thunderstorms,heavy drizzles,water everywhere the plight of the people on the street has trippled this week you just have to lvew the comfort of your home to see for yourself the roads have become congested and filled with dirts of all kind harmful to the ecosystem that we inhabit, transport systems are on hold due to the traffic jams life has become unbearable and no other place feels the toll and impact more at the moment than in Lagos State, there have been series of flashfloods that have rendered many homeless and made orphans of many and others have sadly perished this is a major setback for economic productivity as well as the well being of the people pictures show horrific waters that are as high as 6 feet completely submersing cars and trucks this trend has left many wary and they are not to or still are to be blamed we shall look at the two angles:
TO BE BLAMED: it is a well known fact even from primary school that there are two seasons in the country the wet and dry season and also the dates are also known so it is expected that we adequately gear up for this worrisome period but most at times the dangers involved are ignored or simply most are ignorant or dont know how to also the idea of building drainages as community development schemes are also not done and finally building with substandard materials and areas that are waterlogged leaves nothing for the imagination also the fact is we indiscriminately dump refuse in this gutters and drainages blocking them we keep our environment unkept resulting in things like these and also narrow biulding and improper channeling of waterways causes and have added to these flood problem we have acted so ignorant to the environment that now there is little to be done and what is annoying is that upon the warnings by both local,national and international agencies warning these most affected areas of the need to be prepared they still ignored it like a stubborn goat and now all we see is destruction,pain, agony and of course stupid criticisms at the government when the people are at fault , there is then a need to waken community development programmes aimed at bettering the environment and monitor forces to check nmiscreants and safe guard work and maintain the environment we shouldnt wait till another july to experience the same thing all over again.
NOT TO BE BLAMED: the agencies in charge of environment matters have not acted accordingly this includes the ministries and agencies of environment,the land and works ministry,the national agencies of emergency response and other agencies tied t the infrastructural development of the state there should have been a plan to checkmate these flooding and high sea tidal rains that destroy properties and lives yearly and ongoing sanitization and awareness campaign to enlighten people of the dangers of building in areas prone to flooding infact they are not to build there at all except they have waysa of preparing for such effectively also the geological societies are meant to map out areas due to flooding to suggest solutions to such agencies as how best to combat these problem ths involves proper co-ordination and future planning and action ,the emergency agencies are meant to plan for such and have assistance readily available to such areas in the space of 10-30 minutes as time is a critical factor but sadly that is not the case this cannot continue to happen thew truth is if one sector of the econmy in any area of this country is affected then there is going to be a whole lot of cankerworms on our heads the government must strive to control flooding by checkmating it early especially during the dry spells or damming a lot of places to reduce the flood effects .
there is also a need for both parties to have synergy and work together from the agric sector to the landscape sector to the public and private sector there is a need for visionaries in such fields and clear headed individuals working with them and finally the support of people for the greater good of the nation because they may have to take drastic actions to better everyone lets hope that the plight of the lagosians,riverians the northern people and the eastern people will be heard it has become a national issue and should be treated as such.
2011-07-16
2011-07-12
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DEGREES
Sexually Transmitted Degrees By Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe
Columnist:
Okey Ndibe This writer then went ahead to explain that the term was coined by another friend of his to account for the fact that many (too many, in fact) of Nigeria’s university and polytechnic students – mostly females, but some males as well – barter their bodies in exchange for grades. In effect, this inventive adaptation of a well known, frightening shorthand for venereal infestation seeks to sum up a disturbing social trend: students sleeping (or otherwise bribing) their way to a degree.
There are, one conjectures, multitudes of Nigerian bankers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, physicians, mass communicators, economists – to name a few – who flaunt sexually transmitted degrees, diplomas or certificates. Or degrees that were priced and bought, not earned through diligent study.
One must stress that there are many academics and students who don’t – and won’t – participate in this monumental self-debasement and degradation of education. Even so, there’s no question that those who take part, as lecturers or students, in this scandalous cheapening of education constitute a significant percentage.
I was always aware of the existence of rogue academics who sexually exploit their students, or induce them into parting with cash, for good grades. But I came to grasp the dimensions of the crisis when I spent part of the 2001-2002 academic year as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Lagos.
As I prepared to give my first class, a colleague observed that I seemed “excited.” When I confirmed that I was, he said, in a discouraging tone, “But these students don’t want to learn anything. They prefer to pay cash or offer sex for their grades.”
“Is it possible,” I queried, “that some lecturers are not keen on teaching – and so prefer to collect cash or to bed the students?”
“No, believe me,” this lecturer insisted. “They are not interested in learning.”
