The Nation Newspaper

Category: Campus Life

  • French Embassy to partner UNICAL

    The Consul General of the French Embassy in Nigeria, Mr Francois Sastourne, has visited the University of Calabar (UNICAL) to foster collaborations and promotion of French as a second language.

    Receiving the envoy on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof James Epoke, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof James Utsalo, said the management was ready to partner the embassy to promote French language.

    The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof Francis Angrey, said the faculty lacked learning facilities, exchange programmes and poor language laboratories.

    The Head of Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, Dr Bassey Oben, who was with the school team, praised the envoy for the move, saying the visit would create opportunity for knowledge exchange with French students in the institution.

    Sastourne promised that the embassy would continue to support the promotion of French language in the institution. He noted that there was need for assistance in providing materials and encouraging exchange programmes between the institution and French-speaking countries.

     

  • That our mother tongue may thrive

    By compelling teachers and lecturers to teach several subjects in English Language, the government has, inadvertently, relegated our native dialects or mother tongue in our national life.

    For many in post-colonial Africa, the local language is for uncivilised people, still attached to their “inferior” roots. The rapid advancement in science and technology does not help the situation. In this age, the ambition of the world is to unite all people under one language and cultures, which are rooted in western civilisation.

    Perhaps, in years to come, speakers of local dialects would be seen as nomads of pre-civilisation period. Or a local people, as we always call rural dwellers in this part of the world.

    However, language is the nutrient that nourishes the tree of civilisation and culture. In countries, such as India, the native language is the cohesive force that binds diverse nationalities of people, who share common folklore. Instead of the official language inherited from the British colonialists, Indians speak Hindi and conduct the affairs of government in the same language so that citizens that did not understand English can know what is going on.

    But this is not the case in Nigeria and many African nations. I remembered my elementary school when one of my teachers would say she could never speak other language except her dialect, which she used to speak. What made her to have such belief was not clear to us – her pupils – but now, the woman’s conviction has made people to respect her through her outspokenness.

    In Nigeria, as a child grows up, he will pick up varieties of languages through formal and informal learning process. Apart from his mother’s tongue, any language a child is able to speak, according to one of my lecturers, is called second language.

    We have English language as official language in Nigeria. This is the same in Ghana Republic and some Anglophonic African countries. In Ivory Coast and other Francophone countries, French is the official language. Alas, all these languages are alien to our culture but we give them relevance and make them as language of communication among ourselves.

    The nub of this discourse is to expose how people ridicule their languages and classify them as local. What is local in my Yoruba language, for instance, when some set of people in South America speak the language with pride?

    Maybe that is the reason why majority of students are failing in indigenous language examination. Nowadays, hardly can we see educated parents speaking their dialect to their children. This makes me remember short Yoruba prose that we used to recite during my primary school days.

    The text was about an elderly woman who carried one of her grandchildren on her back for an outing. Unfortunately, the old woman could not understand the language of child when he wanted to defecate. Frustrated, the child used different signs to demonstrate what he wanted to do but the old woman could not understand; she thought the child was looking for his shoe. Before the woman could understand her grandchild, the kid had embarrassed her by defecating everywhere.

    This, in a simple way, explains why parents must speak their dialect to their children and allow the children to also learn the so-called local language. The origin of mother’s tongue is based on the notion that linguistic skill of a child is honed by the mother. Therefore, the language being spoken by the mother will be the first language that the child will learn.

    In 2006, locals in a city in Australia, Sydney, gathered together to celebrate International Mother Language Day in a colourful way. Can we also start something like this to prevent our dialects from going into extinction?

    Research carried out in several countries on the place and role of mother tongue in education and learning has lead UNESCO to conclude that: “Children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start, and to continue to perform better than those for whom school starts with a new language.”

