Shake it up, Shekarau!

If brilliance and intelligence were to be factors that guarantee winning elections in Nigeria, the former Governor of Kano State and new Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, would have been the President of Nigeria.
This is because many Nigerians were outright overwhelmed by the brilliance and oratorical prowess of the new Minister when he participated in the Presidential Debate organised by NN24, an international cable television station, for the aspirants competing in the April 19 2011 presidential elections. The debate held on March 18, 2011 at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
As the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Mallam Shekarau featured at the debate with the presidential candidates of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Even before the organisers declared him winner, everyone knew that Shekarau’s performance was stellar for which he deserved gold.
He was also declared winner at another debate, a youth-themed version, hosted by the notable writer, Chimamanda Adichie, at the Abuja studio of Channels television around the same time. That was how many Nigerians came to respect the Governor who many seemed to misunderstand then for delivering on his promises to his people of Kano State.
Now, though few people fancy the politics of Shekarau and the ideological vacuity underpinning it, his appointment as Education Minister is a welcome development, a round peg in a round hole. A former teacher and school principal, indeed the principal of school principals in Nigeria, Mallam Shekarau has the pedigree and the clout to restore peace to our troubled education sector.
While swearing in Shekarau and other new Ministers last Wednesday (July 9, 2014), President Goodluck Jonathan gave them a good charge. The charge was spot on especially in the context of the then ongoing international football competition in Brazil. President Jonathan said in a football match, “when you get to the injury time and a player is brought in you expect goals. This government has less than a year to go and you have been brought in this time, so you know the reason why you have been brought in”.
With the speed that would be reminiscent of the dramatic encounter between Germany and Brazil in the just concluded World Cup, hardly had the game begun than Minister Shekarau started to score goals. With a stroke of the hand, the embarrassingly long strike of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) was suspended after a meeting he had with its leadership on Thursday, barely few hours after he was sworn in. The strike was suspended last Saturday.
It was a good score or a Win-Win for both ASUP and Shekarau. For ASUP, the strike was getting to the boiling point of non-popularity as we read every now and then of polytechnics jumping out of the strike. It was almost becoming a forgotten strike as business continued as usual and Government is pre-occupied with politics and insecurity on the one hand and the politics of insecurity and insecurity of politics on the other.
It was very good and strategic of ASUP leaders to have taken advantage of the Minister’s olive branch. Without that, the leadership and the strike were headed for disaster due to lack of public support. I had written here, in solidarity with the polytechnic lecturers on May 7, 2014 in the article, “Is ASUP in soup?”, but noted at the same time that “the attitude of the public to them is OYO (‘On Your Own’)”.
For the Minister, it is an indication that he probably has the magic wand to cure the ills bedeviling our critical education sector. That singular achievement has boosted his image and he has all the support of the stakeholders as he begins his assignment. He should therefore not allow the confidence reposed in him by the President and the lecturers to be misplaced. He should hit the ground running by shaking the system up fast.
The education

About the Author

Aptly described by the Independent newspaper as “a man of many parts”, Prof. Mahfouz A. Adedimeji is a Fulbright scholar, interdisciplinary researcher, university don, public affairs analyst, communication consultant, peace advocate, interfaith worker and public intellectual. He obtained his academic degrees from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, where he was a Professor of English (Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics) before his appointment as Vice Chancellor as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ahman Patigi, Nigeria, in February 2021. He started his academic career in 2000 at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, shortly after which he joined the services of his alma mater, the University of Ilorin. A man of eclectic academic background, Prof. Adedimeji was educated in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Markaz Shabaabil Islam, Iwo, Osun State and Markaz Ta’aleemil Araby, Agege, Lagos. He obtained advanced training in Education, Political Science, Communication and Media, Research and Peace Studies at the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Virtual Institute for Higher Education Pedagogy (VIHEP); the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa (VIHEAF); Governors State University, University Park, Illinois, USA; University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, USA. Apart from serving as a cultural ambassador to the US under the auspices of the Institute of International Education (IIE), New York, Prof. Adedimeji had won or co-won the research and conference awards/grants of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) of the National Research Council, Nigeria, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). He has written extensively for a wide range of newspapers and periodicals including “Unilorin Bulletin”, “Unilorin Watch”, “DeLight”, “National Pilot”, “Daily Independent”, “Daily Newswatch”, “New York Parrot” and “New Telegraph”, among others. A versatile academic and award-winning scholar, Prof. Adedimeji has attended academic conferences and undertaken research in several universities across Nigeria as well as in Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Australia, France and United States of America, among others. His hundreds of academic, Islamic and general/opinion articles have been published across outlets in Nigeria and beyond. He has also facilitated and participated in seminars and workshops both nationally and internationally. A former Head of the Directorate of Corporate Affairs of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Adedimeji was the Director of the Centre for Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, between 2013 and 2017. Apart from serving as Rapporteur-General to the Presidential Committee that organised the 2017 Federal Executive Council’s Retreat on Education in Nigeria, he has consulted for the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence and Corps (NSCDC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For years, he was a Coordinator and Facilitator of the Executive Management Course of the Nigerian Army Education Corps (NAEC) and Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Peace, Security and Development”, University of Ilorin. He has also served as a resource person to agencies like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Institute for Security Studies as well as a number of Civil Society Organisations. He is a recipient of several awards and honours including those of the International Chartered World Learned Society, American Biographical Institute, National Congress of Nigerian Students (NACONS), Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ilorin, the Nigerian Army Education Corps, Postgraduate Students Association, UNILORIN, Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), UNILORIN, Students’ Union, UNILORIN, and National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), just to mention a few. A Fellow of bodies like the International Association of Research Scholars and Administrators (FIARSA), Institute of Corporate Administration, Nigeria, (FICAN), Society for Peace Studies and Practice (fspsp) and World Institute for Peace (FWIP) , Prof. Adedimeji is a former Member of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and until recently a Member of the Executive Council of the English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Research in Pragmatics, journal of the Pragmatics Association of Nigeria (PrAN) and ANUJAT, an international multidisciplinary journal of the All Nations University, Koforidua, Ghana. He has about 15 books to his credit as author, co-author, editor and co-editor.