Tuesday, February 19, 2008
University of Kansas students aren’t officially allowed to study abroad in Nigeria.
Garth Myers, director of the Department of African and African American Studies, hopes that might soon change.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Nigeria in November 2007, and it’s against University policy to send students to countries with travel warnings.
But with political and civic leaders from Nigeria visiting this week, Myers said he hopes students realize that parts of the country are completely peaceful.
“It’s a huge country, and it’s a federal republic, and I think over the course of time, hopefully the whole country will settle down,” Myers said.
His Excellency Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, will lecture on the political and economic developments of Africa’s most populous country at 9 a.m. today in room 150 JRP Hall. Shagari’s home — Sokoto State — is in northwestern Nigeria. Myers said most of the violence is confined to the Niger delta region in southern Nigeria.
“It’s like saying there’s a rebellion in Florida, so you can’t send students to Oregon,” Myers said.
Myers said he hoped Shagari’s visit would help foster positive University relations with Nigeria.
“If we can build a relationship with those regions that are experiencing stability, then maybe we can have students start going there, and we can have research exchanges with faculty.”
pullquote
“It’s a huge country, and it’s a federal republic, and I think over the course of time, hopefully the whole country will settle down.”
—Garth Myers, director of the department of African and African-American Studies
Aminu Gusau, a native Nigerian who teaches in the African and African-American Studies department, said Shagari’s visit could benefit students and University faculty members alike.
“It’s important to have speakers who have practical experience in African politics,” Gusau said.
Shagari, who is traveling with special assistant Ja’afar a Sadeeq and Nigerian businessman Muktar A. Shinkafi, gave an informal lecture on Monday to a small crowd at the Kansas Union.
He said that past dictatorships had torn apart Nigeria, but there’s reason for optimism.
The former minister of water resources for Nigeria’s federal government said there’s gaining confidence in the financial sector and an improving water supply in parts of the country.
Shagari, who will also tour the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics and meet with Chancellor Hemenway during his visit, said more than 65 percent of Nigerians had access to water.
Shagari also said Nigeria had improved dramatically since the fall of its last military dictator in 1999, and although Nigeria’s democracy is in its infancy, Shagari said it’s steadily evolving.
“A democratic government, no matter how bad it is,” Shagari said, “is far better than a military government.”
—Edited by Mandy Earles
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