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By Rotimi Fasan THERE are very practical but undesirable consequences to the terrible situation in our universities.  The wrong people, staff and students, find their way into our universities, the very space in which we expect to train and provide leadership for the country’s quest for scientific and cultural rebirth and development. What is more, government’s failure to provide necessary infrastructure that aids university education has led to the rise of a new crop of pseudo-academics whose primary vocation is ASUU unionism. They hibernate in the system and function more or less like primary school teachers and only lie in wait for when a strike would be declared before springing into action. They are neither regular in class nor do they see the need for research of any kind. Some hold the highest degrees possible while others remain stuck on doctoral studies begun many years ago, victims of a skewed system and/or frustrated supervisors that derive wicked pleasure in consigning stu...

By John Amoda GENERAL T. Y. Danjuma’s observation that there is yet to be a government in Nigeria that the people can defend is the thesis addressed in that Presidential Address. We propose that President Goodluck Jonathan make as his agenda for the present and the future the laying of the foundation on which can be instituted "The Government That Can Be Defended By The People of Nigeria- A Democratic Republican Government". The following quote from the 1988 address serves an executive summary of the seven and half-page address. “If we are to truthfully confront the history of our existence as an independent national society, we cannot escape the implications of the fact that under the present conjunction of forces and interests that a planning of alternate futures for Nigeria must begin with an acknowledgement of the place of the Nigerian Military in our political process. This is all the more important because we have presented ourselves to the world and its comity of natio...

By Rotimi Fasan YOU only get to see one even if there are many more living out of public glare in semi-retirement. We are talking here of executive wives, women married to men of means and ways- inflated balloons turned power houses by virtue of straying into the corridors of power either by the imposition of powerful brigands misnamed godfathers or rigged elections. From the presidency down through the state to the local councils, these crops of women of no consequence whose only claim to glory is on account of their connections to political men manage to flaunt their emptiness in the face of those they consider less fortunate members of society. [caption id="attachment_313261" align="alignnone" width="412"] *Patience Jonathan[/caption] By their public posturing, monogamy seems the preferred way of Nigerian leaders, be they soldiers or civilians. But for one or two odd cases who, perhaps for reasons of quiet acceptance of their polygamous status, respect...

By Rotimi Fasan EVIDENTLY President Goodluck Jonathan, as the Yoruba proverb goes, has eating his fill of his food  and is now actively looking for what will deflate his round belly. In other words, trouble  sleep yanga go wake am . This is another example of weak breed leaders Nigeria routinely throws up; men heedless of the lessons of history and are therefore doomed to repeat it. [caption id="attachment_402483" align="alignnone" width="412"] President Goodluck Jonathan (centre) inspecting parade during the Nigerian Army Day Celebration in Abuja On Saturday (6/7/13)[/caption] His ambition to continue in office beyond 2015, a legitimate one if he so pleases, but without prejudice to the right of other people to the same office- Jonathan’s post-2015 ambition has blinded him to the necessity of recognising he does not hold the patent to the presidency. But he is gradually going for broke, given the unfolding chaos in Rivers State where a minority of five l...

By Rotimi Fasan THE Eastern Cape Province is the birth place of Nelson Mandela , the 94 years old ailing father of South Africa’s multi-racial society. It is the natal home of the Xhosa and arrival point of the 1820 settlers. It was in this region, specifically the village of Qunu, that Mandela hails from even though he was born in Mvezo which has of late been in the news on account of the family feud tearing the Mandela clan apart. [caption id="attachment_150306" align="alignright" width="315"] Nelson Mandela[/caption] Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Steve Biko, Govan Mbeki, Thabo Mbeki and Chris Hani are among well-known South Africans from the Eastern Cape, the rugged region with its rolling hills and undulating valleys that is sometimes called South Africa’s Frontier Country. Like the rest of the country, this Province has been gripped by fears of Mandela’s ill-health. Even though he is in far away Pretoria, in the Mediclinic Heart Hospital that has been...

By Rotimi Fasan ONE wouldn’t know if the Jonathan administration has made any official pronouncement on the matter but the issue seems serious enough to warrant a response from senior members of the Obama administration. This was on the planned visit of the American president to Africa, the second since his inauguration as the first American leader of African descent in January 2009. In his first visit to the Continent Mr. Obama felt Ghana was more central to America’s interest than Nigeria and promptly flew into the waiting arms of our smaller but more respectable neighbour where he was given a once-in-a-lifetime welcome. The country rose as one to receive their respected visitor even if only for a few hours. Nigeria chafed but kept her grumblings to herself and the rest of the world pretended not to notice the apparent snub. During his earlier visit as senator, Nigeria was not on Mr. Obama’s itinerary. On his 2009 visit to Egypt during his first visit as president, he made a major po...