By Mohammed Jibo Imran
On Saturday, December 12, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari
shocked the Nigeria ’s
academic community when he went to Kaduna
State University ,
KASU and received an honorary doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) barely seven
months after his inauguration.
*President Buhari displays his award certificate
On the surface of it, one would be tempted to ask: is the president
being honoured for his records of yesteryears or is he being honoured for his
performance in the last seven month? If it is for his past records, the natural
question is why now and why by KASU? That university existed for over a decade,
why didn’t they honour Muhammadu Buhari last year or five years ago? If the
honour is as a result of his present assignment, what has he done this far to
earn him a honoris causa? Isn’t it a case of moral corruption for a serving
president, who has a lot of favours to dish out, accept to receive an
undeserved honorary doctorate degree from a state university whose vice
chancellor was, in the last six months, queried by the Visitor to the
University about three times?
Is it the case that, after the KASU formula, that
the president will not attend the convocation ceremony of any university unless
that university include the president as one its recipients of honorary
doctorate degree. How not, since over a dozen universities have held their
convocation ceremonies since the coming of PMB to office and he attended none,
it is therefore safe to assume that his failure to attend was because they have
not honoured him with a degree. These include the University
of Ibadan , University
of Benin , Obafemi
Awolowo University ,
Federal University Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
University , etc. And none
of them received the respect of the presence of the president. Now that KASU
has shown the way, any university that wants the president to attend its
convocation should simply include the president in the list of the recipients
of its honoris causa. They are sure to have the president coming in person to
be decorated.
The
question is where is the shock? The president action is shocking for three
reasons. First, his receiving an honorary doctorate degree, from any Nigerian
University, while holding and elected public office is immoral, illegal and a
crass violation of the existing regulation guiding the award of honoris causa
in Nigeria’s University System. Section 2.0 subsection (a) of the famous Keffi
Declaration which was enacted on the 24th September, 2012 by the Association of
Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) stated that:
“AVCNU
member-universities hereby make it a policy not to honour with honorary degree
anybody holding political office (elected or appointed) while such officers are
still in service.”
President Buhari violated this rule and the president is an honourable man, apology to Shakespeare in his histo-drama book, Julius Caeser.
In 2012, worried by the spate of irregularities and the erosion of academic culture and university tradition especially in the indiscriminate award of honorary degrees in the university system, the vice chancellors of Nigeria’s federal, state and private universities met at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi and resolved, collectively, that the age-long best practices of university culture be restored and maintained. It was the case that politicians, public office holders and all manner of money-bags and favour-flaunters will be conniving with governing councils, vice chancellors or visitors to state universities all in the bid to cajole or hoodwink the university into awarding an undeserving honorary degree. It was so rampant that the credibility of any honoris causa by any Nigerian university was suspect. TheNigeria ’s
academic community was relieved when the Keffi Declaration on “Sustaining
Academic Tradition in Nigerian Universities, Including Guidelines for the Award
of Honorary Degrees” was made. It was even more refreshing seeing that all the
federal universities, all the state universities and all the private
universities at that time have signed the declaration.
President Buhari violated this rule and the president is an honourable man, apology to Shakespeare in his histo-drama book, Julius Caeser.
In 2012, worried by the spate of irregularities and the erosion of academic culture and university tradition especially in the indiscriminate award of honorary degrees in the university system, the vice chancellors of Nigeria’s federal, state and private universities met at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi and resolved, collectively, that the age-long best practices of university culture be restored and maintained. It was the case that politicians, public office holders and all manner of money-bags and favour-flaunters will be conniving with governing councils, vice chancellors or visitors to state universities all in the bid to cajole or hoodwink the university into awarding an undeserving honorary degree. It was so rampant that the credibility of any honoris causa by any Nigerian university was suspect. The
But the
action of President Buhari of accepting honoris causa, in complete violation of
the Keffi Declaration, has done one of the greatest damages to the university
system since the enactment of the declaration in 2012. The president has just
killed the Keffi Declaration and therefore open the floodgate of irregularities
and moral corruption in the award of honorary degrees. Will the president
refuse to accept another honoris causas from other universities? No. All the
remaining 140 universities will now line up with their ceremonial academic
robes ready to decorate the president with honorary degrees. It will be a moral
dilemma for the president to refuse to accept after receiving one from a
sister-university. And not only that, the president cannot stop his cabinet
members, other public officer holders, and including civil servants from
haggling-and-bargaining to ‘buy’ honorary degrees and even stand on the same
podium with the president to be decorated. The era of immoral impunity in the
award of honoris causa has effectively returned. And it was declared open by
the action of Mr President.
