There is a great deal going on in Benin City, the Capital of Edo State. The infrastructures are being revamped in a massive way that even the blind can testify to it. What is going on appears to be a complete overhaul and reconstruction; a widening and restructuring of the network of roads which must be quite challenging and especially costly.
There is a great deal going on in Benin City, the Capital of Edo State. The infrastructures are being revamped in a massive way that even the blind can testify to it. What is going on appears to be a complete overhaul and reconstruction; a widening and restructuring of the network of roads which must be quite challenging and especially costly.
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It is doubtlessly a testimony to the Comrade Governor’s courage of imagination, the commitment to excellence, and the frugal and sensible deployment of the scarce resources available to the State.
We're most certain that Benin City would take on a radical new look by the time the ongoing projects are completed. Some people have complained that it's only the state capital that seems to be getting the attention of the Gov. That may be so, but the City was neglected for so long that even if all the state resources were deployed in this regard it would hardly be enough. Besides, the Gov appears driven by a vision for the best possible delivery of service to the state that he has not considered embarking upon mere repairs of the existing infrastructures, but their total upgrade and modernization. And the state capital belongs not just to the Gov but, the entire people of the State.
If Lucky did a fraction of what the Gov is presently embarking on there would be that much money available to finance development in the rest of the State. Often, a focused and concentrated improvement is the more desirable thing to do, which is what the Gov seems to be up to. It’s most certain that he has plans for the rest of the State; after all he’s the Gov of the entire state, and it’s all his responsibility.
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However, there is a further way in which he can touch everybody in the State, but which should not require much capital outlay: Education remains the bedrock of long term and lasting development of a people. Even the illiterates now know this. Ever since the great Awo did first introduce his unsurpassable programme, of free and compulsory education to the old Western Region our people have come to see the enduring value and necessity of a formal education, and have been unsparing in the use of even meagre family resources in the training of their children through schools, up to the university levels.
Prof Alli, of blessed memory, following in the footsteps of his mentor had capped it all by making a gift of a university to the people of the State. No one is in doubt anymore as to the impact the institution has made in the State, and in the local environment of its particular location. It has not only brought light to the minds and hearts of the people, and empowered them with many useful skills, it has generated tremendous improvement in commerce and local trade and thus, aggregating income on a massive level to Ekpoma, in a way never before has been seen anyplace else in the country.
Within a short time of its establishment the institution had blazed its way into national acclaim principally, because of the outstanding performance of its graduates at the Nigerian Law School. Such became its reputation in the country that the institution was suddenly faced with enormous pressure from parents from all over the federation who had determined to have their children enrolled in the school.
But today, AAU is a shadow of its former self; fallen off from glory, like Lucifer, seeming completely lost, and now of no particular bearing.
In the last decade or so, its managers appear to have lost the blueprint and the proposition for its establishment, and do no longer understand even the basic meaning of what proper university training should entail. Now all kinds of people possess assortment of degrees, thanks to AAU - persons that can hardly defend O'Level certificates; and in many cases, even JSS III education: they are flaunting degrees and strutting the streets with the pride of a peacock. This is hurting, and too painful to bear, to the eye of any well-brought-up person.
Nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the running of the school. There is nobody to ask questions; and like all aspects of our national life, there is no accountability. But the school is public-owned and public funded.
Everyone is got an alibi and an excuse for why things are the way they are. All the lecturers save for a few, have boys fronting for them, who collect blocking on their behalf. Blocking is a compulsory sum all students must pay to their lecturers for each course they take. Those that fail to pass the course must pay an additional sum to have the course upgraded to a pass. At AAU, it's difficult for a student to fail for real, except he's too poor to meet the lecturer's minimum financial demand.
So the entire purpose of exam as a means of evaluating a student's competence has largely been emasculated and sabotaged permanently. Therefore, every semester examination is merely an opportunity for the lecturers to enrich themselves unconscionably.
