The Nation Newspaper

Category: Campus Life

  • Mass Comm holds lecture

    Consumers don’t abandon brands but brands abandon consumers, Business Director, Verdant Zeal Limited, Mr Lanre Oyegbola, was quoting Phil Dusenberry, during the 9th Mass Communication Forum held at the Caleb University.

    The lecture, which centred on the Importance and Significance of Culture in Brand Marketing, emphasised the need for marketers to always be updated on the cultural orientation of their customers for their brands not to be abandoned. The lecture was chaired by the Dean, College of Environmental Sciences and Management, Prof Bode Ogunrayewa.

    Oyegbola described culture as a learned system of knowledge, behaviour, attitudes and beliefs shared among group of people and also a continuous learning process. He stated that for a brand to succeed, the focus must be on creating a product or service targeted at an identified group of people who have needs and also delivering the product or service in most efficient ways to the identified group of people.

    The lecturer made reference to Jack Welch, former Chief Executive Officer of General Electric (GE), who said his company had only two sources of competitive advantage, which were the ability to learn more about the customers faster than the competition and the ability to turn what was learned into action.

    Dr Charles Nwachukwu, a lecturer in the department, noted that the lecture placed emphasis on the product rather than the consumer. He asked if culture alone could influence brands, and not the other way round.

    At the end of the lecture, Janet Jiya, 400-Level student of the department, won an award for exemplary conduct towards the development of the department. She is the first student of the department to have received such award for the second time.

    The Head of the department, Prof Nosa Owens-Ibie, used the opportunity to announce the membership of the department in the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

  • Ilaje students honour monarch at Eja Day

    The National Association of Ilaje Students, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) chapter, has held its annual day in grand style. The event, which was tagged “Eja day”, was held at the lower buttery of the Adekunle Fajuyi hall.

    Welcoming guests to the occasion, the chapter president, Julius Mogbojuri, gave glory to God for seeing the association through series of problem it had encountered.

    He said: “When our administration came on board, we made moves to enhancing our members’ welfare and eliminate the challenges they face on the academic front. This reason, coupled with some others, prompted the organisation to hold a day like this.”

    Mr Ayo Igbasanmi, who represented the Permanent Secretary of Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Dr Mann Ali, delivered the keynote lecture titled People and their monarchs in a democracy.

    The lecturer noted democracy, as the best form of government, had two key features, which were universal suffrage and periodic election. “Democracy can be differentiated from governance. Governance connotes good government in the sense of greater efficiency, transparency, accountability and rule of law. But democracy unaccompanied with governance is an experiment without substance,” Igbasanmi noted.

    On the role of monarchy in a democracy, the lecturer stated that colonialism and incursion of military men in politics made the institution of monarchy to undergo change from unquestionable imperial status to subservient leadership.

    The highlight of the occasion was the investiture of Oba Afolabi Odidiomo, the Olu of Igbokoda, as the royal patron of the association. In his response, the king who was a former Public Relations Officer of OAU Students’ Union, thanked the students for the honour.

  • Accreditation crisis rocks UNIABUJA

    The University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) has been shut indefinitely, following a students’ demonstration over non-accreditation of some courses. OLIVIA USHIE writes that students may not return until the courses are accredited.

    For the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), crises seem to have become second nature. Since its establishment, it has been embroiled in one crisis or the other. It has been rocked by another crisis, which led to its closure a few weeks ago. At the centre of the crisis is the non-accreditation of Engineering courses.

    Engineering students went on the rampage as they demonstrated over the non-accreditation of their courses. They destroyed properties and defaced the Vice-Chancellor’s portrait which they removed from the administrative building and took to the boys’ hostel. The school has been shut indefinitely.

    The incident happened when the institution was preparing for the second semester examination.

    The students, it was learnt, held a peaceful protest the first day but changed tactic following the deployment of armed Fulani herdsmen, who allegedly arrived in campus shuttle vehicles to chase the protesters out of the campus.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the inability of the UNIABUJA management to secure the accreditation of the National Universities Commission (NUC) for courses in four faculties – Engineering, Medicine, Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine – after six months deadline by the Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, was led to the protest.

    The university established the four faculties seven years ago but without adequate facilities. The Faculty has Mechanical Engineering, Civil, Chemical and Electrical and Electronics Engineering departments.