    In a nutshell, mother’s tongue or native language should be encouraged to flourish among Africans. It favours a sound educational development of a child, thus laying the good foundation for intellectual and economic development. It gives a sense of identity to human being in a globalised environment and lays a solid foundation for the cognitive development of those who speak it.

    The mastery of one’s mother’s tongue can go a long way in producing a world-class personality.

     

    Akinola, NDII Mass Comm., OFFA POLY

     

  • Anger as Olamide fails to perform at OAU

    Anger as Olamide fails to perform at OAU

    Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, who had anticipated to be thrilled by Hip-Hop sensation, Olamide, a guest artiste at a campus show tagged “Olamide in Kush Concert”, returned to their hostels disappointed, after several hours of waiting.

    Weeks before the show, posters of the concert with pictures of the artiste were all over the campus while organiser Skinny Dee Entertainment and Kobina gave the show wide publicity on radio and social media networks.

    Students came from Osogbo and other neighbouring cities to attend the show. The Afrika Amphi Theatre, where the show was supposed to take place, was locked at the time the show was to start. CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the concert did not hold due to some hiccups on the part of the organisers.

    A source told our correspondent the organisers had “some issues” with the school management, which was why the later did not allow the facility to be used for the concert. It was also learnt that the organisers failed to secure a venue prior to event.

    Our correspondent gathered that Olamide was in Ife for the programme and was lodged at Cameron Hotel by the organisers. But he could not perform due to the closure of the venue. Olamide confirmed his presence in Ife on Friday through his post on his Twitter account, which read: “Ife OAU…It’s for real. Baddo (his nickname) coming through tonight. Loud it.”

    Disappointed students and youths, who came from far and near to watch the artiste’s live performance, paid N500 for ticket days before the event. When it dawned on them that the show would not hold, the students were enraged and promised to get a refund of their money.

    The next day, the artiste apologised to his enraged fans on Twitter. He twitted: “Sorry about yesternight OAU students. The venue was shut down by some Oga at the top. Think they have got issues with the organisers. Love you all.”

     

  • Rector charges freshers on discipline, hard work

    The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko (OKO POLY), Anambra State, Prof Godwin Onu, has advised freshers admitted into the institution to work hard to achieve excellence.

    He also charged them to stick to the school regulation, saying they must shun cultism, drug abuse and examination malpractice, which he said could terminate the programmes of students involved in the vices.

    Prof. Onu gave the charge at the 29th matriculation of the institution, which was held at the convocation arena. He reminded the students that the institution had zero tolerance for forgery, saying the management would not hesitate to terminate the admission of anyone found guilty.

    He said: “I wish to state emphatically that you have nothing to regret; you have made a right choice as we have made great effort to improve your learning and place it to an enviable citadel of learning.”

    The Registrar, Mr Tony Nwokolobia, told the students to live up to expectations, urging them not to engage in examination misconduct. He said the polytechnic was vigilant and had put measures in place to check security breaches in and outside the campus.

    The Director of Students’ Affairs (DSA), Mrs Esther Odigwe, who told the freshers to adhere to matriculation oath, told them to take the bull by the horn by making their academics their priority.

    Tochukwu Egwuatu, ND 1 Office Technology and Management, said she was happy being admitted into institution. She described the Prof Onu as a “digital rector” for embarking on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project. She promised to abide by the rules and regulations of the institution.

     

  • Between NEEDS and needs (1)

    Fourteen years ago (1999), Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka clamoured for Nigerian universities to be closed down for a year or two in order to fix the rot in the system. A through bred scholar and academic, he had seen the level the system had degenerated to call for a shutdown. We should bear in mind that even the most casual observer know that things are even worse today than it was back then. Many – scholars, parents, employers and concerned stakeholders – have also called for a state of emergency to be declared in the country’s education sector. Given the decay in Nigeria’s university system, it is not surprising that no Nigerian university ranks among the best 1,000 in the world. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife was ranked best in Nigeria at 1,511 in the world by Webometrics, a global ranking organisation.

