Dr Muhammad Shamsuddin
I respect the author for his civility of respecting an opposing opinion. In such away he grows his intellectual capability as a politician, particularly when such view comes from a Professor of international repute like AU Jibia. Alas, instead of heeding to the wisdom, Fatuhu, in his attempt to castigate Jibia, ended up exposing his ignorance (which actually proves Jibia’s assertion of his inexperience). I present below my reservations to Fatuhu’s rejoinder with the view of enlightening gullible readers.
A. My first concern is about the conceptualization of privatization. This is important because Fatuhu himself is naive of the bill he wanted to sponsor. He expressed reservation to the Jibia’s usage of ‘privatise’ and ‘sell’ interchangeably. I thus asked: Is privatization not sales? Let me educate Hon. Fatuhu on this; the classical definition of privatization entails the transfer of ownership of an enterprise from public to private ownership which normally occurs through SALE of the ownership by share transfer or complete divestment of assets. If Fatuhu does not know this basic definition then he strips himself the right for intellectual engagement as he does not know what he is arguing for. This further gave me hope that Fatuhu only moved for privatizing public versities because he does not know what it means to privatise; otherwise, a right-thinking representative of people who are strongly hit by poverty would never propose it or even allow his colleagues to call for it. What I suspect Fatuhu intended was commercialization in which government retains the ownership but allows the universities to source for their running cost including a profit margin, otherwise privatization means selling.
B. Another major source of concern and which is indeed frightening is Fatuhu’s assertion that he is loyal to President Buhari “at all times”. My fear here is “Fatuhu’s position on selling versites might be Buhari’s position”; that he is only used as a puppet to key start the argument and subsequently be amplified by other cohorts which is to be executed by his uncle (God forbid). I am afraid this might answer Prof Jibia’s curiosity of what Fatuhu meant by “we” during his presentation.
C. On the 9 rhetoric questions he raised I respond below sequentially but briefly:
How Daura people are being misrepresented
1. ASUU goes on strike because all other weapons used were not effective as government does not listen. If you are sincere, ask government to honour agreements and observe if there would be any more strike action.
2. The monetary allowance you mentioned are hard earned allowances not the kind of sitting (for doing nothing) allowance you receive all the times. I least expected you blackmail your teachers just because they asked for their paltry allowances which your government deprived them.
3. Government never released any HUGE funds to revitalize universities. The highest I think was N220billion given to over 80 universities in the country. If you don’t know, this amount is only 1.6% of the fiscal budget of the Federal Government alone, is that what you called HUGE?
4. What proportion of our Professors send their children to private university or abroad? Could they even afford it? Only those opportune could do that and it was because politicians allow our public universities to rotten.
5. On your claim that public universities only teach theories and give certificates I asked who produces the medical doctors, engineers, technocrats, industrialists, and other professionals in different spheres of oir national life, including your good self (a suppose graduate)?
6. On innovation, universities teach and collaborate with industries to put ideas to practice. This is the normal practice globally. Go round all sectors of the economy and observe how ideas initiated from our universities are converted into substances. Last week Nigeria was ranked 15th most advanced country in Islamic fianance for instance, thanks to the IIIBF here in BUK for its numerous contributions.
7. ASUU’s rejection of IPPIS was based on its (IPPIS) violation of the laws governing conducts of our universities and failure to capture the peculiarities of academics. I did not expect this question from you as several explanations had been provided on that, unless you dont attend or sleep during deliberations of your House Committee.
8. The allowances ASUU fights is called Earned ACADEMIC Allowance (EAA), as such non-academic university workers are not entitled. I wonder if you don’t know this. If other workers in the universities need their allowances let them demand for it.
9. Are sabbatical multiples in the first place? Do you even know what it means? Academics go for visiting globally because there is need for it and Nigeria is not an exception. Why is the alarm?
You see sir, all your questions, which you claim were the bases for your position on this issue, are only rhetoric and lacked any substance.
D. Hon. Fatuhu claimed that Professors give party tickets and they design and endorse electoral laws. This coming from a law maker is an embarrassment to say the least. Which Professors make or endorse laws in Nigeria? I wish one day Professors would be the architects of our laws, perhaps that may correct the rot in the system. Equally, you claimed that Professors are appointed to head educational parastatals which is correct.
But two observations here: One, any Professor appointed to man public office is considered public servant first because he is appointed to serve the interests of his masters that appoint him not his university where professorship is conferred on him. Two, the Professor in question is guided and expected to operate within the laws made by politicians like Fatuhu, how do you expect much differnce? However, even with that, many Professors perform wonderfully in their various assignments. If you want to appreciate their contributions give the positions to rogues on the street and see the result; or appoint Hon. Fatuhu to head NUC for example, to see how well he will run its affairs. The samething applies to election conducts.
E. To ride on Prof. Jibia’s submission, I believe Fatuhu is either naive of the reality of his people or misrepresenting them. All facts point to the fact that Katsina State citizens need public education direly. According NBS (2020), literacy rate in Katsina is 45.5% (all languages) and only 27.2% (English language). In fact, Katsina is the 6th least literate state in the Federation. Furthermore, 78.6% of male 79.8% of female of Katsina State students attend government / public schools. In fact, Katsina is second after only Niger state in utilizing public schools. This is in comparison to only 6.4% and 3.4% of male and female students, respectively, that attend private schools in Katsina, which is among the least in Nigeria. Though this comprises of both basic and tertiary schools but if universities are privatized how many people in your constituency can afford to attend? On this ground, Jibia was right to have accused you of misrepresenting the yearnings of your people.
In conclusion, Hon Fatuhu please be cautioned when people of wisdom talk, just listen and heed. The reason why many good people do not contribute to policy issues is the disrespect they receive from rude politicians who are not willing to listen to and accept simple corrections. If not because of the people you (mis)represent I am very sure Prof. Jibia would not have wasted his time to address you on the issue that you barely understand.
Muhammad Shamsu
Department of Economics
BUK