    Our correspondent learnt that in May, student-demonstrators besieged the Federal Ministry of Education to draw the minister’s attention to their plight. When she was informed of their presence, Prof Rufa’i was said to have invited the students for a meeting in her office.

    At the meeting, CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the minster gave the students the options of either leaving the school or enrolling for other accredited courses. But when she noticed that the student did not buy the idea, the minister was said to have given the UNIABUJA management six months to get full accreditation for its medical, agricultural and engineering courses.

    To ensure a successful exercise, it was gathered that N4 billion was given to the university to upgrade its facilities before the accreditation team arrived.

    A protester said: “We kept ourselves abreast of the movement of the money from the ministry to the school’s bank account. We thought the money would be used judiciously but, here we are; nothing has been done to upgrade any facility in the Faculty of Engineering.”

    Our correspondent learnt that when the NUC team visited last month, the institution was only able to secure interim accreditation for three faculties. Faculty of Engineering was left out because the team discovered that the facilities being used for teaching were outdated.

    This prompted Engineering students to gather their colleagues to protest the outcome of the accreditation.

    They accused the management of insensitivity, saying the interim accreditation it secured for the other faculties was not reliable.

    The students complained that since 2005 when the faculties were established, no student has either graduated or gone on national youth service.

    The Faculty of Engineering has two graduate sets already but none of them has been mobilised for service. There is also the complaint that Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has yet to accredit the institution’s four engineering courses.

    In medical college, there are students, who have spent eight years without moving to the next level. Five sets with different matriculation numbers are said to be in 200-Level without writing the MBBS professional exam that will get them to the next level.

    A 2010 Engineering graduate said: “When the faculties were instituted in 2005, we learnt that NUC advised the management not to operate the four faculties at the same time because of the facilities on ground at the time.

    “But the school went ahead, ignoring the warning. But since the programmes began, none has been accredited. When I was in school, all the engineering practical classes we did as undergraduates were conducted at the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) because UNIABUJA did not have the facilities. Even in Medicine, different sets have been lumped together because of the accreditation crisis.”

    Tunde Adeosun, Civil Engineering student, said: “The protest was prompted by the deceit of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Sunday Adelabu, after six months of promising us to get our courses accredited by NUC and COREN.

    “The commission’s accreditation team came for third exercise last month after which we can now talk about proper accreditation. But nobody knows the outcome of the verification exercise and yet they want us to keep quite while our future hangs in the balance.

    “We will make sure no student returns to the campus until the accreditation is secured.”

    Other students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, said they would fight on until the courses are accreditated.

    Efforts to reach the Registrar, Mallam Mohammed Moddibo, failed as calls to his mobile phone was not available.

  • ‘Pimps are the most successful businessmen on campuses’

    Two days after I wrote my piece on “When runs become the norm on campuses” (November 29, 2012), I got a call from an anonymous student caller who simply referred to himself as an undergraduate in one of the ‘big’ universities in the south west. In the almost one hour we spent on the phone-at the expense of my caller- discussing issues on campuses I learnt quite a lot and I wept for this country. My caller told me that the student union officials I quoted in the column were right in their assertions and I should not struggle with the issue of percentage. He said he is a pimp and he’s not apologetic about it; along the line he said: “Pimps are the most successful businessmen on campuses” which I’m using as the title for the column today.

    In that piece, I had written that: “One of them told me ‘authoritatively’ that about 80 per cent of students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria engage in one form of ‘runs’ or the other. “Runs,’ according to him “cuts across prostitution, peddling leaked examination question papers, drug trafficking, cultism, writing exams on behalf of other students, acting as middle men for Juju priests, acting as ‘leg men’ between dubious lecturers and student etc. I told him that 80% is quite a high percentage to categorise students, but he stood his ground claiming he’s right with his assertion.”

    After our discussion I “filed” the key points I could remember somewhere on my laptop hoping to revisit it sometime only to read the report by Gilbert Alasa, a student of University of Benin, Benin City. The report compelled me to address the issue while it is still hot. My caller gave me insights into how the “business” operates and why some of them that are “bold” go into it. He claims to be a 300 level Economics undergraduate and discovered the business “by chance”. “I gained admission into the university in 2009” he told me “but things were really tough for me initially because I come from a very poor background, for most of my first year and the first semester of my 200 level, I eat only once a day. But what I lacked through poverty, I gained by being forceful and bold, that boldness brought me into the business”.