    Concerned about the state of our varsities following a groundswell of public outcry, the Federal Ministry of Education on November 1 2012 set up the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led Committee on NEEDS Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities; four months later the committee submitted its report to the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i. The committee’s report revealed that public universities are grossly mismanaged; engage in activities at variance with the National Policy on Education and are lacking in human and material resources. The varsities were accused of being incapable of supplying the nation’s manpower needs and are said to be bogged down by corruption of various kinds while offering education of poor quality, among others.

    For the benefit of readers who may not know, a NEEDS assessment is a systematic process for determining and addressing needs, or lacuna between status quo and desired conditions or “wants”. The discrepancy between the status quo and desired condition must be measured to appropriately identify what the needs are. The need can be a desire to improve current academic performance or to correct infrastructural deficiency.

    A NEEDS assessment therefore is a part of planning processes, often used for improvement in individuals, education/training, organisations, or communities. It can refine and improve a product such as training or service a client receives. It can be an effective tool to clarify problems and identify appropriate interventions or solutions. By clearly identifying and isolating the problem, resources can then be channeled towards developing and implementing a feasible and applicable solution. NEEDS assessments are only effective when they are ends-focused and provide concrete evidence that can be used to determine which of the possible means-to-the-ends are most effective and efficient for achieving the desired results.

    Prior to the setting up of the committee, which was part of the 2009 agreement between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, a vote of no confidence had since been passed on our varsities with the country losing billions of naira through education tourism. Recall that ASUU had in 2009 embarked on a four-month strike that had paralysed the entire public universities sector. On October 21, 2009, ASUU and the Federal Government reached a truce by signing an agreement. The fallout of the signed agreement include the approval of about 50 per cent salary increase for the university lecturers, administrative autonomy for the universities, 70 years retirement age for university professors and enhanced funding of the universities.

    To state that there are crises in Nigeria’s education sector; from primary to tertiary is to state the very obvious, the evidences are there for all to see. What with lack of adequate infrastructure, high rate of school dropout and out-of-school children, mass failures in external secondary school examinations, brain drain of lecturers and now students, perennial industrial actions by various unions in the education sector, etc. A non-governmental organisation, Exam Ethics International, says Nigeria loses a whooping N1.5tn to education tourism. Of this sum, N160bn is spent by Nigerian parents on their children and wards’ education in neighbouring Ghana while they spent N80bn on same in the United Kingdom (this is however issue for another day).

    The recent NEEDS assessment report shows that majority of the universities are grossly understaffed, rely heavily on part-time and visiting lecturers, have under-qualified academics and have no effective staff development programme outside the Tertiary Education Trust Fund intervention and the Presidential First Class Scholarship programme. The report also affirmed that there are 37,504 academics (83 per cent of which are male) in the country’s public universities. This shows that only 17 per cent of academic staffers in public universities are female. That’s food for thought.

    Also revealed in the report is that only about 43 per cent of Nigerian universities teaching staffs have doctorate degrees; instead of 75 per cent of the academics being between senior lecturers and professors, only about 44 per cent are within the bracket. Only seven universities have up to 60 per cent of their teaching staff with PhD qualification. Also, the ratio of teaching staff to students in many universities is 1:100. For instance, it is 1: 363 at the National Open University of Nigeria; 1:122 at the University of Abuja; and 1:144 at the Lagos State University.

    Good, so how is the statistics measured in other climes? In Harvard University, it is 1: 4; Massachusetts Institute of Technology- 1:9; and Cambridge-1:3. The report also stated that there is numerically more support than teaching staff in the universities, instead of the other way round. In some universities, it was discovered that the non-teaching staff double, triple or quadruple the teaching staff. With regard to infrastructure, the committee found that physical facilities for teaching and learning in the public universities are inadequate, dilapidated, over-stretched and improvised.