The issue is well illustrated by the recent scandalous outbreak in the political science dept where the office of the exam officer was set on fire by unknown arsonists. It was the culminate act of a desperate people who were determined to eliminate all evidences of their despicable and reprehensible activities.
The two lecturers, namely Jon Paul and Pedro, who were at the heart of the matter, have since been suspended by the University Council. The office of the exam officer is a position that is highly coveted and desperately sought after by most lecturers, because of its power and clout to enrich greatly its occupant, speedily.
Pedro, a former police officer who became a lecturer, was the exam officer when the exams office suddenly caught fire, and all the students’ records ostensibly had disappeared in smoke. This happened when a panel headed by the Deputy VC had just been mandated to investigate the alleged massive corruption which was suffocating the department. The DVC upon arriving at the dept couldn’t immediately gain access to the exam records office because the erstwhile HOD, whose authority was required, was away on a pilgrimage to Israel. He was however assured that the office keys would be made available the next day. But that night, the arsonists struck.
Jon Paul was the exams officer before Pedro assumed the office, much to the envy of the other fellow Lecturers. It goes without saying that both fellows had made good while occupying the office.
Then there is Austin; a man said to be quite popular in the dept; he blew the whistle on the festering activities in the dept. It’s rumoured that he felt short-changed having been passed over when Pedro was appointed the exams officer, whereas he had been there long before the police officer-turned-lecturer showed up at the dept. Following Austin's numerous petitions, the University Council, was moved to begin investigation into the simmering allegations, and thereupon set up a panel headed by the DVC.
The office of the exams officer is the ultimate blocking zone in every dept. That is why everyone is keen to occupy it. And to make matters worse, Officer Pedro was said to have sent word around that the students need not bother to see the other lecturers anymore as he offered to meet all their blocking needs for their course upgrade preparatory to the award of degrees. The other lecturers felt robbed, and were determined to draw blood. The evidence of his grade manipulation would have been obvious for all to see in the students’ files had they been found. But low and behold, they were all obliterated and annihilated in the fire, and lost forever.
Not quite so. There is talk that the files were moved before the office was engulfed by the fire and they are now hidden away somewhere they can’t do any damage. And there is now a precipitate backlog of students that should long have graduated, but have been held back by this criminal incident. They have been made to join the current final year students to again write their final year exams.
And what is more, they have been made to buy the mandatory books written by the lecturers, which must be purchased by the students if they hope ever to pass the courses. It doesn't matter that they had before bought these books when they first wrote the exams; meaning every one of them would now own two of the same book, of all their courses.
Mr Agbebaku, the HOD, upon his return from Israel, immediately resigned. There is a new person there now, and he is said to be a fairly clean chap. But Agbebaku should know something, which can be useful to the investigation.
However, blocking is known to still be going on in the dept, and as rampart as before, but has now gone further underground. Nevertheless, the structure and process haven’t much changed. The lecturers’ boys are ever ready, and very much on hand to collect it.
AAU is a very sick baby, and is yet taking mortal blows from the lecturers and the other principal officers of the university. It’s one institution now crying for help, and is desperate for any kind of assistance. The question is: does the Comrade Gov care enough to intervene?
There is no sense in having such a central establishment; a very important and costly investment that is largely unattended to and never supervised. The lecturers and the entire principal officers have to know that they are under an authority, and should be made to feel it. There is need to subject the school to a complete reformation, like the sort the Gov is presently making Benin City to go through. A total makeover is the expedient necessity.
Fortunately, this should not cost anything because it's not the physical decline of the school that is at issue, but its personnel deficiency and horrible decline in integrity and honour. The place seems to have been completely taken over by a cabal of ignoble forces who care nothing if their selfish activities should drive the institution into the ground.
The Gov has to rescue the place from these dangerous people. He can do it. There is no doubt there. He has demonstrated his bonafides beyond reproach and reservation, via courageous and bold actions he had initiated in the past which even his stoutest opponents have had to acknowledge and concede to.
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August 10, 2010
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