The Nation Newspaper

Tag: OAU

  • ‘I had a crush on a man for 10 years’

    ‘I had a crush on a man for 10 years’

    Hollywood actress, Jumoke Aderoumu, has been in emotional pains for more than 10 years.

    The graduate of International Relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, who cut her acting teeth under prolific filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, revealed to The Nation, how for a decade, she has waited for a man who would not look her way.

    Aderounmu, who is the lead character in Toyin Aimakhu’s popular comedy flick, Alakada, made this revelation when asked if she is into any love relationship. “Believe it or not, I am not in a relationship because I have been having a crush on a man for 10 years now, even though he only got to know about my feelings two years ago, when we first met.”

    The TV presenter-turned actress who noted that her desire is for a God-fearing man, said she has been attracted to this man secretly because of his simplicity and high level of discipline.

    She said should the man give her a chance, she would marry him at once. “I am really looking forward to marriage, not just a date,” she said, adding that she would, however, respect his wish, if he turns her down.

    Not minding the fact that people might think she is cheapening herself by her advances, she said, “If people want to judge me, they are free to do so; at least I am being honest with my feelings.”

    For those who may think the actress might have been irrationally drawn to the man, probably a married man she played a role with in a movie, Aderounmu said: “I would never have anything to do with a married man, and he is not an actor, if you care to know.”

    Aderounmu, who also featured in Tunde Kelani’s Dazzling Mirage, is a TV presenter host who has worked with Concert Radio, Goldmyne Entertainment, and was the producer and presenter of Box Office, before she launched her own online TV show, The Lounge.

  • Students vow to mobilize against Jonathan’s re-election

    Students vow to mobilize against Jonathan’s re-election

    The students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife have vowed to mobilize students across the nation against President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, unless he fulfill his promise to reduce university’s tuition fees without delay.

    Under the aegis of the Students Union Government, they said reduction of school fees was among other demands by the students.

    According to a statement by the Students Union President, Isaac Ibikunle and Secretary, Bamidele Oludare; “We in OAU may have no other option but to mobilize our rank and file against the Jonathan/Sambo second term ambition if these demands are not met immediately.

    “Exigency and need for accountability demands that we remind the Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of his promise to the Great Ife community as well as Nigerian students at large.

    “Nigerian students historically have permanently occupied the position of the conscience of the nation as well as the voice of the downtrodden. We have submitted a protest letter to Mr. President containing the following demands among others.

    “That our hiked fees be reversed to status quo and embargo placed on increment in other federal institutions. That the welfare conditions of students be improved vis a vis construction and equipping of qualitative hostel buildings, lecture theatres, laboratories etc.

    “That the Federal Government  follow the UNESCO twenty six percent budgetary allocation to education as such that education be properly funded by the government as hike in fees have become the culture of Nigerian tertiary institutions at all levels to fund themselves.

    “December 28 marks one full month of the President’s visit to our campus. Your Excellency sir, we believe that our demands are the least that can be done by your government as far as education is concerned.

    “We are not oblivious of the stressful demands on governance as well as efforts being made towards securing your second term in office. However, we as the conscience of the nation and the leaders of today consider meeting these few demands of ours as practically exigent national needs that could even have effect on your second term bid.

    “Despite the six months of our life given to the ASUU struggle in 2013, many of us have had course to stay home for some 2 or 3 more months in 2014 due to struggles against hike in fees. We in OAU may have no other option but to mobilize our rank and file against the Jonathan/Sambo second term campaign if these demands are not met immediately.”

     

  • Yoruba leaders’ presumptuous OAU meeting and endorsement

    Yoruba leaders’ presumptuous OAU meeting and endorsement

    It is not certain why the Yoruba politicians and conservative opinion moulders who convened a Yoruba conference at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife two Fridays ago described their gathering as Yoruba Unity Conference. Nor is it clear why they needed to bring the conference down to a university in the Southwest simply to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan. However, in line with their customary indifference to the genuine feelings and agitations of the Yoruba, and their natural presumption of what the Yoruba want, they do not really owe us an explanation. For even if they offer us one, it is unlikely to be satisfactory. Indeed, the conference speaks very eloquently to the political decay afflicting the country, a decay that has not spared the Southwest.

