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Tag: OAU

  • OAU closed down indefinitely

    OAU closed down indefinitely

    The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State, has been closed down indefinitely, following continued protests by students.

    The students were protesting alleged poor living condition in their halls of residence.

    However, the university’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, refuted the claim that the institution had been shut down.

    He said the authorities only gave the students a mid-semester break.

    For two days that the protest lasted, many students and workers were stranded as there was heavy traffic at the institution’s main gate.

    According to the students, epileptic power and poor water supply had made the campus not conducive for learning.

  • OAU closed down indefinitely over students protest

    OAU closed down indefinitely over students protest

    Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) has been closed down indefinitely following continued protests by the students.

    The students are protesting alleged poor living condition in their halls of residence.

    However, the Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, refuted the claim that the institution had been shut down.‎

    He said that the authorities only gave the students a mid semester break.
    ‎
    For the two days that the protest had lasted, many students and workers in the university were stranded as there was  heavy traffic at the main gate of the institution.
    ‎
    According to some students, ‎epileptic power and  poor water supply had made the OAU campus not conducive for habitation

  • Don died naturally, says OAU

    Don died naturally, says OAU

    The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, has debunked reports that its lecturer, Prof. Solomon Ogunniyi, who died in his office, committed suicide.

    A statement by the institution’s spokesperson, Abiodun Olarenwaju, said the professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology died naturally.

    “It has been established by an autopsy performed by pathologists of the Obafemi Awolowo University that Prof Ogunniyi died of natural causes.

    “He did not commit suicide nor has there been any suspicion of foul play concerning the circumstances of his death.”

    He denied that the door to his office was forced open, adding that the College of Health Sciences where he was provost and the university will miss him.

  • OAU seeks students for e-learning programme

    The Obafemi Awolowo University Centre for Distance Learning (OAUCDL) has announced that applications for its 2015/2016 degree programmes in Accounting, Economics and Nursing are open.

    With a Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score of 180 and five credit passes in relevant subjects, students can enrol for the eLearning undergraduate programmes online on the university’s website (online.oaucdl.edu.ng).

    This is coming after the successful completion of examinations for 317 pioneer students to be enrolled in the eLearning programme.

    The programme was introduced in April, last year upon approval by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).  The students receive lectures at their various locations through a tablet device (VigiTabs) given to them when admitted.

    The OAUCDL Director, Prof Michael Adeyeye, said the programme has been successful.

    “We are excited about the success of this programme. This programme opens up opportunities for everybody to go to school – the worker who wants to further his studies whilst still retaining his job; as well as students who are qualified for admission but are denied due to space constraints. We are no longer limited by space and location. We have students from different states in Nigeria participating in the programme and we even have enquiries from outside Nigeria.

    “The eLearning programme is a step in the right direction. The existing higher institutions can only admit one-third of degree seeking Nigerians. E-Learning, therefore, is the way of the future,” he said.

    At the matriculation of the pioneer set, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Bamitale Omole,  assured the students that their education would not be inferior to conventional university education.

    “Our university guards jealously the integrity of its degrees and diplomas whether obtained in the conventional or distance learning mode. Hence your various curricula have gone through the usual high standards of excellence of the University Senate for which Obafemi Awolowo University is well known,” he said.

    He also noted that the three programmes are accredited and certificates would not have Distance/Online Learning stated on them.

    A pioneer student, Olawole Adebiyi, who is studying nursing, said she enjoyed the flexibility elearning offered her.

    “I have access to my lectures anytime and anywhere on my tablet. The lectures are also available for off-line viewing so I don’t have to worry about internet connection. I can pause, rewind or fast forward a lecturer. With VigiConnect on my tablet, I chat with my colleagues and lecturers. The flexibility is just awesome. I am proud to be associated with the great work that OAU has started,” she said.

     

  • How apprentice driver killed OAU 70-yr-old retiree with TOTAL-labelled tanker

    How apprentice driver killed OAU 70-yr-old retiree with TOTAL-labelled tanker

    I wept bitterly seeing my husband’s intestines packed in a bowl, says widow
    TOTAL: our transporter is in talks with the family

    Emure-Ile community near Owo, Ondo State, was in sad mood last Saturday as the remains of Chief Samuel Ojo Adewale, an illustrious son of the community and erstwhile Chief Technologist of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, were interred amid tears.

    Adewale was knocked down by a 33,000-litre tanker trailer believe to  belong to major oil marketing company, Total, a few weeks to his 70th birthday. The said trailer was said to have been driven by a motor boy who was learning driving at the time the accident occurred.

