Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Students Shut Down Federal University Otuoke Over Purported Fee Increase But VC Says Fees Have Not Been Increased

Thanks, VC Aluko for taking the time to reply to my post/questions. I actually missed your reply until today. I appreciate the tone of civility in your reply, just as I applaud you for setting the record straight. In fact, I was expecting you to reply in Latin, and I was holding my breath, wondering how disappointed your numerous admirers would have felt should your Latin not to go beyond the third declension. With your high erudition, I expect you'd have read beyond Latin for Today. Your fans would expect your Latin proficiency at or above the level of The Gallic Wars by Caesar. Anything less would have been embarrassing. You probably didn't know it, the Iheduru meat actually tastes better if chewed in high proficient Latin!

Any way, here's the point of my post/queries: You see, no matter how transparent or unassailable your efforts to build a brand new university in a village may be, students will always come across as the underdogs whenever they have any issue with Nigerian university management. Perception can become reality, whether or not we like it. Most people who read the initial newspaper story will probably never get to know your side of the story that you so clearly and sympathetically stated.

I've been at FUO twice in the past two years, although you didn't know it. I can attest to many of the teething challenges you have there, especially electricity. The Bayelsa State power was a God-send--24-hours electricity--during the first six months or so, but not any more. My two-page report on my visit--which you will never see because it no longer exists--was immensely supportive; it was actually the best PR job you could ever ask for. Did I just say that?

Permit me to also add that I didn't appreciate your calling that citizen who asked a question about student housing "yeye." I thought we went over this before: VCs should NOT be using foul or abusive language, at least not publicly, because of the formative role, I might even add, vocation, you've been called upon to assume. 

Finally, I'm truly praying for your success. You're doing a heck of a job, seriously!

Regards,

Okey

On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 4:06 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:

Okey Iheduru:

Thanks for your commentary and inquiries.  They give me a good opportunity to em..em...vent on this important matter tnat is not REALLY peculiar to FUO! :-)

So please come with me, as I respond to you in red......

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:

Before the drums roll, some questions for FUO management that were either not addressed or ignored in the press statement from the VC:

 

No drums need to roll - I have addressed ALL the issues that the students put before me.  Any others that might have been raised PRIVATELY with newspaper reporters onthe side-line, and not brought before me by students were not addressed.  My Note was primarily to Students, and not to others.

 

And the last time I chewed (on) you (out), you tasted quite good.  So let me try again below...! :-)

 

1) Does FUO have an elected Student Union/Representative Council? If not, why?

 

This was an issue not raised on this occasion by students, and so which I did not address in my Note.

http://fuotuoke.edu.ng/news/2014-01/from-the-vice-chancellor-a-note-to-students

Just as we do not have an ASUU, NASU, SSANU or NAAT in our nine operational brand-new universities yet - those associations' charters require four years of university existence before approval of a chapter -  we do not have an elected or selected SU/RCs for students either.

 

Be aware that this semester, in January 2014,  FUO has three sets of students based on when they COMMENCED classes, not when they were ADMITTED:

 

Set 1: Pioneer Students, now in Year 2, Semester 1; they are 200 Level students; 281 of them. These students were ADMITTED through JAMB in September/October 2011 but COMMENCED classes in October/December 2012

 

Set 2: Year 1, Semester 2 (We will refer to them as 150 Level Students, an interesting designation by itself!).  These 375 students were ADMITTED in September/October 2012 but COMMENCED classes in July 2013.

 

Set 3: Year 1, Semester 1 (Fresh students) (100 Level Students).  These students were ADMITTED (525 of them) in September/October 2013 and just COMMENCED classes in January 2014. In fact, they are still being registered and have not matriculated yet, and so technically are not university students yet.

 

Now, on what basis will students in their first or second semesters start to contest for elections?  In any case, after much experience, many universities in Nigeria now have a CGPA qualification of 3.0 and above for student officers, so as to avoid perpetual non-academic students - sometimes with more carry-over courses than you can imagine - being student leaders.  At FUO, we have that CGPA requirement, and when that time comes - possibly at the end of the first semester of their Year 3 and no earlier - it will be enforced.

 

There is also another caveat:  Student and Staff Unionism will also not begin until our new Universities have Governing Councils - which we don't have yet.

 

So UGCs first, before ASUU, NASU, SSANU, NAAT and SU!

 

But what we do with Students is a regular communication with them through the Office of Student Life as well as through the Faculty Offices and the VC's Office, and we visit with them in their hostels and General Studies classes regularly.

