*A Response on the Initiation of Students*

*TOWARDS SOUND JUDGEMENT AND CLEARER THINKING:THE FOURTH THESIS*

"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."
- Nikola Tesla (1856 -1943)

Let me begin by placing on record my deep and heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has volunteered a response by way of comments in writing to my original essay on the *Initiation of Theatre Arts students in Nigerian Universities.*
I thank you all- Professors Chima Oji, O. Obilade, Ayoola, and the other anonymous scholars of UI that I don't know for your opinions. The Jagun Oodua, Akogun Tola Adeniyi, a veteran columnist and president of Association of Newspaper Columnists, I thank you.
The Family Forum, Parent Association... I also thank you for your comment.
The responses that I have received fall into three categories: those who saw the article in its objective form and in total or partial agreement with the conclusion of the author; those who misread the article and tried to confuse the issues by imputing Christian motives, seeing the whole thing as another form of intolerance by a "Christian pastor;" and the those who were outrightly abusive calling me names - "attention seeker", "enemy of progress", "miserable interlopers", troubled character", "religious bigot", - and other expletives.
Again, I thank you all.

It is a sad day in scholarship when a scholar has to bring these hateful epithets and abusive words on his head from an academic forum and a university community for expressing an opinion in an area in which he is well-versed and where he has done extensive research. When you use these kinds of language and expletives on me what do you use on your students?

I am also appalled that in all the responses that I have seen I have yet to see a single one that constitutes real critique, robust intellectual response or engagement of the paper, of its major theme, theses, system of inquiry, fundamental arguments, posers and positions from a scholastic background. None has challenged or impeached the grounds of my propositions, assertions, facts and conclusions. No real intervention to deepen the discourse or even pooh-pooh my theses; except abuses, grievous insults, obscurantist and pedestrian allusions to unverified claims, assumptions ( "he is a pastor, a Christian etc") and sweeping sociological generalisations that are not only vague and groundless but utterly unconvincing.

Let me quickly say at the onset that contrary to what has been inferred by some I am not a "Christian pastor" - whatever that is supposed to mean. And this may even shock you: I don't even go to church although I consider myself a Christian. There is nothing in that article that shows I was writing for a Christian or promoting Christianity.
Let me be honest with you, even if you have called E. A. Adeboye or David Oyedepo to lay hands on all new students of Theatre Arts or their Initiation or Induction is carried out inside a church with Bibles, I would still have opposed it - and vehemently too. I am for the full realization, foregrounding and establishment of the secular status of the university as an autonomous academic environment in all its facets and operations. I am fighting for secularity which allows diversity of religious traditions by private individuals or collective in their own right without committing or involving the university authority. How anyone could read the article and not see this beats my imagination.

Let me now respond to some queries, non- issues raised in the article, mostly from University of Ibadan academic forum who saw this as a frontal attack since the video was in respect of their students - and felt the need to respond to my paper.

A scholar justifies the Initiation of Theatre Arts students on the grounds that medical doctors too take Hippocratic Oath before they are allowed to practice.
With due respect to this scholar, this is not only comparing apples with oranges, it is like comparing cow pea with banana. The Hippocratic Oath is administered to medical doctors - those who have already completed a term of training and course of study and are about to begin the serious and life- threatening assignment of medical practice not beginners as is the Initiation of Theatre Arts students.
Two, the Hippocratic Oath is instituted to honour Hippocrates the father of Western medicine; and the oath is to swear allegiance to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and his father, Apolo who also practiced medicine in their lifetime. The Oath is thus to celebrate the patron god of Western medicine and the father of medicine for their contributions to deepening the art of medicine. So I ask, what has Ifa contributed to Theatre Arts and development of Theatre Arts in Nigeria to warrant an entire generation of students paying homage to him through an Initiation?
It may interest this scholar to note that nations of the world no longer swear to Apollo and different nations now have their own versions of Hippocratic Oath.

Another scholar claims that he has attended the Initiation ceremony before as an undergraduate student and even as a Deputy Vice Chancellor designate and did not see anything wrong with the whole thing. He now added that the whole university is dotted with several outposts of Christianity and Islam - churches, mosques everywhere etc., yet the traditionalists do not complain. With due respect too to the DVC he is also missing the central motif of the paper. His comparison does not hold. In the several outposts of churches and mosques around the university campus they were spearheaded by the members of the university community in their private capacities as individuals and collective in the full exercise of their right to worship and freedom of religious worship as guaranteed by the Constitution. This is free exercise of individuals and carry no imprimatur of the authority of the University or of the Senate unlike the Initiation of a whole students of a Department of the University which carries the authority and imprimatur of the University.

