The Nation Newspaper

Category: Campus Life

  • ‘Youths are development partners’

    New Commissioner of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Ogun State, Prince Lanre Tejusoho has urged youths to become agents of transformation in the country. He gave the charge last week at the opening ceremony of the Batch “C” members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Sagamu.

    Prince Tejuosho, who represented the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle  Amosun, welcomed  the Corps members from various states of the federation.

    He said: “The NYSC plays a vital role in promoting skilled manpower, cultural integration and rural development. It is pertinent to note that the youth are a major force for driving national development.”

    The state Coordinator of the scheme, Theresa Ifeoma Anosike appreciated the support of the state towards improving the programme.

    “As you may be aware, every Corps member is expected to undergo a 3-week training to help them in developing resilience for confronting future life challenges. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to build yourselves into enviable persons in the society.”

    Justice Elizabeth Oshinuga, who represented the state Chief Judge, Justice Olatokunbo Olopade administered oath on the Corps members.

    The event was attended by the Commissioner of Police in the state, represented by DCP Aliru Gwandu; Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the governor, Mr Segun Adesanya; Chairman, odogbolu Local Government Area, Olawale Shittu; Oba of Makun Sagamu, Oba Micheal Adesanya; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of youth and Sports, Mr Adedeji Tajudeen and officials of the national service scheme.

    The event witnessed a parade and short presentations.

  • Dentistry students go on medical outreach

    Dentistry students go on medical outreach

    When Elijah Clement was born in Egba community in Ovia Northeast Local Government Area of Edo State two years ago, the joy of the family knew no bounds. Two months later, his testes got swollen as a result of fluid that accumulated in the membranes surrounding the organs. When he was taken to the village clinic, he was diagonised of hydrocele, a medical condition that requires surgery to be corrected. His parent took him to the churches in the village to solicit funds for the surgery. But they got little.

    The child was left to his condition because his parents could not afford the surgery.

    But the joy of the family knew no bound last week when members of the Christian Medical and Dental Association Students (CMDAS) visited the community on medical outreach. His mother could not contain her excitement when her son was wheeled out of the theatre after an hour surgery. Elijah was among the 10 people who benefited from a free surgery campaign by medical students and surgeons from the University of Benin (UNIBEN).

    When the medical team visited, the villagers trooped out to benefit from the free medical exercise and drug distribution.

    The Mission Secretary, Rex Uwaifo, said rural medical outreach was yearly programme of the association which aimed at reaching out to the rural dwellers with the gospel of love. During the programme, participants benefited from free medical examination, BMI analysis, free drugs distribution and consultation. Doctors were on ground to offer counseling to the villagers.

    In the evening, a crusade was held. Prayers were offered for the land.  The following morning, the students were at Egba village. The primary school was filled with women, children and the aged people who benefited from clothes, shoes and bags that were distributed.

    At Egba Clinic, graduating medical students were paired to assist the surgeons with the surgery. The team of surgeons from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) explained to the villagers the benefit of the surgery before the process began.

    A beneficiary, Abraham Ehime, who underwent herniorraphy, praised the surgeons for successfully handling the operations. “I started feeling pains in my lower abdomen in 1988, but in thought it was mere pain. When I sought medical advice, I was diagonised of hernia. But I left it untreated because I could not afford the cost of the treatment. Later, the condition degenerated,” he stated.

    Later in the evening, a crusade was held. In his sermon, Dr Osahon Iyawe urged the participants to be reconciled to God. He encouraged them to desist from diabolical activities whenever they were ill, saying that they should always seek medical advice and call upon God whenever they are sick.

    Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE at the end of the outreach, Igbinosa Nelson, 100-Level Dentistry, said he was surprised to notice that the villagers were ignorant of common diseases. He called on government to send health workers to the village to teach them basic hygine.

    Odigie Itohan, 400-Level Medicine, commended the villagers for receiving them with open arms.

    Kate Osagiede, 12, said: “When I saw the students and doctors, all dressed in white coat, I told myself that I am going to study hard to be a doctor someday and help the less privileged in the enjoy sound medical assistance.” She called on the government to help renovate the clinic, saying that the programme was commendable.

     

  • Promoting research, learning

    Promoting research, learning

    Corporate bodies have been urged to partner the Federal Government to fund education to promote excellence and global recognition.

    Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources in Effurun (FUPRE), Delta State, Prof John Etu-Efeotor, made the plea when the institution received a Petrel workstation, generator, field mapping equipment and an 18-seater bus from Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL).

    Prof Etu-Efeotor said education was central to national development, adding that it may be impossible to attain excellence in tertiary education if funding was left to the government alone.

