The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Osun students

  • Three injured as Osun students clash

    There was pandemonium yesterday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital as students of the Technical College and pupils of Osogbo High School clashed.

    The students, who went on rampage, throwing residents of Okefia, where the two schools are located, into panic, allegedly used machetes and dangerous weapons to attack one another.

    Three students were allegedly injured in the aftermath of the violent clash.

    It was learnt that two boys from the two schools were fighting over a female student of the Osogbo Grammar School.

    Alleged cult members from the two schools were dragged into the matter.

    However, his rival was said to have advised him to look for a girlfriend among his peers at the Technical College and stop trespassing.

    The reply allegedly said to have infuriated the boy from Technical College, who mobilised members of his cult group to unleash terror on his rival and students of Osogbo High School but they were reportedly resisted.

    In the process, they used dangerous weapons to fight before the arrival of policemen and a local vigilance group, who dispersed them.

  • Osun students inaugurate leaders

    Osun students inaugurate leaders

    The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) chapter of the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS) has sworn in new leaders after its election at the Faculty of Law.

    The election was conducted by a five-man electoral committee led by Abdulrahman Ishola. After the keenly contested election, Abideen Olasupo was announced president.

    Members saw the emergence of Abideen, a Google Ambassador, as good omen for the association, given the new president’s background in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

    After he took the oath, Abideen said the association would waste no time in carrying out its projects, promising to organise entrepreneurship summit, Freshers’ Oratory Contest and improve online presence association, among others.

    He said: “I am ready to reform the association, using innovation as compass to achieve the aim. NAOSS cannot be left behind in the 21st century when the efficacy of globalisation can be felt by all. I will encourage every member to make positive contribution towards the development of our state. The era of nonchalant attitude of members of executive is over. Each of us will give report of our stewardship of office regularly.”

    He praised his predecessor, Tajudeen Lamidi, for the achievement recorded by in the past year, promising to consolidate the gains. Abideen extended hand of fellowship to his opponent, urging for support in moving the association to another level.

    Tajudeen urged the new leaders to be hardworking and responsive to the welfare of members.

  • Osun students honour don

    The UNILORIN Branch of the National Association of Osun State Students is planning a Personality Lecture in honour of the former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Prof. R. D. Abubakre.

    Abubakre has also served as the former Vice Chancellor, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin; and Federal Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission, Osun State.

    The event, which will take place Tuesday next week at the main auditorium, will be chaired by Justice Idris Abdullah Haroon.

    A Senior Lecturer in Arabic at the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Dr. Hamza Ishola Abdulraheem, will be the guest speaker while the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is the Special Guest of Honour.

    The UNILORIN Vice-Chancellor, Prof AbdulGaniyu Ambali, will be the Chief Host while his KWASU counterpart, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, and the Aare Musulumi of Iwo, Alhaji AbdulRasheed Adelani Salinsile, will be the special guests. The Grand Qadi of Kwara State Shariah Court of Appeal, Justice S. O. Mohammed, is also expected at the event.

  • Osun students protest prolonged strike

    Osun students protest prolonged strike

    Students of Osun State-owned tertiary institutions protested yesterday the over two-month strike by academic and non-academic workers in the schools.

    They institutions are Osun State College of Education, Ila; State Polytechnic, Iree; State College of Education, Ilesa; and Osun College of Technology, Esa-Oke.

    The students, who came in buses, assembled in Osogbo at 9am.

    They marched from Olaiya Junction to the House of Assembly and later the State Secretariat on Gbongan road.

    Commercial activities in some parts of the state capital were affected by the protest.

    The students made bonfires on the road, causing a traffic gridlock for many hours.

    After failed efforts to get them off the road, policemen fired tear gas canisters to disperse them and arrested some of their leaders.

    Police Commissioner Ibrahim Maishanu said they had to use tear gas when other efforts to disperse the protesters failed.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was behind the protest.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, APC said: “We are aware that the PDP planned to deploy the tactics it used against Chief Bisi Akande. They have tried to get civil servants to paralyse the civil service and failed. Now they are taking advantage of the students who do not understand what is at stake to create mayhem. They will fail woefully.

    “The PDP should be held accountable for what is happening now, because it had been mobilising students’ union leaders to take to the streets. They will not get too far. The teachers asked students to return to school on Monday, but they stayed on the street to do the PDP’s bidding. In civilised climes, those responsible for taking advantage of our students and putting them in harm’s way should be prosecuted by the law.”