Of course, the terrible transaction of buying and selling grades involves two parties, but the seller of grades – the lecturer – strikes me as having far more power than the buyer. At any rate, with all the determination in the world on the part of students to buy good grades, the sordid deal cannot be sealed unless and until a lecturer consents.
With that in view, I told my students the first day of class that I had heard that some of them purchased their grades with cash or their bodies. Then I warned: “The only way you can do well in this class is by working hard. I don’t accept financial or sexual gratification.”
To their credit, most of the students rose to the challenge. They read the texts and came to class ready to ask questions and to participate. Still, a few were too dyed in corrupt colors to take me at my word. One young woman was particularly persistent in asking me to change my rules. “Is it a crime to love?” she asked me over the phone. “Who do you love?” I asked. “You,” she answered. When I told her that I was her teacher, married and unavailable to be loved, she was far from fazed. “I’m not asking you to leave your wife,” she informed me. “I won’t let you borrow me from my wife for even a minute,” I said. Her response: “Why do you hate me so much?”
An old acquaintance – at the time a final year law student I had known since the mid-1980s – had observed the encounter. He approached and asked why I seemed so irritated. His response to my account of events was even more shocking. He advised me to call back the student and take the money he was willing to offer. “If he fails the exam, he can go and give the money to somebody in the records office – and they will change the grade. Since you’re the one who suffered to teach him, you should be the one to enjoy the money.”
I was astonished to hear a lawyer-to-be pass off such inanity as logic. He was asking me to anticipate wrongdoing by another person, and to move fast to, a, do the wrong thing first and, b, claim the prize – being the one who “suffered.”
This whole business of buying and selling grades is a touchy subject. A few years ago, Ernest Emenyonu, one of Nigeria’s most esteemed literary scholars, ignited a storm when he detailed how some Nigerian lecturers demand cash from their students as a condition for handing out good grades, supervising projects, or awarding degrees. Titled “Sorting: New Vocabulary in Nigerian Higher Institutions,” his piece offered several examples of such unscrupulous behavior.
Emenyonu, who had a distinguished career as a professor at the University of Calabar and whose current teaching address is at the University of Michigan (in Flint), wrote that the terminology “sorting” has become part of the tragic economy of trading in grades and degrees. According to him, sorting means, “to check out lecturers and determine how much a student could pay in return for a grade not worked for or earned through the academic process.” Professor Emenyonu then revealed that some lecturers “bargain in tens of thousands of Naira while some high profile lecturers and professors quote in hundreds of thousands.”
My sadness grows each time I reread Emenyonu’s essay or recall my personal experiences with students who wanted grades that cast them as excellent, but who were loath to do the requisite work. As Emenyonu stated, many students of tertiary institutions “are receiving no worthwhile education at all,” their sponsors “paying for their children to be duped by lecturers and if they learn anything at all, it is experiencing first hand how to camouflage appearance for reality.” Emenyonu continued: “The sharp ones among them are receiving their first orientation into obtaining goods, laurels, and wealth by false pretences, alias, 419. However, the most irreparable harm done by ‘Sorting,’ is that Education is being mirrored as inconsequential in the development of a nation; the degrees we award have no value and the years spent in institutions of higher learning are irrelevant, and rigor as a crucial virtue to be acquired in the course of one's education is an avoidable and unnecessary self imposed hardship.”
I had a drink in Lagos with a Nigerian entrepreneur who’s in the middle of hiring staff for his start-up company. He told of graduates of accountancy who are ignorant of the most basic terms and procedures in the field. He noted the large pool of candidates he must interview before he finds somebody who appears barely qualified. “It’s embarrassing and frustrating,” he said.
The malaise in Nigeria’s education is a microcosm of a larger cultural crisis. By and large, the ethic of the unearned, illicitly acquired preferment has been enshrined in Nigeria. Too many of us aspire to stupendous wealth, but disdain the patience, inventive enterprise and focus that facilitate material success in many other societies. As Emenyonu pointed out, Nigeria runs the risk of arriving at a point where earned and honorary degrees would become indistinguishable. After all, the recipient of a sexually transmitted degree is unlikely to be more versed in her/his field than a man who just gave a big donation to some university in exchange for a degree.
Much as Nigeria’s educational sector mirrors the broader problems of the society, we can stipulate that the country can’t move forward until it gets its educational house in order. No society has ever achieved its developmental goals by degrading the quality and standards of education.
The condition of Nigerian education demands the declaration of a state of emergency. As a corollary, a special commission to save education ought to be established. Nothing less would do. I’d give Emenyonu the last word: “It is about time parents and guardians took more interest in what goes on at the campuses of our tertiary institutions in the name of educating the young minds. What we sow today in our citadels of learning, we will reap tomorrow in the behavioral and mental disorientations of our children and children's children!”
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