    “Government must perform its task of funding the university, but corporate organisations and well meaning individuals should also assist in this respect to improve quality and standards of our higher institutions,” he said.

    The VC praised EEPNL for responding to the request of the management, urging the oil firm to build a structure that would be dedicated to funding practical projects of the university. He added that the equipment and the N5.4 million provided by the firm annually, in its University Partnering Programme for the field work, would be judiciously applied to aid research and learning in the Department of Earth Science.

    The EEPNL Deepwater Production Geosciences Manager, Mr. Goodluck Adagbasa, noted that the objective of donating the equipment to FUPRE was to enhance and complement lecturers’ skills in using latest technology in training students.

    He said the equipment, which cost N300 million, were similar to those being used in exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in petroleum industry, urging the university to utilise them adequately.

    The Project Consultant, Dr Daniel Lambert-Aikhionbare, urged the institution management to judiciously use the equipment.

    In a brief speech, the Head of Earth Science Department, Dr Difference Ogagarue, thaked the oil firm for coming to the rescue of the department, assuring that the workstation and other equipment would be used for the development of the oil and gas industry.

    The event was attended by dignitaries including the former Military Administrator of Kano and Niger states, Gen. Dominic Oneya (rtd); Gen. O. E. Obada (rtd); Chief Macdonald Ugbewanku; the Acting Registrar of the institution, Mrs Rosalyn Egborge; Dean, College of Science, Prof Olusegun Abiola; Coordinator of Public-Private-Partnership, Prof John Arubayi; Director of Academic Planning, Prof Jerome Adepoju and Acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr Joachim Ukutsemuya.

     

  • Kogi varsity dons represent Nigeria at law conference

    Two lecturers, Dr T. F. Yerima, Dean of Faculty of Law and Dr B. Ogwo, Dean of Students’ Affairs (DSA), of the Kogi State University (KSU) have represented the nation at an international conference on law and justice in Sri-Lanka.

    The dons were selected based on the quality of their papers.

    The duo urged leaders to obey law and order, saying that justice was a necessary condition for sustainable development. They said people must make justice an integral part of their lives, stressing that nothing works in an atmosphere of injustice.

    They added that Africa has had leadership challenges because of the lack of law and justice in the continent. The dons said that the conference acquainted them with a deeper understanding of law.

    “It was an outstanding achievement for our university to represent Nigeria in an international conference where legal luminaries from across the world gathered,” Dr Yerima added.

     

     

     

     

    Dr. Ogwo urged the university’s staff to rededicate themselves to the vision of the institution. He thanked management of the university for making them to participate in the international conference.

     

  • Students’ performance at contest stuns pro-chancellor

    The Pro-Chancellor of McPherson University (MU) Prof Israel Adu, has commended the students of the institution for their impressive performance in the Information Technology programme.

    However, he warned the university representatives not to rest on their oars, but to keep working at becoming better to bring the highest laurels from the competition next year.

    The event, which was organised by the Ogun State chapter of Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), was held at Covenant University, Ota, (CU) in Ogun State. The two-day event was tagged Enhancing information technology capacity.

    The Vice-Chancellor Prof Adeniyi Agunbiade, promised that students of the university would be given more national and international exposure through academic competitions.

    Receiving the team at the Administrative Block of the institution, Adu expressed satisfaction with Team McPherson which comprised of five students and two academic staff. They included Enyabine Chineye, Lasisi Dara, Michael Magnus, Obayomi Dolapo and Soremekun Tosin. The team was led by Prof Oladimeji Atanda and Mr Kehinde Ogunyemi.

    Prof Oladimeji Atanda, who led the team, said he was excited that his team excelled during the event saying that they performed well during the debate section.

    He expressed optimism that the students would perform well in the coming edition.

    The objective of the event was to enhance the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, interest and attitudes of students of tertiary institutions in the state and to provide the needed medium of interaction between international organisations and students of tertiary institutions.

  • Iyayi: ASUU bans UNILORIN procession

    Iyayi: ASUU bans UNILORIN procession

    The Academic Staff of Universities has placed ban on any procession in honour of the late President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi by the University of Ilorin.

    It described as illegal the planned procession by a faction of the union at the university led by Prof. Wahab Egbewole.

    ASUU said it is still mourning the death of its former president and has not approved any procession for its branches, bemoaning what it called “hypocrisy by the illegal and court sacked faction of Prof. Egbewole.”

    A procession notice had been signed by one Dr. Mrs. Binta O. Ibrahim belonging to the Egbewole faction of ASUU, intimating academic staff of planned procession in honour of the late ASUU president.

