₦airaland Forum

ZackiGp: The problems u raised are not due to lack of infrastructure but due to the fact dat these lecturers are lazy, greedy and not committed to their jobs.

So what's your solution? Fire them, right? And replace them with whom? With brilliant first class students who will never touch this job with a long pole (I wonder why?) or replace them with primarily second-class students and o-wase-wases (those wey look for work tire)? We are back to the point: fund education properly and things will sort themselves out. Then we can fire the ones who don't perform, in the knowledge that we will be able to replace them with brilliant graduates.

smartchoice: Hit em up rage in my veins tonight

Hmm, sofri sofri o Your point is very well taken: lots of us lecturers are grossly unprofessional. I know exactly what you are talking about. However, I do believe (or hope?) they are in the minority.

FYI, I will need to go offline just before 10.30. I do need to get home. Now, why would I mention such a personal detail? Because I don't want certain individuals <cough...oxford...cough> to claim that I ran away...

Williamchuks: Prof. Femi, in addiction, Lecturers should stop seeing themselves as demi gods.

To me, it comes down to getting what you paid for. The system is not yet good enough to perennially attract only top minds. Have you noticed that the most competent people never make life hard on others? It's the inept ones that usually go around with a chip on their shoulders. Tell me, from your interactions with me, do you think I see myself as a demi god? Don't get me wrong, I demand the best from my students. But when it comes to interacting with them...

So yes. Lecturers should stop seeing themselves as demi gods. But more importantly, the system should get competent lecturers who are unlikely to be forming rubbish.

oxford: mr. Prof come back here.

Against my better judgement, I will address your points. I do so solely because I don't know how many visitors to this thread reason like you, and I don't want that stale smell of a suggestion of retreat.

1. Lecturers are in breach of its terms of employement.
- So what if we are? What is your point? That we should be fired?

2. In terms moral and intergrity, ASUU is worse than the govt (i dont even want to talk about hand out racketering, marks for money, intimate assualt.....)
- This is a wild statement that you cannot substantiate. Dude, *what* university did you go to You make the place sound so bad.


3. ASUU does not have Nigeria best interest at heart. ASUU is a selfish body that see strike action a tool of blackmail
- Another wild statement. What is your evidence for this?

4. ASUU is always on strike. Strike action is not the only tool at the disposal of trade unions. ( i should be lecturing u on this, u are a prof u know)
- Yes. Please enlighten us with your version of Best Way to Get an Unserious Government to Perform its Duties.

5. Like the president said, this strike is politicised. For ASUU to remain hell bent on what we all know is impossible ie govt should cought out 3trillion here and now!
- if you bothered reading through my post, you will see where I said what ASUU needs is a sign that the government is serious.

6. Why am not surprise that opposition characters like elrufai, lie mohammed, npdp are suddently the mouth piece of ASUU?
- I refer you to my answer 25.

smartchoice: am not talking about non brilliant lecturers and am not talking about 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 or 15 of them!

Ahem. Intelligence is not the only metric used to assess a lecturer. I know of "smart" lecturers who have been fired for acts of indiscipline. In short, if the 15+ lecturers you are referring to have been naughty, they should face the music, even if they are Einstein himself. However, methinks there is something specific bothering you. I think we should let you land. Perhaps mention cases, but please do not mention names. I don't want the thread sidetracked into a he-said-I-said-no-you-said forum.

oxford: what do you term rude? Truth?
It time somebody stand up to ASUU. Am sure if i were the president, u wont be second quessing on how i will deal with this issues.

I have challenged u on key points but obviously u have no response to them

1. Lecturers are in breach of its terms of employement.

2. In terms moral and intergrity, ASUU is worse than the govt (i dont even want to talk about hand out racketering, marks for money, sexual assualt.....)

3. ASUU does not have Nigeria best interest at heart. ASUU is a selfish body that see strike action a tool of blackmail

4. ASUU is always on strike. Strike action is not the only tool at the disposal of trade unions. ( i should be lecturing u on this, u are a prof u know)

5. Like the president said, this strike is politicised. For ASUU to remain hell bent on what we all know is impossible ie govt should cought out 3trillion here and now!

6. Why am not surprise that opposition characters like elrufai, lie mohammed, npdp are suddently the mouth piece of ASUU?

