And Four Other Things...
You will never understand how overjoyed I was when I heard that the acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, paid an unscheduled visit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday. Not just that, he even inspected the Goddamned toilets, conveyor belt, travelator, escalator and carousel. Osinbajo expressed dissatisfaction with most of what he saw. I love that. We have been complaining about this intercontinental embarrassment for years but we were ignored. It appears the airport has been deliberately left to rot in order to market Nigeria as an unserious country. Yet we keep saying we want to promote tourism, trade and investment. Jokers.
Mr. Kola Awodein, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has admitted giving Justice Adeniyi Ademola, a judge now facing corruption trial, a “gift” of N500,000 for his daughter’s wedding. Judges are normally not expected to accept gifts from lawyers — neither are lawyers expected to give gifts to judges. But this case is particularly interesting because Ademola was handling a case involving Awodein’s client, President Muhammadu Buhari, at the time. The bigger problem, though, is that since many judges are on trial for receiving “gifts”, Nigerians will be watching how this particular case goes. One gift can certainly not be more equal than others. Intriguing.
The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) appears to be the first Nigerian public university to introduce student assessment of their teachers. UNN students will now grade their lecturers on the quality of instruction. The days of the “almighty lecturer” may be over — assuming the authorities will do something about teachers consistently rated poorly. It’s a common practice abroad. There is another practice I would want Nigerian universities to adopt: appointing two markers for every paper (preferably one male and one female). If both cannot agree on a grade, an external marker will make the final decision. The issue of sex-for-marks will be tackled forever. Innovative.
On a visit to Canada last year, I could not believe the pervasiveness of free WiFi in the country. Virtually every shopping mall, eatery and gas station made WiFi available at no cost. Someone once joked that WiFi should be a fundamental human right, and I’m beginning to toe that line too. It was gladdening to hear that Mavin Records founder Don Jazzy and technology company, Tsaboin, have launched Flobyt, a free WiFi service, in Nigeria. Mr. Dele Odufuye, Tsaboin MD/CEO, said the service has been installed across several locations in Lagos. The locations include eateries, parks, taxis, buses, restaurants, and cafés. This is really good news. Connecting!