 

2) Is simply uploading such positively discriminatory pecuniary information on the FUO website sufficient and strategic communication, especially with young people? I don't want to believe that Prof Aluko who's probably the most adept of all Nigerian VCs at information deployment, issue framing, political discourse and social mobilization would not have seen the need to devote at least a tenth of the time he commits to numerous cyber communities to, instead, grounding with FUO students, at least their leaders! 

 

I continue to be " adept of all Nigerian VCs at information deployment, issue framing, political discourse and social mobilization"  - I don't know about being "probably the most of all Nigerian VCs" -  but that does not include calling each of the students to my office one by one and explaining the fee schedule that is written to them in their admission letter, put on the website and pasted and on the school notice boards!  How else does one communicate that information?

 

Is that what you want you want me to save my "time committed to numerous cyber communities" for ? Heck no....I refuse to be defined ONLY by my VC-ship, or do NOTHING else with my time.  To contemplate that is being un-serious and very funny on your part.

 

3) Prior to the press statement, were FUO students, at least their leaders and and base groups, aware of the serious, even debilitating, challenges of providing electricity at the university? Could a multi-stakeholder social welfare committee that engages this eternally crucial part of campus governance not have saved FUO management a lot of headache?

 

Okey Iheduru, mine was NOT a press statement, but a NOTE TO STUDENTS, delivered and posted on their notice boards, and placed in the website - and then later pasted to various forums.  It was a written version of statements that I and various faculty members, have conveyed to the students in various ways and at various times, both verbally and written.  The note just put things concisely in one place.

 

As to "challenges of providing electricity" and water in the university, are universities no longer in Nigeria?  Are ordinary Nigerians not facing the same challenges?  In fact, I will tell you that the keen-ness with which students wish to stay in dorms all year round is an indication that their challenges ELSEWHERE are worse than the ones that they are complaining about.

 

Students have been made aware that Otuoke and the university are NOT on the national (aka PHCN) grid;  that Otuoke is on a Bayelsa IPP turbine grid which is free when operational (but which has been down for four months now); and that the costs of diesel for our six diesel generators supplying a total of 1000 KVA (1 MW) REQUIRES us to ration power particularly when turbine power is not available; and that it costs us half-a-million naira (N500,000) every week for diesel for LHVAC-ing the two campuses and five hostels (four of which are rented).

 

There is not much more information that can be provided.

 

4) Did soldiers posted to the First Lady's hotel beat up FUO students for refusing to fetch water for the soldiers? What did FUO management do about this incident, if true?

 

Not true. There was NO INCIDENT whatsoever that involved " soldiers posted to the First Lady's hotel" at Otuoke.  The bizarre incident involved a SINGLE soldier and a passer-by in the neighboring village of Otuaba (not Otuoke) who HAPPENED to be an FUO student living out there. When, according to accounts, the passer-by refused to "fetch water", the soldier took him to the Soldiers' guardroom and proceeded to beat him to "pulp" (in Nigerian parlance), lancing his back with a belt. The student was rescued by his landlord and others.  By the time the incident was communicated to the university - within about 24 hours of the incident - the Army and Police hierarchy had identified the culprit soldier, locked him up and punished him in their own way (I don't know how), transferred out all the soldiers involved,  required the culprit to start to pay the medical bills of the student, and were prepared to garnish his salary if need be. The Army and Police leadership hierarchy visited my office in the company of the university's Chief Security Officer twice the very following day of the event (once in the company of the student) to apologize profusely over the matter, hoping that it will not escalate tensions between the Army and the students in the area, something also that I wished to avoid since this appeared to be a bizarre isolated incident AWAY from campus and Otuoke.  I asked the student to give a comprehensive written account of the incident, and while he has every right to take things up himself and ask for compensation BEYOND his medical bills, nothing should be done to make it look like a student-Army confrontation.  For example, I was NOT in support of students carrying placards in support of the student and marching to the Army barracks.

 

If there is anything you think the university should do beyond this, do let me know.

 

 

5) Are there students at FUO who have been in Year 1 or in the same class/level since 2012? If so, why? What has this got to do with regularizing the academic calendar "ASAP"?

 

Absolutely not.  

I have already told you about our 200 Level, 150 Level and 100 Level students, and the difference between Year of Jamb Admittance and Year of Class Commencement.

 

As to regularization of calendar, the 150 Level students pose a time­-tabling (time, classroom, course and lecturers') challenge to the university. What some of my co-new universities did was to combine either Students Set 1 and 2 as Set 1 (which we could not do at Otuoke because of space limitations), or  Students Sets 2 and 3 into one big class Set 2, which we at Otuoke could have done, but that would have required Set 2 to wait until January 2014 even though they had been admitted in 2012.

