The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Students

  • McPherson varsity rolls out pioneer students

    McPherson varsity rolls out pioneer students

    On Saturday, all roads will lead to McPherson University in Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State, as the faith-based varsity holds its maiden convocation. No fewer than 40 pioneer students of the institution will be awarded first degree in various disciplines.

    The university was founded by Foursquare Gospel Church in 2012 to expand the church’s educational objective and to complement government’s efforts in producing highly skilled human resources.

    At a press conference held to highlight activities marking the event, the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Adeniyi Agunbiade, said it was not an easy journey to the school’s maiden convocation, noting that the school was gradually meeting up with its objectives and mission despite its challenges.

    The VC said the university was not founded as money-making centre, but as world-class citadel of learning where students would be equipped with quality skills and knowledge to enhance professionalism and help youths achieve their dreams.

    He said: “This university was set up with clear visions and missions, which are to build a people of excellence and integrity for service. We have objectives to provide qualitative, functional and sound education with Godly virtues that will prepare men and women for leadership and positive impact on the society.”

    Prof Agunbiade listed some of key physical and academic achievements of the school in the last four years, saying the university instituted a culture of celebrating excellence and creating avenue for healthy rivalry by rewarding students’ exceptional performance.

    He said: “Apart from our commitments to academic excellence, the university is fast gaining recognition as breeding ground for talented sportsmen. We have built a modern track, football and volley pitches as well as lawn tennis court and several other in-door games. We believe sport is critical to the physical and intellectual development of human being. Our students participated in the last Nigeria Private Universities Games (NPUGA) held at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti and won several laurels.”

    The university, the VC said, has been impacting positively on its host community, noting that the management had created access for residents of Seriki Sotayo to benefit from the enhanced medical services provided by the school Health Centre.

    He said: “We have impacted our host community through various CSR project. We constructed a community hall for Seriki Sotayo community. We championed restoration of electricity in the community, prompting the Federal Government to deploy a mobile substation which is waiting for connection to the National Grid.

    “We also allow the residents to have access to our affordable health care services. The number of people from outside the university registered permanently and receiving treatment at the Health Centre is over 5,000 to date.

    “This prompted the management to upgrade the school health facility. We increased the bed capacity from 4 to 10. We provided a modern surgical operating theatre and an Ultrasound Scanning Machine. We also installed an X-ray machine and other facilities for X – ray services, among others. These efforts have earned us NHIS commendation.”

    Of the 15 programmes started by the school at inception, the VC said nine were fully accredited by National Universities Commission (NUC) in 2012 when the university started operations. He added that the remaining programmes got full accreditation in the period of three year.

    Prof Agunbiade revealed the plan by the management to create three more faculties after the convocation, stating that efforts were on top gear to start courses in engineering and other professional disciplines.

    The convocation will feature a lecture titled: Food Insecurity is National Insecurity, to be delieverd by Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, and investiture of Dr Christopher Kolade as the Chancellor of the school.

  • Globacom promises students fair deal

    Globacom promises students fair deal

    NATIONAL carrier Globacom has reiterated its commitment to giving students a fair deal.

    Receiving executive members of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) Students’ Union Government (SUG) at the Mike Adenuga Towers on Victoria Island, Lagos, last Thursday the Head of Gloworld Mr Babatunde Alimi, promised that the firm would continue to sell at affordable prices to students.

    He said: “We are passionate about anything that has to do with youths and students, because we believe this generation has enormous potential. And this is why we design our products and programmes around the young generation to cater for the needs of higher institutions students.”

    He said the company’s product, Campus Data Booster, was reloaded to give students multiple data and free airtime on campus. According to Alimi, Campus Data Booster provides a platform for subscribers to enjoy extra data usage on the campus for academic work, research and socialisation.

    “Students and staff on campuses can enjoy this offer when they subscribe to our campus data plan of N200 and above. They will enjoy a reduced burn rate of the data on usage while on campuses. Another juicy feature of the package is that, Campus Booster Data plans can be given to another subscriber on another campus in the country,” he said.

    Alimi said the reduced rate for students showed the firm’s commitment to development and happiness. “We believe youths are the hope for the country’s future,” he said.

    Encouraging the students to take advantage of the network’s 4G LTE service for distance learning, Alimi explained that Globacom’s avant-garde technology could connect students to resource persons and seminar groups around the globe. The technology, he said, also allows students to download audio visual resources that are available online for study.

    The students praised Globacom’s stride in business since its inception, describing the firm as a “Nigeria pride”.

    The SUG president, Dauda Lawal, said: “Many of us are using the network and we are proud to identify with Globacom.”

    Globacom and the students discussed areas of cooperation and exchanged ideas on how the network could improve its services in the polytechnic community.

    Other members of the union’s team included Vice President, Timilehin Akintona, General Secretary, Olutayo Agogo, Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Durojaiye and Treasurer, Wasiu Ologoro, among others.