    The national leadership of ASUU said the union will certainly not stand for any attempt by the illegal group in the University of Ilorin to desecrate the memory of Prof. Iyayi

    In a release issued in Ibadan on Tuesday and signed by the Zonal Coordinators of Ilorin and Ibadan zones, Dr. Ayan Adeleke and Dr. Adesola Nasir respectively, titled: “DO NOT DESECRATE THE MEMORY OF OUR LATE PRESIDENT,” said “The attention of the union has been drawn to attempts by a group led by Prof. Wahab Egbewole of the University of Ilorin to desecrate the memory of the late former President of our union, Prof. Festus Iyayi, by issuing a notice of a so called “procession” for him at the University of Ilorin.”

    ASUU said Prof. Egbewole has been expelled from the union, while his group has been declared illegal by the National Industrial Court.

     

     

  • Govt’s attitude to quality education

    Govt’s attitude to quality education

    As I penned this piece, tear rolled down my cheek. Why? I am feeling sorry for the future of Nigeria with the way our government manages education and for education itself.

    For education, I shed tears because it has never been so bad like it is now – incessant strike action by Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), National Union of Teachers and bodies of non-teaching staff.

    For more than four months, the ASUU has paralysed academic activities in most campuses because of its demand from the government to improve the condition of learning schools and promote research.

    Ordinarily, one will expect that having an academic as president would make the country witness needed reform in education sector, but we are all dazed to see that it was the president himself rendering the efforts of his former colleagues in ivory tower to engender quality education useless.

    The basic function of education is to train young ones and equip them with necessary knowledge to bring about changes in the society. But the people the country sees as its future do not have access to quality and progressive education; no functional laboratory; no adequate rooms in school halls; no grant for research and lectures rooms are nothing to write home about.

    The Federal Government has said it did not have adequate funds to meet ASUU’s demands. This is because the strike has not stopped our leaders’ wards from being in school. Their children do not attend schools with us in Nigeria and where they do, they are sent to private universities.

    As a result of the poor funding of education, Nigeria cannot boast of meaningful invention to aid the cause of humanity. Our peers across the globe with functional education system are producing aircraft, ships, vehicles and machineries, yet we are proud to take money to buys those things. The so-called Asian tigers – Malaysia, Singspore, China, India etc. achieve the feat because of their massive investment in education.

    The Transformation Agenda of the present administration is nothing if it is not anchored on sound education. The dream to build a progressive would be a mirage if we fail to invest in education.

    Students in most universities stay by windows to take lectures, with majority of schools lack facilities to accommodate 50 per cent of students.

    Over 1.6 million candidates wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) this year and according to the immediate past Minister of Education, Prof Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, institutions across the country could only admit 500,000 candidates, leaving over 1 million candidates unengaged. What would the unlucky candidates do? Of course, some of them would take to crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping and prostitution.

    In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing that will help the president’s Transformation Agenda as the demands of the ASUU. Yet some unpatriotic elements want us not to identify with ASUU, insinuating that the whole thing had been politicised.

    Worrisome is the fact that the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) president who is supposed to be informed and fight good cause turned his back against our lecturers. Yinka Gbadebo is not a student as confirmed by the NANS senate leadership, thus it is natural that he will not fight for the interest of the students.

    Since President Goodluck Jonathan complained of paucity of funds, I suggest, on behalf of all students who mean well for education and Nigeria, that the office of the First Lady be scraped; the budget of the senate and overheads of the ministers be cut down to fund universities.

    If President Jonathan is not ready to fund education ade1quately and allow us to return to classroom, he should resign and give people with better idea to lead.

     

    •Kamaludeen, 200-Level Geography, NSUK

     

  • Govt tasked on cancer campaign

    THE Federal Government has been urged to renew its commitment to fighting cervical cancer, to reduce the number of casualties. The charge was given last week during the lecture by Prof Etedafe Gharoro, a consultant Gynaecologist and Deputy Provost of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) Medical School.

    The event with the theme: ‘’The burden of cancer of the cervix’’, was held at the Oba Akenzua Hall of the UNIBEN Teaching Hospital (UBTH). It was attended by the Provost of College of Medical Sciences, Prof Vincent Iyawe ; Head of Department of Child Health, Dr W.E. Sadoh, Chief Physiotherapist, UBTH, Dr Kayode Oke, Medical director (CMD), UBTH, Prof Michael Ibadin and members  of the Edo State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

    In his welcome remark, Dr Oke said that the hospital decided to organise the lecture create awareness on the scourge of cervical cancer which is said to be the second most common cancer in women. He added that proper enlightenment of the public would help in curtailing its spread.

    Prof Etedafe said cervical carcinoma, commonly called cervical cancer, is an abnormal growth in the cells around the cervix with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) being the carrier. He said that the disease can be also be contracted through sex, smoking and poor nutrition.