    The conferees, all of them PDP members or sympathisers, acknowledged that the meeting was convened by the Committee on Yoruba Progress, an organisation based suspiciously in Abuja and reportedly inspired by the eminent sybarite, Bode George, a former military governor of Ondo State, chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP,) and now vicious hater of the political opposition. Fittingly, the communiqué issued at the end of the conference addressed him as chairman of the conference. In his address, he rhapsodises the Yoruba, quite unmindful of just how painfully derelict he himself is of the values he so copiously attributes to the people he claims to represent. If nothing else, it was clear the purpose of the conference was not any altruistic reiteration of Yoruba unity or advancement of their manifest destiny, as they incoherently and inexpertly suggested in their communiqué. Their aim was to position themselves openly, unashamedly and obscenely as PDP politicians to curry the guileful Dr Jonathan’s favour of.

    Chief George was not unsurprisingly supported by other Southwest politicians purporting to be the leaders of the Yoruba. They include the garrulous Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, a man whose mind is so fevered that it is continuously agitated either by external and internal stimuli; Iyiola Omisore, the troubled and troubling candidate of the PDP in the Osun governorship race; Senator Femi Okunrounmu, the most ardent legitimiser of the recent barren national conference; and Ebenezer Babatope, the former progressive whose conscience has mummified over time into extreme conservatism and reaction. Others were Hon Mulikat Adeola-Akande, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and servile legislative opportunist, and a host of traditional rulers mouthing dubieties, small-time politicians eager to sell principles they never had, and vengeful elder statesmen roaming and hoofing the Southwest.

    In their haste to organise a conference, they forgot that OAU would be writing their semester examinations, for which the conference would be a major disruption. Naturally, a controversy has broken out about how the peeved students reacted to Dr Jonathan’s disruptive presence. Some students clearly demonstrated against the needless visit; but others, including some leaders of the students’ union, welcomed the president and even gleefully posed for photographs with him.

    It is unusual for OAU students’ union leaders to be so inured to progressivism as to feel honoured to take photographs with a president who has done his worst to destroy the constitution, undermine the rule of law, prove so impotent in the face of insurgency in the Northeast, fatally ignore the fate of the 219 abducted Chibok schoolgirls, and enunciate and implement series of divisively ethnic and sectarian policies. Did such odiousness escape the OAU student leaders? Second, the students justified their hobnobbing with the president on the excuse that they needed to place their protest against hike in school fees before him. If the president agrees to reduce the fees, could the students correspondingly get him to increase the subvention to their school?

    The rot everywhere has obviously spread beyond the political class, a subset of which is the fractious, vindictive and retrogressive Yoruba political elite that convened in Ife simply to endorse Dr Jonathan and massage his ego. Even students now show a disturbing lack of sensitivity to the salient issues of their time and other grave issues with far-reaching implications for the future. Nigeria is in far worse trouble than its people imagine. And the Yoruba, alas, are in the deep end of the trouble. Those who gather at OAU two Fridays ago to endorse Dr Jonathan claim to be more Awoist than anybody else. But would Chief Awolowo in his mildest progressivism ever think of endorsing Dr Jonathan, especially after Chibok, invasion of National Assembly and harassment of the opposition? Would Chief Awolowo ever countenance a shift in election date as Ayo Adebanjo, an Afenifere chieftain has insensitively done?

  • Jonathan’s OAU storm   

    •A presidential boo is not pretty, no matter what.  That is why the government must be sensitive to citizens’ feelings          

    No matter a president’s dip in popularity, university students booing the president of a country, and symbol of that country’s democratic order, is not a pretty sight.  The one at the receiving end looks diminished.  The booing students look uncouth.

    That unfortunately was the situation at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, State of Osun, on December 1.  The president had gone to the Awolowo Hall, on the OAU campus, for a partisan endorsement at a “Yoruba Unity Summit”, with a battery of traditional rulers, some leaders of thoughts, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisans in tow.

    But the booing did not arise from the students’ rejection of the move per se.  It rather emanated from the suffocating security arrangement, which grounded the campus community, simply because the president was in town.

    It turned out that the examinations were on; and students heading for examination halls found themselves stranded — no thanks to intra-campus shuttles that had been disabled, to reinforce the security cordon around the president.  That was the initial ire.

    By the time the dust settled, the students had vented their anger in anti-Jonathan boos and rude protest songs.  Efforts by Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State, to show some familiarity with the irate students proved a tragic presumption, as he was roundly shouted down and insulted.  Though presidential handlers, in a comical attempt at damage control, had circulated pictures of some student leaders posing with the president, suggesting the president suffered no embarrassment, it is clear only the spin doctors believed their own spin.