One common refrain in virtually all the responses by several members of the university is the reference to the affirmation of the Initiation Ceremony by the then DVC who is now the Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Professor Adebowale. It is said that the Senate troubled by negative reports about this same Initiation ceremony of Theatre Arts mandated Professor Adebowale as Deputy Vice Chancellor to view the ceremony and report to the Senate. And that the Vice Chancellor saw nothing wrong with the entire ceremony but as child's play ("ere omode")

This then brings me to the cruz of this response: the fourth thesis: *where you stand determines what you see.*

Again, back to the Albert Einstein story and defining moment. Was it only Einstein that was stranded that night at the tram station? No.
Was it only him that saw the big clock as it dangles back and forth? Certainly not.
Every other person saw the clock to look at the time but only Einstein saw the larger and consequential relationship of the time to space. Everyone saw the time but only a Professor of Theoritical Physics whose paradigmatic study and body of theories had predisposed him to make sound judgement saw the relativity of time and space. Everyone sees what he is predisposed or prepared to see. Others saw the time of the day, Einstein saw the relativity of the time to space - a revolutionary idea to which a system of inquiry and body of theory as a theoritical physicist had prepared him to see.
The issue is not just seeing, it is seeing through; it is not just making judgement, it is making sound judgement.

This brings us to the real issue: sound judgement. I am told that the motto of this University is: "For knowledge and sound judgement".

Thus the billion naira question is: To what degree can a scholar or even any man make sound judgement in a field in which he has had no specialized training, no professional authority, specialization, expertise and scholarship and for which his knowledge and training had not prepared or predisposed him? To what degree can we trust an academic opinion by a man whose very purview belongs to an entirely different field of endeavour?
The last time I checked, Professor Adebowale's discipline and area of specialisation is in Chemistry and Pure Science. With due respect to him as an established scholar in his own right, but I am not aware of his scholarship or knowledge in Yoruba Traditional Religious Cosmologies, Yoruba Metaphysics, Yoruba Deities, Orature, Initiation Rites, Ifa, Ifa Corpus etc.
Can we trust the opinion of a man as definitive intellectual content in a field in which he is not an authority or scholar just because he is a Professor and a Deputy Vice Chancellor?
It is like sending a Professor of Comparative Literature to stand as external examiner of PhD students in Mathematics or a Professor of Yoruba Studies to go and investigate engineering failures and structural collapse of bridges just because he is a Professor. What does he know about theory of structures, strength of materials, analysis and design and resolution of forces and moments?

There is one major flaw that I see in most of the scholars of today, especially those of the last 20 years, which was not present in the Old School, the former generation of professors and scholars. We often forget that the professorial chair only entitles one as an authority in his own area of specialisation and in the specific discipline for which he has been appointed; it does not make you an Authority in every field of human endeavour. You are only an authority in your own area of specialisation not in others; and your opinion on other areas is subject to questioning and interrogation.

It is not my intention to rubbish the Senate of an entire university, much more so, a premier university. However, I can express an opinion different from even the senate of a university. By sending a professor of Chemistry to an Initiation Rites, a purely Ritual Festival and expecting a professional academic opinion, the Senate grossly trivialized the serious issues at stake and missed the real import of the very reasons for the many concerns raised by different people and the purpose of the investigation.
One professor sees 'ere omode' (children playing), another professor can see strongholds, prisoners and portals. It all depends of where each is coming from and what his peculiar training had prepared him to see. Where you stand determines what you see. Just as every other person saw a clock that night at the tram station but only a Professor of Theoritical Physics saw beyond chronological time to its relativity with space.

The original article arose due to a debate on a platform where I belong, a Platform that parades some of the foremost scholars of Yoruba ancestry and authorities on Yoruba Religion, History, Deities, Ifa etc. It was a challenge given to me by an opponent that forced me to write the article. This is why I solicited for debate on the subject. To my surprise, not a single of these experts has responded to my paper or answered my queries.
Thus, the real scholars of Yoruba Religion and Studies are not answering me, it is the scholars who are not in the area of specialisation and know little about the subject that are insulting me. Rather than meet me in a debate they hurl vitriolic insults, attacks and epithets at me. I won't respond. Everyone gives what he has.
Good night and Merry Christmas in advance