Hope you won't mind if I decide not to debate you? I don't think we have the same conceptions of logic, evidence-based arguments, and politeness. Yes, I admit you have me totally floored. I have made my points. I will let others read yours and realize how terrible we are.

ennon92: we need to kill corruption and not d otherway round..some students look up to you guys (lecturers),they always follows ur footprints. U ppl should try n portray yourselves positively and lay good examples to follow by.

I'm not sure I quite get what you mean.

Williamchuks: I have followed your posts meticulously on this thread, and found it worthy to input my little opinion.

Thank you very much. Anyone who sees the volume of my output here over the last few days will wonder what I have to gain from it, or whether I have too much free time on my hands. Believe me, I am a very busy person (nope, I *don't* do runs!) . This time comes at a considerable cost to me. However, as you have noted, I realized that nobody was trying hard to try to explain things. I have decided to "donate" up till midnight tomorrow to posterity to try a little harder to make people understand "why we struck" (apologies to Ademoyega).

smartchoice: @prof Femi: ASUU members are currently enjoying unmerited pay which a lot of them aren't working for...Yes I mean it! There is no structure in the university system to make ASUU members accountable for the students in their charge it is terrible so terrible! If pushed I will start mentioning names with cases....

Please don't mention names I agree with you 100% The truth is that once any system gets comfortable with being a particular way, getting it to change is hard. The universities are structured in the inefficient way you mention, with lack of accountability at most levels (hey, lest we forget, this *is* a general Nigerian problem...). The fact however is that there are a few voices pushing for reforms. Some of those reformists are too brash and if you remember what Machiavelli said about why it is difficult to effect change, you will know why those brash reformists are often frustrated. However, there are more subtle reformists, of which I hope I am one.

Summary: yes, there are *many* things wrong with the system. I probably know one or two that you don't. However, believe me when I say there are people who are committed to giving their entire career to the hope that our education system will one day be where it should be.

oxford: And pls stop thanking me. Engage me. I thought u said that what u want?

Engage you, when you come in speaking in such a rude manner? Do you see the long replies I am giving others? I was giving you a wide berth because I wondered if you wanted to reason, or to fight based on the negative impression that your experience with your lecturers has given you.

If you want to debate with me, you will please do so in a civil manner or I will simply ignore you.

otokx: Why should state universities also join in the strike?

The issue of state universities is another tough one. I work in a federal university, so it is easy for me to distance myself from them. However, selfishness aside, these are my thoughts:

In Nigeria, everything is politicized. As I have made clear, tertiary education is very expensive. Many states have no business owning universities because they cannot afford to. However, the people of the state will clamor, the governor who wants second term will promise etc, etc. Now, the universities have been created, but cannot be well-funded.

We then run the risk of having two distinct classes of universities in Nigeria, which, for many reasons, is not acceptable. So what to do? Charge the students the real cost of educating them? Uniosun and LASU are doing this I believe, to widespread outrage The other option is the most common one in Nigeria: dump it on the neck of FG. So during every negotiation, ASUU makes a pitch to government about the risks of having two different classes of universities. FG realizes how unfair it is to ask them to partly-fund universities created by states. However they also realize (I think) that the states cannot afford those universities, so they sprinkle some crumbs to the state universities (please note, all of this is my interpretation).

So why are state universities on strike? Because if they do not associate with ASUU, and get some crumbs from FG, they run the risk of being left to the states alone to fund, and they know that is just not going to happen.

I'm not saying I support this. I'm just tellin' the way I see it.

oxford: What do they even teach sef. Most lecturers just come to the class read direct from books like news casters. ( pls stop refering to urself as an academician).SHAME ON ASUU

Thank you all the same. I think you have said enough for people to get a good idea of the value of the education you got from your university.

ennon92: What about some universities that re left out of ASUU's strike for instance, Unilorin and others that have already opted out of the strike? Let assume govt released the #400b,re the universities I mentioned earlier gonna have their own share?

Hmm. Unilorin is, for me, a thorny issue. They benefit from every ASUU strike, but don't get to do any of the dirty work. There is some history to this, which I won't like to go into. There is a certain element of monkey-dey-work-baboon-dey-chop element to it, but personally, I just believe that posterity acts as a filter that sorts out everything.