    Giving me a bird’s eye view of the “business” he said there are different categories of pimps, there are high and lower cadre. The high cadres are those that play on the international scene, those handling clients that need the service of girls abroad. “When you work for clients of this nature you select girls with international passport who must have travelled out of Nigeria at least once. This is the best part of the business I love because the clients and middle men are polished, polite and you are paid up front, so it has a lot to do with trust and carriage.”

    This cadre is usually interested in Nigerian girls that can grace their parties or other functions abroad; he recounted a story where he organized thirty girls from three campuses for a former Governor for a party in the Caribbean. The girls, he claims, were flown out on a chartered flight and when they came back “they were fully loaded with gifts of all nature, I got my first Blackberry from one of the girls”. Since it may be sometime difficult to find thirty willing girls from the same institution, he said they usually encroach into another pimp’s territory, but they have to settle the pimp depending on the number of girls recruited.

    The second category, according to my caller, is those that play on the Nigerian scene. They are basically interested in one night stands or overnight parties. This is the category where politicians and business moguls play. But he stated that these people work with people they can trust and ensure that they seize all Blackberry or camera phones from the girls before bringing them over because of fear for their reputation. The girls, he says, understand this part of the deal and believe that a night without calls will do them no harm.

    As a student of Economics, my caller said his future is already guaranteed as the forces of demand and supply will ensure that he is in business from both his clients and the girls. He said he’s already a millionaire at 23 years old without stealing, cheating, engaging in drugs or cultism. “Sir, I’m a very serious student, I don’t joke with my studies and my lecturers know that. You know there is unemployment in the country and if as a student I am gainfully employed, should I be worried when I graduate? I have even employed two bright boys on campus working for me, when I leave I’d be overseeing them from off campus”.

    As our discussion progressed, he told me he reads Ngozi- my late wife’s column weekly and mine since I took over after her death- but feels we are naïve moralists who fail to see that times have changed, that in our era things were not as tough as they are now. At a point I asked if he ever thought about the girls he recruits for his clients and whether he would recruit his sister for one of them? The line went silent at the other end for a while, then he answered that some of the girls use the money to pay their fees and take care of their needs. I was patient enough to drive home my point, which I believed he understood but was blinded by the gains of the business to answer.

    What intrigued me about my anonymous caller was his level of coherence in defending what he believed in. Even though we play on two diametrically opposing camps, I sensed a leader that can be mentored to channel his intellect toward something he can be proud of. I tried the best I could to let him know that any form of success predicated on the debasement of another human being is not true success. Agreed, he may have three cars on campus and a room to himself, that in itself does not amount to success. If he’s reading this today, we can still talk.

    After he hung up I reflected deeply on the strange call. What I could deduce was a young man who was already feeling guilty for his actions and is trying to look for a vent to pour out his heart and maybe in the process be “commended” for being enterprising. But I believe it never crossed his mind that he is putting the future of some girls in jeopardy by providing a platform for promiscuity. I looked at the other side of the coin as well, which is poverty and I asked myself if he had money would he have gone into the business? When I asked him that question he was silent and honest enough to say he does not know. Throughout our discussion, never for once did my caller falter, he spoke impeccable English, unlike some undergraduates these days which led me to believe the aspect of his being a serious student.

    Alasa’s report published as our cover story last week corroborates what my caller told me. According to the report, many undergraduates are smiling to the bank, courtesy of a booming business called “pimping” on campus. They (pimps) cruise about in posh cars while their colleagues cramp into rickety campus shuttles. They live large on campus even though the source of their wealth cannot be openly discussed. From the comfort of their off-campus hostels, they negotiate high-profile deals with powerful personalities while their mates sweat it out in stuffy libraries in school.

    While we debate the falling standard of education, infrastructural decay, incessant ASUU strike, skyrocketing fees and the myriad of problems confronting tertiary education in Nigeria, we now know that we have a bigger social issue to contend with in a society that has gone haywire.

  • Reaching out to the motherless

    They strolled into the All Saints Chapel, Ugbowo Campus of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) radiating joy. Dressed in lemon green T-shirts, their faces beamed with smiles as they pranced around in the manner of children.

