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Most of these advanced countries are advanced because the Government work closely with the academia in bringing solutions to national problems. In Nigeria, we have always believed that we lack this connection between Government and the expert in the academia and that since the Government does not consult the academia as it ought to, they have failed to make progress. But this is not true.
One of my senior friends Tigerwest Al Khalifa made an observation that the problem is not because there is a disconnection between Government and the academia. The problem is because there is actually a connection between Government and the academia. Nigeria is bad because the Government works and consults with members of the academia and not the other way round.
The other day I was at an academic conference organized by a certain economic society and after listening to some of the propositions contained in the papers presented by academic researchers and Professors, I felt more sorry for Nigeria.
The Nigerian academic Community is unfortunately dominated by quacks, substandard scholars and title-full but knowledge-less members. People who hustled to get degrees and attained titles with no real sound knowledge of their field of study. You will see professors with empty brains and PhD holding senior lecturers and researchers with no original ideas of their own. Scholars that are not “scholaring” anything. It is this same array of junks in the academia that the government has connected with.
You will find a professor of economics with over 200 copied and pasted publications. You will find so many arm chair researchers, those who rebrand student projects and publish to gain promotion or those who rose to professorship not because of what they know but because of their intense involvement in university politics. We have so many empty professors and scholars in the academic Community in Nigeria.
It is the same academic Community that Government has connected with and is working with and the results are there for everyone to see.
For People that say that Government don’t work with the academia, during Elections, is it not Professors that serve as returning officers ? First and foremost, the members of the academia play critical roles in bringing disastrous Leadership upon the people. Then take a look at some of these economic committees and super special advising councils that federal and state government have. You will find many high profile members of the academia there. There are many professors and PhD holders from the academia serving as cabinet members and even holding offices. What has been the result ? Disaster. Every time Government releases economic blueprints full of fantasies and sweet talks and oblivious of realities, if you check well, it is this same copy and paste members of the academia that were contracted to research these things. Look very well, the members of the academia are everywhere in government and are staunch allies and stakeholders of the anachronistic pattern of governance plaguing this country.
Some of these nonsensical policy ideas that Government churn out in this country are from members of the same
academic Community.
Aside working with Government, we have had members of the academia heading Government themselves. Ayade is a professor. Fayemi is a lecturer. Osibanjo is a professor. The list of members of the academia performing or that has performed woefully in government is endless.
Government is full of rot. The rot in Nigeria’s academia is another encyclopedia of its own. When rot connects with rot, the result is baje
Okay bye bye
Caleb Onyeabor is a Nigerian intellectual, an avid advocate for political justice, social justice, and economic justice. Author of Diary of a Messed Up country. Follow him on Twitter via twitter.com/caleb_onyeabor
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