Citizen journalist websites on both sides of the Atlantic have turned furiously on Harvard University after it was revealed that the scholarly institution recruited Nigerian governors from 36 states for an ivy-league training - at their own expense - in leadership, good governance and education policy.
 
The websites cited a little-known Memorandum of Understanding dated May 20, 2009, between Harvard and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum - prepared without the knowledge of the school’s African Studies Dept.
 
Harvard Professor Robert Rotberg, who has since renounced the disastrous memo and its signers, had initially agreed to “formulate appropriate curricula for each of the workshop”… with input from the Nigeria Governors’ group.
 
Nigeria’s opposition Action Congress slammed the governors for their “misadventure.”  “Is it Harvard that will tell a (Nigerian) governor how to provide decent healthcare, potable water and necessary infrastructure for his or her people, especially when the Harvard trainer has never visited Nigeria?” wrote the AC in a press statement.
 
“In any case, even if the governors are keen on refreshing their knowledge and expertise in governance, are they saying there is no institution in Nigeria that can do that?”
 
Writing at SaharaReporters.com, attorney Bamidele Aturu declared: “The reported memo by our Governors with Harvard University shows a complete lack of understanding of how public resources should be applied to lift our people out of the cesspit of poverty… Even if the seminars are self-funded, I would still describe them as an insensitive distraction and waste of resources.”

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