It's important to stress that ASUU is not this cult-like organization where everyone agrees to everything. all shades of opinion are usually expressed at meetings, and it is no surprise that some universities would, for whatever reason, decide not to take part in the strike. I am not here to judge whether that is right or wrong.

I have laid out the facts to the best of my abilities above. Let Nigerians decide whether ASUU has reason to take government on or not. If we can't make the system better, them no tie our leg down here, abi?

What is ur take on these; Intimacy, sales of shoddy handouts outrageously, extortion b4 marks could be given?

I guess this is a trick question Of course nothing you mentioned has any place in a proper university. In my opinion, fund education well and put pressure on us to deliver. Those of us who do not deliver or who err, ship us out!

What is the use of the internal revenue generation by d schools?

It will be hard to answer this in a few words. Different universities use their IGR the way they see fit. If you want to know whether it is true that they embezzle most of it, I cannot fully speak to that. While there is inevitably going to be some losses due to corruption (this is Nigeria..) I have also seen enough to know that most people have no clue about how expensive the sundry aspects of running a university are.

[quote author=Pryme-st*rr]Simple n short prof. the strike is more of a curse than a prospective blessing 2 the STUDENT BODY joor.[/quote]

Appliedmaths: ASUU should direct all universities to graduate their Final year students (2nd semester) irrespective of the timing of the strike action. I'm sure those in their 1st semester final year would be able to understand the situation.

@Pryme-st*rr: I agree with you that for students in your category, there's no bright side to this strike. I can only say "sorry about that". Actually, as Appliedmaths has suggested, it is possible to go on strike and yet allow certain categories of students through. I have made similar arguments in the past, arguments that, were I to repeat them here, you would surely think I am merely grandstanding. ASUU members who hear of this idea often balk at the level of effort and ambiguities this would introduce to a strike action. However, I am of the opinion that even if a strike action is inevitable, we should do our best to put a human face to it.

[quote author=Appliedmaths.]ASUU should have allowed the Final year students complete their programme. We the 300L students downwards can understand the situation and peacefully relax in our various houses without breaking a sweat.[/quote]Yes, others' choices often appear baffling and cruel unless you try to walk in their shoes. As you very well know, the Nigerian educational calendar is all over the place. So, which university's final year students should ASUU have synchronized with? In any case, in some instances (particularly Law and Medicine students), some universities have made off-record, under-the-table moves. Surely you've heard rumors of universities conducting examinations and inductions? They're not rumors.

Fabulousuzo: Prof these ur interview is too long. But i keep asking one que, all the money each university mkes from,eg:- pume,pude,pg, hostels fee, & others. What are they using it for? Can't they tke frm there

Sadly my dear friend, not everything in life ought to be summarized. Which aspect of my write-up is superfluous?
As to what the universities are doing with the money they generate, please go through this thread: https://www.nairaland.com/1467065/nairalanders-view-nigerian-varsities-infrastructures . I believe my posts there (as well as others who posted with similar views) should answer your question. You will have to balance your dislike of long stories with your desire for the truth.

oxford: prof if you like talk from now till eternity, nothing for ASUU. Lazy herd of greedy blockheads.

Okay.

ZackiGp: i'm sorry, i dont argue facts.

That's very okay. It's often those most in need of an education that go around on high horses. If you do feel the need to educate yourself further on this matter, this thread is a good place to start https://www.nairaland.com/1471435/ASUU-strike-lecturer-speaks
Cheers.

jaryeh: yea,i got that. I really wish to know you more than this.

Hello Jaryeh, thanks for flattering me. I do prefer to keep on a cloak of anonymity online, as this allows me to address issues with the full confidence that people will focus on the message and not the speaker. I will however say this much: I am an academic (and engineer) in the electrical engineering/computer science area. If you ever need me to chip in some words or help within that domain, just hit me, and I will let you have my contact details. Cheers.

RedBenson: Since we have one of our dear academic profs on nairaland, i think it's pointless going back to school. We can be receiving our lectures right here online. Oga prof., do us the favour and God will richly bless you.

You dey tempt me? Just kidding bro. Cheers.

Thanks, U235weapongrade, olu_kenzo, appliedmaths, and others.

