Category: Campus Life

It was an occasion he looked forward to, but alas, he was not part of it. Graduating student of Library and Information Technology of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA), Niger State, Justus Jiya, died in a road crash on his way to the convocation ground from Mokwa, his hometown. ABDULSALAM MAHMUD, (MASS COMM Major) reports.

Like his colleagues, Mr. Justus Jiya planned to attend the 28th convocation and Founder’s Day of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA), in Niger State, and thereafter return to Mokwa, his home town.

But while others made the trip, Jiya could not. He was killed in a motor accident that occured last Thursday morning.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the late 23-year-old Jiya with three other passengers died in the auto crash that occurred along Mokwa-Bida road.

It was also learnt that Jiya, who just completed his programme in Library and Information Technology (LIT), was traveling to Minna for his convocation at FUTMINNA when the car he boarded had a head-on collision with another vehicle coming from the opposite direction.

A witness, who pleaded not to be mentioned, said the commercial bus conveying Jiya was trying to evade a big pothole when it collided with a truck.

He said Jiya’s remains were buried on the same day as his body parts were mangled due to the damage done to the bus he boarded.

The sad news of Jiya’s death broke through the campus, leaving many of his colleagues and course mates shell shocked.

Some of his mates, who came for the convocation, CAMPUSLIFE gathered, held a candle-light procession at Bosso Campus to mourn their late classmate.

The deceased’s project supervisor, Prof. Georgina Oyedum, and his class representative addressed the bereaved students at the LIT Building complex around 8pm after the candlelight.

The don described his late student as a hardworking, courteous, gentle and responsible person, adding that  he was shocked to hear about Jiya’s death in a car accident.

He said the entire workers in the department were pained by news of Jiya’s loss, urging other students to strive to lead a life of positive influence and good example as led by the deceased.

“The late Jiya, who I personally supervised his project, was a student with an uncommon passion to learn. He was hardworking and at the same time brilliant. He was always receptive to my corrections on his dissertation, which he would humbly rework perfectly, and without delay. It was like a thunderbolt hearing the news of his demise. While I have the fervent belief that Almighty God will grant him a tranquil rest, I urge his family, friends and colleagues to be comforted that his exemplary and blossoming life was a reference point,” he said.

Evelyn Karse, a coursemate of the deceased, expressed shock over his death, saying the 2018 graduating set of LIT would miss him for many reasons. “We are all mourning the tragic loss of our dear friend, humble brother and brilliant classmate. Jiya was a colleague who meant different things to many of us. He was truly caring, gentle, cheerful, amiable and a highly-devoted Christian, who was very active in campus evangelism. It was demoralising hearing that he was killed in an accident while travelling to Minna for his convocation.”

A 400-Level student of FUTMINNA,  Obinna Okoye, said Jiya whom he called Babson, was eventually confirmed dead at a hospital in Mokwa after the auto crash.

He said: “Though, the accident happened in the morning of Thursday, getting accurate information about his condition was difficult. However, our worst fear was confirmed when my late friend’s class representative called his family, and was told of Jiya’s death. As I join others to grief over Babson’s painful death, I ask God to comfort his bereaved family at this trying moment.”

A former roommate of Jiya, who simply identified himself as Mr. Smart, said the deceased epitomised true, caring and affectionate friendship. He also described the deceased as a selfless giver and cheerful companion.

Though Jiya may have departed this world forever, Smart is optimistic that the deceased’s memory would remain fond and evergreen in the minds of those who crossed his path.

“The time we spent together as roommate in 200-Level was one of my best moments in FUTMINNA,” Smart recalled.

He continued: “On several occasions when I was financially handicapped, it was Jiya who usually  rescued me. He usually gave without expecting anything in return. Being a devout Christian was the hallmark of his personality. It was as a result of his tireless preaching that I was co-opted into the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) and participated in many evangelical activities on campus.”

