The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ritman University

  • Don’t ask students for Christmas gifts, VC warns staff

    Don’t ask students for Christmas gifts, VC warns staff

    Vice-Chancellor of Ritman University (RU) in Ikot Ekpene Prof Celestine Ntuen has warned the teaching staff against asking students for gifts during the Christmas period. The VC said no lecturer was permitted to collect any gift from students under any guise.

    Prof Ntuen made spoke during an interactive session with students in the school chapel. He said the school expected students to be above board by discouraging the urge to engage in misconduct with any lecturer.

    He reiterated that the university has zero tolerance for cultism, indecent dressing and bribery. The VC noted that payment for projects and handouts remained prohibited in the school, while lecturers were not allowed to accept gifts from students or demand payment for services rendered.

    Prof Ntuen restated that lecture attendance was compulsory, while advising the students to aim for the best in their studies.

    Aiming for the best academic performance, the VC said, will help improve the students’ determination to succeed, adding that those unwilling to make extra efforts would end up with poor results.

    Prof Ntuen urged the students to register for free at the school medical centre, which, he said, is well-equipped with a resident doctor and nurses as well as ambulance service in case of emergencies.

    Meanwhile, the school is bubbling with social events as students organise a beauty pageant, where winners will go home with prizes, including laptops and iPhones. Marketing personnel of a foremost telecommunications giant – Globacom – are expected on the campus to provide free Internet service for two weeks and also give away SIM Cards.

  • Ritman varsity students visit slave trade site

    Students of Ritman University (RU) in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, broke down with emotions during their excursion to Old Residency and Slave History Museum in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, to see artefacts and simulations reminiscent of the slave trade era.

    The undergraduates, who were drawn from the Department of History and International Studies, took a guided tour round the museum which has become a tourist site. They were led by a lecturer, Mr. Kenneth Oforji, to the museum, which is located on the spot where captured slaves were shipped off to Europe during Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

    Mmenyene Silas and Grace Umanah, while reliving their experience, said the artefacts they saw  brought to their consciousness some of the historical incidents they were taught in class.

    The Old Residency, a colonial structure built in 1884, was the official house of British administrators from where they administered the Niger Coast territories. On exhibition were a dining table, ceramic plates, jugs and other items used by Lord Frederick Lugard and other colonial rulers.

    According to report, the Old Residency building was prefabricated in Britain and shipped to Calabar in 1884. Its ground floor served as headquarters of the British Protectorate that would eventually become the Southern part of British colony of Nigeria.

    During the slave trade era, Europeans shipped millions of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to sell as slaves in Europe and America. Calabar used to be Britain’s busiest slave trading post. About one-third of Africans abducted before the abolition of slave trade in 1807 was shipped from the spot. When the colonial rulers left, Old Residency was declared a national monument, but turned to a museum in 1986.

    The students were shown a soap and bottles of alcoholic drinks, which were some of the items the white slave traders used to deceive the natives in exchange for their people. The slave traders were said to have been told that this soap would make them light-complexioned. The drinks, according to the tour guide, were given out as medicinal liquor but made the natives intoxicated enough to give in to the slave bargain.

    The students were also shown chains used on slaves as well as pictures of anti-slave trade fighters, including William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp and John Clarkson. There were also audios and video recordings of slave transactions complete with pathetic sounds of crying and lamenting slaves who were being branded with hot irons for identification as they were snatched from their loved ones.

    Other artefacts seen at the museum include items from ancient Nok, Benin, Igbo Ukwu, Calabar and Ife cultures. The students were also shown a spinning wheel and boat in which the late Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor – the woman credited to have stopped the killing of twins – was brought back to Calabar.

  • Ritman varsity students win women debate

    Ritman University (RU) students have emerged winners of a debate organised by Women Supporting Women National Conference.

    Their colleagues from the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) in Lapai, Niger State, came second in the contest aimed at promoting women emancipation.

    The debate with the theme: Women are the backbone of society, they make better leaders, held during the national conference of National Female Students Association of Nigeria, attended by students, women leaders, academics and government representatives.

    Delegates were drawn from various tertiary institutions, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), University of Benin (UNIBEN), Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Abia State University (ABSU), University of Uyo (UNIUYO), University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), and Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic in Rivers State.

    Christiana Obiala, Melody Dodoh and Enobong Nyahette debated for Ritman University and spoke in support of the theme.

    The conference was designed to encourage female students to discuss opportunities, promote spirit of entrepreneurship, education, health, security and economic empowerment.

  • Ritman varsity students win women debate

    Ritman varsity students win women debate

    Ritman University (RU) students have emerged winners of a debate organised by Women Supporting Women National Conference. Their colleagues from the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) in Lapai, Niger State, came second in the contest to promote women emancipation.

    The debate with the theme: Women are the backbone of society, they make better leaders, was held during the national conference of National Female Students Association of Nigeria, which was graced by students, women leaders, academics and government representatives.

    Delegates at the conference were drawn from various tertiary institutions, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), University of Benin (UNIBEN), Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Abia State University (ABSU), University of Uyo (UNIUYO), University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), and Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic in Rivers State, among others.

    Christiana Obiala, Melody Dodoh and Enobong Nyahette debated for Ritman University and spoke in support of the theme.

    The conference was designed to encourage female students to discuss opportunities, promote spirit of entrepreneurship, education, health, security and economic empowerment.

  • Akwa Ibom Speaker calls for prosecution of fraudulent leaders

    The Speaker of Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, Mr Onofiok Luke, has called for the prosecution of community leaders and government officials who divert public funds through fraudulent companies.

    Luke made the call while delivering a lecture on Wednesday, at the second public lecture of Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, on “Good Governance: A Panacea to Community Development’’.

    He said that community development effort must be devoid of white elephant projects to showcase massive buildings and attract praises, but sincere initiative and effort toward addressing the actual need of the people.

    He decried that community leaders in the Niger Delta have failed in their little way to be accountable to the grassroots and engage in cases of brazen thievery.

    The speaker pointed out that most leaders in the country and indeed Africa have failed in their responsibilities, adding that leadership was a social contract.

    “It is also a fact that most leaders have failed their respective communities. Leaders have abandoned the oath of office and put their selfish interest above the communal interest.

    `Some of these leaders are not altruistic but deploy the common wealth for their selfish gains”.

    “The need for attitudinal re-orientation cannot be over emphasised. Altruism shall be the guiding principle if our leaders must deliver the dividend of good governance to the people who elected them. We must return to the team spirit,” Luke said.

    The speaker stressed the need for leaders to think more of building an efficient and empowered community rather than building personal empires from the common wealth.

    He said that government must be seen to be participatory, transparent, accountable, equitable and respect for the rule of law.

    He said that leaders whether those voted or appointed into leadership positions must have genuine desire to serve the people than overbearing quest for personal aggrandizement.

    The speaker recommended that priority must be placed on provision of basic social amenities to make quality of life meaningful in communities across Africa.

    Luke also challenged religious leaders, family heads and leaders of various units of communities to preach and act towards unity and not division, and to avoid taking undue advantage of the vulnerable populace through deceit and false prophesies.

    He stressed the need for academic institutions to be fair and disciplined, even as he expected students to work hard in their academic pursuits.

    Besides, the speaker challenged the youths to rise above ethnic bigotry, vagaries of the past and positioned themselves for good leadership.

    The Vice Chancellor, Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, Prof. Celestine Ntuen, said that youths hold the ace in developing the communities and the nation at large.

    Ntuen said that youths were the most potent and most viable among the resource that the country was blessed with.

    He lamented some greedy politicians who drained the nation dry were able to succeed with their nefarious act because youths complicit with them.