@appliedmaths, sadly, I don't know of any substantial funds that the universities remit to FG, so I do not think we can "catch" them there. Even if there were such funds, the universities would not dare seize them, since they depend on monthly allowee from FG...

Hi. There is a long and, I hope, interesting write-up on the ASUU strike here https://www.nairaland.com/1471435/ASUU-strike-lecturer-speaks

Could you kindly frontpage it? Thanks.

marvelling: nice write up! I really enjoyed it. But it reeks of bias and insensitivity to plight of the grass bearing the brunt of the two elephants fighting on it.

Thanks for reading. I'm however surprised you think it is biased and insensitive, especially since I framed questions 26 to 30 from a student's perspective.

D. WHAT IS IN IT FOR STUDENTS?

26. Okay, you have said so much, but not a single mention of the students. Do you realize that they are the ones who suffer the most?

You are right, and I feel embarrassed that I would instigate an action whose major casualty is neither myself, nor my adversary. It is truly unfortunate, but the fact is that in Nigeria, there is no other way to apply pressure on the government. I have personally thought long and hard about this, and if anyone figures how to get the government to do the right thing without going on strike, you will be my hero for life.

27. Yes, yes. But do the students have anything to gain from the strike? As someone asked, is there any benefit for students in ASUU getting its allowances?

Let’s be clear: students have no direct gains from us getting our allowances. And we shouldn’t be apologetic about that. Of course there are some negligible indirect benefits to them, but that’s not the point. It should be clear from what I have said above that the bigger fight is about infrastructure and manpower development in the universities. If government does the right thing, then over the long term, students will benefit directly from the strike. Unfortunately, I cannot see how most final year students will benefit in any way (because implementation will take time), but students in the third year and down should see some benefits.

28. Abeg joo. We have been seeing so many ASUU strikes and they have never borne fruit.

Haba! That’s not true. I think this is down to a failure of ASUU’s PRO machinery. The universities are much better than they were 10 – 15 years ago, and it’s largely due to pressure from ASUU. There is much more money being pumped into the system now. As I mentioned elsewhere yesterday, more structures have been built in my university in the last 5 years than there were in the previous 20!

29. Na building we go chop? How does that affect students?

That’s just one example. I know our labs are still not there yet, but in my department, the number of students clustering round lab setups has reduced by more than 300% in that time. Internet access is now a given in most universities (which most students don’t know is quite expensive. My university now pays close to 100 million Naira per year on Internet access).All of this is not to mention the fact that your lectures are now better remunerated, and good ones are more likely to stay. I’ll be honest with you: if the salaries had stayed at the old levels, I would have been long gone. And I like to pretend I’m an asset. So, ASUU strikes have been yielding fruits.

30. So what advice do you have for students whose lives you are wasting?

Hmm. When I come across a student who says ASUU strike wasted his life, it tells me more about the student than it does about ASUU or the FG. Look, a university polishes and amplifies what you have inside you. If you have nothing (no initiative, no creativity, no industry), then ASUU strike is the least of your worries. Yorubas say “ta ba gun’yan ninu epo epa, eni to ba ma yo ma yo” (even if you pound yam in a groundnut shell, some people will find a way to get filled).

Please use this period as a personal test. Right now in my department, ASUU strike or no ASUU strike, we have undergraduates who report for work every day developing themselves. Some of these guys are doing the same things their peers abroad are doing. So, develop yourself. Learn something that can complement your formal education. Get involved in a business, and figure out how you class theories might be applied in it. Contribute to society. Volunteer in a nursery or primary school (if you do nothing else, please do this). Whatever you do, never wake up to watch movies and gist.

There is a martial art called aikido in which you use your opponent’s kinetic energy against him. Be an aikidoka. Use whatever comes your way, including ASUU strike, for your own progress.
Best of luck!

C. WHY IS ASUU SO SELFISH?

17.Hmm, abeg leave that thing. We know ASUU is fighting for their earned allowances, nothing more.

Let me say something very clearly. The government agreed to pay us those allowances mainly because they do not want to incur the cost of employing as many staff as universities actually need. People say lectures are lazy, and I suppose they have lecturers close to them that fit that bill. Me however - and many people I know - I am almost always overworked. Even Sundays. So, I am not ashamed to say that government owes me that money and I have every right to ask for it.

