Nigerian universities and the noise of advancing ideas

THE father of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, was wrong when he wrote: “History is nothing but noise, noise of weapons and noise of advancing ideas.” It is ideas – opposing ideas – that spark wars. It is also ideas – government policies, military philosophies, strategic doctrines and tactical plans – that dictate the outcome of wars. So the sound of guns is only a semblance of the sound of advancing ideas. Therefore, history is nothing but noise, noise of advancing ideas. It is progressive ideas, especially conflicting, conflicting and competing ideas that have informed and shaped human history. As such, civilization began at the confluence of different ideas. In Cairo, for example, the hubbub of ideas from the interior of Africa (via the Nile), North Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East and Asia (via the Mediterranean) converged. The complementary, contradictory and warring noisy ideas in this convergence of disparate thoughts, habits and beliefs allowed it to flourish; civilization sprouted.

Unlike Sparta, which fell back into “agricultural seclusion and stagnation”, “Athens became a bustling market and port, a meeting place of many races of men of different cults and customs, whose contact and rivalry gave rise to comparison, analysis, and thought. It is not surprising that Athens became a hotbed of intellectual thought, philosophy, culture and literature. Like most countries that muffle the sound of advancing ideas, Nigeria is in the boondocks in every sense of the word. Nigerian society is tyrannical and repressive. protecting self-esteem and the follies of a privileged few, it suppresses dissent and freedom of expression, forcing the majority of Nigerians to vegetate in fear and embarrassment: trembling with fear of the police, soldier, landlord, pastor, etc. , And shrink like slaves in their own land.

The aim of a university education in Nigeria should be to free the students from the ignorance, shyness and diffidence that blight the lives of so many Nigerians. It should be to transform the trembling, submissive man, shrinking like a slave, into a proud and self-assured man, knowing that his individual rights and legal immunity from abuse by government officials are guaranteed by the Constitution, and that all institutions of government were designed and built purposely to serve him. That is to say, a university education, in addition to a chock-full of textbook knowledge, should produce self-assured and independent-minded young people who have been exorcised of diffidence, self-doubt and fear of the system. These can only be achieved in an environment of free thought and expression, which encourages alternative views and tolerates freethinkers, nonconformists and dissenters. Reprimanding and/or expelling a student, as at some church-owned universities, for not attending church services is the height of bigotry. It is a gross misinterpretation of the Bible by selfish preachers, and a throwback to medieval obscurantism. Medieval Christianity thickened and darkened the darkness of the Dark Ages, which enveloped Europe for many centuries. At the root of the Christian philosophy of that dark age was the misconception that only Christian teachings and knowledge about God and Jesus Christ, which prepared mankind for eternal life, were valid knowledge.

So that the vast amount of knowledge accumulated in the pre-Christian era by the Orient, Greeks and Romans was all pagan knowledge that had to be shielded or destroyed. It was a dangerously retrogressive view that resulted in despicable and abominable acts of obscurantism, such as the destruction, by Christian zealots, of the very best, most versatile library of the time, built by Alexander the Great in Alexandria, Egypt. The purpose of a university education is not to make men Christians, but to make Christians men. It is important to note that the first command God gave to man was not to be a Christian, fast, pray and worship Him, but “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue her: and rule over (her) ”. Effectively carrying out this crucial divine instruction requires the improvement and development of the mind, which is what sets man above other animals.

Education develops the mind, and an educated mind must inevitably be informed and free. An informed mind knows that God is too magnificent and indescribable. He is greater than all the religions of the world put together. It is therefore a fantastic absurdity for any religion to claim a monopoly on the true knowledge of God. Religious devotion should be left to the belief and prejudice of the individual. He should choose his religion, not by compulsion, but by conviction. Different individuals have found superior validity and/or spiritual fulfillment in different religions of the world. It is disturbing that Nigerian universities are gagging students and forcing them into conformity and orthodoxy. To curb immodest dress, some universities insist that their students adhere to certain dress codes, and others even require students to wear uniforms. And in many universities, students are forced to sign the “waiver form,” committing them to good behavior. In this context, what is good behavior but compliance and kowtow? The “indemnification form” and the wearing of uniforms are powerful instruments of enforced submission and passivity. If such Procrustean enforcement of “good conduct” continues unchallenged, our universities will in time degenerate into monasteries ruled by the cold severity and ruthless discipline of medieval abbots, where dissent and dissent are considered mortal sins, deserving of severe punishment.

For the good of this country, our universities must be the most vibrant, vociferous convergence of disparate advancing ideas. They should be bastions of intellectual ferment and freedom of expression; accommodating to all spectrums of human thoughts and beliefs; and the abodes of iconoclasts, renegades and even debauched; where students have the freedom to explore new lifestyles, attitudes and viewpoints. It is in such nodes of contact, comparison and contestation of diverse ideas that ideas and systems of knowledge are challenged and enriched. It is the flourishing and effervescence of enriched ideas that lift societies to the pinnacle of social, moral and political development.

• Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

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