    But there was something missing in them. They are in search of acceptance, compassion and identity. They are kids from some orphanage homes brought together last week by Emblem of Love, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), dedicated to promoting the cause of orphans and the displaced.

    President of the group Miss Itohan Osemwengie described the forum as a platform to reach out to vulnerable children to help them discover their God-given talents.

    She said: “This season, Emblem of Love is providing a platform for these children to tell their stories and showcase their latent talent to the glory of God.”

    The event, tagged “A story never told”, gave an insight into the causes of rising crime rate, insecurity, child labour and trafficking, rape, prostitution and the erosion of moral values in the society, today.

    Miss Itohan added: “Our desire is to unravel these wrongs and proffer solutions through uprightness and responsibility.”

    Speaking through a representative, wife of the UNIBEN Vice-Chancellor Mrs A.O. Oshodin, admonished the young ones to abstain from active sexual life until they are married bec ause of the adverse effects such practice has left in the society.

    ‘”Sex was originally designed by God for marriage. As young people, you must restrain yourselves from it and be disciplined enough to zip-up.”

    Orphanages represented at the event were Compassion Caring Home, Rema Orphanage and Rehabilitation Center, and Cornerstone of Hope Foundation. The seemingly excited children rendered dance and songs to the delight of guests. Other dance groups were also on hand to thrill the audience with impressive stunts.

    The hall shook with laughter as a comedian, Efex, dished out rib-cracking jokes. The children were not left out in the fun as his jokes were mainly on nursery rhymes. The compeer, MC Casino, a comedian and former Vice President of UNIBEN Students Union Government (SUG), also held the audience spellbound at regular intervals with his jokes.

    One of the children, Otega Irikefo, a pupil of Edokpolor Grammar School, Benin City, lauded the initiative and urged individuals and corporate bodies to rise up to the occasion by showing love and helping other vulnerable children in our communities.

    “I feel very happy today because I feel appreciated and loved by the crowd that gathered here today. We need more people to step into the fray and show love and care to the unloved,” the kid told CAMPUSLIFE.

  • Yabatech: Dec 28 remains registration deadline

    Yabatech: Dec 28 remains registration deadline

    The December 28 deadline for registration for the new academic year at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos will not be extended despite complaints by students.

    The Rector of the institution, Dr M. K. Ladipo who stated this in an interview with CampusLife said the current registration period was three weeks instead of the normal two weeks.

    Mr Ladipo who spoke through the Public Relations Officer, Mr. Adekunle Adams said the college was committed to giving quality education and would not tamper with the academic calendar by extending the registration period.

    Following the resumption of the new academic session of the college on December 10, December 28 was fixed as deadline for registration. Some students however complained that the time allowed for registration was too short to raise the required fees.

    Consequently, the Students Union Government President, Babalola Afeez and VOTESA President, Kunle Taiwo have urged the tudents to comply with the deadline while urging the school authorities to extend the deadline.

    “All students should comply with the deadline and avoid extra fees that may be imposed by the college for late registration. Education is expensive but it is a valuable asset,” Babalola stated

  • Fire razes student-traders’ shops

    Fire razes student-traders’ shops

    Goods worth millions of Naira were destroyed when fire razed a row of shops at the temporary site of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State. Students and traders are counting losses after the incident, reports UCHE ANICHEBE (500-Level Law).

    I am finished. What am I still living for? Why did God decide to abandon me this time? Fire has destroyed all that I have laboured for in my life. What will my little children feed on? Why me, God? Why me?”

    These were the words of sobbing Ngozika Okoro, a garment trader, whose shop was among stalls razed by fire last Saturday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka.

    The shops were on an open space at the university’s temporary site.

    The site, which students refer to as temp site, is the hub of business activities. It is about 20 minutes drive from the permanent site. Situated at the front of the expansive former UNIZIK bus stand and surrounded by over 100 off-campus hostels, the shops are the heart of commercial activities in the varsity.

    The day was busy and eventful. It was after the day’s business that the fire started at 10.15pm. Students and some traders living close to the row of shops raised the alarm about the fire.

    Students used all kinds of weapons to break into the shops to evacuate goods. As the rescue was on, people suspected to be miscreants cashed in on the situation to loot.

