The American University of Nigeria and the American Association of Universities & Colleges (AAU&C) have issued separate statements on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The statement tweeted by AUN on Sunday, March 6, 2022, reads:
The news out of Europe this week has been alarming and saddening. The invasion of Ukraine, struggling to establish a democratic society, has distressed everyone wherever democracy, human rights, and freedom are valued. Countries like Nigeria. The actions of Ukrainian citizens to protect their democracy and freedom have inspired the world.
This brutal war matters here in Nigeria for several reasons. First, it is a reminder of the human cost of imperialism—a cost that Africa knows only too well. Second, it breaks a hard-won peace in Europe that has endured for nearly 80 years, with a nuclear power threatening to unleash its unthinkable weapons. Third, it strikes at an international order that holds—no less important in Africa than anywhere else—that the world will no longer tolerate wars of conquest and subjugation of one people by another.
I am sure you can join the AUN Community to pray that sanity and peace will prevail.
The American Association of Universities & Colleges also issued this statement on the Ukraine crisis:
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We are saddened and outraged by the resulting loss of life, and we express our sympathy and solidarity with all those caught up in the humanitarian crisis now unfolding.
The war in Ukraine is an especially horrific and consequential flashpoint in the ongoing rise of authoritarianism globally. Authoritarianism takes root and spreads under conditions where personal liberty and freedom of thought and expression are surrendered in favor of unquestioned obedience to authority, where the democratic values of diversity and inclusion give way to exclusionary and chauvinistic tendencies.
Higher education has a vital role to play in this global moment. We know that higher education—liberal arts education, in particular—is an effective safeguard against the development and spread of authoritarianism. As the form of education most closely allied to democracy, liberal education helps students form the habits of heart and mind that liberate them; it equips them for, and disposes them to, civic involvement and the creation of a more just and inclusive society. A liberal education both embodies and transmits democratic norms and values. Authoritarianism cannot flourish among a liberally educated people.
As a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education, AAC&U is committed to strengthening the vitality and public standing of liberal education and to ensuring that the benefits of such an education are extended to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career and regardless of where they study.
The American University of Nigeria is a member of AAC&U.
Visit the website:www.aauc.org.