    As we daily clamour for the resuscitation of our comatose industries which we know is critical for sustained job creation, do we have the manpower if this happens? It doesn’t appear so as the report also indicted our varsities in that regard. It says laboratories and workshops equipment as well as consumables are either absent, inadequate or outdated. Kerosene stoves are being used as Bunsen burners in some! Some engineering workshops operate under zinc sheds and trees, and many science-based faculties are running what is referred to as “Dry Lab,” due to lack of reagents and tools to conduct real experiments. The committee also documented that 163 of the 701 physical uncompleted projects it found had been abandoned.

    That is definitely not all as there are still more to come in a Nation that wants to be counted among the top 20 economies by 2020. Take the issue of students’ enrolment; the report revealed that there are a total of 1,252,913 students in the public universities: 85 per cent undergraduates; five per cent sub-degree; three per cent postgraduate diploma; five per cent Master’s and two per cent Ph.D. As against the National Policy on Education that stipulates 60:40 enrolments in favour of science-based programmes, 66.1 per cent of them are studying arts, social sciences, and management and education courses.

    Only 16 per cent of students are studying science and science-education courses; 6.3 per cent, engineering; five per cent, Medicine, while 6.6 are studying Agriculture, Pharmacy and Law. It beats my imagination how the ratio 60:40 science bias enrolment could be achieved given the deplorable state of science laboratories and workshops. It is noteworthy that enrolment continues to be a big issue in our universities.

    Before completing the first part of this all important piece, it is pertinent to point out that the NEEDS report has already been submitted to another committee for “review”. However, I would like to pose a few questions. Where were the regulators when all these malpractices and sharp-practices were being perpetrated? How are we sure this report will even be acted upon? Already, NASU and other unions within the system have started kicking against sections of the report that does not favour them. These notwithstanding, most Nigerians are familiar with the problems of the university system in the country, what we lack is the political will to address and redress the situation. For how long will we continue to move in circles as the problems await us?

  • In students’ interest

    In students’ interest

    Gingered by the high prices of some goods at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), the Students’ Union Government (SUG) organised a weekly trade fair from which students are now benefiting. GILBERT ALASA (400-Level Foreign Languages) and VALOR IDUH write.

     

     

    As the last academic session at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) was about ending, students faced what they called the “excesses” of traders on the Ugbowo Campus. The prices of some goods shot up.

    Worried by the development, Osariemen Okuonghae, then aspiring to become Director of Welfare of the Students’ Union Government (SUG), pledged to bring down the prices, if elected. To students, it was an empty boast.

    After Osariemen was elected, he liaised with his colleagues to hold a trade fair on students’ welfare.

    On December 1, last year, some traders gathered at the June 12 Secretariat, the union’s building, to sell various products and food items at cheaper prices.

    A week after, the news spread like wild fire. A swarm of buyers and sellers besieged the open Tetragon at the popular June 12 Shopping Complex. As expected, students took advantage of the discounted prices to shop to their hearts’ content.

    Osariemen said the SUG market was part of the “Eat well, pass well” initiative of the Osifo-led Students’ Union administration, which he said was aimed at making students to feel the impact of the union.

    He said: “We set the record today as the first SUG to hold a students’ fair in the history of this institution. As socialists, we are concerned about the welfare of our students. Naturally, students can stay for a semester without buying new clothes. But they can’t stay without food. We discovered that students comprehend better when they eat well. That is what informed this programme.”

    When CAMPUSLIFE visited the market, the students were happy as they bought the highly discounted items. A bowl of garri, which used to sell for N700 went for N400. The same for rice, which was sold for N540 instead of N650. Prices of other commodities, such as kerosene, canned and dietary foods were equally discounted.

    A student-trader, Enadem Eluseh, who brought items for sale, praised the initiative, noting that he had never experienced such a turnout of students since he started trading in the institution.

    He said: “It has been a wonderful experience for me. Certainly, the buyers are happier than the sellers. Despite that we don’t make much profit here, the turnover is quite high and that, to me, is essential.”