However, if this were just about the allowances, I’m sure it would have been settled by now. The fact is, the bigger battle is that the government wants to dodge the 1.3 tr bill between 2012 and 2015 for infrastructure, along with other expensive aspects on manpower development. Most of the argument is about that.

18. So if government gives you your full allowances now, you won’t call off?

I can only hope not. If we did, we would be selfishly mortgaging the future of the country for our own gains.

19. Okay, we get it, but why can’t you guys dialog and let government phase things out? You know the country has many problems?

This is a very common suggestion. What people don’t realize is that ASUU *ALREADY* did this. Back in 2009, the heavy infrastructure development aspects were phased from 2012 to 2015 to give government more room to plan. Now we are here 4 years after. Little has been done. ASUU has to conclude that government is insincere. Unless ASUU has *strong* reason to believe government this time, why would it start long story about phasing again when they have shown they cannot be trusted? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”

20. So you are saying ASUU must get everything now

Look, I’m not on the negotiating team. But I believe that if by some means, ASUU gets to believe that government is sincere, certain concessions will be made. But a necessary precondition is that we get a feeling that government and Nigerians understand the enormity of the issues facing us as a country with respect to education.

21. You’re trying to form as if ASUU doesn’t like money. Aren’t you guys already well paid?

Yes, we are relatively well paid, at least compared to the late 1990s when a GA got a salary of N3000! However, there is something people don’t get about the salary thing. Part of getting a good tertiary education system is to recruit the brightest graduates as academics. How many first class students do you know who decide to pick up lecturing jobs? Very few, and those are usually the few who consider the job a calling. Outstanding graduates rarely consider lecturing as a serious option.

22. What are you saying o?

When people complain about the quality of their lecturers, it never occurs to them that you get what you pay for. If the salary were good enough to attract the best minds year-in, year-out, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So in a nutshell, there is good reason to pay academics well: so we can attract the requisite brilliant graduates.

23. Ehen? We should increase the salary of your inept bottoms?

Let me assure you that if the conditions of service are good enough, competition and natural selection would weed out the “inept” lecturers, along with the fabled sadists and sexual harassers.

24. Someone placed the ASUU-FG agreement online. You guys are just enjoying man!

Look, I had to laugh at many things in that agreement. Car loan? You’ve got to be kidding me. My school pay for my sabbatical trip with my family? Hmm. Maybe next lifetime. Many of those things are window dressing that I suspect the ASUU negotiation team themselves knew government would never do.

25. So you’re saying lecturers are holy-holy. Can you bet your life that ASUU is not being controlled by the opposition parties?

No, I would be foolish to. But having said that, Occam ’s razor tells us that you don’t need to look for a convoluted answer when there is a simpler one that works just fine. ASUU does not need to be in league with the opposition because even as an apolitical member of the union, I fully realize the deep crevice our country is skirting. We need urgent intervention in the educational sector. It just so happens that since the government is not serious about the issue of education, it forms another cudgel for the opposition to hammer them with. That’s not our fault, and it does not mean we are in league with them.

B. WHAT ARE THE MAIN ISSUES?

8. Why won’t ASUU let us rest? Na only universities? What about other tiers of education?

Thank you. As I pointed out elsewhere yesterday, all tiers of education are important. In many ways, the foundational level is the worst in Nigeria. As a teacher, I see students entering my classes who cannot do well because they have been wrongly programmed since primary school. Having said that however, the needs of tertiary education are unique. While all levels need excellent curricula and intelligent, motivated teachers, tertiary education requires money in loads, among other things.

9. How much money? Give us an idea

Elsewhere on this site, I estimated the value of the facilities of an electrical engineering department in the US at N500 Billion. Since not all courses are equally expensive, let’s say a university should have 50 departments each with facilities worth just N50 billion. That’s 2. 5 trillion Naira for just one proper-run university.

10. Dem don come again o. Are you now suggesting that FG dole out 2.5tr to each university?

No. I’m just giving you an idea of how much REAL tertiary education costs.

11. Okay. Why can’t we cut our coat according to our cloth and fund to the level we can?

See, that’s the problem right there. There is one single global market. Nigerian graduates have to compete with products from US universities. And that’s not just in the US. Increasingly, they will have to compete even right here. The only reason Nigerian companies do not employ more expatriates is that they cannot afford to. Yet. So, there really are no half measures. We either provide proper functional education, or we end up wasting the lives of our students for 5 years (and what is more, ruining their self-confidence and creativity in the process).

