Category: Campus Life

The second phase of the biennial seminar for CAMPUSLIFE correspondents nationwide was held last weekend. AYODEJI ADESINA, SIKIRU AKINOLA, MUIBAT SALAM, PHILIP OKORODUDU and TAIWO ISOLA write that the workshop was educative.

They came from higher institutions across the country for the 10th CAMPUSLIFE workshop and 4th Awards ceremony.

Held in Elizabeth Hall of the Citilodge Hotel, Lekki, the workshop with the theme: The role of media in national rebirth was co-sponsored by Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc. For over four hours, the CAMPUSLIFE correspondents listened to seasoned journalists.

Editor of The Guardian, Mr Martins Oloja, who was the guest speaker, arrived around 10:50am. Clad in a black suit, purple shirt and a tie to match, Oloja was given a rousing welcome by the student-journalists.

Oloja addressed contemporary issues affecting journalism, saying there was a disconnect between theoretical and practical perspectives of media practice. Charging the participants to maximise their skills and potentials, Oloja urged them to contribute their quota to nation building.

He said the forces of globalisation had changed the face of journalism, adding that they were more potent than those of insurgents in the North new Niger Deltas. He condemned the education curriculum that made Mass Communication and Journalism students to be taught by teachers, who never practised the trade.

“We are aware that many of you in Journalism and Mass Communication schools are being trained by trainers that never practised anywhere. This is a huge challenge to all of you in our media environment where there is a mysterious disconnect between the media industry and the training institution,” Oloja said.

He told the youngsters to acquire knowledge that would not only keep them abreast of happenings around them but also make them to be relevant in the present digital world. “You are what you know. Expand your mind and read happenings from across the world. You will not be able to manage well if you don’t have adequate knowledge. Read books on grammar, read good books to improve the quality of your thinking and communication,” he told the students.

Oloja condemned “brown-envelope journalism”, saying: “Reporters do not feel that investigative reports can change career and even fortunes beyond the obnoxious brown envelopes that cannot change anybody’s life. A well-investigated story can bring money through the writing of good books that can arise from the consequences.”

Earlier, the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Nation, Mr Victor Ifije, appreciated the students for their commitment, creativity and innovation.

Speaking through the Online Editor, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, Ifijeh urged participants to brace for greater challenges of employment.

“Nobody will create a space for you in any industry if you don’t have a bright idea. You have to be innovative to succeed in this changing world,” Ifijeh said.

A Public Relations practitioner and husband of the late CAMPUSLIFE Editor, Mr Agbo Agbo, charged the campus journalists to be agents of change. He urged the students to stick to the values they learned from his late wife.

Mr Joe Agbo Jr., a reporter with The Nation, engaged the students on the benefit of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He urged participants to see NYSC as an opportunity to contribute to national development.

Students said the session was educative. Zeenat Ibrahim, a Corps member, described the seminar as captivating, praising Oloja’s choice as guest speaker.

She said: “The role of media is being examined at a time the nation is passing through a phase in profligacy and corruption. This lecture is indeed captivating because it deals with the fundamental of the problem affecting our country.”

Another student, Msonter Anzaa, 200-Level Medicine, who attended the seminar for the first time, thanked Coca Cola Nigeria Limited and NBC for their sponsorship.

After the lecture, the students visited Campos Square Stadium on the Island to watch a novelty football match between ex-Super Eagles’ players and Nollywood actors. The match was in partnership with Coca Cola Nigeria Limited to eliminate discrimination against HIV/AIDS victims.

The students had an opportunity to interact with former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who was the chairman of the game.

Among the ex-international that participated in the game were Austin Okocha, Kanu Nwakwo, Daniel Amokachi and Celestine Babayaro. In the celebrity team were Segun Arinze, Fred Amata, Sound Sultan, MI, Dr Sid, Mike Ezuronye, John Njamah, ID Cabasa and popular movie actor cum comedian, Saka.

