In
mod I
According to the Igeri n
Unive Hie Commi ion,
unive lty development in
Nigeria, although vigoro , i
till rei tively young.
I ge I dal b conly
to 1948, when th Unive ity
College t Ibadan w e tab­
U hed n affili te of the
University of London.
Today, with the exception
of a few State universitie , all
of the universiti in Nigeri
are federally owned and
financed.
The unive ity/govern­
ment relationship·I chan­
neled through the National
Unive ities Commi ion, an
independent body first et up
in 1962.
BY STATUTE, the NUC
is responsible for the coor­
dination, financing, and over­
all development of the
Nigerian University Sy tem.
The commission occupies
the position of advisor and
mediator between the politi­
cal authority and the various
cademic institutions.
. In this way, traditional
universities' autonomy may
be preserved within a
framework that ensure or­
derly and balanced develop­
ment, while avoiding
unnece ary duplication.
Since the achievement of
independence hi 1960, the
number of universities in �
Nigeria has increased from a
mere two to over twenty, of
which the vast majority are
federally owned.
Student enrollment
jumped from 1,400 to more
than 100,000 during the mid-
198<M.
HILTON: HIGHER
EDUCATION is designed to
encourage dialogue with col- .
lege and world readers.
Education is ongoing and
certainly not limited to class­
room study. Let's talk: (714)
899-0650.
CURRENT development
plans emphasize the need to
provide more engineers and
scientists for Nigerian in­
�ustry.
To this end, many more
Federal Universities of Tech­
nology are scheduled to begin
operations in the coming
years.
The positive role which
higher education could play
in furthering Nigerian and
Pan African consciousness
and prosperity is broadly
recognized.
Some leading Pan
Africanists have even gone so
far as to say that "what South
Africa (Azanla) is to
Southern African, Nigeria
could be to the entire con­
tinent."
Accordingl y, there. is
every reason to believe that
continued expansion and
development of higher
education will remain a
priority of Nigerian policy for
the foreseeable future.
INTmS REGARD, most
of the states plan to establish
universities of their own, and
the following states have al­
ready begun running their
own universities: Irno,Ondo,
Anambra, Rivers and Bendel,
Kwara, Lagos and Ogun.
HILTON: HIGHER
EDUCATION would ·like to
hear from Nigerians and
others Continental Africans
studying in the States regard­
ing this article or abo�t
educational developments in
their respective countries.
ADVERTISE
VIEWS OPINIONS
co ntry, common
,ntaDdiJ:lR bout the prlncipl
d uman elopme
........... __ ,_ the raiDbo 0 cultural
and ioeconomic dive ty. to, the
if e ch Ilen ed the idea that 1DAt1D.1L the
virtually all corporate, polltlcal, 1 r rid.
educational and cultural leademhip To dream 0 freedom and equality
hould be selected from hite forallAmeri i peer bove the
middle-to-upper cl ? horizon, beyond the rbitr ry
What if e a broad pectrum boundari hieb restrict our true
of people reflectin al, gender, potential, and our c pacity for
and cl difference in the top creativity.
dmini tr ti ve, managerial and
cultural pos of the nation?
What if we cd the full po er of
government to provide the c
human need -univenal health
care, decent helter, quality
educauon for our children, improved
public transportation facillti , and
the right to a job-for every dtizen?
i UIUlCC.
They are the millio 0 omen
ho accept in ilence sexual
ment t pi 0 employment
for fear of 1 ing their jo during an
economic reees ion.
This' the landscape of humanity ,
its fears and frustratio i hopes for
better life. American demoaacy is
an unfinished project, and i central
creative power is found in the talent
nd energies of i people. Yet
millions of American find
themselv divorced from the reality
of equ I opportunity, and the
TO REVITAUZE our citi , to
put people back to work, to improve
the quality of our children'
education, e d perately need a
DC vision of what democracy could
be. We m t mov beyond partisan
parties and the idea that elections
will solve everything. Democracy
-
country,
people.
We nee a ne definition of
"politics" for ne democr tic
ociety.