12. But despite this your story, the universities have been working for years na, and people have been getting jobs.

Good. There is a difference between a country that simply wants to subsist, and one that wants to become a global power. Ask just about any Nigerian, they will tell you we are the Giant of Africa, we want to be a top-20 country. Well, the education we provide is barely enough to maintain Nigeria as a perpetual developing country, ever dependent on others. Is that really what we want? ASUU does not think so.

13. But there are other important sectors of the country. Do you want government to abandon other sectors just to face education?

Nobody is asking for others to be abandoned. However, we are asking that greater emphasis be placed on education, and we are not ashamed to say that. Every sector of the economy needs highly skilled workers.

Look, what is the point of living if one cannot learn from the experience of others? EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY that has become a world power has done so by FIRST developing education, especially tertiary education. Is it so hard for us to learn from others? We don’t need to write the book on nation-building. It’s already been written many times. All we have to do is learn from those that have done it. What is the sense in turning your back on something with a 100% success rate?

The thing that pains me most is that I just realized in the last few days that Ghana has positioned itself to be a global power and Nigeria’s big brother in the next few decades.

14. Come, how can you say such a thing? Ghana?

Yes. I have lots of friends in the US, and they usually view Ghana as a saner, more intelligent (albeit laid back) version of Nigeria. I always object to that view, but recent events are making me wonder. See, Ghana seems to have gotten the message that to get ahead, you must invest in education. While we are here bickering, they are silently injecting the UNESCO recommendation into education.

15. Abegi, Ghana can never become better than us. Sebi we know their universities.

Well, history begs to differ. Give them 10 years of funding education at that pace and let us see.

16. Oro ti po ju. In a nutshell, what are the main issues ASUU is fighting for?

Tertiary education is VERY expensive and VERY important. However, nobody wants to pay for it. The parents do not want to, and government does not want to. But *someone* has to, or this country is doomed.

****************************************************************************************************************
For lazy readers like me, this is a summary of the write-up below (but I do plead with you to read through as much as you can)

1. I am an academic and I want to inform people about the issues at stake; I have only honest motives

2. Tertiary education is extremely expensive but nobody, government or parents, wants to pay for it

3. If money is not injected into education (especially tertiary education), not only will we remain a perpetual developing country, but Ghana may become the sub-regional power

4. The selfish part of our strike is to demand for allowances that we have *earned*, and that government promised. However, the part government finds most difficult is the part where we demand for what they consider outrageous amounts to improve our infrastructure

5. People sometimes demand that ASUU shut up and put up with current working conditions, when it is these same conditions that prevents the system from employing the exceptional lecturers that will put an end to the problems such people observe.

6. Regretfully, students are the ones who suffer the most from the strike. It is true that it places endless suffering on them, however, there is a silver lining because most students will end up benefiting in some way

7. Students do not need to idle away the time during the strike. They can turn the loss into a net gain of sorts.

*****************************************************************************************************************


A. WHO I AM; MY MOTIVES

1. You’re a lecturer and you’re here to speak candidly about the ASUU strike?

Yes. However, I dislike the term “lecturer”. I see myself as an academic. I only used the word in the title to ensure that all Nairalanders know what I am.

2. So why are you here?

I have been going through comments about the strike on this site for some time, and I got to a stage where I couldn’t take it in silence any more. As a teacher, I am never happy to see ignorance around me. “All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

3. Is that why you have been dumping long answers on Nairalanders for two days?

Yes. It is my intention to wipe out as much of the ignorance as I can. I have tried to insert myself into various threads, hoping that one of them would catch fire and get hundreds of comments. However, not many Nairalanders have engaged me. I have felt like Hrothgar in the Beowulf movie, shouting “…fight me, dammit!” at people, but I guess the “prof” in my username, coupled with the huge power distance in Nigeria, discourages students from engaging someone they consider an elder. Of which I feel like telling them: “dude, this is the internet. I could call myself Bill Clinton; doesn’t mean I am number 42!”.

