“Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance”. Max Weber, 1864-1920.

It’s again, one of those sad weeks in Nigeria, when tragedy struck and coloured the already melancholic landscape of our lives. The true nature of tragedy is that it is always that quiet, preventable death at an obscure bend in the road. The killing last week of novelist, scholar, and labor activist, Festus Iyayi is that kind of tragedy: his death is a totally needless and preventable death. If he had not been compelled to rush off to Kano to sign-off on the final negotiations between the Federal government and the striking union of Nigerian University professors, perhaps he’d still be alive today in Benin city.

Professor Festus Iyayi, erudite scholar and literary giant is gone forever; courtesy of the convoy of the Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada. The University of Benin Don was killed last Tuesday when a vehicle in the convoy of the governor collided with the one conveying Iyayi and some other delegates to attend ASUU’s National Executive Committee meeting in Kano.

The title of our discourse today is cloned from Walter Rodney’s incisive critique of the brazen exploitation of Africa by European powers entitled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. But despite huge differences in the content of Rodney’s work and our analysis, there is a fundamental intersection: just as the developmental trajectory of Africa was adversely affected by contact with Europe, quality education in Nigeria’s public universities is steadily being eroded as a result of unwholesome attitude to work by an increasing numbers of university teachers.

Last week was not a particularly great week. Monday began with a first appointment at a morgue. I was there to support a younger sister who had the grim task of collecting the body of her 30 year old brother. In between filling forms and fulfilling all protocols, tempers flared and emotions raged but nothing could distract from the fact that the sky was falling.