BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s Herald Guest is Samuel Tefera (PhD), lecturer at Africa and Asia Studies Department of Addis Ababa University. The Ethiopian Herald had a brief stay with Dr Samuel on his recent study paper concerning the role of Ethiopian Scholars in the development of the country, factors related to brain drain and some recent topics in the country. Have a nice read!
How do you explain the status of Ethiopian scholars in general? Are they actively participating in the creation of inclusive environment in Ethiopia?
There is no full-fledged and comprehensive study to say and tell whether Ethiopian scholars are actively participating in matters of sovereignty and other national issues. The recent small bridge survey that I have conducted shown that the participation of scholars in the national issue was not very satisfying. There are limited attempts from scholars in terms of taking part in issues of national interest. By and large, I rather say that it is not that satisfactory.
Would you please share some of the points that your survey touched up on?
In general, I have mentioned earlier, the participation of scholars looks like to be very limited. This is due to various cases. One is, shying away from speaking to authority may I say it fear of torture, blame shifting, not to mention fear of criticism of course. But it is not diminish the negative roles the media has been playing. The media platforms were reported to have been very biased, unfair where the scholars’ comments are taken out of context. These are among some of the issues that restrained scholars from continuously participating in affairs of the nation.
These kind of coincidence are not actually becoming from the government side, the fear also rises due from the opposition parties and their members as well. And also academic institutions do not have any effort to fully acknowledge those who are actively participating in the national affairs. They do not have arrangements where scholars both in academia and outside to get the opportunity and platforms to deliberate on issues of national economy, sovereignty, culture, development aspirations and what have you.
As you might know academic institutions in Ethiopia even elsewhere have different roles such as conducting academic research and rendering community service, one of which is thematic research grant. The second is problem of grant. When scholars are requested to provide opinion about availability of thematic research platform, fund or opportunity for proposal that touches upon issues of national interest, the response was that there is almost no. There is a weak funding scheme. Not enough funds are available and allocated for scholars who are interested in pursuing the research work on this issue of national interest.
Not only that there are also some concerns from scholars that the majority of the challenge facing the academic administrators or leadership could be being occupied with party activities as most of the university leaders are member of the national parliament or city council where they took a lot of time on party affiliated activities rather than giving due attention to their regular jobs. Sound leadership is needed in academic affairs, research affairs and community service. The recommendation that came out was, liberating the academic leadership from the matters of politics. So, quite a lot of issues are pending challenges with regard to scholars including getting decent pay, decent living and other facilities.
It is believed that Ethiopian scholars have a responsibility of protecting national sovereignty and ensuring lasting peace in the country? Can you elaborate on this?
Of course everybody has the responsibility of protecting the interest of the nation. As far as we live in the nation, we all have the obligation to protect the interest of the country. Scholars have a lot to do in terms of protecting the national interest especially the contribution in producing the generation of citizens who are patriotic ,a generation of citizens who are responsible, a generation of citizens who care for their country and themselves to improve the future of the nation. Particularly in a country like Ethiopia, a landlocked country, where so much pressure is coming from geopolitical engagements in the region. We need scholars more than any time in our history to pursue and ensure that the interest of the country is well protected and taken care of.
What is expected from Ethiopian higher education institutions for the planned national dialogue?
Like some institutions have already been doing in collaboration with the National Dialogue Commission, such as government institutions such as the ministry of peace or any other civil society organizations have been attempting to organize such a discussion on the way forward that are related to the works of the Commission.
As far as I am concerned, those kinds of deliberations are far from being enough. We need to sort out the agenda properly and the role of higher academic institutions could be helping the public in prioritizing the agenda. Also, universities could deliberate on the objectives of the selected agenda items. We have a number of unmet issues like change in the constitution, change in the mode of governance, or are we talking about addressing political crises, and the like.
As far as I am concerned, those points have not been set out as agendas. We heard nothing about which agendas the dialogue commission would be talking about up to now. This also means higher academic institutions must deliberate those issues through organizing workshop and conferences not only in Addis but also across the country and discuss a number of issues that touch issues that are supposed to be dealt with.
If we are evaluating the academic institutions from this particular objective, much has not been done. That is also the result of the study that I have conducted. Scholars are not engaged in such deliberations but also the institution that host them have not created such platforms where by scholars protect their time, resource and expertise to deal with the importance of the national dialogue, the pros and cons of the process we anticipate.
What is the role of scholars in terms of assisting the overall reform in the country?
Post 2018, a number of reform activities have come to the forefront. One can mention the reforms in sectors such as economic, industrial, agricultural by large invested a lot of time, energy and resources to address challenges in those agriculture sector. We acknowledge the achievements made so far. And what remains is institutionalizing those activities and also taking spaces of institutions filled with the appropriate individuals who have the merits, capacity and ability to address the challenges and can contribute a lot in terms of bringing the right leadership in those institutions to take the activities to further impart national development agendas and processes.