Tomiwa Bello, ND II Wolex Polytechnic, said: “This is the happiest moment of my life. I couldn’t have believed that I could see the likes of Gowon, Kanu and Okocha in my life. I appreciate the sponsors of this workshop for this opportunity.”

Yinka Olatunbosun, 200-Level Industrial Chemistry, Ibrahim Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai, Niger State, said: “Meeting Gowon is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Coca-Cola and NBC have done a great job for supporting this platform of young intellectuals, who are poised to change the condition of not only their immediate environments but also the nation at large.”

The students took photographs with the music artistes.

Contributors to the Campus Life pages were rewarded last weekend in a ceremony held at Bespoke Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos. TOMIWA BELLO, ADEBISI ADENIJI, OLIVIA USHIE and MABEL OPARA report.

The road to Bespoke Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos was not smooth for CAMPUSLIFE correspondents last Friday. There was a down pour at the Matori, Lagos corporate headquarters of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation where they had converged in the morning. The traffic gridlock from Lagos mainland to Lekki was something else.

By the time they arrived at the venue, guests were already seated. One after the other, the students alighted from the white Coaster and two Hiace Big Bumper buses that conveyed them.

Welcome to the fourth CAMPUSLIFE award ceremony, an annual event organised to recognise and rewards the contributors to the eight-page pullout.

No sooner had the students gently filed into the expansive hall than the programme started. Basorge Tariah, a popular comedian, was the compere. He opened the ceremony with a joke about the National Anthem.

Afterwards, a minute silence was observed for the departed Campus Life Editor, Mrs Ngozi Agbo, who died during childbirth in a Lagos hospital. In an emotion laden voice, Mr Agbo Agbo, eulogised his late wife, who he described as a complete woman.

In his welcome address, the Communication Affairs Manager of Coca Cola Nigeria Limited, Mr Peter Muruiki, said the company believed in the future of Nigeria, and as such as would continue to sponsor the youth-oriented programmes. He praised the students for using their pens to dig into pertinent campus issues to rid their schools of crime and immoral conduct.

Muruiki, charged the students to impart the values they had acquired through the platform to other youth in the society. He reiterated the company’s resolve to continue to partner with The Nation to deliver a responsible generation that will develop Nigeria.

The Online Editor, Mr Lekan Nation’s Otufodunrin who represented the managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr Victor Ifijeh, said management would continue to nurture young Nigerians to the positive side of life. He praised the students for sharing in the newspaper’s philosophy, which is to defend the freedom of the citizens through credible reports from campuses across the federation.

A Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) expert, Mr. Jamiu Badmos, delivered a lecture on stress management. He highlighted many ways through which stress could lead to unhealthy life and death. He urged, through the lecture, the audience to always take time away from active work to relieve the body of pile-up stress, which he said may lead to untimely death.

Delivering a lecture entitled: The role of media in national rebirth, Dr Austin Tam-George, Executive Director, Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies (ICCS), Lagos, described media as a platform for an endless traffic of ideas and opinion.

He said: “The information we get might be shaped by personal or group ideology, location, experience, structure ownership of the medium itself, class and ethnicity. Therefore, a great deal of media literacy is often needed on our part in order to know the open as well as the hidden motivations behind the news or other information.”

The media, he said, must play its role in exposing injustice, upholding the rule of law, encouraging debate on issues of popular interest, be in the vanguard of the fight against corruption and hold media practitioners to the highest ethical standard among others.

After the lecture, it was time for the presentation of awards. The atmosphere became charged as Otufodurin stepped out to read the modality through which the winners were selected by the panel of judges headed by the Editorial Board Chairman of The Nation, Mr Sam Omatseye.

The award was divided into eight categories, which included Culture Report, Campus Sport, Personality Profile, Opinion Writing, Campus Politics, Investigative Report, Entertainment Report and Campus Life Reporter of the Year. He said the winner in each category was named after the aggregate of scores from the judges was done.