    The genesis of the crisis was the all-too-glaring unconscionable security arrangement, whenever the president or his spouse is in any place.  Lagos, Ibadan, Ife, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna — the result is the same: a hideous gridlock.  Must a president’s or his spouse’s visit lead to that unbearable level of citizen discomfort, frustration and disorientation?

    Yet, the president is supposed to be No. 1 elected official in a democracy.  The OAU protest should show the president’s security handlers how archaic their methods have become; and how very embarrassing and disappointing it can be to their boss.  The president himself must ponder why his supposed security must cause citizens so much pain.

    But the awkward security arrangement also helped to expose other things, most of them unpalatable to the presidential camp.  To sell an unpopular president, the university campus is the least auspicious of places.  That explains why the initial ire quickly morphed into a hostile demonstration against Jonathan’s education policies.  If the organisers had thought more clearly, they should have picked an alternative venue.  The university authorities, knowing the combustible mix of their angry student population, should have advised the organisers against it.

    Then, the myth was exploded, of a cloistered crowd, no matter how well appointed or influential, purporting to endorse a candidate, terribly flawed in the streets.  While the crowd of Ekiti and Osun Oba, politicians sympathetic to the Jonathan cause — hardly a crime by any stretch — and other partisans were doing their “endorsement”, and telling Jonathan what he wanted to hear, students out in the streets were bawling out the exact opposite!  Which of the two contrasting voices belonged to the people?

    It is even more shocking that some otherwise revered Yoruba elders were part of that gathering.  It is shocking not because they showed their partisan preference — in a democracy, that is their right under the law.  But rather because they purportedly pledged what is apparently out of their power, for a candidate, considered as terribly flawed by not a few in their region; and under whose charge the country appears to be falling into pieces.

    The Jonathan Ife storm taught a telling lesson: no government brings on a people pain and expects anything but a hostile feedback, no matter how its self-serving officials try to deodorise the rot.   If President Jonathan can take that away, he would have saved his government from future embarrassments.

  • When OAU’s old law students meet

    Thirty years after they left the Faculty of Law, University of Ife, IIe-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), the 1984 class met in Lagos for a reunion dinner, reports JOSEPH JIBUEZE.

    Most of them are in their late 50s, but when the 1984 law graduates of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife met in Lagos at the weekend, the scene was like a group of undergraduates having a good time.

    It was a happy occasion; they met at the Radisson Blu in Victoria Island to mark the 30th anniversary of their graduation with a reunion dinner.

    The array of exotic cars, flowing traditional attires (agbada) by the men and gorgeous wrappers (with headgears to match) by the women bore witness to the status many of them have attained.

    Among them are judges, business owners, professors, managers of big law firms and directors in banks and other companies.

    It was an informal occasion as the members recalled their days in schools, and were called by the nicknames they were known. There was dancing and exchange of banters.

    The Coordinator, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), said being alive 30 years after graduation was worth celebrating. He remembered departed colleagues, which he said is a reminder that “life is a game of cards that deals us many hands”.

    “It is most gratifying that after 30 years of work, we can afford the luxury of dinner in a world class hotel, especially in such trying times when insurgency and terrorism have declared total war on formal education in the Northeast.

    “These happenings are sober penalty for long years of neglect by the political leadership of the region with the complicity of the central government and the rest of us. Having unleashed the demon of insurgency, we are further impairing our ability to deliver education as we use our scare resources to prosecute an avoidable civil war,” he said.

    He recalled the days when meals in school cost 50 kobo and students had ice cream on Sundays, saying: “Getting education is no longer what it used to be and the standards have simply declined.”

    He urged alumni to do their bit to enhance the quality of education in the faculty and sustain the legacy they received and handed over.

    The Dean, Faculty of Law, OAU, Prof Olu Adediran, urged the old students to help with re-equipping the faculty’s furniture. “We’re still using the 1984 long, collapsible seats,” he said.

    Besides, he said they could provide support by financing prizes for outstanding students, establishing fellowships which will be named after them, and donating professorial chairs.

    National Programme Manager, DfiD/British Council J4A Project, Dr Bob Arnot, who gave the dinner speech entitled: Driving in Nigeria, drew a correlation between the mode of driving in the country and corruption.