    Until his death, the late Adewale was said to have worked as a special marshal with the Osun Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps. More than 500 marshals of the FRSC and scores of Adewale’s former colleagues at OAU, where he retired in 2007 after serving in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology for 29 years, were among the numerous sympathisers that thronged Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, Emure-Ile, to pay the deceased Baba Ijo of the church their last respects.

    Eyewitness account

    Ironically, his death was said to have resulted from reckless use of the highway, a phenomenon he had campaigned vigorously against as a special marshal. On June 3, a tanker with registration number FFA 678 XA, bearing the logo of TOTAL and loaded with 33,000 litres of petrol, was said to have veered off its lane at Ipetu-Ijesa, a border town between Ondo and Osun States, crushing Adewale to death. Parts of his body were said to have been spilled on the road at the section where Owena Market is located.

    The deceased’s widow, Mrs. Olumide Adewale, said she was returning with her husband from his Emure-Ile home town to their base in Ile- Ife when the accident occurred.

    She said: “There were only two of us in the Volvo car with registration number FFE 40 AA. We were coming from Emure-Ile, Owo, where we had gone to celebrate the Ero (age grade) Festival, which he had been taking part in since 2007.

    “It was on June 3. When we got to Owena Market, he packed completely off the road to buy some yams for the people at home. I even told him that the yam would be expensive because they were usually brought in from Abuja, but he went while I remained in the car.

    “As he came back and opened the car door, the truck veered from the other side of the road and knocked him down. It ran over him and dragged him along until it ran into a container shop that also fell on the vehicle I was seated in. By the time sympathisers managed to drag me out of the car, my clothes were torn, my ribs were broken and my legs were fractured. The Volvo car was also badly damaged.

    “I could not stand up, but I managed to call the Road Safety. Some oncoming vehicles were also affected. I was later told that some other people also died.

    “The young boy who drove the vehicle was said to be learning driving with the actual driver of the trailer seated beside him. I later managed to call my brother-in-law and my son and his wife who are medical doctors.

    “The FRSC officials came and I was rushed to the Casualty Ward of  the Wesley Hospital and later to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife where I was admitted for three weeks.

    “When I sighted my husband’s corpse after three weeks, I broke into tears. All his internal organs were packed in a bowl, whereas they had earlier told me that he was receiving treatment in another ward of the hospital where I was admitted, but I could not go to see him because I could not walk.

    “The trailer is still at Ipetu-Ijesa Police Station.”

    Asked what the last words of his husband were, she said: “I saw him being pressed down by the front tyre of the trailer and he was shouting, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’  Those were his last words. I believe that was when his stomach burst. You needed to see the ugly sight.”

    She recalled that she too could have been killed if she had entered the market with her deceased husband. “I had actually loosened my seat belt and was about to come down, but he said I should wait. If I had gone with him, the trailer could have killed the two of us,” she said.

    The late Adewale’s son and OAU lecturer, Ayodele, recalled that he was in the lecture room with his Electrical Engineering students on June 3 when he got a phone call from one Mrs. Ojo that his parents were involved in an accident.

    “The woman works at OAUTH (Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospita) Ile-Ife. Of course, I knew that my parents would be coming to Ife after they had travelled home. I drove down to Ilesha and asked what went wrong,

    “When I got to Wesley Hospital about 20 minutes later, some Road Safety corps members came and I saw my mum seated in the back of their vehicle and was being taken to the emergency hall.

    “Unfortunately, I saw them going to the morgue again and I suspected that my father had died. I followed them and later went to my mum to help them stabilise her and then took her to Ile-Ife for better treatment.

    “The following morning, my medical doctor brother and I drove to Ipetu-Ijesa to see what had happened and also retrieve my parents’ personal effects. It was here that one of the people, who witnessed the scene and took photographs with their cell phones, showed me how the front tyre of the tanker trailer rested on my father’s waist.

    “I asked my younger brother to take the pictures of the scene. After an hour, I saw a towing van going to the front of the TOTAL truck with 33,0000 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) and was about to tow the vehicle. I resisted and an argument followed.

    “I started calling my brothers who are medical doctors and our lawyer. I now waited to see the driver of the truck to give an explanation, but a young man came and said that the vehicle belonged to TOTAL and they would like to empty its contents because they would be losing money. I was furious.

    “When they saw that we were upset, they went to the police station to tell the police to come and plead with us. These men were about 32, 33 years of age. When they came with the police, saying they were sorry, I told them that they should arrange to see the family.

    “The DTO came up to plead with us to allow them take away the vehicle to avoid more accidents and prevent irate mob from burning down the truck. I heeded their plea because I am a simple man.