4. So you’re a spokesman for ASUU?

Not at all. I am here only in my capacity as a teacher who is passionate about the future of this country, and who wants to educate people about the issues at stake. I am a member of the union, but I am also a man with very strongly-held beliefs. My views and the unions are not always coterminous. Having said that, I believe in the current strike action.

5. You seem to be going for the record of longest post in Nairaland history. What makes you think people will read this garbage?

I doubt that most people will read more than a few lines, and that says something about the state of our education, as most Nairalanders are educated to the tertiary level. For me however, this is a labor of love. If only one person goes through, it would have been worth it.

6. Is there anything you want to say to those who decide to read part of it?

I suspect most of you came here with the belief that ASUU is a greedy pack of so-and-sos holding you back. That’s fine. What I ask however is, if you are going to read this at all, do so with an open mind, and decide for yourself what is happening here. And please don’t quote the full post in your responses, otherwise Seun might need a new hard disk!

7. Is this a real interview?

Not really I have used a question and answer format to make a painfully long write-up more readable. Also, I have tried to group the answers into sections which people can jump to as they wish.

jaryeh: I never did that. I still await your response to my last pos there.

Sorry I somehow missed your post. I have responded. Sorry for cross-posting but here is my response:

jaryeh: But,what I will continue to reiterate it that If our universities were properly managed with little or no corruption,it would not be in its present shameful state.Hence,generation and allocation of funds into various projects should be strictly monitored by bodies like the EFCC and ICPC.

that's all

Thanks. I see two separate arguments here. Last point first, yes, there could be better implementation. Yes, I support your suggestion that projects be well monitored and audited. However, they already are. You may not be aware, but many cases from universities have been referred to ICPC (RIP) and EFCC. This leads me back to your original argument:

You did not say funding education is cheap. However, by holding up the post you started with, and by arguing that poor universities are more corruption-prone, you implicitly underestimated the cost of running a university.

Firstly, the OP's calculations showing that N10,000 per student per space would accrue a net income to the university is nonsensical, as I briefly tried to show. I could have gone on in the same vein to shoot down his other calculations apparently showing that universities make so much and spend so little (I did mention the power bill of my university in this vein).

Secondly, you did not seem to get my argument with good schools versus poor ones. I was merely trying to say that providing education is equally expensive for both, but because good ones have more interventions, they can afford to provide education at a lower cost (since it is essentially subsidized). The poor schools that have no such interventions end up charging closer to the real cost. In effect, nope, I also do not agree that corruption is the reason why they cannot make ends meet.

Hope my points are clearer now?

jaryeh: But,what I will continue to reiterate it that If our universities were properly managed with little or no corruption,it would not be in its present shameful state.Hence,generation and allocation of funds into various projects should be strictly monitored by bodies like the EFCC and ICPC.

that's all

Thanks. I see two separate arguments here. Last point first, yes, there could be better implementation. Yes, I support your suggestion that projects be well monitored and audited. However, they already are. You may not be aware, but many cases from universities have been referred to ICPC (RIP) and EFCC. This leads me back to your original argument:

You did not say funding education is cheap. However, by holding up the post you started with, and by arguing that poor universities are more corruption-prone, you implicitly underestimated the cost of running a university.

Firstly, the OP's calculations showing that N10,000 per student per space would accrue a net income to the university is nonsensical, as I briefly tried to show. I could have gone on in the same vein to shoot down his other calculations apparently showing that universities make so much and spend so little (I did mentioned the power bill of my university in this vein).

Secondly, you did not seem to get my argument with good schools versus poor ones. I was merely trying to say that providing education is equally expensive for both, but because good ones have more interventions, they can afford to provide education at a lower cost (since it is essentially subsidized). The poor schools that have no such interventions end up charging closer to the real cost. In effect, nope, I also do not agree that corruption is the reason why they cannot make ends meet.

Hope my points are clearer now?

if you will be so kind, please list (bullet points will do) which aspect you consider greery and selfish. I am an academic, and I believe that means I am in position to provide more information than you see in the agreement.

Thank you sir. Since you are in Blighty as you say, I suppose you are more enlightened that the average Nigerian. You have pasted a summarized version of the ASUU-FG agreement with the rider that ASUU is exposed. Can you kindly draw my attention to which aspects of the agreement you take umbrage at?