Former Editor-in-Chief  of Guardian Newspaper, Mr Abraham Ogbodo, yesterday, delivered a Special Public Lecture titled The Gown and Town in Nigeria, the issues in between, in honour of the outgoing Vice Chancellor , Engr Prof Akpofure Rim- Rukeh to mark the end of his glorious tenure.

The lecture, which was held at the 500 capacity Auditorium was well attended by top Management Staff, Principal Officers of the University, Professors from different Universities,captains of industries and special dignitaries from all works of life which made the event very special and unique.

Abraham Ogbodo traced the historical background of the Gown to the Medieval European and connected it to how scholars  re-appropriated into academic rituals by Oxford and Cambridge Universities as an academic gown.

Guest speaker Ogbodo still on the relationship between the Gown and the Town, from the historical context of the first, second, third and fourth industrial revolutions in Europe, he was able to draw a nexus of how the Universities acted  as the the Laboratories for the beauty that manifested in the Town.

He posited that all the technologically advanced countries and industrial hubs of the world have their actual production sites in the universities which is the Gown.

He added: ” l will only state the example of Stanford University in San Francisco, California, USA which powered and still powering the ICT hub known as the Silicon Valley in the State of California, adding that he wants FUPRE to play a similar role in Delta State .

Mr Abraham Ogbodo observed that the University in Nigeria which is the Gown has not made the  robust threshold impact  that it should make  on the  Town as it is done in other  climes.The question to ask therefore is: why is the impact of the Gown on the Town so low with us in Nigeria?

He said:” l would like to add that this effort is not about rationalization because there are always enough reasons to explain why the Gown is steadily losing its majesty in the scheme of things in Nigeria. We all know of the hostile public policies over the years that place higher premium on the Gun over the Gown, I am talking of the budgetary allocations to education vis-a-vis defence, in public spending in Nigeria. All the same, it is a contradiction in form and terms for the Gown to yield to constraints and get consumed. The Gown is fashioned to conquer, whether the weather is black or whether the weather is blue. That is, under rain or shine, the Gown must sparkle. The university is a solution centre. It is an Ivory Tower and not a Tower of Babel. Whatever that cannot be determined in the university can only be referred to God for determination. And so, the starting point is for the Gown in Nigeria to understand its role as being transcendental and not incidental upon so-called favourable conditions. Therefore, part of the omnibus mandate of the Gown is to create or force the conditions for its own survival.”

Ogbodo therefore  challenged the the Gown in Nigeria saying:”  You must glide to earth to take up chicks to be called a kite or hawk. There is no lion that does not kill to stay alive. What is called salt is in its taste and if the taste goes, the residual substance becomes sharp sand, good for the operations of Julius Berger and other construction companies. This is saying that what is expected of the Gown is not ambivalence. It is sure footedness. The Gown exists for the Town. It is the first and last lines of defence in the battles of man to stay alive. It becomes most pathetic when the Gown is less able to find solutions to its problem. It is like the physician that cannot cure himself. I am saying the obvious problems of the university system in Nigeria are to be solved and not lamented.”

While speaking on the the gulf between the Gown and the Government Ogbodo asserted thus:” This is the crux of the matter. The popular view point is that government is the reason the Gown has failed to spread adequately to cover the Town in Nigeria. That all the issues in-between the Gown and the Town, start and end with government. Our perception of government is important in understanding the issues.

This is the crux of the matter. The popular view point is that government is the reason the Gown has failed to spread adequately to cover the Town in Nigeria. That all the issues in-between the Gown and the Town, start and end with government. Our perception of government is important in understanding the issues. Somehow, government is seen as a hesitant lone super structure, standing aloof on the other side against common sense, and with which, tough engagements are made, for the benefit of the Town. Basically, we are not wired in this part of the world to own government. It is government that owns us. It is such that we cease to exist or lose our essence as soon as we become part of government in the participatory sense. It is the only way to explain why academics, rights and student activists, since they started being part of government, have not been able to redirect public policies to strike the desired nexus between the Gown and the Town in Nigeria.

Citing a typical example of the issues between the Gown and the Town in Nigeria Ogbodo said: ” One  issue has defined conversations between government and the universities. This is the position of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on government policies on university education. The union has its own idea of how public universities should be funded and operated. ASUU has been telling this to government since it was founded in 1978 to replace the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) that was formed in 1965. But government has persistently proved less able to comprehend and implement the fine ideas of ASUU regarding university education. This has created the basis for the endless strike actions in public universities. ASUU, on its part, has not discovered any other way of holding conversation with government outside strike. In each round of strike action by the university teachers, the same issues would be discussed and almost the same agreement secured with government. The next round would however begin on the ashes of the burnt hopes of the previous agreement. It has gone on this way since the business of Government/ASUU negotiations started decades ago.”

While giving kudos to Prof Attahiru Jega,  the President of ASUU between 1990 and 1994 Who made the strike pattern popular for ASUU to place her demands on the table for better wages, the trend he pointed out  later became counter productive.

He lamented saying: “Every  ASUU President that came on board after Prof. Jega, adopted strike action as a key negotiating tool. As regimes after regime consistently failed to implement previously reached agreements with ASUU, there was a corresponding consistency on the part of the union to maintain strike actions as the only language to speak to force government back to the agreements. This start-and-stop game between government and university teachers has played for decades without new outcomes.  