    “We all rode down to Ipetu-Ijesa Police Station where the police told me that I should assume that my father died a natural death; that I should take it as his fate. This annoyed me the more. They thought they were talking to fools.

    “They said that the trailer was loaded with 33,000 litres of PMS and that somebody could smoke a cigarette by its side and cause a disaster or some hoodlums could siphon the contents. And if left there, they would be losing money on a daily basis.

    “In fact, some boys had earlier come and wanted to set it ablaze but I pleaded with them not to. They pleaded to take it away from the road and I accepted. On that note, I allowed them to take the contents and move the truck away from the road to avoid another accident.

    “I also removed all my parents’ personal effects from the Volvo car and left it at the police station.

     

    Twists to the story

    “But later at the police station, the story changed. The DTO started singing another song. He told the truck driver and his apprentice to relax; that he would settle it. This shocked me to the marrow. I was surprised that a Nigerian policeman would say this and it made me to lose confidence in him. Since then, the case has been on.

    “While I was agitating that they should not take away the truck, a man who identified himself as a senior official of TOTAL, came to inspect the scene of the accident.

    “I went up to him and he said he was sent to ascertain what had happened. His personal assistant was taking down notes. He gave me his number and I was shocked when he said that the truck on which TOTAL was inscribed actually did not belong to TOTAL but one Mr. Ufot.

    “Later, they said it was owned by Real Gold Company. But I don’t want to know Real Gold or Ufot.

    “We will soon go to court. But you know that the courts have not been working for some time. When they resume, we will file our case as we have contacted our lawyer.

    “What pained us most is the way and manner the owners of the truck and the police are treating the case; that nothing will happen. Imagine a Nigerian police officer conniving with suspects that killed over 10 people.”

    The first born of the deceased, Dr. Abiodun Adewale, a medical doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, also accused the police of trying to compromise its investigation.

    Dr. Adewale, who claimed that the man who drove the truck was an apprentice and that the vehicle’s particulars had expired, said: “The DTO wrote ‘brake failure’ and I asked him whether he could prove it. I asked whether he had called the VIO to inspect it. How can you be sitting here under a tree, writing in a relaxed mood and saying it is brake failure?

    “Let’s ask a sincere question. The driver was going straight and had brake failure. There was a ditch but he did not go there. It was brake failure that made him to swerve?”

    However, the Corporate Affairs Manager of Total Nigeria  Plc, Albert Mabuyaku, who confirmed that the  truck which killed the deceased, belongs to a  transporter with the company, denied that the driver was an apprentice.

    He said: “That information is not correct; the driver was trained in our transport school in Ibadan, Oyo State, and has  a valid driver’s licence.”

    Mabuyaku also told The Nation that the transporter was already talking with the aggrieved family.

    According to him, “The family is making a claim of N6 million, whereas she (transporter) is offering N2 million, which the family is not willing to accept.  I know that they are talking.”

    The Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, said the allegations against the police were not true. She said the police was not a Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO) to determine the state of the truck as at the time of the auto crash.

    According to her: “What the police can do in this situation is to recommend the case to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice and with the police investigation and the VIO report, the case can be charged to court.”

    She disclosed that the suspect (the errant driver) had been charged to court for dangerous driving, causing the death of people and causing damage to property. She also said that the case the last time it came up in court was adjourned till September 29 for further hearing, while the case file had been sent to to DPP for legal advice.

  • Rating OAU’s rating

    What Nigeria is hobbled on all fronts is a reality enormously supported by the existential woes of a disproportionate majority of its inhabitants. The country’s key institutions are effectively dysfunctional where they are not totally moribund. It is the reason behind its continual starkly horrible position among the columns of countries with uninspiring records on good governance and human development initiatives. Whether it is the Ibrahim Index on African Governance of  September 2014 which rated Nigeria as an eminent member of the group of the worst governed countries in Africa, or the UNDP Human Development Report of the same year which ranked the country low on all vital markers of development, the bald fact is that the most populous black nation on earth is very much in the woods of myopic leadership, wanton corruption, institutional anomie, pervasive lawlessness, unsustainable economic policies, and avoidable crippling youth unemployment.

    The knowledge factories of the country are not without their tell-tale signs of persistent decay and progressive decline in quality along the three legs on which they are propped, namely research, teaching, and community service. Nigeria’s higher institutions of learning regularly fare well in operating at a distance from the culture of excellence that defines other lighthouses of knowledge in other places, beginning from a few countries like Ghana and South Africa on the African continent. Having lost the light in their houses owing to a number of avoidable factors, it is hardly any surprise that the products of our higher institutions of learning are everything but round and sound. It is even of no surprise that parents who can afford it now prefer to dispatch their wards, posthaste, to other countries whose educational systems are firmly rooted in the earth of high standard and quality performance.

