

otokx:
D problem is d bad contractors most of which are indigenes. The so called new rumokwuta NTA road portion is already failing wit som part after st francis over taking by flood

we have been here before i started a thread like this after visiting PH months back.
Internet warlords shouted me down.
i am glad that pics here are saying thousands of words.

why is Amaechi patronising substandard contractors?
that is a failure of leadership on his aprt.
i wish he could match his loquaciousness with action.
are the shiny new school buildings now occupied?

coogar:
3 seasons of long-term injuries.
and he wasn't even crap against chelsea, just average.
fletcher didn't help. he was too immobile.

he ws not average, he was crap.
so without Cleverely there is no hope for superstar Anderson?
do they receive a joint salary?

^^^
i have seen those blogs in the past and nothing there negates my argument.
he needs to do it consistently for much longer.
After 3 years of crap, you just don't expect to accept that he has come good after four good games and i crap one.

coogar:
you have so many humble pies to eat, i worry you would be obese before the end of the year. . . . .
anderson's performance was average on sunday because of the static darren fletcher. darren was so immobile and couldn't work in tandem with anderson at times. anderson has been a revelation this season and i cannot wait to have tom cleverley back so the duo can continue their formidable partnership.

mind, you still have to eat humble pies with the signings of phil jones and ashley young!
another humble pie for telling me anderson has no pace.
a final humble pie for doubting fergie's signings in june. . . .

now, off you go. . . . .

even when i don't agree with you, i always admire the passion with which you fight your corner. well done!
on that pie, not all of it at present.some will still be on the table.
i will eat (infact began eating) that of Ashley Cole and Phil Jones.
Ashley had been lulled into the safety of mediocrity at villa for too long and i was wrong in my judgement.
However i doubt i was alone.it was amazing hearing not one but two respected pundits describe him over the weekend as the best set piece specialist in the Premiership. With a dead ball he is very good. I am glad that he has raised his tempo and proven me wrong.

That Anderson pie will remain on the table for now.
I still believe he has no pace. i wonder how you can decide otherwise in the last 5 league games.
he looks unfit weight wise for a kid in his early 20s who earns a living from football,much more as a midfielder. the fact that he looks trimmer does not negate that fact.I don'tthink he was average on sunday,he had a stinker.
Fletcher might have contributed to this but same can be said for Fletcher.
5 games are too few for me to agree that Ando is a world beater.he has been mostly crap for almost 3 years.
That midfield still needs a superior signing.

StarBoard:
Nani has just one flaw:ability to make the right decision.If he gets his football brain sorted out,he might be something.

his incredible talent even makes his poor decision making more obvious.
Decision making improves with age but often in bred.if you don't have it in you, no matter the rate of improvement, it will still be substandard.

montelik:
Glad to see others have noticed. While he was O.T every season you could see at least one aspect of his game that improved (e.g jumping, heading, vision, free-kicks, intelligence). But since his time at Real it seems he has stopped developing as Madrid rely so heavily on his goals. Madrid is not helping d boys development in my opinion.

I doubt he has stopped developing.
i think Mou has just decided to focus on one aspect of his game for the benefit of the team.
you will agree that his goal scoring ability has greatly increased.
Like you i enjoyed his play better when he was other aspects of his game were on display.
i am not a fan of the boy (even when he was at united) but one thing for which i doff my hat is his almost unmatched ability to imrpove.He just never rests,he keeps pushing himself.
Compare that with Anderson's inability to do anything else with his right leg about from standing or walking?
Or Valencia's left leg?
If CR was born as left legged as Anderson i am sure he would have been fleet footed by now.

just when i was about to come and accept the serving of humble pies, Anderson chooses to have an awful stinker.

What exactly is/was wrong with Fletcher?
Dude has been out for almost 18 months. rumours have been gaining ground in the background. which kind virus be that?

the only thing keeping Evans at united is the wretched fitness of Rio and the amount of effort that has been put into his footballing education at Carrington. If Rio could be counted as fit, even on the bench, then Evans will be out of the door. His concentration level is very por for a central defender.

what is the latest of Little Pea?

Anytime this man opens his mouth to talk, just like Theo Orji,i wonder the root cause of the problem that throws up such insane souls as leaders in our polity.
Something s fundamentally wrong if men like these two end up as governors not once but twice.
How can a state survive with these sorts of lunatics as governors for 8 years?

There is something about class that you can't buy in the market.
Allesandro Nesta might not play this well often but that was a masterclass display.
that tackle on Messi was worth its weight in gold.

As good as the Barcelona philosophy is, i think Messi makes it look extraordinary.
this Barca team is human and very beatable bar Messi.

Why would CPC help PDP complete a job that is almost completed?
too many chefs spoil the broth.
PDP is doing a damn good job of destroying Nigeria with their Fresh Air.
CPC had better be warned,competition will not be accepted.

texazzpete:
As i said earlier, the people of Abia state have obviously not suffered enough.

Four more years ought to teach them a lesson.

More than any state in Nigeria, Abia State has a pact with the devil.