The Nation Newspaper

Tag: New generation

  • ‘ANN ‘ll build new generation of leaders’

    ‘ANN ‘ll build new generation of leaders’

    Dr. Jay Osi Samuels is the Interim National Chairman of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), an association seeking registration as a political party. In this interview with LEKE SALAUDEEN, he speaks on the vision of the group and issues that can foster national unity.

    What is your assessment of the political leaders in the country?

    I have come to the conclusion that our crop of leaders does not care about us. All what they care about is themselves, selfish interest because if they care about us, some of these things that we have that are causing problem would not have arisen in the first place. A situation where people go into politics service for pecuniary gains, instead of serving you and I; the fact that they spend so much money to get that political office and they come during election time to distribute money for people to vote for them tells you they don’t want to be held accountable because they can easily tell us that they have paid us. You can see from whatever they are doing. You can imagine recently that somebody in the National Assembly moved a motion to grant amnesty to treasury looters. Among the problems we have in the country, is that a bill that someone should be sponsoring in the National Assembly? We have been hearing about plea bargain. This is a back door way to legalise corruption; this is not fighting corruption because if they have passed that bill into law, that would have made things worse for the country. We are actually entering a dangerous zone where we should be fighting corruption from the roots we should not be encouraging it.

    What do you mean by fighting corruption from the roots?

    Corruption is not alien to Nigeria, even in mature democracies, in civilised world or developed countries, corruption is everywhere. What differentiates them from us is that their systems fight corruption and prevent it, but here we don’t have strong institutions that fight or prevent corruption and that brings us to the method of creating amnesty.

    How many people have really been tried and convicted for corruption? How many years of imprisonment and other penalties? Now we can make corruption unattractive and the first way is making people well paid and making sure your take home can actually take you home.  That also takes us back to the issue of health insurance and mortgage. That is what the government should do and not just building roads and borehole and all that stuffs. When people are well paid you can take care of your basic needs- housing, health and the rest. If government can make the housing and mortgage affordable, the average Nigerian will not be thinking about corruption as a way to make ends meet.  Even it is the minimum wage of N18, 000 you might be able to live quality life because you are not spending on health or home. If government makes houses available by mortgage, and many other things, the average Nigerian will not be looking at corruption as a way to make ends meet. I was born here and I grew up in this country, my dad was a civil servant, he did not have any business and he trained us with his salary, because it was enough.  But now how many civil servants can live on their salary, even non- government workers? And that is even if they get paid at all.  Some people could be owed 18 months’ salary. Let’s make corruption unattractive.

    At what level do you want to serve?

    I will be upfront.  When we started Alliance for New Nigeria, it was not borne out of personal ambition. It was borne out of love and service for the country. Before we start to talk about political ambition, we thought about having a platform that is entirely new where the average Nigerian can see a hope for tomorrow platform. I happen to be one of the faces of one of such vehicles – Alliance for New Nigeria. We started as a group of like-minded Nigerians, most of us are   professionals, technocrats and experts in our own areas. We can’t afford to continue to grumble and complain in our homes and offices something definite needs to be done and the current generation of leaders has failed us. They’ve been recycling and recycling themselves; they keep on telling us what they’ve been telling us for many years now that we are the leaders of tomorrow. Most of us are in our 40s now and some are reaching 50. So when will tomorrow come?

    So, we observe that they lack the idea to really move the country forward but they are not ready to relinquish that chance to us. We came forward to actually push them out. But mind you when we started we didn’t start with elections, especially 2019 elections in our calculations. We are forming a party built on ideology because we didn’t like what we’ve been seeing in Nigeria where there’s no difference other than name in. APC or PDP. You can be PDP today and jump back to APC tomorrow. It’s a shame that our fathers don’t have scruples, no shame at all. That also shows that they don’t have regards for us because they do not put us in their political calculation. But we are coming forward to say that enough is enough, because what has been keeping them going is that a whole lot of us have been too busy with our businesses, secular job, etc to worry about politics.

    In what capacity do you want to serve?

    For me, I am ready to serve in any capacity am called upon, I’m ready to serve, but right now my focus is having a true national party. Alliance for New Nigeria that is represented in all looks and crannies of Nigeria, and devoid of all the negatives and baggage of the current major political parties. We want to make sure that we do things differently and make sure that we be vehicle for getting rid of the current pack of leaders and engendering a new Nigeria, the Nigeria of our dream.  So right now we have members all over the country because our membership is open as long as you identify with our ideals. On our website, we have a registration portal, where people can register and we have members all across. Beyond that we have also invested in technological infrastructure to do massive recruitment of members in every local government in Nigeria.