 

At this time, we are exploring all the options we have to have all students in the same academic year move forward together starting in September this year.  Whatever decision is taken will be in the overall interest of the students and the system, period, in consultation with our Proprietor, the Federal Government, not sentiments.

 

 

 

6) How much does it cost to drill a bore hole in Otuoke so that water could be more easily provided? Does the terrain make this more difficult or impossible? 

 

What kind of question is this, My People?  I wanted to add "silly" before "question", but I did not want to chew you Okey out so much :-)  Who told you that drilling of bore holes in Otuoke is the problem?

 

Abeg, the campus and each of the hostels are at this time DOTTED with boreholes drawn from deep water tables, water from which have to be:

 

(1) treated, otherwise you will be drinking iron-laden water.

(2) pumped, with electricity...diesel generators.....we are back to fuel costs!

Water and electricity ALWAYS go together in Nigeria, as elsewhere. 

 

Note: Prof. Aluko once chewed me up for suggesting he tone down his partisan politics (which he plays at tax-payers' expense) and create a more open/non-partisan and less intimidating political environment for ALL FUO students.

 

People can see why I chewed you up !  What do you mean "partisan?"  I was only three years younger than I am now when I was chosen as VC - so could I change my ways so radically when so already grown up?  If that is what was expected, that was a cardinal mistake that your ilk made, and I don't apologize for disappointing you.

 

But I do run an open and friendly administration at Otuoke, but certainly inmates do not run the asylum.

 

 

 So, I want to believe that the students with the "cult-like" appearance and painted faces have never drank from the fountain of openness, wondrous explorations and luminous public policy debates that are the hallmarks of the FUO experience. 

 

Another adjective-able talk from you again!  When the students were demonstrating, and I stood at the back of a Hilux to address them, I INSISTED that all of those who painted their faces with white ash and wore caps with leaves stuck on them like cultists cannot be really FU Otuoke students, and MUST remove them before I proceed,or I would ask them to be removed from the gathering as trespassing non-students.  I even called some of the students so adorned by name - and they all complied.

 

I have emphasized to all students the notion of zero-tolerance for cultism and violence, as well as a distinction between violating university regulations and exhibiting criminal behavior.

 

In any case, I wish VC Aluko God's grace and strength to handle this challenge and to do whatever he can to minimize future flare-ups. Nigerian universities are not the easiest organizations to manage.

 

Ehen, now you are talking and praying... that is why I spared you from too much chewing up -) Thank you for your prayers.  Nigeria nor easy....like too much awuf...but you cannot blame people, because 1% of our leadership seems to be chopping 99% of our patrimony.

 

Off to class and "shaking my head", a la MEA.

 

Okey

 

Me too...shaking my head! :-)

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

 

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:

Before the drums roll, some questions for FUO management that were either not addressed or ignored in the press statement from the VC:

1) Does FUO have an elected Student Union/Representative Council? If not, why?

2) Is simply uploading such positively discriminatory pecuniary information on the FUO website sufficient and strategic communication, especially with young people? I don't want to believe that Prof Aluko who's probably the most adept of all Nigerian VCs at information deployment, issue framing, political discourse and social mobilization would not have seen the need to devote at least a tenth of the time he commits to numerous cyber communities to, instead, grounding with FUO students, at least their leaders! 

3) Prior to the press statement, were FUO students, at least their leaders and and base groups, aware of the serious, even debilitating, challenges of providing electricity at the university? Could a multi-stakeholder social welfare committee that engages this eternally crucial part of campus governance not have saved FUO management a lot of headache?

4) Did soldiers posted to the First Lady's hotel beat up FUO students for refusing to fetch water for the soldiers? What did FUO management do about this incident, if true?

5) Are there students at FUO who have been in Year 1 or in the same class/level since 2012? If so, why? What has this got to do with regularizing the academic calendar "ASAP"?

6) How much does it cost to drill a bore hole in Otuoke so that water could be more easily provided? Does the terrain make this more difficult or impossible? 

Note: Prof. Aluko once chewed me up for suggesting he tone down his partisan politics (which he plays at tax-payers' expense) and create a more open/non-partisan and less intimidating political environment for ALL FUO students. So, I want to believe that the students with the "cult-like" appearance and painted faces have never drank from the fountain of openness, wondrous explorations and luminous public policy debates that are the hallmarks of the FUO experience. 

In any case, I wish VC Aluko God's grace and strength to handle this challenge and to do whatever he can to minimize future flare-ups. Nigerian universities are not the easiest organizations to manage.