The Culture Report was won by Emeka Attah and Ngozi Emmanual, both of whom graduated from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK). Chisom Ojukwu, a 500-Level Chemical Engineering student of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), won the Sport category.

Others were Gerald Nwokocha, a Corps member serving in Abuja, won the Campus Politics; Gilbert Alasa, 400-Level Foreign Languages, University of Benin (UNIBEN), won Opinion Writing; Habeeb Whyte, 500-Level Law University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) won the Personality Profile; Uche Anichebe, 500-Level Law, UNIZIK, won Investigative Reporting and Esther Mark, a graduate of Mass Communication at the University of Jos (UNIJOS) won the Entertainment Category.

Gerald, who graduated from the department of Information Technology, FUTO, was adjudged as the Campus Life Reporter of Year. His investigative report on a Corps member killed by soldiers, who mistook the victim for a Boko Haram member, was rated high by the judges. Gerald said he was happy that his efforts paid off but urged well-meaning Nigerians to help the parents of the victim to get justice.

Responding on behalf of the awardees, Chisom urged the campus journalists not to let the dream of the late Mrs Agbo die.

At the event were officials of Coca Cola Nigeria Limited led by the Community Affairs Manager, Mr. Emeka Mba, his NBC counterpart, Ms Yomi Onakoya, Editor of The Nation, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, member of the paper’s Editorial Board, Mr Olakunle Abimbola and the News Editor, Mr Adeniyi Adesina.

Others were the representative of the Rector of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) and the Dean of Students’ Affairs (DSA), Mr O.T. Raheem, representative of Permanent Secretary, Deputy Governor’s Office, Lagos State, Mr Kunle Ajayi, Prof Segun Adekoya of English Department of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Prof Kate Omenugha, immediate past Head of Mass Communication, UNIZIK, who represented the Vice-Chancellor.

Others were officials of SIFE Nigeria led by Mrs Elizabeth Okwoho and lecturers from Lagos State University (LASU) and University of Lagos (UNILAG).

While planning for the just concluded 4th Campuslife Student Award and Workshop for 2012, we struggled with the theme for this year and eventually settled for the title of the column for today. Most Nigerians will agree with the view that the country is in a dire strait today and nearly every facet of leadership and the economy is facing huge challenges. We tabled the theme with our sponsors, Coca-Cola Nigeria and Nigerian Bottling Company, collectively referred to as the Coca-Cola System in Nigeria and they felt it is a nice theme to discuss. The Coca-Cola System in conjunction with this great newspaper, The Nation, swung into action to source for credible Nigerians that would do justice to this theme.

In her quest to ensure that students are thoroughly equipped to face the challenges in a rapidly changing world, the visionary of this noble idea, late Mrs. Ngozi Agbo often organised two workshops and an award ceremony annually. The first workshop, which is held last May, focused on entrepreneurial and other skills that will help them to look inwards and not depend on the government to provide them with jobs. The second workshop, which always comes with award, discusses issues of national importance which centers more on leadership, ethics and values.

The last year’s edition, the distinguished speaker was Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a lady who has, and has continued to impact the youths of this country positively. She spoke on The Place of Vision and Values in Leadership.

At the end of it all we settled for two gentlemen who have proven their mettle in more ways than one. Dr. Austin Tam-George, who spoke at the Award ceremony, is a communication and Industrial Relations strategist who consults for blue chip companies like Chevron, Shell, Mobil Oando, NLNG, Petrogas and a host of other companies. Mr. Martins Oloja is the recently appointed editor of The Guardian newspaper, a distinguished and thorough bred professional journalist who has spent years in a profession he loves dearly. And what a time it was for the students and guests! Participants were given a head start on what to expect in the immediate and long term Nigeria. I will share a recap of the papers here for the benefit of those who could not make it because of its relevance to our youths.