Dr. Manning Marable is
Professor of PoliJical Sciena and
History, University 0/ Colorado,
BoulMr. "Along 1M Color LiM"
appears in over 220 publications
inkmationally and is broadcast by
over 50 radio stations throughout
NorthA1Mrica.
"Law" that switches
from ces« to case
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
There is a legal concept called
"Stare Decisis" with which all
lawyers and law students are
familiar, meaning to abide by, or ad­
here to, decided cases.
Such a concept allows people to
know what the law is, and frowns
apinst changes. froQl case to case,
from year to year. It is a concept fast
fading from modem-day law, as
demostratcd by the tarkly rightward
tilt of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Recently, another court has
joined the wave or reaction.
Dhoruba bin .. Wahad, everal
decades ago a member of the famed
Black Panther 21, spent 19 years in
NY State gulaps after a dubious trial
peppered with official lies, rigged
witnesse and ,officially sanctioned
innuendos, on attempted murder
charges.
In March 1990 a State Supreme
Court ju nee freed bin-Wahad,
based art upon undeniable violations
oflong- tanding law uncovered after
years of pains taking review of FBI
FOIA files, record from the in­
Camo COINTELPRO (counterin­
telUgence program) documents, data
on government dirty tricks against
prime Black activists from the
-19701, such as bin- Wahad.
THESE ARE THE people who
lack adequate belter, who leep in
READERS WRITE
c
ONCE FREE, TIlE energetic,
principled, loquacious rebel hit the
ground running, peaking at radIcal
and student venues from Brooklyn to
Berlin on behalf of the plight of
Black politicat prisoners and the
youthful resurgence of Black
Nadonallsm.
As can be umed, this did not it
with the state. It appealed, and in
Dec. 1991 the tate' highest Court
of Appeals its extraordinary
ruling.
Tbc Court, voting 4-3, announced
Recently we read where L. Broo Pattemon had
written the following in his weekly column in the
Surburban Sunday newsp per " ..• let half of Detroit
kill the other half and then put the urvlving half in
prison. .• "
We thought about that statement a moment or so,
then concluded if in fact that did occur, a large number
of white b i ould lose a big chunk of their
take-home pay and Michigan's sinking economy
would suffer a cardiac arrest. Here's why:
The Michigan State Lottery probably would go out
of business - simply became it's Black Detroiters
who contribute the most money to that pot. Sorry,
Chuck & Aggie.
Michigan car insurance companies would stand to
1 an astronomical amount of money. Why? No
more Black Detroiters to charge higher rate to, based
solely on the fact that they live in Detroit.
higher volume of monthly sales than many of their
suburban stores. No more Black Detroit customers .
White construction firms no longer would receive
lucrative contracts in Black Detroit to bulld new
buildings for Blae ; churches for Blacks and do tree
planting and landscaping along Detroit' Black busi­
ness striPl. And Mr. Belveroere would cease to -do
good work" for BI ck Detroiters."
F: ther Cunningham and Focus Hope would have
to close up bop without more needy Black Detroiters
to prome, thereby guaranteeing his orpnlzatlon huge
government grants and private fundinp.
THE SALVATION ARMY would be required
by the federal government to return tbe $1 million sent
to them recently to provide for Black Detroit's bome­
less. There would be no more BI ck homeless people.
The Detroit News and Detroit Free Preu would
fold. Why? No more Black Detroiters to bash on a
daily basIs, which would cause them to Jose ·their
faithful suburban readership.
Neighborhood stores like Farmers Market on
Uvernois would have to padlock their door forever
- no more Black Detroiters to peddle theirsdnty and
stolen meat to.
L. Brooks Patterson would have to Ond another
ethnic group to �m his AK-47 rifle at.
Researched and drafted by: Peggy A. Moort!,
Detroit Black Writers Guild/Tlaonuu E. Pettigrew,
West Warren Merchants/Michael Richardsoll,
Childrens Crusae
MICmGANBANKS would certainly lose a huge
portion of their "glut profits" that they realize from
those hidden charges that are assessed to most Black
Detrolters' accounts.
White book publishers who wouldn't let their
children be caught dead in a Detroit Public School
find it easy to peddle their books to ourscbools simply
by taking certain School Board Members to lunch.