    Some students, whose shops were razed, were seen running helter-skelter; others wailed. Yet others were held back by sympathisers from running into the fire.

    While waiting for fire fighters students attacked the inferno with water from a neighbouring building.

    With the arrival of the fire fighters, the rescuers were hopeful that the fire would be put out in no time.

    They were shocked when the fire fighters exhausted their water in less than three minutes after they arrived. Enraged by the development, students moved to burn down the fire service vehicle for what they called “gross display of inefficiency”. They were, stopped by other residents, who pleaded with them to get water else to put out the fire.

    The fire fighters left and never returned.

    Since the shops were built with little or no space in between them, the fire spread quickly, leaving destruction in its wake. By the time the fire stopped in the wee hours of the following day, about 27 shops and business centres, were razed.

    Some of the traders sat helplessly in front of their shops, crying profusely.

    Emma Ejiamaizu, whose Internet café got burnt, told CAMPUSLIFE: “My phone was switched off since last night, so I didn’t know what was happening. I came this morning to open for business when I saw that there is nothing to be opened. There is nothing left of my business except the carcass of burnt materials. All my computers are gone. My entire business vanished within a night.”

    In anger, a trader, who operated a boutique, said: “I thought I was lucky when I was called that people had helped me to rescue my clothes. But getting here, I found out that the goods stolen are more than what the fire burnt in my shop. I am very disappointed that this kind of thing happened in this period when my kind of business moves faster.”

    When our correspondent visited the Fire Service office to know why its officers did not come back to the scene, an administrative officer, who did not mention his name, declined to speak.

    Investigation by CAMPUSLIFE showed that the fire may have started from the shop of a food vendor, who was also the caretaker managing the shops. Mr Okey Anekwe, the landlord, sympathised with the victims. He promised to refund their rent.

    Chinazo Okeke, 500-Level Law student and manager of one of the affected business centres, told CAMPUSLIFE: “The fire started from the shop of the caretaker who runs a cafeteria. However, the turn of events shows that she (caretaker) would not be faced with any liability. Virtually all shop owners paid their rents in October. Though, the landlord has promised to refund the rent but there is a difference between promise and deed. I lost all my devices, computers and computer accessories.”

    Another student-trader, Emma Okoro, who had a viewing centre in the building, said: “I lost N300,000 worth of materials to the fire. The fire burnt my television sets, generator, satellite dishes and benches.”

  • ‘I have passion for rural medicine’

    ‘I have passion for rural medicine’

    Kelechi Adindu is in 500-Level Medicine and the immediate past president of Rotaract Club in Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital (EBSUTH), Abakaliki. In this interview with DANIEL LAWRENCE (Applied Biology), he speaks on his experience as a leader. 

    You have just relinquished power as the ninth president of Rotaract Club of EBSUTH, how do you feel?

    Well, I feel very humble about this achievement owing to the fact that it is a rare privilege to serve as the president of the biggest club in Ebonyi State varsity. I was not the best in the club but I was elected to lead and I thank God for this opportunity.

    Your tenure was dominated by health programmes, what inspired this?

    Let me say that it is because I am a medical student. And the club, apart from being institution-based, is equally based on health mission even though its members come from different disciplines. Also, I have a very strong passion for community medicine; that is why I prioritised health projects compared to other projects. We concentrated on free diabetes screening, which was done in many rural communities in Abakaliki and Owerri. Over 1,000 rural dwellers benefited from the last screening we did.

    What were the other projects you held during your tenure?

    We did a lot as regards membership empowerment, sanitation awareness, regular visits to orphanages and old peoples’ homes in Abakaliki. We also opened the space of membership for secondary school pupils in schools, such as Hope High Secondary School and Girls High School,Abakaliki. We sponsored members to participate in conferences, locally and internationally.

    What were the challenges you encountered in your tenure?

    Basically, the challenges were not unexpected. The academic strike and the instability in academic calendar and finance have been great challenges but since they were expected, I had made adequate strategy to confront them. So, I can say that the effect of the challenges was minimal since I had the support of the club to confront them.

    How were you able to combine club activities with your studies?

