Reply To Prof

Reply To Prof. Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufai Over The Recruitment Of Foreign Professors For Jigawa Polytechnics

Jibo Nura

Daily Trust’s editorial of March 27, 2009, which appeared on page 12 of the Newspaper was commendable. Every serious minded human being that read from that editorial commentary will in the end sympathize with Jigawa State on the issue of its education policy and development. Indeed, anybody who wishes Jigawa State’s education well will instantly kick against the idea of the Hon. Commissioner of Education, Prof. Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufai on importing 15 professors from abroad to lecture in the state’s polytechnics.

In fact, the learned Ringim born professor stands to be corrected based on the following:

That the improvement of quality of teaching in our polytechnics does not require any professorial intervention for it to be standardized. There are several Nigerian polytechnics and other institutions of higher learning that are discharging qualitative education without even a single professor let alone foreign ones at their disposal.

That the national policy on education that encourages the employment of indigenous education expatriates and expertise is indeed going to be violated once such an idea by Prof. Ruqayyah is allowed to happen. The importation of foreign professors to Jigawa is certainly going to be a wasteful venture.

Presently, we have up to ten (10) professors who are indigenes of Jigawa that are not encouraged to come and contribute their own quota. Among them is Abba Gumel, director of the Centre of Industrial Mathematics, University of Manitoba, Canada. He is one of the world’s great six mathematicians that are doing original work in dynamic mathematical modeling, which has to do with transmission and control of dynamics of human diseases of public health interest such as HIV/AIDs prevalence in Africa. Abba, I understand is one of the great minds in the world that harnesses advance mathematical modeling with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) control in Africa. He has collected the Rh Award for outstanding contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship and research, which is the highest research award given at the university of Manitoba. Not only this, Abba is today the best and only young African mathematician that collected a medal for excellence in applied mathematics. There is even a plan for Abba to come to ABU and share his knowledge with our Nigerian medical doctors, especially those in community medicine over his work on mathematical nuance on HIV/AIDs pandemics in Nigeria. Has Prof. Ruqayyah cares to invite Prof. Abba to serve his state and refuse to accept her invitation?

Next are Profs Garba Goje Hadejia and Sabo Bako Gwaram from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. These people are epitome of knowledge in their own fields of endeavor. Prof. Goje has indeed excelled in applying mathematical theories, which have to do with algebraic expression to solving empirical problems. He has made some mark on computer programming and program design in relation to application packages. He was formally the director of Iya Abubakar Computer Centre, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. And Prof. Sabo Bako, an erudite political scientist, has done so many works on the political-economy of Nigeria, Africa and the world over. He has written and attended several international conferences and symposia on the political and economic theory of globalisation. The last time I had a chat with him over Jigawa state’s issue i.e. at international stage, was prior to his trip to the 2007 Nordic Africa Institute conference in Sweden. And then during our 2006 international conference of Council for Development of Economic and Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal.

Hopefully, I will in sha Allah meet and discuss with him amply the problems of our state affairs sometimes in October in one of our GLOBELICS meetings in Senegal. Also Profs Tabi’u Muhammad and Sagir Ahmed are two renowned professors from Gumel local government area that are doing Jigawa proud in their own areas of specialization. Tabi’u, I understand is doing well as an astute law professor and legal luminary at Bayero University, Kano. Though he was once invited to state’s duty, which he was able to discharge with utmost sincerity, zeal and commitment, but nevertheless, I doubt very much if Prof. Ruqayyah has ever care to contact him again. And Prof. Sagir is now doing a wonderful work at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) as hematology consultant. There is also Prof Ado Ibrahim Garki, a plant genetics specialist who is well known worldwide in the area of plant breeding. Also the likes of Profs Saeed Ahmad Babura and Birniwa are other great minds that are doing lots of work concerning languages and grammatical structures. So also Prof. I.A Kiyawa, former Head of Economics Department, Bayero University, Kano, has been, and is still active in academic work at BUK since 70s. And then Prof. Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufai of Education Department, Bayero University, Kano. Ruqayyah, being the only female professor in Jigawa, has proved to the whole world that she is Jigawa’s academic rare gem. However, she needs to apply her original educational background to solving Jigawa’s protracted educational problems that have hitherto but remain a menace to Jigawa students.

