Research centres constitute the nerve centre of the university idea. This may not be the case only in certain parts of the world where the Federal Government which owns the universities have forgotten that universities without research centres have little or no significance. The research centre is the training ground for the kind of academics that can unsettle orthodoxy and get a society stirring. So, there may be no worse fate for a nation having numerous universities, almost none of which has but laughable budgets for research or budgets that speaks to dead research centres.
Even if reduced to him, there is certainly so much left to know about Mallam Aminu Kano, the late radical politician whose house was converted and named a research centre under the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano
It is in this light that there is something to celebrate in the appointment of a new Director for the Bayero University, Kano based Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, aka Mambayya House. It is not only that a new Director has been appointed in the person of a rising Political Scientist, Prof Habu Mohammed, it is also that Habu Mohammed is taking over from the sixth Director, Prof. Ismaila Mohammed Zango, under whom the centre has been active. Active here is defined in terms of providing a platform for articulation of competing positions on issues of the day, publications and training activities as have been reported in the media. The Centre has had a lot of programs.
What that suggests is that, even as bad as things are for the universities across Nigeria, there are certain spots that have managed to keep their heads above the sinking scale. And the Aminu Kano Centre is one of them.
As much as we strive to do away with disciplinary chauvinism, (I am an Economist, I am a Historian, I am from International Relations and all those superfluous distinctions when, in fact, knowledge is one), it still makes sense to point out the significance of a Political Scientist taking over at this time. One of the fundamental defects of the university system in Nigeria is the near absence of ‘African Political Thought’. A course unit by that name may be found in the curriculum but they are so badly framed or situated in most cases as to be a complete contrast of the rubric of Continental Philosophy in Europe, for example. It is not surprising most of the graduates come out very flat in their analysis of the African world and without which they, like their elders, are substantially caricatures of their Others. It is such a pity! The Director of Mambayya House is not the Director of Academic Planning of the mother university but the researchers working under him at the centre are the ones who will define and deliver whatever course units exist. So, he matters in this matter.
Host of a recent Summer program
Another realm of chauvinism Intervention will celebrate in the appointment of Prof Habu is that, for the first time, a Kano born Director is going to run the affairs of the Centre. Here, we shall be watching out how Mr. Director will leverage on his local/Kano network in networking Mambayya House into the global academic circuit. The assumption here which doesn’t necessarily follow but is no less important is that a ‘shon of the soil’ might be able to go beyond the radius of formality in generating not just extra cash but in harnessing local data and indigenous knowledge production criteria in the age of interpretive social science. Of course, no local knowledge production criteria will make any difference until Nigeria takes epistemology more seriously beyond the dominant stuff currently dished out to ‘mummy/daddy’ minded undergraduates, still uncovering local knowledge criteria is compelling.
Recently, Intervention paid a lot of attention to a Summer program that took place at the Obafemi Awolowo University at Ile-Ife. It is gratifying that something interesting is coming up at another corner of the country. And there are several others, all pointing at how easy it would be to revive the university idea in Nigeria. Pumping some billions is part of that process but just one of the three things that MUST be done immediately. Some people would argue that after a pay structure that is inherently incentivizing is in place, (something the FG does not need an ASUU strike or any reminder whatsoever before doing it), the next thing is taking another look at what we offer as ‘Philosophy of the (Social) Sciences’ in Nigerian universities today. Without that, it would even be difficult to situate Aminu Kano, for example, in the debate on democracy.
What it all means is that Bayero University, Kano; its Vice Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas and Prof. Habu Mohammed as well as Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, (Mambayya House) are under scrutiny in the academic world, perhaps more than before.