     What is your appraisal of the health care system in Nigeria?

    The health care system in Nigeria needs to be worked on greatly. I don’t even know whether we have what we can call health care system again, because every aspect we look at seems not to be working. A system where you have people paying out of pocket for medical services is obsolete.  Let me say something, Nigeria has one of the best sets of brains,  in terms of clinical skills, but the environment to use that is not there.  The hospitals are not working as they should be working and the major thing is that out of pocket payment that we see in this country because a people cannot afford a service, it makes it difficult for the doctors to even give the best kind of care. For instance, when somebody comes to you, for you to properly treat the person you have to carry out some diagnosis. Looking at the patient alone, you know that he will not be able to afford the bill. So you won’t want to go the whole HUG of ordering what you should order.

    Then the infrastructural decay is another thing, but with my own experience working with the health system in the Nigeria, there is a whole plethora of problems which cut across the infrastructure, human resource capacity and policies or lack of it, but by far worse is the management mentality. Nigerians are used to a kind of managing pattern where they just chose to accept that ‘things can never get better; lets manage.’ So even when you see a situation where they want to do things better, people are still used of doing things the old way. So it is one thing that we deal with a lot and sometimes it leads to what we call ascorbic capacity.

    Let me give example.  A state government builds a road and made it wider, either three or four lanes, better than what it was. Now you see people turning one of those lanes to market stores.  At the end of the day, the one lane road that was expanded to ease traffic will become congested because of the way people are using it. Nigerians need a lot of re-orientation and is because of this continuous discrimination, continuous mental abuse that we have been used to by our leaders that just make us to do things in disorderly manner. But we have to put a lot of efforts into changing all these things and that will start with changing the current crop of leaders that we have.

    But, can you imagine in Nigeria where an officer is in charge of a budget like that? You can be sure that it won’t be released, But to come out of pocket money, people don’t pay medical bills out of their pocket rather health insurance takes care of that. The effect of a situation where just one section of a hospital is having a budget of that amount, the manufacturer of that equipment will be in business; people are employed and it goes round and round, the money goes on and on.  So we need to look at our insurance system, if we can address that, I am not an expert in health insurance, but with the little I know, it is not rocket science, we just need health insurance to discourage out of pocket payment of medical bills.

  • Reality TV Shows – Television for the new generation

    Reality TV Shows – Television for the new generation

    Reality TV shows have become the toast of the entertainment industry. In Nigeria, we have seen reality TV shows like; Gulder Ultimate Search, Amstel Malta Box Office, MTN Project Fame, Maltina Street Dance Africa, West African Idol, KoKo Mansion, Omotola: The Real Me, Make Me Beautiful become engaging television content people tune in to watch.

    One of such reality shows is the widely acclaimed Big Brother reality TV series. It is considered one of the biggest reality shows ever to have been conceived in the world with different countries staging their own versions. Nigeria is by no means left out in the Big Brother craze.  In 2006, M-Net created the Nigerian version of the show and that signaled a new dawn in reality TV shows in the country. Despite its varying controversies and the call for an outright ban, millions of people still covet the series because of its raw and undiluted entertainment that resonates with today’s generation.

    Reality TV shows have the power of taking someone from obscurity to fame. A prime example would be the Kardashians with their eponymous show, Keeping up with the Kardashians which has been on air since 2007. They have been dubbed America’s most famous family and have built a global empire from a string of endorsements and merchandises which rake in millions of dollars.

    In Nigeria, reality TV have produced some of our biggest celebrities. Music star Iyanya was the winner of the 2008 MTN Project Fame reality show and he is currently one of the hottest and most sought after musicians in Nigeria. Omawumi Megbele became famous when she came second in the first edition of West African Idol. O.C Ukeje is unarguably the biggest Nigerian actor to have emerged from a reality TV show. Ukeje won Amstel Malta Box Office (AMBO) a platform that launched his acting career. Uti Nwachukwu first participated at the celebrated Next Movie Star before entering the Big Brother Africa house. Today, Uti has since become a celebrity as he co-hosts the popular African Magic program, Jara while becoming a host for various events.