How can scholars contribute towards addressing local, national and regional problems? Do you believe that scholars are discharging national responsibilities expected from them?
They have the capacities. Of course with all the challenges, they will invest in the country. We have capable scholars or researchers, implementers, decision makers. If you have any doubt on the capacity of scholars to take up on that particular challenge, the challenge that remains still is scholars need to be encouraged to lead a decent life; material and financial demands need to be fulfilled.
And also higher academic institutions and scholars need to aptly follow development issues of the country and contribute their to augment the efforts of increasing the national GDP’s, to bring human development and also to create institutions that not only favored over the demand of present citizens but also those that meet the needs and aspiration of the future generation. In that regard, I don’t see huge capacity deficit. And we need to update ourselves with new developments in technology so that our work improves, knowledge deepens, and our contributions become meaningful to societal transformation.
In your presentation; you said; scholars should not be biased by gossip and magnify problems as a mountain which is difficult to climb as well as observe things recklessly while national sovereignty of the country is compromised . Could you elaborate on that?
People definitely have different interests. They may have chances to work with the ruling government or opposition parties. On the other hand they may not have such chances. However, working for the country needs to ensure that our interests are well taken care of both locally, nationally or in the region or global arena. It does not require one to be supportive to a certain logic and political discourse as far as we are living here. Working for the country is something we don’t compromise. So, we all need to stand together to make the present better and the future more attractive to the youth as they are the majority of the population. We need to be working on projects and programmes that target tapping the potential of that particular population to the betterment of the country.
You also said that scholars have not trusted the media as a whole. How do you think could this bottleneck be solved?
That is an accusation that I also share the most. The media especially the social media are not regulated. When I am saying this, I am not referring all the media in the country. The broadcast and the print media outlets and their social media outlets are better regulated. However, there is mistrust on the part of social media by scholars in terms of telling the truth. The Medias are not found to be neutral as they are supporting certain agenda. They have their own editorial agendas on which they make scholar’s points adhere to the view points of the editorial interests.
So, the media need to have a platform everybody can express their view and opinions and they should take care of those perspectives without siding the scholars opinions towards the government or any other interested stakeholder in that particular problem. So, the majority of scholars who have participated in the survey suggested that this kinds of tasks of the media towards a certain stated position, it could be government or an opposition party’s position, the government, higher education institutions, the media authorities, the media themselves need to work to create media platform where all viewpoint can be considered reasonably and fairly. . We need to work for the creation of these platforms.
The contribution and influence of the media in the affairs of a certain country political, economic, societal, regional affairs is very significant. As far as we are making those media free and fair and accessible to everybody, it entertains every opinion. It could not be receiving viewpoints that are not pertinent to the development of our country. It could be issues pertaining to international politics in which Ethiopia is affected the most.
Why do you think are scholars exposed to brain drain? What are the triggering factors that force them to leave their country?
A search for seeking better living conditions, a search for better future for their children and for themselves as well. That is something unavoidable. It is part of migration concept and I am not always against it because having someone outside of Ethiopia, scholars at higher level for example. Scholars occupied certain higher position elsewhere and their contribution will not be limited where they are. They can contribute across the continent in many ways. Their scholarship benefits the country and the youth.
Those opportunities created particularly in terms of designing sponsored research in collaboration with their institution outside on issue at home in terms of bringing foreign direct investment, new development , state of the art of technology, advancement of knowledge and impacts in the area they are working with. At certain level, we need to retain how much of the scholars in private and public is very important in terms of providing corporate service to our citizens.
On the other hand, having those kinds of scholars’ mobility’ is very imperative for experience, knowledge, and resource sharing. So, I am not totally against it. To some extent we need to have this kind of academic mobility.
If you have any message to deliver to our readers, please take the chance!
I think we all have our own personal challenges when it comes to standing united for national causes that keep our country stable and prosperous. There should not be anything left. As we all know, there are some challenges, there was some dissatisfaction from the academic community which forced some to voice their frustrations in different ways. The government needs to sit down, and take time to look at the challenge that most scholars in Ethiopia are facing now. We need to try to appropriately address in a very civilized and peaceful means.
We all need to sit together, look the context we are in as we were not in a comfortable situation and there were problems locally pertaining to internal politics. There are also good signs this prevails come in while at the same time problem resume here and there in the country and the only thing require is a dialogue and civilized discussion amount all stakeholders in which the role of scholars are very imperative On the other hand, we have also seen recently that the government is working towards fighting corruption.
Public officials, like the grand ones, particularly those who hold higher offices in the state this kind of crimes in one or another way, would affect the lives of all citizens including scholars. Dialogue platforms would help to create bridge among the scholars and the government officials or decision makers. It in turn boosts the scholars’ contributions to their country.
Thank you for your time.
It is my pleasure.
The Ethiopian Herald December 10/2022