    He said it is common to see people drive on pavements, grasses, speed on slow lanes, text while driving (apart of from receiving calls), avoid queues at junctions and create multiples lanes, overtake without signaling, park in churches and mosques without consideration for others and allow children to stand in vehicles.

    The lawlessness exhibited by most drivers, he said, is part of the impunity in the system where people commit crimes and get away with them, just as they get away with corruption.

    “Nobody is held to account. The crazy driver is never held to account,” adding that due not inadequate records, law enforcement agents cannot even trace a person to his home. According to him, there is also a lack of social contract between the public and government, which he said leads to a disjointed relationship between leaders and the citizens. The solution, he added, requires “a massive change in social consciousness.”

     

  • Hip-hop artistes thrill OAU students

    Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, were thrilled at the weekend as hip-hop artistes stormed the campus.

    The show,  held at the amphitheatre, was organised by Hadunni Entertainment, in conjunction with Making Incredible Non-existing Positive Difference Summit (MINDS), a body that promotes upcoming artistes.

    Before 7pm, the venue was filled to the brim. By 10pm, the show began with performance by popular artistes, including Sean Tizzle, Burna Boy and Kore. In the excitement, the audience sang along with their favourite artistes.

    The show was spiced up with Aro (hilarious display) by occupants of Awolowo Hall and a student nicknamed Woli Agba, who is a former occupant of the hall.

    The event also featured a raffle draw, where students had the opportunity to win several prizes such as laptops and i-Pads.

    One of the upcoming artistes, Olayinka Olasimbo, a 300-Level Chemistry student, described the show as a “bomb”. He said: “I have participated in several events on campus but this one is with a difference. I never believed OAU could host Burna Boy and Sean Tizzle at once.”

    Other campus artistes, who performed at the show, include Chinko, Chocomilo, X-factor, Virus, Asake and FBI. There was also drama presentation by Dramatic Arts students.

    Adunni Oluwawa, the organizer, said the show was to harness the talents of students.

  • OAU law students win contest

    OAU law students win contest

    The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State, has lifted the 4th edition of the Chief Wole Olanipekun National Moot & Mock Competition.

    The two-day competition organised annually in honour of Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), a former President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), featured intense stages of Moot, Debate and the grand finale, Mock Trial.

    The OAU edged out the University of Ilorin and four others – University of Abuja, Lagos State University, Babcock University, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, to win the prize.

    The six schools were the ones that scaled through preliminaries of the competition nationwide.  Of these, four schools progressed from the Moot Stage to the debate stage. Two schools were further eliminated at the debate stage leaving the last two, the host school – OAU and the University of Ilorin – to slug it out at the grand finale which was a mock armed robbery trial in a fashioned court setting.

    The representatives of the Obafemi Awolowo University eventually proved too much for their UNILORIN counterparts and the former were unanimously declared winners of the competition by the panel of judges that presided.

    The event, organised by Radiant Justice Chambers, a student body in the university’s Faculty of Law, was graced by seasoned legal professionals, including the Executive Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Legal Matters, Dr. Anwo J.O; the Acting Chief Justice of Oyo State, Hon. Justice L.M. Abimbola; Dean Faculty of Law, OAU, Prof. M.O Adediran; Justice Adebusoye from the Ondo State Judiciary and a host of others.

    The Mock Trial was presided over by sitting judges: Hon Justice D.O. Afolabi, Hon. Justice O.F. Oloyede, Hon. Justice Siyanbola from the Osun State Judiciary and Hon. Justice Ganiyu from the Oyo State judiciary.

    Speaking at the event, Chief Olanipekun praised his former classmate and friend, Dean of the Faculty of Law, OAU, Prof. M.O Adediran for his top-notch administration of the faculty as manifested in the quality of its graduates.

    He praised the brilliant display of the competing students at the mock trial and urged them not rest on their oars as it would eventually pay off in future.

    The Chairman of the Day, Hon. Justice L.M. Abimbola, praised Olanipekun for his immense contributions to the advancement of the legal system and legal education in the country.

    Abimbola also praised the Radiant Justice Chambers for the ingenious initiative behind the annual hosting of the programme.

    The event rounded off with the presentation of laptops and cash prizes to the representatives of OAU and UNILORIN by Olanipekun.

    Three students, Samuel C. Chukwu (UNIABUJA), Zuqulnain Muhammed Dayo (UNILORIN) and Olugbemi Kayode (OAU), who emerged as Outstanding Counsels from the Moot Stages were given with monetary prizes for their performances. Delegates of Babcock University and OAU were tied for the Best Moot Memorial prize.