Ogbodo explained that interestingly, this is one point on which Prof. Sunny Ahwefeada and I are always having conservations. And so far and good, we have not arrived at a convergence as such, even when we appear to be saying the same thing in different ways. While he sees the inevitability of strike actions in resolving the  great issues of the day between the Gown and the Town, l see a futility that calls for flexibility.

He pontificated that the University is designed for solutions not suggestions.

He said : ” l strongly canverse the view that if strike action to enforce government compliance in the matter of University funding has not produced positive result or solution since 1978, the prospect that a continuation of the suggestion will offset the status quo for better deal are indeed very slim. He maintained that that there is need for the Gown by extension ASUU to change method because results do not change from the application of the same variables.”

While looking at the question of alternative solution outside strike to fix the issues between the Gown and the Town which is ASUU and Government, Ogbodo remarked:” Again l would  like to bring in Prof. Ahwefeada. He says there are no options because the Nigerian State is too impervious to appreciate peaceful engagements. In fact, he cites the Ghanaian example where universities were locked down for a long time to achieve the current state of affairs in university education in that country. One source says the strike in Ghana lasted for 11 months at a stretch; from January 2022 to December 2022. In comparison, Ghana had done less than Nigeria in that regard, to achieve the same purpose that has remained elusive in Nigeria. I shall try and limit the struggle in Nigeria to recent history. Before the start of this democracy in 1999, ASUU had gone on strike in 1988, leading to its proscription on August 7, 1988 by the military junta of Gen. Ibrahim Babamasi Babangida. The union returned in 1990 only to be proscribed again on August 1992 following another strike action. ASUU suspended its services for the same unresolved issues in 1994 and 1996.”

He maintained that clearly strike action has not been able to do the magic of solving the problem of  the Gown and the Town which is the Government .

Ogbodo  during the lecture submitted that today strike action has become a defining feature of ASUU while Government itself has become reconditioned by that fact to always breach agreements it had signed with ASUU and then wait for the next strike action.

As a veteran Journalist he  recalled how he was invited to report a Meeting of all Nigerian Professors to solve this very problem scheduled to be held in the University of Benin at the instrumentality of Prof Ejovwo Ohwovoriole , the then Dean of Faculty of Engineering in the days of General Sani Abacha and how the meeting was aborted. He lamented that 30 years after that failed attempt to chart a new thinking, strike actions has not stopped and the solution has not come.

The Way Forward

In other words, ASUU as subordinates and ASUU as principals in government could  not get government to listen to it. Something must be wrong. Which other powers principalities that are required to balance the equation? And I can attempt to say wrong. The Gown needs more than cash to spread fully.  He  identified the major problem as lack of character. He said the Gown  needs character to excel . He stressed that Character and competence must combine in proportionate measures to create sustainable Value.Competence is the totality of the artistry, creativity and intellection that gives an Character is the spirituality to enforce competence in the right direction and for the overall good. Competence without character is evil ingenuity. All the issues in-between the Gown and the Town can be reduced to one Word which is Character.

He explained that when the opportunity to fix the issues in the Gown are presented, the character to act will be lacking.

He submitted that the Way Forward for the issues in between the Gown and the Town is very simple. It is, first to come to an agreement that the Gown has no higher space, except heaven, to escape into in search of solution. With this settled, what is left is the sincerity of purpose to separate movement from motion and light from heat. Development is deliberate; intentional so all hands must be on deck to salvage the Gown.

He gave example saying: ” Albert  Einstein for instance, stopped at where he thought, he should stop with his Theory  of Relativity. He did not know that, by merely establishing the connection between space and time subject to speed, he had laid the foundation for modern physics including quantum physics or mechanics, the application of which, seeks to marry mystery with science. The Gown and Town are two of a kind. They exercise infinite potentials. The former, from my narration, is never circumscribed in impossibilities. It only incubates explode in solutions. The latter, like earth, takes all the discharges arising from explosion. The so-called issues in-between them are part of the hurdles the Gown can clear on its path to meet the Town. Failure to achieve this is self indictment. That is, lack of character, he concluded.”

The  out going VC  Engr Prof Akpofure Rim- Rukeh,  the Chief celebrant, earlier in his welcome address thanked the Chairman of the occasion, Engr Alex Neyin, FNSE, the guest speaker, Mr Abraham Ogbodo Former Editor-in-Chief of Guardian Newspaper, the Vice Chancellor, Edwin Clark University, Prof. GG Darah, captains of industries and Professors from  different Universities for being part of the event .He acknowledged that the topic Gown and Town in Nigeria the issues in between is a fundamental subject matter because a robust relationship is needed for the efforts of the Gown to translate into positive result in the Town. He noted that the guest speaker from his intimidating  citation did  a very good job in his Presentation.

The chairman of the occasion Engr Alex Neyin FNSE in his goodwill address stated that good synergy between the Gown and the Town normally ensures that the Gown shuns out the people that can do the job in the Town. He expressed confidence in the well established culture of Petroleum Education in FUPRE. He remarked that the distance between the Gown and the Town is growing hence the topic is timely.The topic chosen for

discussion is Very timely because there are certain things that need to be re-jigged if we must catch up with the paste at which the rest of the world is developing. He said: ” Basically we are in the middle of water, at the same time suffering from drought. We have FUPRE but the impact is yet to yield the desired changes in the Community because of the issues in between, which is what has been discussed today. I have been to some of these lectures, but I found this one Very unique and informative.

He suggested that Patents should be channeled to people who can commercialize it and make it a productive