    But for Mama Osato, a food stuff trader, profit was not the motive for

    “As parents, we equally have our children as students spread across the nation. So, we see every student as our child. We are driven by that motherly love and not the financial gain.”

    Osarieme said the partnership with the traders was at no cost to the union. “At first, some of the sellers were doubtful. But when they saw the level of patronage by students, many of them started bringing their product to the campus. As you can see, we have many traders selling their items cheap to students. This fair will continue to hold every Saturday.”

    Yet, some traders jacked up their prices without reasons. CAMPUSLIFE gathered that there was a disagreement between the union officials and a woman-trader, who inflated her prices without informing the union. The disagreement was later settled.

    The SUG Vice President, Margaret Odia, said the union was on alert to ensure compliance with prices and quality. “We ensure we come here every Saturday to feel the pulse of the buyers and check fluctuations in prices. So far, the response has been wonderful,” she said.

    When CAMPUSLIFE sought to know how the fair affected traders on campus, Mama Timothy, who deals in food stuff, said she was forced to reduce prices to survive in the competition. She said: “We all know that everybody, especially students, loves buying cheap items. With this fair, I have decided to reduce prices to keep my customers.”

    Students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, praised the union leaders for the initiative. Henry Chibueze, 100-Level Agriculture, said: “I am particularly thrilled by the affordability of items being sold at the fair as well as its closeness to the hostel. The prices are quite cheap compared to what is obtained outside. I think leaders of students’ unions across campuses need to take a cue from this idea.”

    A 400-Level Civil Engineering student said it was his first time of witnessing such initiative as a student. “When I heard about the SUG market in the hostel, I thought it was a joke. But I am surprised at how this whole idea was put together. I pray it continues,” he stated.

  • Six UTME candidates die in road crash

    Six UTME candidates die in road crash

    On the eve of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held nationwide last Saturday, six candidates among those travelling to Onitsha in Anambra State to check their centres died in an accident. A palm kernel oil-laden tanker rammed into five buses, killing the candidates and injuring others. UCHE ANICHEBE (500-Level Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka) reports.

     

    For months, they prepared for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held nationwide last Saturday. They were in high spirits and looked forward to writing the exam.

    Twenty-four hours to the D-Day, some candidates travelling to write the exam in Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State, died on the Enugu-Onitsha Highway when a palm kernel oil-laden tanker rammed into five of the buses conveying them.

    The accident occurred at 3:30pm at the UNIZIK Junction of the highway, which is always packed with students.

    The tanker hit five “pick and drop” buses, which were carrying passengers at reduced fares under a pedestrian bridge beside Tracas Motor Park. The buses were operating close to the park.

    Sympathisers, who rushed to the scene, wailed as bodies were removed from the mangled 18-seater vehicles. Several others were injured.

    Witnesses said more than 17 people died, but the rescue team of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) put the casuality figure at six.

    Witnesses said the tanker, with Abia State registration number AE 729 UMA, which was on high speed, veered off the highway and rammed into the parked vehicles. The victims, who were mainly UTME applicants, were going to Onitsha to check for their examination centres.

    The driver of the trailer might have lost control of the vehicle following a faulty brake, a witness told CAMPUSLIFE. He added that the uncontrolled speed of the driver may have caused the accident.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that two of the buses were fully-loaded; the other three had a few passengers.

    Sympathisers defied a torrential rain to rescue victims. The buses somersaulted several times and rested on their sides, making it difficult for the rescue team to remove the trapped victims.

    The rescue team, which included policemen, FRSC officials, commercial drivers and students used various devices and materials to break the vehicles’ doors to remove victims.

    Several UTME past question papers, exam slips and textbooks littered the scene.

    The injured were rushed to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) Teaching Hospital, Nnewi and Amakwu General Hospital, Awka. As at press time, the whereabouts of the trailer driver was unknown.