    But even when it appears some of our higher public educational institutions are casting off the burdening bog of lacklustre performance in the execution of their objectives, there is always some totally preventable disappointing reality that often stands out like a sore thumb. In the shining armour of a few federal universities in Nigeria inching towards a resurgence of the best tradition of a university, there is always a depressing chink.

    It is against the foregoing backdrop that one views the recent ranking of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) as the best higher institution of learning in Nigeria. According to reports in some national dailies and online news portals, an international institute which concerns itself with ranking universities across the world, Cybermetrics Lab of Spain, considered OAU as the primus inter pares for the fifth unbroken time, with the universities of Lagos and Ilorin trailing behind in the second and third positions respectively. The research organisation, which is owned by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, based its assessment on such areas as the curricular, research, academic and general administration of the university.

    Ordinarily this should delight the heart, considering the fact that the indices which the international research group considered in reaching its conclusion in the ranking of OAU as the best are critical to the continuous relevance of any university that is not a knowledge factory in name and structures mainly. Research, needless to stress, is the lifeblood of any higher institution of learning. It is the long-winding, circuitous, interminable path to the treasure troves of knowledge that can help to scale down mountainous socio-economic problems. The same is true of teaching, curricular design and administration. Where those are sensibly handled and intelligently coordinated, the entire country will be the better for it.

    While I agree that OAU in research outputs, and to a certain degree in its curriculums in some programmes, is showing more than a promise to connect fittingly with the culture of best practices in the real academic world, I should like to observe that some chinks abound in the magnificent armour of the university in the areas of teaching and general administration. I have robust interactions with a few students of the university across some departments. They regale me with horrid tales of how comfortable some of their lecturers are with boycotting lectures or habitually turning up late for lectures. The ones who barely show up and those who stroll in thirty minutes late for a lecture of one hour all have something in common – arrogant silence. They often consider it below them to explain their inexcusable absences or justify their half-hour appearances. I have been told repeatedly about some of the female lecturers in the Faculty of Education giving such reprehensible excuses like going to the salon for their hairdos. Also, lecturers gladly ignore their lectures all in the name of going to pick their children in schools.

    There are other lecturers who consider it a transgression for their students to raise questions on their ‘lectures’. They frown gravely at the whole idea of being questioned on certain points, a development which astoundingly negates a core essence of a university. Nevertheless, a disproportionately high number of students continue to return positive assessments of these misbehaving lecturers whenever they are to attend to the lecturer assessment sheet designed by the university. Students betray their consciences to do that because they have been threatened by their lecturers and so fear the backlash of poor grade or delay in graduation. While there are diligent, disciplined and dedicated lecturers with enviable work ethics in OAU, I fear to report that those completely opposite at various levels are gaining wider space.

    Rather than dismiss these claims, the school management would do well to investigate them. They will not sweat much before they discover those mortifying practices. The organisation which rates the school in that cheering manner may be unaware of the trouble with teaching and the attitude of lecturers to teaching in OAU, but the top echelons of the school must never enjoy the self-deception encouraged by the tide of the positive rating. They must avoid the false comfort that such rating is likely to inspire, considering the subsisting dent in the area of teaching. Enviable research culture and good curriculums will not take care of the culture of teaching, just as shoddy attitudes of lecturers cannot help in grooming the round and sound students who can give good account of themselves anywhere.

    Moreover, there are equally appalling tales to tell in the area of general administration. Many of the non-teaching staff of OAU can be terrible when it comes to doing their jobs. They are mostly incompetent, unfriendly, and slothful. Even the school management can be very disappointing and draconian in their management of crises. Their recent response to the actions of the Non-Academic Staff Union of the university further revealed management inadequacy. Even issues concerning student welfare, protests, and demands are too often managed ineptly, thus affirming the view that Nigerian university mangers need more than a crash course in human and material management.

    OAU may have added another feather to its small cap; but its top officials must note that rather than mafficking, they need to rise stoutly to check the menacing tide which seeks to totally erode the quality and substance of teaching and general administration under their watchful eyes. Otherwise, Africa’s most beautiful campus risks becoming the white, outwardly glittering but inwardly rotten sepulchre the Nazarene talks about in his parable.

     

    • Adediran wrote in from Enuwa, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
  • OAU still best university

    OAU still best university

    Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife has retained its ranking as the best in the country.

    According to the latest web ranking of world universities by the Cybermetrics Lab of Spain, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) reputed to be the largest public research body in the world, OAU remains ahead of others in the nation.