    In Rotaract Club, we always prepare for 18 months before taking over the mantle of leadership, which means that I was elected 18 months before taking over as the president. It follows that I was adequately prepared on how to run the office having worked closely with my predecessors. So nothing suffered. I managed my time properly having been trained in time management. In fact, I read and passed my exams very well.

    What is your advice for students?

    Students must understand the environment and society they find themselves. They must also respect their family backgrounds and embrace hard work as virtue. For Rotaract members, they should be kind to fellow men and show love wherever they find themselves and always remember that to be a member of the club is a privilege.

  • Fuel tanker explodes near Poly

    Fuel tanker explodes near Poly

    Students of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) protested the state of Ikorodu-Sagamu road last Monday after a fuel-laden tanker ran into a pit and exploded. TOLULOPE OGUNLEYE (HND II Computer Science) reports.

    Occupants of Continental Students’ hostel, Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) were asleep when they were roused from sleep by a deafening sound around 2am last Monday. In fear, they picked up few things and ran out. Outside, they discovered it was an accident.

    A petrol tanker had run into a pit dug by engineers of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) working on the Ikorodu-Sagamu road. The fuel-laden vehicle caught fire instantly.

    Students scampered for safety as the tanker spilled its content on the road. The accident and the ongoing rehabilitation of the road has disrrupted traffic movement every day along the stretch.

    Though nobody was hurt in the accident, LASPOTECH students led by their union leaders demonstrated against the state of the road. They said trailer accidents were common at the spot. They said another fuel-laden tanker fell on the spot few weeks ago, spilling its content on the road.

    “Each time accident happens on this spot, it always causes hardship for us and other road users plying this route,” one of the protesters said.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that in 2010, the wife of the former Deputy Registrar of LASPOTECH was crushed when she was driving home after visiting her husband on campus. A container fell on her car.

    “Students are daily injured on this spot. The state of this road from Ikorodu Roundabout down to Ogijo is nothing to write home about,” another protester stated.

    Some students also attributed their lateness for lectures to the state of the road. CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the Students’ Union Government (SUG), few weeks ago, wrote some concerned stakeholders to help in repairing the road. They threatened to protest if nothing was done to alleviate the suffering of students on the road.

    “After that, we saw officials of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on the road digging a very deep pit and abandoned it later. See the problem the pit has caused? Glory be to God, it didn’t happen during the rush hour and none of our students was hurt,” a SUG official told CAMPUSLIFE.

    When CAMPUSLIFE visited the scene, men of the Lagos State Fire Service were seen pulling the burnt truck out of the pit. They arrived around 4am to put out the fire.

    Students staged a peaceful protest to express their plight. They carried placards with various inscriptions.

    The Vice President of the union, Theophilus Oworu, said the Federal Government was insensitive to the plight of the people living along the road.

    The Speaker of the union, Kehinde Olofintuyi, said FERMA officials were callous to have left the heap of sand on the road. As at the time, the wreckage of the truck was still lying of the road.

  • Ex-CAMPUSLIFE reporter wins Blog award

    A former CAMPUSLIFE correspondent from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Dayo Ibitoye, has won Nigerian Blog Awards. He was adjudged the best blogger in the Science and Technology category.

    Ms Linda Ikeji, a media entrepreneur, received the Best Blogger of the Year award. Her famous blog, Linda Ikeji Blog, was adjudged best in Entertainment category. Other winners included Jobberman, who won in the Business and Purpose-driven categories.

    Dayo, a graduate of Chemical Engineering, started his blog nine months ago but gained wide audience and readership within a short period. His blog was also shortlisted in the Business category, which went to Jobberman.

    Recipient of 2011 CAMPUSLIFE’s Personality Profile prize, Dayo expressed gratitude to God, saying: “I am glad to have won the award.” He said: “I am happier to be living the dreams of Aunty Ngozi Agbo, the late CAMPUSLIFE Editor. This is because her very last article stoked my interest to be an outstanding blogger, and I thank God it is a reality today.”

    About the role and impact of blogging in the new media, he explained that vast opportunities abound in the new media for the youths “to drive transformation agenda and bring about progress.”

    Dayo, who is also a Youth Advocate, added that the new media had provided informative, interactive and intellectual platform for national debate. He urged the youths to develop themselves on the new media and social networks. “We should not just sit in dark basement and expect the society to change. We have all it takes in our hands to make the change happen,” Dayo said.