These professors whom mostly are at our disposal, are very willing to come and serve the state, but due to the fear of uncertainty that has to do with our political ruling classes, they feel lackadaisical to come on board. And I believe our learned professor, Ruqayyah, is aware of other professors that this writer may not necessarily know or come by. Of course, there are several PhD holders who are indigenes of Jigawa working at various places across the country. So far there are more than 50 of those PhD people born and bred from the state.

Therefore what is actually disturbing here is the cost-benefit ratio analysis of hiring those professors into Jigawa, which is inversely proportional and diametrically opposed to Jigawa’s education budget and capital expenditure.

In view of the aforesaid, there is the need to be very careful over unguarded statements and utterances that are inimical to our educational progress. What is even amazing and quite surprising is Prof. Ruqayya’s lack of proper understanding of Nigeria’s higher education standard measurable indicators.

It is an established fact that the universal standard for measuring any higher education is based on three (3) things. The quality of staff; educational stability in terms of teaching programmes; and availability of teaching facilities. Any institution of higher learning that falls short of any one of these cannot be said to have attained full educational standard in terms of character and learning. In Jigawa’s case, our learned professor knows better that the facilities in Jigawa’s polytechnics and even at primary and secondary schools level are not something to write home about let alone stable learning atmosphere for reading and research. I therefore urge our learned Prof. to please spare time and take a tour to Fagoji, Garu, Yina or Kwarin Makera and see the poor standard of education in our primary schools. Even the quality of staff and facilities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels is on so many areas and places being compromised.

For instance, at Kazaure School of informatics, one of the polytechnics in Jigawa, an erudite professor who was part and parcel of the visitation panel to that polytechnic was telling me about the level of rot in facilities at the school. He said up to this moment he doubts very much if the school has a standard library, internet connectivity and computer laboratories i.e. even when Jigawa is in possession of the so-called galaxy internet ‘broad band’ access network. So the question is: how can Prof Ruqayyah for Allah’s sake maintain those foreign professors in such an educational scenario? How far has she gone in providing sound teaching facilities in her one and half years tenure in office as commissioner of education in the state? What effort has she made to sacrifice her precious time to, at least teach for one hour in one of the schools around Dutse metropolis? Really, the question is: out of those visitation panels’ reports and recommendations on Jigawa schools, how many has she been able to implement since the receipt of such recommendations?

If for instance, our honourable commissioner cannot make sacrifice as a professor and lead by example, then one doubt very much if those professors that she intends to bring will be able to teach Jigawa students anything new, which was not taught by their present lecturers. So the issue is: Jigawa does not need to recruit any foreign professor for it to excel academically. There are thousands of Nigerian teachers and lecturers who teach better than some of our professors today. Go to our Nigerian universities and polytechnics and conduct a survey amongst students and confirm for yourself.

Lastly therefore, our learned Prof. should as a matter of fact know that what is wrong, useless and should be avoided is what my university lecturer once described as hot air jargon, popularly known in Hausa as “dogon turanci”. The learned Prof should please kindly reverse in full gear her decision of importing foreign expatriates by embracing indigenization policy to reform the content of general education in Jigawa to make it more responsive to the socio-economic realities of our people.

Certainly, Jigawa state must consolidate and develop her system of higher education in response to the state’s available manpower needs. We must strike a balance in our state, especially at the 21^st century whereby despite the new emphasis in education, the education Ministry has not been able to provide enough indigenous expatriates to man our schools’ affairs. Truth is, the high interest rate proportion on non-Nigerians and our high penchant for foreign expatriates in our higher institutions reflects the inability of an educational system to reproduce itself.

Jibo Nura, a Quantity Surveyor, is on assignment in Jigawa State. E-mail: jibonura@yahoo.com.