This pracdce would cease to exist, causing white
publishing firms to lose J;Dlllions of dollars annually.
Suburban malls would lose up to one-half of all
their sales, because its a proven fact that half of all
suburban mall sboppers are from Black Detroit.
A & P/Farmer Jack would have to close all their
remaining Detroit stores - even though we know of
at least one Detroit store that continues to report a
P.eggy A. Moor.
Detroit, MI
My people I am crying out for you:
of creation, study his history as a
human being. and in the process,
discover the pattern which dignify
and make him what he is.
Their responslblllty is to help
the people to see themselves in the
light, to see themselves not
primarily as victims of American
but as cocreators of the present and
the future home's, communitys,
and cities. Because we the people
have suffer enough.
We must start in our schools.
The teachers must teach our
peoples to know ourselves as
human being, know ourselve as
tribes "dealing with our
forefathers," as spiritual being.
Because we know of the
Prophet Noble Drew Ali said: we
need to . learn, be the development
of consciousne , by �ginning to
study themselves, study all the rest
We have to stop hating and start
loving again instead of facing up to
our. responsibility and killing our­
selves with drugs, alcohol,
pleasure, and many other ways.
I know we all are tired of read­
ing and hearing about another life
being taken by another in our com­
munity. Doesn't that hurt? I feel
that the primary responsibility
must change and we as the people
of our community can't afford this
and we must go back to our normal
wayofUfe.
My deepest conviction is that
there will be no future for
American society if we don't take
to heart the wisdom, the insight,
the history, and the vision of our
forefathers. And the source of
tbeir great peril to their spirit, their
work, and 4 their souls. So there­
fore, we must hake off the hurry
darkness in which we were
plunged and leave it behind. Be­
cause the new day, the Ught which
is already at hand.
WHEN WE ARE taught these
things then we become truly edu­
cated rather than mi educated.
Then we as a people have turn a
new page and a part of.this govern­
ing structures and we have a new
society in the community.
With new concepts and set
afoot a woman and a new man on
the seven day and seven year.
Love, truth, peace, freedom and
jmtice.
Bro. R. Jack.on Bey Ia.aml
THE RESPONSIBILITY is
in the hands of the churche , and
our Black scholars is to help
remind themselve and the com­
munity that t�y have constantly
moved through darkness to light,
constantly moved through pain to
healing so those who are preachers
and scholars in our community is
to speak the truth, to teach the
truth, and most important of all, to
seek to the living one under­
standing of the truth.
the case underlying bin-Wahad'
reversals, People v. Rosario (1961)
was to be "narrowed," and that the
state's hiding of evidence favorable
to the ccused was no longer tbe
basis for per se reversal of convic­
tions.
In so doing. the Appeals Court ,
overruled the lower court's Order
freeing bin-Wahad, and sent the case ·
back for re-beanng in the Supreme
(trail-level) Court.
For exactly 30 years, People v.
Rosario was the law of NY State, but
when bin- Wahad proved it violated,
the state's highest court reacted by
changlng the law.
JUDGE VITO Titone, one of the
3 dissenters, wrote tellingly of the
effect of the Court's ruling in People
v. Bin-Wahad:
"After reading the majority'
opinion, one is leCt with the lmpres- .
sion that rules of law are merely mat- .­
ters of policy preference to be -
invoked, modified orsimply ignored
when their consequences are ... in­
convenient or undesirable."
Much the same could be said of .
courts around the country, who util­
ize the so-called laws as tool for
polidcal ends.
For bin- Wahad, the wretched ex
po t facto revision of long-settled
law is no philosophical ue, but the
continued expres ion of the same
"law" that coraigned his forefathers
to cent wi of unpaid toll, and stole
almost 20 years from a life rich with
promise, by consigning his flesh to .
New York' mo t infamous hell­
hole on a bogus conviction that wu
as unlawful then as it i now.
The cruel pounding of the judicial
gavel in People v. Bin- Wahad
ounds suspiciously like the soul­
crushing clang of a cell door lam­
mingshut.
•
,
j