Lecture Series, Carrot and Stick Approach: LASU Department of History and International Studies and the students
The History department is an embodiment of strategy,
which according to Professor Oluwatoki, "is an instrument of policy just
as war is a means to achieving political objective." Inarguably,
education is expensive everywhere in the world, especially university
education. What is common in universities is paying tuition fees, bills
and dues. Academic conferences, webinars, seminars, and several
orientating programs are important to the development of an institution.
They are important means of creating awareness about the university.
Thus, you find universities, like the Lagos State University, holding
academic programs, while inviting dignitaries and academic juggernauts.
At faculty and department levels, several programs were held at LASU,
covering a wide range of topics essential for national development.
One
of the foundation departments of the Lagos State University is the
department of History and International Studies. The department is
inarguably the face of the prestigious Faculty of Arts. Its lecturers
are indefatigable, academic wise. History students are best in times of
academic, politics, sports and other social activities. They, however,
find some of the Department's programs irrelevant. Not at undergraduate
level. On the other hand, our lecturers have a way of getting things
done. They know how to compel their students to their wish. Here is an
appreciation of some strategies employed by the history department over
time.
To start with, some students have not
realized that university education is expensive. Many a student believes
that Nigeria is running a free education system—even though that is not
deniable. Therefore, students find it difficult paying prodigious
tuition fee and unholy faculty and departmental dues. One of the dues
you cannot escape as a history student, in LASU, is exam dues. Much
cheaper than journal dues you pay almost annually. These dues are
burdensome and some students—being Nigerians—want to bypass them.
This
is why the department is so strategic. It attaches dues to critical
things such that it becomes impossible to write exams without fulfilling
payments. Receipts are attached to course registration which is
inevitable for examinations docket. Hence, you cannot access the exam
hall without the docket. The department is, however, to be appreciated
for abiding by the school rules and regulations. It does not compel its
students to buying course handouts and materials. Materials are
available in the school library.
The second and
most important aspect of this piece intended to appreciate the
intellectual programs held at the department. Empirical research reveals
that most of the lecture series in the Faculty of Arts between 2022
(when I became a student) and 2024 were held by the Department of
History and International Studies under the aegis of the university.
Distinguished among these lectures ensured the august appearance of an
academic giant, Professor Toyin Falola, first, on August 10, 2022, when
he delivered a lecture titled: "History and the Nation" (48-page essay).
He delivered another interesting lecture in October 2023, entitled,
“Beyond Sectarianism: Harnessing the Socio-religious and Political
Values for a Greater Nigeria”. Here is my review on the lecture. "A
Review of Toyin Falola's "Beyond Sectarianism: Harnessing the
Socio-religious and Political Values for a Greater Nigeria"" https://heartofarts.org/a-
The
department invited one Nigerian Army General in 2022 to deliver a
lecture—I remembered him debunking merging of history and international
relations as a course. It, also, hosted in January 2023, the Great
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Director-General of the Nigerian
Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and foreign minister. He
delivered a lecture on the Russian-Ukraine War entitled, "Competing
narratives on the Russian-Ukraine war’'. Not to talk of the discussions
on the Israeli-Gaza War held on the 26th of October, 2023. Apparently,
conferences and webinars are meant for human beings, for the students in
the department.
These activities are burdensome to the history
students. There is no time. Hours of classroom lectures are enough to
achieve brilliancy, many believed. Thus, it takes the department
adopting carrot and stick approach to get its students in attendance. My
fourth year as a student in the department rendered me a much
appreciation on the topic.
One of the strategies
to be noted is the compulsion on a written attendance. Students are told
to attend programs whose attendance would represent the continuous
assessment (C.A.) for some courses done for that semester. Failure to
attend the program, lecturers claim, would deprive much of student’s
C.A. Another strategy of note is asking students to submit assignments
at programs. Students are told beforehand that such an assignment takes
the bulk of their continuous assessment. Therefore, ambitious students
would not want to miss out on such opportunity. I remembered how I
regretted failing to submit one of such assignments despite attending
the so-called program.
I had to run to the Lecturer's office to lodge my
complaints. Surprisingly, however, some students did not attend these
programs, yet, they got away with it. The reason cannot be farfetched.
Students have realized the "authenticity" of those threats that the
department issues. One of my engagements with Dr Dapo Thomas has made me
realize that (even) in international politics, no state issues empty
threat—threat it cannot enforce—without losing its credibility. Everyone
is now wise! (Not even the Gen Z)
Yet, an
outlandish strategy was employed recently to compel the students to
attend the 95th Inaugural Lecture delivered by one of our distinguished
retiring lecturers, a professor of Social History, Professor Ezekiel O.
Adeoti, on the 16th of April. We were supposed to have one uncommon form
of exam that would require us to abandon (the whole) Faculty of Arts
for Education!. The unorthodox exam would also ensure that students
across all levels in the department be seated in 3-in-1 examination hall
at the Faculty of Education!. Innocent students, like me, could not have
imagined the rationale behind such convergence—perhaps because I had
not got any notification regarding the program slated to hold for that
afternoon.
While we were seated in the hall, I was hearing students of
the lower levels, saying there were no exams to be conducted. I didn't
want to listen such rumors. So, I continued revising what I had read,
while adjusting my I.D. Card and straightening my docket. Shortly, Mr.
Femi, a lecturer in the department, came and ordered that the 400 level
students followed him to the main auditorium, Buba Marwa. It was then
that I realized what was going on. It was a heartbreak! But my writing
materials were no longer with me for jotting's sake. However, those who
would not attend the program still, refused to do so—those who
understood the department more than I didn’t even bother leaving their hostel.
While
I was contemplating the strategy that the department had employed this
time, which I felt there was no need for, one of the department's
football striker, Ibrahim Chado, was quick to remind me "no be every
student be like you." I would have attended the lecture willingly.
Before the readership imagine my personality as "rich kid" because of my
position on the dues and other payments made to the Department (and the
university as a whole), I beg to present myself as one little boy of
the third class. Obviously, a book monger would not be writing such an
article during examination period.
I'm not a book monger. I get joy!
However, this article is to educate my fellow course mates and students
that there are values in attending university programs, especially those
insightful yet entertaining programs held by LASU Department of History
and International Studies. Attending departmental lectures would help
us familiarize with authorities on our field of study. We get to
appreciate contemporary and trending issues at the national level and
world stage.
I acknowledged the Department of
History and International Studies for all the wonderful and impactful lectures delivered so far, especially under the leadership of Professor
Adewunmi Falode. The April 16th experience exemplifies one of his
teachings on war. Professor Falode has reiterated the importance of
"initiative" and "timing" among the principles of war. No doubt, it
could only have been that strategy that have brought the “busy students”
to attend the inaugural lecture. It is not in my position to plead with
the department on reduction of dues. Ilu le! I understand, however,
that the department needs funding for survival. If the department must
continue with a carrot and stick approach, it will be encouraging if
rewards reflect on students' performance. We wish for more lecture
series going forward.
Abdulkabir Muhammed is of the Department of History and International Studies of the Lagos State University.
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