    After 10 years, Big Brother Nigeria is coming back and has now rebranded as Big Brother Naija. The number of Nigerians who auditioned for the show tells a story of how the new generation want to be on TV and become famous. While some are a bit skeptical on the return of what they see as a controversial show, majority cannot wait to have something to keep them entertained for the next three months.

    Reputable brands are also jumping on the trend, they know they can reach out to their target audience through these shows. Payporte, the biggest online shopping portal in Nigeria is the main sponsor of Big Brother Naija.

    Big Brother Naija will air exclusively on DStv and GOtv platforms. And for the next three months, we will watch 12 strangers in 1 house. The 12 strangers will become household names at some point and viewers will also have a favorite. The winner of the show will not only become a celebrity but also a millionaire, as the prize money is a whopping 25 million Naira.

    Reality TV will be here for a long time. We have seen it create new generation of celebrities and we will see more celebrities come out of the shows. In reality, the controversies, drama and scandals are what draws the new generation of TV watchers to such shows.

  • Open letter to a new generation

    The thing about age is, it is catching. It’s like a hysterical jester lying in wait for the fool.

    I want to tell you about Mrs Okoro. Before l turned nine, school was a vaguely irritating distraction from the pursuit of happiness in play and adventure. Every school day, I’d wear my red checked dress and burgundy beret uniform and passively submit to school. l was not a rebellious child. I was a bored child who daydreamed through classes until lunch when the school served asaro and chicken with bananas and ground nuts as snacks. That was until l got to Mrs Okoro’s class. Mrs Okoro made letters become words, words which became stories, stories which became my life. I loved her dearly, perhaps it was transference as l’d only just lost my mother but at nine, l started going to school because she was there. One day walking out the gates after school, l saw Mrs Okoro getting into a bus ahead of me so l ran across the road to get into the same bus. I didn’t bother checking for traffic. The next thing l remember is thinking heaven looked rather like Akoka road. I had been hit by a car and was staring up at the concerned faces of Mrs Okoro and others. The driver was distraught; he was a student at Unilag and in the moment before pain cut through my adrenalin, l remember being happy l had been hit by a grand university student not some infernal danfo bus driver.

    He took me to the university health centre where the nurses gave me a large cone of ice cream to comfort me before treating me and putting me in the big university bus home. My heart was swollen with pride as the shiny big bus drove down our dirt street in Bariga. Not a dime was exchanged, no one called my father at work, there were no mobile phones and we had no phone at home. There was no need; the system took care of me. It was Nigeria 1980.

    Recently on my way out of Nigeria, the Murtala Mohammed airport was thrown into chaos, people were sweating and swearing, passengers stranded as all electronic equipment had stopped working. The place stank because there was no water to clean the toilets. I watched the white airline crew walk by with barely contained derision as they gingerly sidestepped the mess. The problem wasn’t that there was no electricity at the airport, that’s normal; it was that someone had not supplied the diesel to run one of the generators.

    I sat in a corner, observing people; those who fascinated me most were the band of men, mid30s to late 40s, Nigeria’s emerging business and political elite. I recognised them by their Louis Vuitton luggage, logo jacket and velvet slippers, disguising their social anxiety with an unabated desire for the pointless. Seemingly oblivious to their environment, they strutted about backslapping and rolling their r’s, being cocky, rude and dismissive to everyone.

    What stuck me most about these preening peacocks though, was their total lack of shame at the state of things. They are the band of new-Africa-rising, proudly Nigerian jingoists, living in a glass bubble as far removed from the Nigerian reality as you can get. For them patriotism is not a recognition of failure and a determination to redress it, but a slogan to be worn, tweeted or liked.

    Later on, crammed into a rather unsanitary first class lounge, I watched them posturing for furtive young female travelling companions, clearly under instructions to pretend not to know them. The odd thing is that these are no corn farmers made good from my native Ida ogun, these lounge dwellers are very well educated and uncommonly well travelled Nigerians. A defective fraction of the immense amount of brainpower and knowledge Nigeria has produced.

    I often hear foreigners perplexedly comment that Nigerians are some of the best educated, urbane and confident black people they have ever met, so how come the country is so, well, Shit?

    The question therefore should be, what is it about the country that makes it impossible for its bright, hard working, resource rich population to organise itself into collective prosperity? What is it that turns some of Nigeria’s brightest technocrats into hand wringing, head-scratching incompetents when they achieve power?