Another graduate of the university and a relative of the deceased, who politely declined mentioning his name, told CAMPUSLIFE that the late Jiya was someone every parent would be proud to have as a child.

“It is devastating that we couldn’t witness his convocation,” the source lamented.

“This (convocation) is something every member of Justus’ family had eagerly awaited. Jiya’s death came as a rude shock to us, his close family relatives. At this tough moment, I join other sympathisers to mourn his glorious exit, and ask God to grant him peaceful rest. Adieu Jiya,” the bereaved-family member said.

CAMPUSLIFE learnt that some graduating students, who came for the convocation ceremony, also took to their social media accounts to mourn their departed colleague.

One Monday Abraham’s Facebook account read thus: “I woke up this morning to the breaking of the news of my inimitable, calm, and extremely Babson Jiya’s death. A devoted Christian, and a librarian to be certified tomorrow (last Friday). I can’t forget the pleasurable moments we shared together, especially when we ate from the same plate. My bosom friend, though I am yet to come to terms with the reality that you are permanently gone, yet I can’t question the authority of Almighty God. Your death, indeed, has enriched my life experience and broadened my scope generally about this transient life.

“LIT department, will forever, miss you. Adieu Egbon!”

“So sad to hear that you are no more,” lamented Opeyemi Moses, another sympathiser on his Facebook account.

“Tomorrow (last Friday) is your convocation and you passed away today. It is equally tragic that you left after our five-year struggles in school. Dear friend, adjectives will fail me if I attempt to describe your exceptional personality. Not me, or even any other colleague of yours, can describe the extent of the pain your departure brought to us. Jiya, we love you, but God loves you more. #RestInPeace.”

Youths’ Digest Magazine, organiser of the annual campus journalism awards in partnership with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has announced the launch of Campus Journalism Dialogue (CJD). The magazine is also calling for application from student writers and campus journalists, Campuslife has learnt.

According to a statement on the group’s media platform, the initiative formed part of efforts to address challenges students faced practising journalism on campus,

The platform further stated that the dialogue would feature students-writers and campus journalists across all tertiary institutions in the Northwest geopolitical zone to participate in the maiden edition of the dialogue come April this year.

“Youths Digest in partnership with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) is calling on students-writers and campus Journalists across all tertiary institutions in Northwest geopolitical zone to participate in it maiden ‘Campus Journalism Dialogue’ (CJD)”

The thee-day event, which would educate participants on issues such as hate speech, fake news, defamation, libelous publication and brown envelope syndrome, in contemporary journalism practice, among others, called on students of Mass Communication, students-writers and campus journalists to start sending their published works for application.

“Students of Mass Communication, gifted students with common flair for creative writing from other departments and campus Journalists can start sending their opinion articles, literary works, news reports, among other genres of publications to youthsdigest@yahoo.com, with ‘My CJD application’ as subject,” the statement further emphasised.

All applications are to contain applicants details; name, school, level, contact, email address and passport photo with titles and weblinks of their published articles, creative writings, and news reports attached on or before Thursday February 28th.

Speaking further, successful applicants would be fully-sponsored to attend the dialogue. Also, mouth-watering gifts and cash prizes has been lined-up for participants who produce quality, authoritative, edifying and top-notch writings in the course of the event.

“Fifty applicants will be shortlisted and fully-sponsored to attend the CJD after a panel of judges comprising of seasoned journalists, accomplished academics and prolifics writers, have assessed all entries.”

A final year student of Kogi State University, Abdullahi Muhammed Awwal, has been murdered by unknown gunmen.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the deceased, popularly known as ‘Comrade Lincoln’, was killed near NTA office, Anyigba, Kogi.

There have been reactions following his death. While some said he was killed by hoodlums, others claimed he was shot by cultists.

The deceased has been laid to rest in his hometown, according to Islamic rites.

While growing up, it was fashionable to see parents choose career paths for their children and wards. You’re not going to ‘amount to anything’ if you graduate with a single honours degree is a popular cliché way back then. Parents often boast about their children reading medicine, engineering and law; you’ll be forgiven as a young student if you think the university is only about reading these courses. Even career clinics often focus on these ‘super’ courses.

