By Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
The public lecture/heroes’ day of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which will be holding at the University of Jos (UniJos) will be having Prof. Olu Obafemi as the guest speaker.
Obafemi who is a Professor of English and Dramatic Literature as well as a renowned poet, playwright and author will be speaking on the topic: “Government’s Commitment Towards the Funding of Public Universities in Nigeria: the Past, the Present and the Future”.
In his remarks on the public lecture, the committee Convener, Prof. Jeff Doki, said the lecture is interventional in the sense that it is aimed principally at providing a direction for the future of tertiary education in Nigeria, and that their choice of the speaker, Prof Olu Obafemi, who is a great intellectual is apt and strategic.
Doki who is also the Head, Department of English in UniJos said for the past three decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the problem of tertiary education seriously, sincerely, honestly and honorably, and that from the 1990s to date, the rot in the university system has continued unabated.
Speaking on the guest speaker, Doki described Prof Obafemi as a detribalized Nigerian, a man who is very willing to tear down the veils behind which the truth is hidden and a man of power and ideas.
According to him, “In 2023, when he served as a member of the Re-negotiating team between ASUU and the FGN, he asked the Federal Government to tow the path of honor by finalizing the agreement it signed with ASUU in order to bring peace and industrial harmony on university campuses in Nigeria.
“Again, last year during a convocation lecture at the Federal University Lokoja, he decried a situation where the FGN allocates only 4% of its total budget to the education sector and called on the FGN to pay university staff their withheld salaries.
“Obafemi also told the FGN that the dissolution of University Councils is clearly against the spirit and ethos of university autonomy. This is an abundant testimony of the fact that Olu Obafemi is a comrade Professor.
“It is left to be said that Obafemi is a scholar with an unquenchable commitment for the emancipation of the poor and a distaste for the exploitation of one class by another especially in modern industrial capitalism.
“Obafemi represents the black radical’s anti-imperialist voice and tradition, he represents the black radical’s increasing commitment to justice, freedom and human rights, he represents the black radical’s revolutionary humanist political vision and theories of social change, ” Doki added.