     

  • OAU students threaten to protest blackout

    OAU students threaten to protest blackout

    Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State have threatened to cripple academic activities on the campus, following a total blackout in hostels. They said they could not prepare well for their tests because of the power outage.

    In a statement released by the Students’ Union Government (SUG), the students said all pleas made to the management to improve power supply to the hostels fell on deaf ears. The students said the situation became worse last week, leading to boycott of lectures for days.

    CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the union’s Welfare Officer wrote to the management on the power situation in the hostels but nothing was done. Students also held demonstration in all faculties to draw attention to their plight.

    When the management did not respond, the students said the last option available to them was to halt activities on the campus until electricity is restored.

    The school Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, urged the students to remain calm, assuring that the management was responding to the situation. He said the management had spent huge amount on the purchase of diesel for generating plants to serve the students.

    Olanrenwaju added that power outage was not peculiar to OAU campus alone, saying it is a national challenge.

    His words: “The problem is not from us here. Those who live in Ile-Ife and its environs also encounter the same problem. The management is trying everything possible it could to ensure power is restored in the hostels using generator. Students need to know that power problem is not limited only to OAU, it is a challenge the whole country is facing.”

  • Ebola scare at OAU: The aftermath

    Ebola scare at OAU: The aftermath

    If the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) scare that gripped Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, a few weeks ago was to be real, then, it is high time the management of the institution woke up to the health challenges and the general welfare of the students.

    The rumour went viral on social media and the university became a subject of attention in many discussions. In various Halls of Residence in the institution, students became panicky, momentarily stopping their traditional greeting style.

    In my interaction with colleagues, I came to realise that the management did not put adequate measure in place to forestall any outbreak of the disease, despite being an environment prone to such endemic disease, because of the colony of bats that has found abode on the campus.

    The management was negligent in mapping out strategy and putting the right structure in place before the resumption of students from neighbouring countries to prevent the deadly disease. Although, it made efforts to sensitise the university community on the precautionary measures against the disease, nevertheless, the measures were not enough in terms of providing adequate public enlightenment and how the disease could be isolated.

    It is high time the OAU management joined hands with the students union in ensuring that this endemic disease doesn’t find its way into the citadel of learning. This must be achieved through the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders in order to promote a healthy environment. Students and visitors within and outside the school environment must be adequately sensitised on the disease. With these measures in place, the university would be a safe environment of learning.

     

    Alex just finished from OAU

  • Beautiful Nubia thrills OAU students

    It was an exciting evening at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, last Thursday when singer, Segun Akinlolu, popularly known as Beautiful Nubia, stormed the campus.

    The Chairman of the Institute, Prof Gbemisola Adeoti, said the concert tagged An Evening of African Folklore, was organised by the Institute of Cultural Studies, OAU, to honour Beautiful Nubia as an icon of African culture.

    While expressing gratitude for the award, he said singing artistically was a natural gift from God which he had been nurturing since he was nine.

    He noted that the degenerating situation of Nigerians required a massive change that must begin with helping children to embrace good values and shun vices of corruption right from their early years.

    “If we get it right with the children, we still have one more chance. Teach them humility, honesty, respect for elders, love for fellow human beings regardless of gender, colour or class,” he said.

    He urged young people to spot the errors in today’s leaders, noting where the older generation has erred and choose to set things right for the progress of the country.

    Prof Gbemisola said though some purveyors of modernism would want to denigrate many aspects of Africa’s culture and history, the story-telling art and the folk song tradition remained irrepressible aspects of African heritage.

    He said “One of these new modes, which we are proud to associate with at the Institute of Cultural Studies is the musical art of Beautiful Nubia and his Roots Renaissance Band. His artistic efforts at rekindling interests in Africa’s cultural heritage accord with the objective of the institute especially in promoting, preserving and propagating knowledge about the culture of African peoples in a holistic sense.”

    He noted that the need to strengthen the synergy between the academia and the larger society motivated the collaboration between the institute and Eni Oba nke to come up with the programme.

    He described Nubia as one of those very few song stars who were able to win and sustain the interests of audience across gender, generational and national boundaries in contemporary times.

    “His harmonious blend of Yoruba and English languages in his songs as well as harmonious fusion of musical instruments from African and non-African performance cultures, actively mark him out as an important artiste of our generation who is doing things that are worthy of scholarly note and musical notation.” he said.