Ahmed .M. Umar

@UmarMakun

Kuala Lumpur

Joined December 2010

192 Following

31 Followers

10 Posts

UmarMakun retweeted

Gimba Kakanda

@gimbakakanda

6 days ago

Bello Mahmud Zailani: A PhD in Misreading Other People’s Privileges First of all, excuse my immodesty, because you have forced me to catalogue advantages I would ordinarily have considered vulgar to display. I don’t like bragging about my privilege, but since you want to take this route, let’s go ahead. You studied at ABU Zaria, a public university, and I��ve had the privilege of acquiring two of my degrees, both bachelor’s, at private universities. I have a bachelor’s degree from Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, where I was paying the equivalent of $10,000 per session at the time, money you can’t even smell in today’s economy. Yes, I could afford it, and I studied with the Mai-Deribes and the Dantatas, who would tell you that I was a big boy even then. I even owned a BMW as an undergraduate student. I graduated at the top of my class, with a CGPA of 4.83, as one of only three First Class graduates in a class of over 60 students (see receipt). For my postgraduate studies, I was offered a place to study International Relations at the London School of Economics, a highly competitive institution with an acceptance rate of about 6%. LSE’s International Relations programme is ranked as the best in the UK, ahead of Oxford and Cambridge (see receipt). So, even in the academic prestige you seem so desperate to flaunt, I am afraid you have picked the wrong person to patronise. I was contemplating whether to take up a new job secured in Vienna, Austria, or pursue a PhD in Development Studies, for which I had already secured admission at one of the top Russell Group institutions, before my boss offered me this rare opportunity to serve my country. I consider the experience so far an invaluable addition to everything I had acquired before entering government. So, with the PhD deferred, I proceeded with an application to study law at Baze University as a Direct Entry student. This was still before my appointment, and this point is important before you begin to imagine that I used government money to pay for the programme. I graduated this year with another First Class degree (see receipt), and I am likely one of only two First Class graduates in my class. So, I invite you to our combined convocation next month. You are welcome to come and see for yourself what academic excellence looks like. So, sir, between you, who started at a public university before government money entered your story, and me, who was paying thousands of dollars in tuition over a decade ago, who was more privileged? I don’t brag about being a privately educated child because it’s a privilege that came with my background, and not something to rub in someone’s face. But since you have decided to make privilege a competition, it would be unfair to deny you the opportunity to discover how badly you have miscalculated. So, what stupid privilege do you, who acquired your doctorate from Morgan State University, one of the worst-ranked universities in the world, with an acceptance rate of 82.2% (worse than even the worst school in Nigeria, because there’s no school in Nigeria with such a high acceptance rate), and an academic reputation that invites comparisons with the certificate mills of Cotonou, have to brag about in my presence? Your father was a modest civil servant before your brother or uncle joined politics, and, as your family’s circumstances improved, you eventually found your way into a more comfortable life. There is nothing wrong with that background, except your rather unfortunate attempt to pretend that you were born into privileges that some of us had enjoyed long before you discovered them. The difference between us is that I have never needed to advertise my privilege to feel superior to anyone. You, on the other hand, have made the rather embarrassing mistake of assuming that my refusal to flaunt mine means I have none. And now you have dragged us into a comparison in which even your imagined advantage has become another source of humiliation.