    In tears, one of the injured applicants, Chika Onwuka, said: “I was travelling with my cousins – Oby and Fred – when we heard a loud bang on our bus. Everybody started screaming. The windows shattered and fell on us. I did not know what was happening but I saw people running towards our direction. The door of the bus could not be opened; the rescuers broke it with an object and everybody started rushing out. I saw the tanker and I fainted when on seeing how a blue bus I saw a few seconds behind us was badly damaged with dead bodies. I saw people bleeding seriously.”

    Another victim, who did not give out his name, said: “I didn’t know how I came out of the bus. When I came down, I saw a man who had been eating groundnut on the last seat before the collision and I noticed he was still with his head broken.”

    A driver, who simply identified himself as Goddy, said: “Today is a very bad day for us in this park. I saw the tanker coming on full speed. I think the tanker driver had the intention to hit the foot of the bridge but he missed and ran into the park at the same speed. I can say that many of the passegngers in the park were travelling for tomorrow’s (Saturday) exam.”

    A driver of one of the affected buses, who did not give out his name, said: “The tanker hit the first two buses. The force sent the second bus to another bus which then hit my own bus, which was about moving to Onitsha. My bus is badly damaged; all the windows and windscreens are shattered and everyone, including I suffered injuries. But nobody died in my bus. Students going to write their JAMB exams in Onitsha and some elderly people were in my bus. Luckily, we all survived.”

    A FRSC officer, who pleaded for anonymity, said the bodies had been deposited at the Amakwu General Hospital, Awka. He said: “The tanker hit those “pick and drop” buses that normally pick up passengers under the bridge at the front of Tracas Park. The affected buses did not have passengers’ manifest as required by law and this has put us in a difficult situation to identify the family members of the victims, most of whom were students.” He said six people died and 17 others were injured.

    After the accident, commercial activities in the park was suspended till about 2pm the following day.

  • Students complete teaching practice

    Final year students of the Faculty of Education, University of Calabar (UNICAL), have rounded off their 12-week teaching practice exercise in various secondary and primary schools in Cross River State.

    The exercise took the students a semester as against the six-week period being used for the exercise in the past.

    One of the students, Jacob Uwen, who was posted to Emilis Secondary School, said the exercise got him acquainted with the teaching profession.

    While receiving the student-teachers at the faculty complex, the Dean, Prof Florence Obi, congratulated them for successfully completing the exercise. He urged them to be good ambassadors of the institution.

    In his remark, Teaching Practice Coordinator in the faculty, Dr C. A. Agbor, warned that students who failed to report to their station would repeat the exercise.

     

  • ‘I want to improve public health’

    ‘I want to improve public health’

    Charles Akhimien, (24), who just finished from Medicine and Surgery at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), has won the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Blogging Competition. The environment and public health blogger was the only African in the contest. Akhimien, who is billed to attend the Mongolia conference on the environment next month, spoke to OSATO EDOKPAYI (500-Level Crop Science) on his expectations.

     

    What is conscious consumption programme all about?

    Conscious consumption is a social movement, which centres on the understanding that what we consume as food has some impacts on ourselves, our communities and our world at large. The campaign covers not just choosing what kind of food to buy and where to buy it, but also how to use what we buy and dispose the waste. We want people to be aware of what, when, where and how to consume some foods.

    What drives your passion for the environment?

    I have, since my childhood days, been concerned about the environment. As a people, we don’t get to be conscious of the environment we live in because we are facing numerous socio-economic problems including mass poverty, corruption and insecurity. However, over the years, I have realised that even though we have our unique problems, environmental problems are global; so we cannot afford to be isolated. My work on climate change in medical school led me to find out that food waste, for instance, contributes one-third of the greenhouse emissions responsible for climate change. That is why I made the move. I derive my passion from making our environment a better place.

    What is the UNEP blogging competition about?