But over time, things started changing when business administration and related courses started taking the front burner buoyed by the emergence of “wonder banks” and societal emphasis on ‘making money.’ Suddenly values that we hold dear started eroding as “making money” became the norm. Nobody cares anymore how the money was made, all that matters is that you are rich.

That was the beginning of the ‘demystification’ of medicine, engineering and law. Why bother spending years in the university when you’re not sure of what the future hold became pronounced. People started questioning whether reading these courses was worth all the troubles after all.

I met a young medical doctor recently who expressed regrets for studying medicine and qualifying as a doctor. “If I had a singing talent like Dr. Sid I would have jettisoned my stethoscope for the music scene,” he said to my surprise. For the records, Sidney Onoriode Esiri, who goes by the stage name, Dr. Sid is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and dentist.

We discussed at length for more than an hour because this came as a shock to me especially as I have always held doctors – and the medical profession – in very high regard and would have loved to be one had I been a science student. This is because my lifestyle, comportment, deep reading culture and discipline correlates with what makes a good doctor.

As I struggled to encourage this young doctor that he has nothing to regret, my mind went back almost fifteen years ago to a discussion I had with a doctor friend while I was still in the university. This doctor also expressed regrets at the poor human resources planning and structures, unsatisfactory working conditions, poor remuneration, and few professional development opportunities back then.

When he saw the “progress” his colleagues who read Economics and Business Administration were making during the banking “boom” of the Abacha era, he told me he was in “the wrong profession.” In my young mind then, I remembered telling him that all that was happening was a bubble that will burst someday. And true to my prediction, the bubble did burst and my older friend said I should consider calling myself a prophet!

During that period, 19 banks collapsed leading to the Failed Banks Decree promulgated by late General Sani Abacha which was decreed into law to teach Nigerian bankers who mess with depositors fund a lesson. Unfortunately, there were other bank failures later before the sanity we are now witnessing. When I related all these, the young man felt a bit relieved, especially as I pointed out that even the present day society does not see the doctor as “relevant” as they were up to the 90s.

After much probing, I discovered that he truly loves the profession even though the stress associated with it is not commensurate with the financial rewards. “As a medical doctor, it’s an endless journey of reading and personal development. There are new discoveries almost on a daily basis and if you do not keep track you’ll be left behind. Keeping track means you have to prepare and pass your professional examinations otherwise there’ll be no room for advancement,” he told me, “but one of my major problems is the way the society treats doctors.”

I agreed with him. If you doubt that take a look around and see how the society is now obsessed with “celebrities” of various hues and shapes; some are instant celebrities because they participate in a show/event or feature in a movie. The society doesn’t even bother if an individual is an illiterate moneybag, corrupt public official or a person of dubious character. It is no longer a secret that this has been taken notches further when such individuals are awarded honorary doctorate degrees by our universities. These are the “doctors” our society recognises and adore!

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria currently posts a poor doctor-patient ratio of 1:3500 as against the standard of 1:600. It also said the entire medical schools graduate between 3,500 and 4,000 new doctors annually. Another statistics has 1:6500 doctor-patient ratios. According to the NMA, Nigeria has about 45,000 medical doctors for a population of over 180 million. Ironically, the country does not seem to have the capacity to absorb the products from its medical schools.

One would expect a call to action irrespective of which ratio is used. Without doubt, we have a dare situation on our hands as some rural areas in Nigeria do not even have functional primary health centers. The Ebola issue of our recent past shook us out of our lethargy and brought out the best in our doctors. Our doctors showed their magnanimity by suspending an ongoing strike to effectively tackle the national emergency. I had thought that period would have served as a springboard for the government and the society to seriously look into some of the issues the doctors tabled before their strike action. The issues are still there to date.