    You see, Nigeria was founded as an economic proposition to collect and remit resources to the empire, with the British government entrenching a feudal, centralized, western-education-phobic elite in the North and a westernized, Judeo-Christian, anglicised elite in the south.

    On departure, these elites with their distinct cultural differences but common goal of avarice became the new imperialists. Imbued with a servitude underpinned by self-loathing and a voracious appetite to mimic their former bosses, they confused westernisation for civilisation and like all counterfeiters concentrated on the surface of things. Thus, to their thinking, the more resources of the land they could coral, the more trappings of the west they could possess and the more civilised they could become.

    That unwelcome process continues today.

    Each time the elite is replaced, it is by a new generation similarly afflicted and culturally insecure with the same desire to fraudulently acquire a large share of the common wealth themselves.

    This is self-loathing in action. It is a terminal disease.

    The system designed by the British was to serve the big empire. It was not designed to work for us and never will.

    The dysfunction at Nigeria’s heart remains because it serves the interests of whichever big man muscles or cheats his way into power. (Note; I said man, the system will never allow for a woman, at least not a woman who won’t do the needful.)

    But what about the people? What about the youth?

    The subtext of Obasanjo’s recent letter to Jonathan is what they used to call two fighting boy and boy in the streets of Shomolu. The people can sense this it is not their fight; they are as disconnected from the elite as the elite are from them.

    They know their place is to submit and dream. They want to be the next big cat. They have no real distaste for those who have stolen their future; often they just want to replace them. The grudging admiration seeping through their envy fuelled whimpers of protest reveals fragile egos easily stroked by association with those who have raped them, then thrown them a bit of Vaseline and warm towels.

    Nigeria in 1980 was by no means a perfect place but would my counterpart in Shomolu today have a Mrs Okoro or such access to public health care?

    Let us sound a warning to our “betters,” as they push and pull the country one way and another in their hustle; it is untenable, there will be a snapping, one, which no one can predict.

    So what shall we do? What will the young intellectual elite of today do differently?

    A youth cultural revolution of ideology and values perhaps? Jettison the hypocrisy, the pseudo religious, anti-women, anti-children, anti-poor patriarchy. Turn away from the bigotry, the megalomania, and the cultural bravado. Free yourselves and your future. Speak the truth to power and each other, not just on twitter, to face. Refuse to participate in the racket, the hustle, and the lie. Be better than that which is on offer.

    Thatcher, a deeply polarising figure, but outstanding leader once said;

    “Watch your thoughts for they become words.

    Watch your words for they become actions.

    Watch your actions for they become habits.

    Watch your habits for they become your character.

    And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.

    What we think, we become. ”

    Start now before you become the company CEO, the minister, the commissioner, the senator. Lead from within and without.

    Abraham Lincoln once said of citizens desiring change; make me. Make your elders and leaders take you seriously. Help the few good men and women in power by showing there is a generation who can and will stand with them. Insist on the structural and constitutional changes that which will free our collective creativity, innovation, science, ideas and culture.

    Civilisation is neither westernisation nor exclusive to other climes. It is building a society on values and institutions designed to protect not the strongest but the weakest as we are only as strong, as honourable, as respected and valued as the sum of our weakest parts.

    Now what? My job is to tell stories with context, sometimes l don’t know the end. Write your own ending. Shape history.

    •Excerpts of a paper delivered by Ms Iyanda at ThinkOyo 30under30 Awards on December 21, 2013

  • New generation at the top

    New generation at the top

    Covenant University (CU), Ota, Ogun State took an unprecedented step last month when it appointed four alumni members of its pioneer set into key positions.

    Mr Muyiwa Fadugba was appointed Registrar. Dr Ada Sonia Peters, Mr Gbenga Alalade and Mr Azubuike Ezenwoke were named as the Chaplain, Director, Physical Planning & Development (PPD) and Dean, Student Affairs by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Charles Ayo.

    Being alumni was not the reason their appointments were unique – as the same happens in many other institutions – but attaining such positions less than 10 years after graduation is what is novel in the Nigerian education landscape.

    Covenant University, owned by the Living Faith Church Worldwide, opened to its pioneer set of 1,500 students on October 21, 2002 with a vision to raise a new generation of leaders who will be experts in all areas of human endeavour.