Tam-George started his lecture with the roles of the media in society especially the fact that it serves as a platform for the sharing of ideas or where ideas meet and clash. Media practitioners, he argues, go beyond the headlines to investigate issues pointing out that not all information from the media represents the totality of reality; in essence, there are certain things in the media that may not be factual. “The information” he stated “may be shaped by personal or group ideology, location, experience, structure ownership of the medium itself, class, ethnicity etc.” In order to sift through this he argued that “a great deal of media literacy is often needed on our part to know the open as well as the hidden motivations behind the news or other forms of information.”

Since the theme is on national rebirth, our speaker used two definitions of a nation to qualify his lecture. The first was that of former Soviet strongman, Joseph Stalin who said; “A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.” He also quoted Otto Bauer, author of Social Democracy and the Nationalities Question who says “A nation is an aggregate of people bound into a community of character by a common destiny.”

The elements of a nation, according to our lecturer include: unity in diversity, the rule of law, democracy, cultural freedom, protection of minority rights, the principle of egalitarianism and justice for all. He concluded by saying the media has a role to play in nation building by doing the following: Exposing injustice, insisting on the rule of law by scandalizing instances of impunity, holding public office holders to account, encouraging debate on issues of popular interest, encouraging an acceptance of diversity/difference and holding media practitioners to the highest ethical standards.

In his 14 page lecture, Martins Oloja took a different path by urging the students to first realize that journalism is still considered the best profession in the world, according to a World Bank Institute publication and the legendary Larry King of the famous Larry King Live programme aired on CNN before his retirement. While charging the students to brace up, he drew their attention to the fact that the forces of globalisation have significantly changed the face of journalism – and it is irreversible!

“The relevance of the message here” he noted “is that we are discussing in the context of our very old tertiary education curricula being used to train and teach undergraduates we expect to fit into the 21st Century industry and market that forces of globalization shape daily! Besides, we are aware that many of you in journalism and mass communication schools are being trained by trainers that have never practised anywhere. That is a huge challenge to all of you in our media environment where there is a mysterious disconnect between the media industry and the training institutions. We practitioners should be part of the teaching and training on writing and working for the mass media.”

He drew our attention to some of the facts we have to face in this context which is instant news as readers; listeners and viewers can no longer wait till tomorrow before getting the details of the newsbreaks. “So, sooner than later, market forces will tell our proprietors that they may not be able to rely on regular streams of incomes to pay salaries and allowances and even run their operations”.

The hardest hit is the printed word as print journalism is in trouble already all over the world. Even the world’s best English language newspaper, New York Times, is not healthy at the moment. By the end of the year, one of the most influential news magazines, Newsweek will migrate to a digital platform as only an online journal. Not too long ago, a Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, had to rescue the NYT paper about around 2007.

Today’s news consumer can no longer be satisfied with the old style of journalism: what happened, where, when, how and who was involved? Now social media, Bloggers’ news feeds even from Yahoo, Google, The Huffington Post, Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, etc and others have taken over the news business! Even Twitter has opened up its site for anybody anywhere in the world to report events as they occur. There is trouble already for every journalist.

According to our speaker, the United States is the most affected. Every day, journalists lose jobs there. In September, this year (2012) the New Orleans, in Louisiana, joined the infamous league of old cities in the U.S state without a daily newspaper. The Times Picayune, the only daily newspaper there is no longer able to publish daily. There are many others like that. In the U.K, telephone hacking scandals in the media business family of the man who owns the news, Rupert Murdock, has added to the challenges of the news business there. Judicial inquiry on this has put the British Prime Minister in the dock.

It is only in India and Nigeria, among others that newspaper business still ‘booms’ and there is complacency, but thanks to absence of broadband Internet service in these countries. The social media have killed interest in the old style of investigative journalism: the social media even publish outright lies that are sometimes believed by gullible consumers. What is more, there are websites such as Wiki-leaks that publish what used to be noted as classified documents.