There is no doubt that the level of thinking concentration required by nations in Africa to enable us compete squarely with developed nations should be more .
But it appears that we are tending towards fool hardiness in which we ( as dumping ground for all manner of imported goods ) believe that we are giants of Africa and are equal partners with our competitors.
The over-weening self importance of our university system in the hands of our academics, is preventing the system from bursting out of their cocoons towards thinking outside the box, in order to take the bull of development by its two horns.
Amid the crisis of overtopicalisation and over-centralisation plaguing the university system, our lecturers have, for instance, been unable to identify and examine the principles behind the creation of , for instance, the African Instituted churches to see the need for freeing our economy from the apron strings of over dependent on foreign goods .
In a chat with Mr Modupe Oduyoye, the philologist of our time , it was his contention that today's churches should be able to think outside their cocoons for an economic roadmap if African Instituted churches could survive during the world wars which saw white missionaries fleeing this land . Also, institutes of African studies should be committed to the Mbari culture in which African writers series of the days of yore continue to dwell on higher grounds .
Ofcourse, this could only be achieved whenever our university system think outside the box , allowing statesmanship within the four walls of the university to collaborate or co-respond with statesmanship outside of the ivory tower of the university walls.
As God doesn't put all wisdom in the basket of the university , but put some in the heads of the lowly who are intellectually minded , so also the university should not pretend to have monopoly of knowledge.
It is in the realisation of this fact which necessitates the university system to give medals or honorary doctorate degrees to geniuses and statesmen outside of the universities.
Indeed universities do not have all the lines of knowledge and are not the exclusive custodians of first class materials.
There are first class-honour products outside of the walls of university who level well with university dons.
In one of the Havard university's journals: "Dialogue " , a golden thought on the way forward from " Five crises of the World's universities " remarked thus :" Statemanship of the highest order, both in and out of the universities, will be necessary if they are to fulfill their historic mission in our new world."
This brings us to the point of right statemanship within and without university walls co-responding together.
Barely few weeks to the time Dr. Femi Adesina bowed out of office honourably as the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, he had begun to be vindicated.
Judging from comments now referring to the patriotic way in which he handled his immediate constituency ( the Press ) with fairness, not stifling press freedom in any way, even in spite of all vitriolic attacks on his Principal, it is certain that history has begun to absolve him.
In an open letter written to Bayo Onanuga by Richard Akinnola, he stated that it was remarkable that , Femi Adesina, as Special Adviser, Media and publicity to the President, did not petition against any media throughout his tenure.
As if to cap this view with a feather to his cap , Femi Adesina was honoured with a Doctorate degree in Strategic Management and Leadership Development by a United Kingdom based Institution of higher learning .
According to the Learn To Live Business School, United Kingdom, the Doctorate degree was conferred on him ( wait for it ) in recognition of his selfless service to Nigeria and his UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY ( emphasis in capital, mine ) and Commitment to President Muhammadu Buhari as well as his administration 2015/ 2023
But Farooq Kperogi does not think that Femi Adesina deserves being conferred with the doctorate degree.
If Femi Adesina, even before becoming the Special Adviser to the president, was the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of a successful newspaper, and former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors , is now being so honoured, it smacks of bad belle for anybody to think that he does not merit it .
If Femi's Professionally towering ( elephant) stature is being ( proverbially) described as a negligible creature who dashes across in the flash of lightning, then some motive outside of good intention must be accountable for such cynicism.
Also Segun Adams in his response to Femi Adesina's: parting valediction:"The Good in Goodbye " described him as the worst thing that ever happened to Nigeria's journalism , arguing that Femi was a disaster of monumental proportion.
But Brother Isaac's response to this was that he was yet to find a spokesman
for past Presidents who,while walking the tight rope, controverted the actions of his principal while in office.
I am also yet to find any past President without admirers, including most vilified Abacha and IBB.
So,Femi Adesina cannot definitely be the worst of the past spokesmen.
And as professionals, can we at least agree that there are two sides to every story?He posed.
As a veteran journalist and writing Prophetologist, it is not an empty boast for me to affirm here that I have since 1979 till date , correctly predicted the emergence of no fewer than ten Nigerian Heads of state/ Presidents before they were elected and sworn in.
In 2015 when the contest was between President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, my trance experience, based on the principles of jubilee of the period, gave electoral victory to Goodluck Jonathan.
I obliged Femi Adesina who was the the Managing Director of the Sun newspaper, a copy of the 2015 Yearly Revelation for consideration for publication. The revelation fell flat for the first time in many years .
Barely a year in office, I had reason to book for an appointment to interview the Special Adviser to the President at Aso Rock and rather than turning down my request, he obliged me and it was during the session that I knew his motive for leaving his lucrative job to serve the Buhari's administration.
" What is the driving force and motive behind your movement from newspapering to the Presidency and doesn't it prick your conscience, leaving the frontline, even at a time like this when you are most needed to prod the conscience of leaders to act for the good of the society ?" I asked him.
" There is just one basic thing that motivated me into leaving my job for public service. If it was not Muhammadu Buhari, I would never have served in the public service. I had said it before and I keep saying it .Nobody else would have brought me to serve in the public service except Muhammadu Buhari. In 2007, I remember a friend had asked me ; can you ever serve in government? I said never , I didn't give it a second thought. I said , never, I would never serve in government. Then I thought about it again for a few minutes and I added a proviso that, except if that government is headed by Muhammadu Buhari.