    At 32, Fadugba, who studied Human Resource Management, is the fifth and youngest substantive Registrar of the university. He was said to have spurned mouthwatering offers from Spring Bank Plc and other blue chip companies, choosing to return to his alma mater to take up a teaching appointment. In October 2010, Fadugba was appointed the Dean, Student Affairs, becoming the first alumnus to clinch such a position. Fadugba, who has nearly rounded off his PhD in Leadership, Change Management, and Work/Life Balance in CU, belongs to some professional bodies such as: Nigerian Institute for Training and Development; Learning and Development Network International; and International Institute for Global Leadership.

    What has taken Fadugba and his peers seven years to attain takes many others, especially in public tertiary institutions, between 15 and 20 years of administration before being considered for such positions.

    While some university administrators, educators and others argue that such speedy rises cannot happen in public institutions, others make a case for exposing young and vibrant professionals to such responsibilities early as they can equally deliver.

    The Registrar is one of the principal officers in any tertiary institution. He is the administrative head of the institution, charged with overseeing the admission of students according to the rules of the institution, managing all human resource-related issues and liaising with the vice-chancellor on the daily administration of the institution.

    To attain such position in a public university, the Registrar of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka (NAU), Mr Christian Okeke told The Nation in Awka that the person must first serve in other capacities in the Registry Unit.

    Okeke, a lawyer, said he/she must spend at least three years in each cadre – starting from Administrative Assistant or Administrative Officer, before the next promotion.

    He said: “From Admin Officer you get to Assistant Registrar, from Assistant Registrar to Senior Assistant Registrar (SAR), to Principal Assistant Registrar, then to the Deputy Registrar before the Registrar rank.”

    However, he said that some people could start as Administrative Officer instead of Administrative Assistant, if the person has an experience in the administrative unit of any institution.

    Mr Olarewaju Kuye, Deputy Registrar (Information and Public Relations), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu, said a similar procedure exists in the polytechnic system.

    “Here in Lagos State Polytechnic, before you can be a registrar, you must have worked for about 20 years and you must follow the stages: admin offer II; admin officer I; assistant registrar II; assistant registrar I; senior registrar; and deputy registrar before you can be a registrar with a cognate experience of 20 years,” he said.

    The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof Mohammed Kabir Aliyu, underscored the need for years of experience to serving successfully in the position.

    “To be qualified for such a high office, one needs to have the required experience in management. Normally, senior members of staff of the universities with about 20 years experience are given positions like the Dean of Student Affairs. It is very difficult to see how anybody who graduated just seven years ago, no matter the age, can function effectively in such an office. The person being employed must have been in the system for a long time and well equipped,” he said.

    Speaking in a similar vein, Dr Rose Nwankwo, former Head of Department (HOD) Public Administration, Federal Polytechnic Oko in Anambra State, narrated how she was forced to vacate her position as HOD when she was not due for it because many complained she was not a chief lecturer. She added that seven years of graduation is insufficient to guarantee such positions, adding that the person would face numerous challenges that would be difficult for him or her to handle.

    “Registrar or Director of Works among other things, is a sensitive position, especially Registrar which is career issue; it is not by appointment, you need to get to that level,” she said.

    A lecturer at the Department of History, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Mr Tunde Odunlami, also said requisite years of experience are important for such positions besides academic qualifications.

    He said: “The Office of a Registrar requires valid experience. A person filling that position must have had at least a first degree certificate as academic qualifications, should have served first as Deputy Registrar before rising to Registrar. The individual should have passed through units and faculties in the areas of university administration, he should have passed through the Exams and Records and as a custodian of the university laws and regulations, he/she must have full grasp of the university matters and its running so as to be able to do the job.”

    However, many respondents argued that age or experience does not necessarily determine excellence.

    Justifying the appointments, the CU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ayo said graduates of the institution have been well groomed to excel given the quality of academic programmes and unique total man concept of the university. He added that despite the ages of the present crop of national leaders, they have been unable to deliver.

    He said: “We are all familiar with the saying that the age of Methuselah has nothing to do with the Wisdom of Solomon. This is a university birthed to bring a about a change in the higher education landscape of our dear country Nigeria. Covenant University is unique in a number of ways even from the programmes we have introduced and we are running. Covenant University like we all know from the vision is to be a leading world class university committed to raising a new generation of leaders. If you ask me looking at the leaders we have presently in Nigeria, where are we? Are we not able to effect a change? So you have seen our Eagles coming on board to effect a change. So it is not a function of age but what they have to offer. It is not only those positions that are being filled by our eagles; we also have a number of other positions in the university that are currently being filled by our eagles.”