    It is a contest for green bloggers, that is, the environmental bloggers, to write inspiring stories on this year’s theme for the World Environment Day, which is Think, Eat, Save. The task is to create awareness and call for actions to reduce food waste and loss across the food supply chain. My blog entry is titled The power of social media in ensuring conscious consumption and explores the opportunity of interaction platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to communicate our goals. The social network site, I believe, can be used to educate people regarding their consumptive patterns and to monitor their progress daily.

    What do you look forward to in Mongolia?

    Mongolia is among the most vulnerable nations in the world to global warming. The country is facing enormous challenges including growing pressure on food security and water supplies as a result of the impacts of climate change. Yet its government is determined to meet these challenges and seize the opportunities of a less-polluting and more-sustainable future. I look forward to seeing how Mongolia is using renewable energy technology and harnessing its solar power potential, particularly in the sparsely populated Gobi region.

    How do you intend to reach out to people, who are not on the social media?

    I have the plan to take the message of conscious consumption to rural communities through public health outreaches. I know the task won’t be easy because of our lack of environmental consciousness in Africa, but it is great that awareness is already on the social media. We can build on the that and promote public health projects that would help us impact our environment positively. I know there are several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on the environment but as I have won the competition, I will be a poster boy and a rallying point for them all. I will collaborate with the NGOs to rescue our environment from degradation.

    What are the challenges you are facing in the campaign?

    The major challenge is the people’s cynicism since there are many challenges facing us as a country. But if we can work together to reframe peoples’ thoughts on the environment and educate them on the consequence of climate change, we can overcome that.

    How would you use the experience from the competition in your future endeavours?

    This competition has provided me with a unique platform to share my perspectives with a global audience and I will explore that. There are several subspecialties in medicine. Public health is particularly fantastic because one gets to prevent diseases. We can do this by improving our interaction with the environment, especially our behaviour and lifestyles as these are critical to our health. I want to use this platform to inspire and educate people to make our environment safer, cleaner and healthier.

     

  • How to win on campus

    An Abuja-based pastor visited the Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola, Adamawa State to pray for Christian students. PHILIPS OGBAJE (500-Level Information Technology) writes.

     

     

    It was an unusual evening last Wednesday at the Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola, Adamawa State. Christian students from all fellowships trooped to the Trinity Chapel to receive “winning tips” to conquer their challenges.

    The venue was filled with students singing and dancing for God.

    It was the annual campus outreach of Pastor Goodheart Ekwueme, who visited the school to give students tips on how to live successfully on campus.

    The theme of the programme was: Winning today on campus.

    The event, which was organised in collaboration with the Association of Christian Fellowships (ACF), the umbrella body of all Christian students in the university, started about 5:30pm.

    In his exhortation, Pastor Ekwueme took his lesson titled I am making a comeback from Luke 15:11-24.

    He said: “Everything that happens to us in life is dependent on the choices we make”, adding that just as the prodigal son chose to come back to his parents despite his mistakes, Christians also must make amend and reconcile with God.

    He encouraged students to always take the right decision and put God first in whatever they do, despite the sins they might have committed in the past. Setbacks were set up by God to call Christians back to their faith, he said.

    Highlights of the occasion included ministrations by the choir of the ACF and from groups such as ; Effizee and Freke from Abuja.

    Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, the ACF co-ordinator, Nnamdi Nnamani, 500-Level Physics, said the programme was aimed at helping youths in troubled times and bringing hope to those who felt their problems could not be solved.

    Nnamdi expressed gratitude to God for the success of the event in spite of challenges the association faced in the course of organising the programme. He described the turnout of students as “massive” and “beyond expectations.”

    Blessing Ekhator, a final year student of Economics, said she received blessing during the revival programme. “There was spontaneous movement of the Holy Spirit unlike what we are used to in the campus; everyone who went for the programme and was blessed and motivated,” she said, praising ACF for putting the event together.