Asun & ASUU: Power, Education, and Zombification. Part 1
Today I choose to break my silence on the academic strike in Nigeria for reasons too numerous to be distilled here. But hopefully to share my 2 kobo. The choice of juxtaposing Asun, something I love, and ASUU is not out of disrespect but, in many ways, echoes my obsession and reverence for knowledge, education, and growth. I learned how my mum thought about Nigeria's political elite and their plan for education by eavesdropping. I do not encourage people to listen inappropriately to others, but you can judge me if you have never listened discretely to your parent's communication.
Walking from my father's room to his very gigantic parlor, I had my mother saying(read this in Yoruba even though it is written in English), "I use God to beg you, don't let us ruin these children's life; these people don't have anything to do; they are people who will not do anything but promise the end of the month, their goal is to water down education and ruined people sense of worth so that they will order them around like goats and cow. I want my children educated so they can XYZ but also ……." I stood there listening to the conversation until it seemed my mother perceived human presence and asked in that Yoruba way, which of you is there? I gave speed to my steps and did not think much about it until I started reading about Zombification years ago. What other way can you provide a simplified rendition of zombification than turning people into goats, cows, and object with little or no reason/awareness and capacity to think? How else might you offer a simplified version of a profound concept (zombification) than the intellectual emptiness shown in the conversation on education in this country? How could education and educators be so reduced that we debate whether they are worthy of wages, honor, and regard? Is education no longer public good?
My parent's conversation came against the backdrop of my father telling my mother that the government had a plan to infuse more money into education, this was in the 1990s, and we didn't have to attend private schools. My Dad's position was that if everyone chose to send their children to private school, it would give the government little or no incentive to invest in education. My father was very learned within the parameters of his time(my mum was not). He spoke and wrote impeccable English, understood land laws(acres of lands to show), and was astute business-wise to acquire everything Nigeria later destroyed. My mother understood his point, but she won't let her children be an experiment for a government that lacks political will and seemingly has agenda to destroy education. Every time I read of another politician who has gone for a 3 days/hour course in another part of the world where they can claim alumni (what a corruption of the word) on their CV, it tells you of their intention and how they rate our academics.
Education (not just certification or degrees) is crucial for any society. Elsewhere, I shared my understanding about what I thought of musters during slavery when poor and ignorant white men were mobilized by white slaveholders to raid and plunder Black slaves. It seems to mirror some trend of populist ideology that I have read about this century; it is the weaponization of mass ignorance and economic depravity to achieve set goals. Through time and space, one of the reasons specific laws during certain periods criminalized learning and reading of any kind is, among others, its liberatory power. Similarly, destruction takes many forms, from banning critical texts that encourage oppositional consciousness and censorship to penalize and criminalizing intellectuals who critique power. I reflect on how this degradation could have been avoided or reduced. Could it be possible that if the ban on communist text in the 60s in Nigeria did not happen, oppositional consciousness might have been cultivated so much to expose the hypocrisy of neoliberalism that is nothing but a sham in Nigeria? When I think about certain parts of northern Nigeria where a government openly burnt books on claims that the books were furthering moral decadence, I wonder if that would have been possible if we had a critical mass of people who were not so consumed with survival to critic these excesses. There is no single way to think about education, funding, and all the issues with education in Nigeria and elsewhere; however, I think enough of the state's high-handedness with intellectuals.
Academic may not be a call to riches, but it shouldn't be a call to poverty. When my mother, who had no degree (s), was my age, she had more assets and accouterment of healthy and wealthy living that I cant boost before Nigeria reduced her beyond recognition. Should this be the case? Can we apply neoliberal practices to academic labor? Academic labor is a thankless job even if you pay academics millions. You can't make academics clock in and out; no work, no pay, dress code, and all those regulatory nonsense that has become the norm in Higher education in Nigeria. During this strike, I know people attending workshops, conferences, writing, and improving themselves to be better academically when they return to school. That does not mean people won't struggle when they return to the classroom.
Ideas don't obey the window of work days or hours. I will be at home on the weekend, and ideas will come to me that will make my teaching on Monday better. Will I say that it is not a work day /hour yet? Idea come back on Monday at 8am? Or the day I almost burned my apartment because I was reading an article in the New Yorker/Washington post. Thank Jehovah for my sister-mum who worked past where I was reading unconscious of the smoke who put off the gas and said in that occasional way of teasing me, "book will not kill you, Rosemary."
To be sure, ASUU has fundamental internal reform to do, not just about the conduct of its members, its image, and blatant asymmetric of power, manifesting in student-faculty relations, ableism, and sexual harassment. Specific troupes may not represent every Nigerian university academic, but it is most of what it might look like. I saw a bit of what people did within the sanctimonious wall of my Alma mater( a place that one of my Marxist friends calls "the Harvard of Nigeria"); sometimes, I wonder if there was no reason to keep up with the public image of a Christian university, how more cruel some people will be( most of them came from public universities, not Heaven, lol.). I knew I would not be taught by an Angel, but I did not expect it to be that bad(maybe I was naive). More so, as a stakeholder with no stakes (inside jokes).
To be sure, toxic masculinity ideology pervades most higher institutions within Nigeria and beyond. It penalizes female faculty for not being conformist and appropriates their labor and ideas, and relegates some of them into "female ghettos" (welfare secretaries, parks, flowers, and garden coordinators). It is adept at setting up specific groups of women against other women with particular markers of respectability. Should we talk about male privilege, extension of patriarchy to public places, the weaponization of religion, and laws against women in higher education? The first semblance of a university, the University of Al-Karaouine or Al-Qarawiyyin, was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, a woman. Yet, the university is where most women have had the most violent experiences that left them with scars. How the space that women established became a place where most women across all stages have experienced all sorts of violence is unsettling and troubling. Still, we know the historical process and transformations that make it so. This is probably one of those paradoxes that fit into that writer of Judeo Christian text of servants on horses and kings on foot. Maybe one day, I should write about my decade of experience and what I know about gender and the Academy.
While Arguing about funding, methods, and all, can people return to the classroom with all their money and arrears paid?
By the way, who looks this good to a Viva? Survive what happened that day (video may come someday) and live to tell my story. Only Aburo Iya Olamide, Omo Baba Kaduna and Prophetess Ololade!
Maya Angelou was right, "though I come as one, I stand as ten thousand."
In solidarity with Nigerian Academics
Posted on Facebook on September 21, 2022