    He decried the poor state of the Nigeria National Cancer Registry (NNCR) which was created to reduce incidence of the disease, provide vaccination and screening of patients.

    Prof Isah Ambrose appealed to government and corporate bodies to help to subsidise the cost of the vaccine, saying that it would assist more women to undergo vaccination. Another attendee, Mrs Margret Amayo called on participants to spread the message through social media, adding that it would curtail the prevalence of the disease.

    Afiesume Emmanuel, 100-Level Medicine, commended the hospital management for organising the lecture.

     

  • ‘ASUU strike is needless’

    ‘ASUU strike is needless’

    The Vice Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University in Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Prof Femi Mimiko, has said authorities of the university were making efforts that would lead to the end of the proctrated strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Prof Mimiko stated this when he received the participants of Course 22 of the National Defence Academy (NDA) during their tour of the university.

    When asked why the university joined the ASUU strike since the institution is funded by the Ondo State government, Prof Mimiko responded that before the strike began, there was no dispute between the university and its academic staff. But since members ASUU members in the institution were bound by the decision of the national body, he said, it became necessary for them to join the industrial action.

    “The university was established and funded by the Ondo State government. And now, we are on strike to compel the Federal Government to implement an agreement that it willingly signed in 2009. For some of us, it is difficult to understand why the government has refused to honour the pact. But ours is more of a sympathetic strike since we have no direct relationship with the Federal Government. Therefore, going on strike when there is no dispute makes the strike completely illegal,” he said.

    He added: “There is no amount of money that we get at the end of the day for infrastructural development and our personal emoluments that will justify the closure of the entire university system for four months.”

    Prof Mimiko stated that closing down campuses was no longer in vogue in many countries, urging ASUU to devise new ways of channeling its demands from the government.

    “The strike is not the solution. We must be courageous enough to look for an alternative. I am using this opportunity to appeal to my colleagues to come back to work. All of us must do something to get back to work,” he said.

    The NDA delegation described the infrastructural development in the university as impressive.

    The leader of the team, Commodore Yusuf Isah, said his team was in the state to undertake a study tour of its infrastructure to enable participants realise how the infrastructure in the state could enhance economic development.

    He said the visit to AAUA was to understudy the infrastructure and challenges of the institution.

    Prof Mimiko thanked the participants for considering the institution worthy of their tour.

     

  • Ekiti students seek extension of bursary deadline

    Ekiti students seek extension of bursary deadline

    THE Ekiti State Scholarship Board (ESSB) has been urged to extend the closing date of the bursary registration deadline because of the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.

    This would enable more students to participate in the process.

    The President of the Federation of Ekiti State Students’ Union (FESSU), Oluwayomi Abegunde, made the appeal during the swearing in for the national executive council of the union in Ado Ekiti.

    Oluwayomi said some tertiary institutions in the state had not concluded payment of the 2012 bursary, despite release of funds by the state government.

    “Some of our students have complained they have not received last year’s bursary award and now the scholarship board wants to close the date for the scholarship. This is not fair enough; most of these students are at home because of the strike,” he said.

    Speaking after he took the oath, Oluwayomi said his agenda was to promote the right and welfare of Ekiti students, stressing that his doors would be open to good advice from progressive-minded persons to facilitate development of the union.

    “Let me put it on note that we shall be dogged in the pursuit of our mandates and belief. All our agenda shall be pursued with vigour. We shall remain consistent with the delivery of our promises, which include to fight for the rights and welfare of our students.”

    He noted that the union would embark on resolving issues with scholarship board after the lecturers’ strike is called-off.

    While promising a participatory administration, Oluwayomi hinted that three committee – Chapters’ Affairs Intervention, Projects Implementation and Education Symposium – had created to support the intellectual development of students.

    Earlier, the Electoral Chairman, Oluwasunkanmi Bewaji, appreciated the support of students for comporting themselves peacefully during the election.

    He described the election as the most peaceful since the establishment of the union, stressing that part of modalities put in place for its success was the debate held for all candidates, which gave students opportunity to choose the best among the aspirants.

    In his advice, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Chairman in Ekiti State, Comrade Ayodeji Aluko urged the students to imbibe the fear of God in their dealings and be assured of his support.

    Aluko said the position of leadership had been entrusted to them, which they must carry out with diligence, he said, urging them to ensure unity among members.

    “The winners must be magnanimous in victory. See yourself as brothers and sisters in this struggle. Your colleagues took the pain to put their trust in you. Definitely, you must be ready to work hard and don’t let them down.”

    He added that NLC was making effort to put more pressure on the government to ensure that the ASUU strike was called off, saying idleness of students could spell doom for the country.