Off to class and "shaking my head", a la MEA.

Okey

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 7:23 AM, Tunji azeez <orunmilababa@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Prof,
Good job. E ku ise. I appreciate your pragmatic approach to solving problems.
TA

---

From: Mobolaji Aluko
Sent: 24/01/2014 14:11

To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Students Shut Down FederalUniversity Otuoke Over Purported Fee Increase But VC Says Fees Have Not Been Increased

Nkolika;

Not true...the university is not "shut down."

Prof. Bolaji Aluko

VC

For your information and dissemination.......

___________________________________________________________________

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OTUOKE

OFFICE OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR

 

January 23, 2014

 

NOTICE TO STUDENTS

 

Dear Students of Federal University Otuoke:

The concerns of students as aired in your "demonstration" earlier today are noted.  They are hereby addressed as follows:

1/  University Fees and Charges

A/ There has been no increase in fees as alleged.  The schedule of fees currently paid by ALL students was published on the University Website (http://www.fuotuoke.edu.ng/) and communicated to students over ten months ago.

B/ After operational experience with Pioneer (First Set of) students whose total fees (including accommodation) was N45,000, the University has separated accommodation fees from other fees, and made a distinction in fees between Science/Engineering students  and non-Science students.  This is standard practice in all universities worldwide.

C/ First-time-in-College (Freshman) fees include N18,000 of Acceptance Fee (N15,000), ID card (N1,000) and certificate verification (N2,000) charges which are paid only once in a student's university life-time, and are not paid by returning students.  Consequently, after the first year, the differential fee between Pioneer and Non-Pioneer students in the same course is N4,000. (see attached)

D/  These fees will remain as published for the foreseeable future.

2/  Water, Electricity and Cooking in Hostels

A/ The University is completely committed to providing university-subsidized accommodation to as many students as possible, particularly Fresh students.   This accommodation is a privilege, not a right.  Currently, all five but one of our 

hostels are rented at high rate.

B/  Provision of comfortable learning and bed spaces, and of reliable and adequate electricity and water in our lecture halls and hostel,  is our goal.  While quite challenging, the university will continue to strive to improve upon the current situation.  The University currently runs six diesel generators (of a total of 800 KVA), and two more are upcoming to bring the total to 1000 KVA (1 MW).  The prohibitive cost of diesel makes it incumbent to ration electricity supply.  We are committed to providing electricity in academic areas during week-day from 8 am to 8pm, and in hostels from 8 am - 10 am, and 4pm - 8pm seven days a week.  Until municipal (non-generator) electricity becomes available and reliable in Otuoke and the university environs, we can do no more.

C/  We forbid cooking in hostels due to insurance and sanitation concerns.  Catering services (upon payment by students) have been contracted out.  Students who insist on cooking are welcome to find alternative non-university accommodation

3/  University Calendar a.k.a "Merger"

Any information that students have about the merger of two sets (2nd and 3rd Sets) into one is at this time a rumor, a notion frowned upon seriously in Bayelsa State Government officialdom. Nevertheless, there is a national mandate to REGULARIZE university calendar ASAP, so that it runs Sept/October to June/July, in order to make room for July to September Summer period for Lecturers' research and rejuvenation, and student internships. This is according to global practice.  Plans to ensure this regularization are being worked out, and any information about any commitment to a particular new calendar is premature.

4/  Clearance, Registration, Fee Payment

Until you have matriculated, you are not a student of this University.  That requires that new students must be cleared, registered and must pay their fees at the earliest possible time before they assume university residency and participate extensively in university student activities.  Returning students are also urged to pay their fees and charges speedily, but classes will not be prevented until three months into the first semester, during which time instalmental fee payment is permitted.  Opportunities to apply for and receive scholarships should be taken advantage of.

5/  Responsibility

I wish to express my profound appreciation to all of those students who have behaved responsibly and eschewed any aggressive behavior or violence. Any thuggish behavior, donning of cult-like attire or face painting is un-FUO-student-like.

6/  Consultations

Our doors will always remain open for consultation.

Best wishes all, as I once again welcome you all to a new academic session.

 

Prof. Mobolaji E. Aluko

Vice-Chancellor

alukome@gmail.com

-------------------------------------

 

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OTUOKE

 

SUMMARY FEE SCHEDULE

See http://www.fuotuoke.edu.ng/students/fee-schedule for greater details

 

 

S/N

Set of Students

Month of Commencement of Lectures

Year 1 (Entry)

Year 2

Year 3

[The entire original message is not included.]

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You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.

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