    Corroborating Ayo, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof Taiwo Abioye, added that the appointments give the alumni an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt over the years from the unique leadership training of the university.

    “If we say we are raising leaders, they have to start from somewhere. Because they have been in the university we have been teaching them; they have been seeing all kinds of things and they have been practising. Here we have what we call TTG, Towards the Total Graduate; they have been involved with Total Man Concept, so they already know and they have occupied leadership positions even as students here. What we are doing now is that we are trying to put them in strategic places so that they know where the vision is, and this is to also encourage the ones coming behind them that getting out of Covenant University is not the end of everything; we believe in putting forward our alumni,” he said.

    Also, Chief Information Officer of the university, Mr Emmanuel Igban, said the appointees have proved their mettle in other positions and would excel in their current offices.

    “Considering the antecedence of these young men and woman, it is crystal clear that they are not just put in these esteemed offices by the Board of Regents of the University (an equivalent of Governing Council in public institutions) just to prove the validity of the earlier declaration by the Chancellor,” he said.

    Apart from Fadugba, Igban said the others have done well too. For instance, he said the Chaplain, Dr Peters, is the first woman to occupy the office. A graduate of Mass Communication, who just bagged her PhD, Igban said Dr Peters had been synonymous with that office right from her undergraduate years and served as the Associate Chaplain before her new appointment.

    As for Alalade, an architect, Igban said this is his second term as Director of Physical Planning and Development following his enviable records in his first tenure.

    “Alalade was Director of PPD for a year and half between 2011 and 2012, becoming the first alumnus to head such a demanding office. He was later redeployed to head same position under the Living Faith Church Worldwide where he designed and superintended massive projects, including estates and presently, the exterior beautification of Faith Tabernacle,” he said.

    Given the age of the university, Dr Sola Fosudo, a lecturer and Director of Information, Lagos State University (LASU), said the alumni are qualified for such positions since they have worked there since graduating.

    “If somebody has worked for five, six, seven years in a Registry or any Registry of an institution, I think the person can apply to be a registrar, especially if it is a young university, but a well-established university like LASU cannot employ somebody of such a young experience. I am not an expert in employment issues, so I wouldn’t know how many years it will take a person to get to that position , but you cannot compare covenant university with LASU, Covenant is a private university, which started few years ago, but LASU is going to be 30, and maybe the first set of registrar’s that worked in LASU maybe they have not worked for too long before they gave them the opportunity so it is possible,” he said.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Mr. Obini Onuchukwu also said the institution could decide to use younger people since it is not government owned.

    “They could decide to use young and energetic persons in such positions because it is a privately owned institution but such a thing can not happen in government established schools,” Onuchukwu said

    Mr Kola Adesanya, a parent with wards at CU, also supports the appointment of younger people to such positions.

    “The children of nowadays read wide and they are well equipped apart from what they are being taught in the school and access internet in whatsoever they do. There is nothing wrong and even as a parent to children in Covenant University, I feel so happy. It depends on the child’s commitment and adequate knowledge. In fact, there is possibility that someone is there to guide him, such as the vice chancellor; and this boy we are talking about is a son to the school; he has gone through the rigours of the university and he knows than the outsiders and they do not joke with the spiritual ethics of the university; he is equipped to do the job, not minding his age.

    Adesanya said Fadugba and his colleagues are even in a better position to succeed in terms of relationships with others as they would be more accessible.

    “They would be friendly to them better than the outsiders, especially nowadays that student find it difficult to get to their registrar’s office because they are always scared. But now, the students would have good rapport with the registrar even now they know he was one of them and as you see them they are young stars, it would bridge that communication gap,” he said.

    A Personal Assistant at the Caleb University, Imota, Mr Lucky Omodiagbe, said even in the world of politics and business, it is not the oldest person that is always in charge.

    “Is the president of the country the most senior person in the cabinet? No. We are talking about the ability to command respect. When we were in university, we were taught that there is no difference between the legislature and the executive. So whoever owns money has a legislated power. Let us forget about whether he would be respected or not, but if he can deliver then his worth would command respect for him,” Omodiagbe said.