Second,
and even more disturbing is the fact that Kaduna State
University is not competent
to award honorary doctorate degree to anybody. Information available on the
National Universities Commission website indicates that there are only 22 out
of 40 state universities with approval to run masters and PhD programs. KASU is
not one them. How can you have an honorary doctorate graduands when you don’t
have the regular program with regular students pursuing doctorate studies? More
so, the Keffi Declaration, section 2.0 subsection (e) stated explicitly that:
“A
university shall not award honorary degrees if it has not graduated any PhD or
has no postgraduate school or program”
Because the president is an honourable man, I dare say that his idea of change is about changing the rule, it will be safe to say that he received a 419 degree that is not recognised by the NUC, a government institution under his watch.
Because the president is an honourable man, I dare say that his idea of change is about changing the rule, it will be safe to say that he received a 419 degree that is not recognised by the NUC, a government institution under his watch.
The
question is how many people graduated with PhDs at the 12th December
convocation when President Buhari was decorated by KASU? Have KASU ever
graduate a PhD since its establishment? When did they get the approval from the
NUC to commence the PhD program? How could KASU award what it does not have?
Why should NUC keep mute at this illegality and gross abuse of regulation? If
the information they published in their website is correct, why should they
allow KASU to award illegal honorary degree even to the resident of the
Federation? It is amazing how politicians are always at the forefront of
rubbishing our academic traditions and values.
It is very
clear that the Visitor to KASU who is the Governor of Kaduna State is at the
forefront of this manipulative scheme to rubbish the university system and
smear the good name of the president of the country. Or why did he dissolved
the governing council of the university simply because they allegedly drew his
attention to the illegality and immorality of awarding honoris causa to a
serving elected public officer? And the VC who was appointed by Governor Yakowa
was rattled to his nerves with an array of queries to get him to accept
political interference in the running of the university. How else, given the
fact that section 2.0 subsection (c) of the Keffi Declaration states, in parts,
that:
“…the
award of honorary degree shall not be tied to wealth consideration or political
alignment…”
Who will doubt that after sacking the governing council and sufficiently intimidating the vice chancellor of the university, the APC governor as the visitor to the university, is not bullying his way into forcing the university to award illegal degrees to an APC President and a business mogul exclusively for political and material reasons?
Who will doubt that after sacking the governing council and sufficiently intimidating the vice chancellor of the university, the APC governor as the visitor to the university, is not bullying his way into forcing the university to award illegal degrees to an APC President and a business mogul exclusively for political and material reasons?
My third
reason is even more scary. Is the Minister of Education so incompetent as not
to draw the attention of the President to all these violations? Why wouldn’t
the minister of education draw the attention of the president to the
Keffi Declaration? And to the NUC guidelines on approved universities with
graduate courses? Or better still shouldn’t the honourable minister make the
moral common sense argument of not accepting a gift from an institution under
ones superintendence? Or is it the case that the president, who ruled the
country for over three months without ministers, is still living with that
hang-over and is taking decisions without consulting the relevant ministers? If
the minister of education is kept in the dark on the KASU honoris causa
brouhaha, then our country is in trouble. It means the president will be
relying on informal and unofficial (most of the time, misleading) suggestions
to run the country. If the minister is in the picture and his opinion sought by
the president and he misled the president into going to accept and illegal
honorary degree, then some punitive action must be meted on the minister. If on
the other hand, the minister was consulted and he advised the president against
accepting the illegal degree and his advice was jettisoned by the president,
then something is fundamental wrong – it means there is a crisis of confidence
between the president and his ministers. And the earlier that crisis is
resolved the better for our country.It is important to note that PDP, in spite of its numerous ills had adhered to
the Keffi Declaration. Former president Goodluck Jonathan, to his credit – (oh
God, remembering PDP and Jonathan again) withstood all the pressures and
declined many of such offers.
For me,
President Muhammadu Buhari can still save the Keffi Declaration, save himself
from further embarrassment and save the university system in this regard by
doing two things: one, cause his handlers to issue a public statement returning
the illegal and undeserved honorary degree back to the awarding university and
stating his commitment to respect and protect the Keffi declaration; two,
investigate and punish any persons that have hands in misleading him into this
embarrassing misstep. Fighting corruption is not just about stolen wealth. It
is about respect for regulations. It is about staying on the moral
high-grounds. Over to you “Sai Mai
Gaskiya.”
Dr. Mohammed Jibo Imran
Santa Clara County
City ofSan Jose ,
CA
Dr. Mohammed Jibo Imran
Santa Clara County
City of
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