Delivering a lecture titled “Medical Education in Nigeria: The Quest for World Standards and Local relevance,” held at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in 2012, the former Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu said only 5 percent of applicants gained admission to read medicine. Of these, 2,701 trained in Nigeria left the country to other countries to work in the last four years prior to 2012 – the statistics is worse today.

It is amazing that with this exodus of our doctors we don’t seem to get it. The late Dr. Amayo Adadevoh and other doctors who remained and died as a result of Ebola are professionals who have spent years in training; the late Dr. Adadevoh was a consultant. Does the society really know what it takes for a doctor to become a consultant? We have lost, and may still lose some of our finest professionals because of the way we treat them.

It is not rocket science to understand why some of them are leaving as the working conditions is getting worse, thereby making other countries more attractive. Some of our doctors are presently working in the US, Britain, South Africa, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago and other neigbouring African countries that treat their medical personnel better.

Whenever I encounter medical practitioners and I see the evident lack of rewards for people who save lives, I always feel pained. To compound issues, whenever they demand what should ordinarily be their entitlement after spending years in medical school and a longer period preparing for other professional examinations, society is quick to condemn and remind them of their obligation to the same society that has scant regards for their own plights.

Recollect that prior to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) suspending its strike during the Ebola crisis, there appears to be nothing, either from the people in government or those of us outside, to show that we appreciate the fact that lives of ordinary Nigerians are already hanging in the balance as a result of the strike by doctors working in public health institutions across the country. But does it matter in a system so perverted that public officials now make it a culture that they travel abroad for simple medical check-up that can be done in Nigeria?

My advice to young Nigerian students who have the love of the profession at heart is this: Go ahead and read medicine in the university because it will always remain a noble and dignified profession. You should not look up to society or the government for your fulfillment; just follow the conviction of your heart. Everything about life cannot be viewed from the narrow prism of money. There are still things money can never buy, and being a qualified medical doctor is one of such.

Adamawa is set to become the only state in the Northeast with four universities.

Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN), a Christian denomination with headquarters in Numan, Adamawa State, is to establish Lutheran University of Nigeria (LUN).

“We have a step by step process of setting up a university that is for now called the Lutheran University of Nigeria (LUN),” the President of the LCCN, Archbishop Panti Filibus Musa, announced.

When fully established, LUN will join three other institutions in existence. They are:  Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH) Yola, established by the Federal Government in 1980; Adamawa State University (ADSU), Mubi; founded by the Adamawa State Government in 2002; and The American University of Nigeria (AUN), established in Yola in 2004 as a private university by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Archbishop Fillibus, who announced the birth of the university while delivering his welcome address at the 2019 Annual General Convention at the temporary LCCN convention ground in Demsa, near the Adamawa State capital, Yola, said the university was necessary to service the products of other institutions of learning that had been established under the church over time.

The institutions, according to Fillibus, include 16 kindergarten schools, as well as 49 nursery and 62 primary schools. There are also 24 secondary schools, eight Bible schools, and a major seminar.  He added that LCCN also has three special schools:  one for new believers, one for those with impaired hearing, and the third for technical training.

Declaring the 2019 LCCN convention open earlier, Archbishop Panti Musa, who addressed CAMPUSLIFE on LCCN’s motivation for its planned university, among other policy statements, was upbeat that the church would make worthy contributions to the revival of effective education in Nigeria.

He said: “The desire to have a Lutheran University (of Nigeria) comes from our understanding of the level of education in this country. We hope this Lutheran university will be an alternative to the continuous falling standard of education in Nigeria, and will contribute meaningfully to transforming education delivery.”

A fourth university will place Adamawa in the lead among northeast states – with the highest number of universities and other higher institutions of learning.

Aside its existing three universities and the fourth in the pipeline, the state has a large number of other higher institutions, including a state Polytechnic in Yola; a Federal Polytechnic and a College of Agriculture both in Mubi; a state College of Education in Hong; the Federal College of Education; and a School of Nursing and Midwifery both in Yola.