So the simple and singular reason that brought me into public service is the person of the President. I have always believed in him , I still believe in him and I would continue to believe in him. " Femi Adesina answered.
Conversely , one of the first lessons I went through in Journalism class in the 70s was that the Word is the number one Tool of the journalist . Probably because the coins around the period were potent means of financial transaction everywhere, my instructor used to say that the words like coins must continue to jingle in the pockets of the ideal journalist because he would need them for the construction of ideas, facts and opinions in every form.
Even with the effrontery by which we have replaced handling of coins in favour of crisp currency notes in our own part of the world, the word in the pocket dictionary of the journalist must still, for ever, be loaded while it must be effectively transferable from his diction of account , now that the marriage between the media and technology has shrunk distance into a global market of a world without walls.
For me now , that was a time when I was still a child . I did speak like a child, running with the idea that knowing everything grammatical about the word was all I needed to drive home my ideas . But as I continue to grow up gradually into the world of the veteran however, it is dawning on me that in the mastery of the art , knowing the Word is not enough but understanding the history, rudiments, radicality and rooted ness of the word, lest one ends up being superficial , with one's word falling down like a fence of toothpicks. What I am saying in essence is that the journalist cannot afford to treat the Word ( with temerity) like any other professional would want to treat it , even off-handedly .
In driving home my point on the need for our own society of Pen fraternity to avoid arbitrariness in the use of words , I have fallen in love with the thought of Confucius to the extent that I have had too many occasions in which I tend to have over quoted this Chinese Philosopher, Confucius, who said that one of the first things he would do if given the opportunity to rule the world would be to correct language.
" If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, what ought to be done would remain undone; and if what ought to be done remains undone , morals and arts would deteriorate, if morals and Arts deteriorate, justice will go astray ; if justice goes astray, the people would stand in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in whatever is said.This matters above everything. " He had remarked.
What does it mean to be loyal ?
What does it entail for Femi Adesina who did not disguise his belief in Muhammadu Buhari to be honoured with a doctoral degree, even in recognition of his selfless service and particularly his UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY and commitment to President Muhammadu Buhari ?
In Nigeria where the average Nigerian electorate does not know the significance of the word VOTE, with public office holders not understanding the implications of oath of office while clerics dont understand the sacredness of testimony, the likes of Farooq could continue to look askance at the rationale behind Adesina's honorary award for his loyalty.
It was the living legend and sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who once said :" If you dont trust him , don't engage him but if you engage him, don't doubt him ."
It would not be right for those who jumped into the trusted boat of Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, and who have now become wailers in 2023 (because they did so impetuosly) to look down on Femi Adesina who trusted and believed in Buhari out of conviction, and who till the time of leaving office understands what loyalty means .
It is a good horse that never stumbles and a good wife that never grumbles.
But against whom should be the laughter of the intellect ? Against the wailers or against the faithfuls?
With no doctorate to his name then , he understood what the word loyalty meant and till the time he left office, he didn't betray that loyalty. Dr Femi Adesina's loyalty is not an easy catch.
There is a whole lot of world of words which share same cognate family with the word :" loyalty " and which confers on it the picture of a vow of commitment that is binding .
Ordinarily, to be loyal is to be true and faithful to a cause or a person or government. A loyalist is faithful and true to a ruler and government especially during a revolt.
But faithfulness in loyalty is not seasonal as it is an obligation which is paid at all times because it wears the toga of law that is binding both at peace and crisis period. This obligatory feature of loyalty derives from its French root of legalis while its legality stems from the latin legalis. Where it becomes binding at all times shows in its form of a League, being a union for mutual help but which pursuit of common interest is like a band tying the cord of association together.
It is from this bound of unity in togetherness that the word takes its Latin root Legare ( which is to bind )
By this legacy from which the word loyalty Is bequeathed by will, ( taking the Latin root legare : a bequest,) it becomes an obligation which nature is like a vow ; a duty and a thraldom being a state of enthralment.
All of these make loyalty an oath or vow which share same cognate union with vote as both have the Latin root called votum.
It is this testament of faithfulness by which features, Femi Adesina becomes a testimony of a loyalist par excellence.
Testimony is a statement under oath or an affirmation. The word is formed from the Latin " testimonium; from testis; witness ; testis itself being a testicle.
Beyond this, testimony is therefore that which makes a man a witness to and in which ultimately ones spectatorship finally becomes the spectacle. As the change agent , one becomes the change one wants or expects in others ."
Let the golden words of
Fidel Castro, in his historic speech," HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE ME" serve Femi Adesina.
" To those who would call me a dreamer , I quote the words of Marti:
" A true man does not seek the path where advantage lies,but rather, the path where duty lies, and this is the only practical man, whose dream of today will be the law of tomorrow, because he who has looked back on the upheavals of history and has seen civilisation going up in flames, crying out in bloody struggle, throughout the centuries, knows the future well-being of man ,without exception, lies on the side of duty ."
Either you call him Doctor or not , Femi Adesina is one of the rare solid professional journalists you can wish for anywhere . Without being a university Professor, his testificatory standing is a veritable jus ubique docendi with the right to teach anywhere.
OLALERE FAGBOLA