    A statement by the institution’s spokesperson, Abiodun Olarewaju, said: “Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was rated as the best in Nigeria while the Universities of Lagos and Ilorin came a distant 2nd and 3rd in positions.

    “This is the first time in the history of higher education in Nigeria where a particular university, like OAU, would maintain being the first and the best in the country for more than four consecutive times.”

    OAU’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Bamitale Omole, attributed the consistent ranking of the institution to the hard work and dedication of the academic, administrative and technical staff.

    Omole said OAU will not rest on its oars until it becomes the best in Africa and one of the top ten in the world.

  • OAU remains best university in Nigeria

    The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has been ranked the best university in Nigeria by Webometrics.

    According to the latest web ranking of world universities conducted by the Cybermetrics Lab of Spain, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), OAU was rated as the best in the country

    A statement by the insitution’s spokesperson, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, stated that in the newest ranking, which was released last Monday, “Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, was placed, ranked and rated as the best University in Nigeria, while the Universities of Lagos and Ilorin came a distant 2nd and 3rd in positions.

    ” This is the first time in the history of higher education in Nigeria where a particular university, like OAU, would maintain been the first and the best in the country for more than four consecutive times.”

    The statement quoted the institution’s Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Bamitale Omole, as applauding the ranking and ascribing the first position which OAU has been maintaining for the past years to the hard work and dedication to duty of the academic, administrative and technical staff.

    He said the midas touch of the staff has placed the university far and above more than one hundred (100) other universities in Nigeria.

    Prof. Omole re-emphasized his determination to make training and retraining of staff, on constant basis, his topmost priority, adding that he would not rest on his oars until OAU becomes the best in Africa, and one of the top ten in the world.

  • OAU students hail Soyinka at 81

    Students of the Department of English and Literary Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun Stateý have hailed Prof Wole Soyinka as he marked his 81st birthday. They described the Nobel Laureate as a blessing to the nation, saying the playwright has proven his mettle in literary world.

    In a congratulatory message to the literary icon, President of National Association of English and Literary ýStudies (NASELS), Sodiq Oyeleke and Assistant ýGeneral Secretary, Afeez Gbadamosi, said Soyinka was an inspiration to all Nigerians, especially the students.

    The message reads: “We align with well-wishers from around the world to celebrate our icon and social justice activist, Prof Wole Akinwande Soyinka, as he begins another decade of abundant vitality. It is a blessing for Nigeria to be endowed with a cerebral playwright and intellectual giant, who has changed the course of Nigerian literature for the better. There is no gainsaying that every material literature students read today has input of Soyinka in one form or the other.”

    The students also praised Soyinka for his efforts in promoting African beliefs, values and culture.

    The massage added: “We respect the Nobel Laureate’s staunch advocacy for the preservation and promotion of African cultural values and beliefs. Today, we celebrate a man with strong moral fibre, who never loses thirst for knowledge despite his unprecedented success in the realm of literature.

    “Soyinka’s deeds and writings give credence the aphorism that pen is mightier than sword. As good students of history, we are not oblivious of his firm stance against despotic regimes of the military rulers through his poems, prose, plays and caustic observations.

    “His works has always been warning against persecution, segregation, corruption, racism and injustice. With this, ý English and Literary Studies students of OAU extend their birthday greetings to Soyinka and wish him good health.”

  • OAU asks students to vacate school

    The authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, have asked students to vacate the campus.

    The call came last Sunday after the university’s senate’s emergency meeting.

    Investigation revealed that the closure of the institution tagged “mid-semester break” was linked to the continuous protest and shut down of facilities on the campus by workers under the aegis of OAU chapter of the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU).

    The workers, who started with a warning strike penultimate Wednesday, alleged that they have not been paid their hazard allowances for about 64 months.

    During the protests, the aggrieved workers shut down the school gates, the Senate Building and the library.

    During the protest, vehicular movements were disrupted with the main entrances blocked for one week.

    The University’s spokesman, Biodun Olanrewaju, said the university declared a “mid semester break”, not closure.

    He denied that the break was connected to the workers’ protest, saying that the school only wanted its students to go home and rest.

    Olarewaju said: “At Sunday’s emergency meeting , the Senate approved that the management give the students mid-semester break, not closure.

    “We will communicate to you in due course. The students should enjoy their Sallah celebrations.”

    NASU Chairman Wole Odewunmi threatened to shut down the university. He said: “For the past 64 months, we are owed hazard allowance and we have had several meetings but no results.

    “After this, if the management refuses to respond to our demands  we will notify the management of our strike. This is just a notification.”