    The Media Head of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Senator Iyiola Omisore’s campaign organisation, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said the PDP had no hand in the protest.

    Odeyemi said: “I wonder why they keep alleging that the PDP is behind this and that when we are busy preparing for the task ahead of us. They should be concerned about issues, not allegations. Is the PDP behind the pensioners’ protest too? Will they say we are behind the myriads of problems they are facing as a result of the suffering they are putting the people through?”

  • Osun students elect leaders

    The National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS) has elected new executive to pilot its affairs for the next one year. The election, which witnessed a huge turn-out of voters, was described by students as free and fair.

    A student of Offa Polytechnic, Offa, Ajayi Temitope lauded members of the Electoral Commission for conducting peaceful polls.

    The new executive is led by Omowaye Ojo as President, Bashiru Oladejo, Vice-President I and Abimbola Mayosade, Vice-President II.

    Others are Akintayo Oyegoke, Secretary-General; Adetoyi Olanipekun, Assistant Secretary-General; Babawale Olarenwaju, Public Relations Officer I; Nurudeen Ibrahim, Public Relations Officer II and Sulaimon Olajide as Director of Sports. The new executives were sworn in immediately by the Chairman of the electoral commission.

    Speaking at the inauguration, Ojo thanked the students for electing him as their leader, assuring them that he would use his office to promote the welfare of students.

  • Osun students’ show of shame

    SIR: I was travelling to Ibadan from Osogbo on Tuesday October 9, when I ran into a traffic gridlock in from of the Osun State Secretariat at Abere caused by students of Osun State in tertiary institutions allegedly protesting non-payment of their bursary by the state government.

    Out of curiosity and seeing that I was trapped anyway, I got out of the car and joined the students in order to have first hand information. I took one of the leaflets they were circulating and looked round the banners they were holding. I was horrified. The leaflet was disjointed, full of grammatical and spelling errors, the kind you won’t even expect from a primary school pupil. It got worse when I tried to engage some of them in discussion as I discovered to my chagrin that they were talking gibberish, they were incoherent and cannot stitch together a grammatically correct sentence, apart from the incomprehensibility of their statements.

    They looked unruly and unkempt, with many of them speaking with coarse voices, as if under the influence of marijuana. They certainly do not look like the leaders of tomorrow. If anything, the thuggish looking boys that laid siege to Osogbo are promising wreakers of tomorrow, unless they are put to check now.

    When the governor appeared, they swarmed round his vehicle in clear breach of security, and demanded that he address them. The governor said he would only address them in his office, seeing that their presence had blocked an expressway and would disturb the peace and disrupt travels and economic activities. They refused. They had laid siege to the secretariat and sacked the security personnel at the gate. They then left the secretariat to arrest traffic at Olaiya junction, the major arterial road that links other parts of the city, thereby disrupting traffic movement and economic activities.

    We must begin to address the students question now before they birth tragedy. We have revelled on false assumption that those riff-raff are student leaders fired by the idealism of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel, Ola Oni and Eskor Toyo and Segun Okeowo and Segun Maiyegun. They are not. Their real grouse is the decision of the state government to pay the bursaries through the students’affairs department of their institutions and not through the students unions. It was the practice in the past for the meagre sum to be paid through Osun Students Association and this had become a gold mine of sort for their leaders. The money hardly gets to the intended beneficiaries. Why then should they hold the state to ransom because their corrupt source of freebies is being taken away? Student union leaders have become corrupt, if not more corrupt than politicians. We should see them as they are and not look at them with eye of idealism of the past.

    Secondly, we should define rules of engagement. The idea of misguided youths holding everybody to ransom must be checked. We must put in place a civilised protocol of protest. What happened in Libya recently when terrorists hijacked a protest and used that to murder the American ambassador and three others must be avoided. When Governor Aregbesola’s convoy was stopped, a terrorist could have slipped a bomb under his car (God forbid), killing many, including the students.

    Students are self accounting adults and cannot be above the law in any decent society. Constituting nuisance, disrupting public peace, molesting innocent people etc are not the hallmark of intellectuals.

    • Olayiwola Olawunmi,

    Osogbo, Osun State