  • Lawmaker offers 18 students scholarship

    The member representing Suleja/Tafa/Gurara Constituency in House of Representatives, Hon.Abubakar Lado Suleja has sponsored 18 students to study for five years at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt.

    At the send off, Lado said he intended to sponsor 100 youths on foreign scholarship before the end of his tenure.

    Before this set, Lado said he had sent 12 students to in India whose encouraging performance prompted him to continue with the scheme.

    He said after their studies, the students would return to contribute their quota to the constituency.

    “This scholarship is being done because of my passion for education. Suleja, Tafa and Gurara local government areas have been left out in a lot of things, giving these youths the scholarship will create wealth for my constituents because knowledge is wealth and they will return to improve on the society. I am focused and will concentrate in lifting the poor,” he said.

    He urged the students to distinguish themselves in Egypt, stressing that they are now the hope of the people.

    Niger State Commissioner of Education, Hajiya Fatima Magudu, who was represented by a Director, Mrs. Katire Dauda Rufai, commended the lawmaker for complementing the government’s investment in the education sector.

    Tafa Local Government Area Chairman, Hon Ado Abubakar, thanked Lado for not abandoning them the way other politicians had done in the past.

    He urged the beneficiaries to pay attention to their studies and shun all vices.

  • Students protest death of colleagues

    Students protest death of colleagues

    Students of the Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Owinni area of Oyo town in Oyo State, have protested the death of five of their colleagues. The untimely death of the five female students has brought to the fore the need to rehabilitate the federal road that is in very bad shape and to curtail the activities of street traders.

    The students, who had just resumed for new academic session were said to have left their school on permission to have hairdo at the neighbouring Sabo Market, just few kilometers away.

    After the hairdo, the students boarded an intra-city mini-bus back to school.

    The students and other passengers were waiting for a mini-lorry fully loaded with garri to pass by, when the mini-lorry ran into a big pothole beside the mini-bus.

    Consequently, the driver of the mini-lorry lost control and the vehicle fell on the mini-bus and smashed it, killing six persons (five students and the driver) on board.

    Other passengers were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries in the incident.

    Unexpectedly, the street traders and other traders inside the market, who apparently were not disturbed by the tragic incident, resumed for business the next day, to the amazement of residents.

    They were beaten up and chased away by street urchins who stormed the market.

    Mourning the departed souls of their colleagues, who had since been buried, students of the college staged peaceful protest to the Alaafin’s palace and Atiba Hall where caretaker chairmen of the four local government areas in the metropolis, namely Afijio, Atiba, Oyo-East and Oyo-West and other community leaders converged for a town hall meeting.

    The students accompanied by their Principal, Mrs. T. A. Olasusi, members of management and teachers, carried placards with different inscriptions calling for abolition of street trading, rehabilitation of the federal road and relocation of commercial vehicles loading garri to and from the market.

    Fielding questions from reporters shortly after paying condolence visit to the management of the college, the caretaker Chairman of Atiba Local Government Area, Mr. Gbolagade Okeniyi, described the incident as “very disheartening”.

    He said: “Before now, the local government had rehabilitated the federal road thrice, checkmated the activities of traders on the road and relocated the mini-lorry commercial vehicle operators to a newly constructed site known as Beta.”

    Expressing dismay at the care-free and recalcitrant attitudes of both the street traders and mini-lorry drivers, he assured that the local government would apply full weights of the law on anyone who contravenes its directives.

     

  • Akwapoly students protest against fees hike

    The Students of Akwa Ibom Polytechnic on Monday protested against the 100 per cent increment of fees by the school’s authority.

    The Students Union Government’s (SUG), President, Kingsley Eyo, told newsmen at Ikot Osurua in Ikot Ekpene on Monday that the students were not consulted before the increment.

    He added that the students were not comfortable with the Rector, Dr Israel Afia’s style of administration, demanding his removal by the State Government.

    Eyo said students wondered why the school’s management would chose to bring new fees regime in this period of economic recession.

    “The Pre-ND students that were paying N37, 000 are now to pay N69, 200 and ND-1 that were paying 45, 000 are now to pay N76, 200.

    “ND-2 students are now to pay N65, 500 as against N38, 000; HND-1 will have to pay N85, 700 as against N47, 500.

    “HND-2 students are now to pay N82, 700 as against N40, 700 that they were paying before”, Eyo said.

    The students also complained that management had not been publishing their semester results regularly.

    He alleged that the first semester results of ND had always been delayed to final semester of ND-2.

    The student union government president also accused the registrar of being insensitive to the students’ plight.

    Eyo said when the union approached him for dialogue; he retorted that education was not for the poor.

    Eyo threatened that the students would go on violent riot if the school authority refused to reduce the school fees. .

    Eyo said the management had also hijacked the running of Mami Market from SUG control.

    “Mami Market used to be controlled by the students, the management hijacked it. The levies from the market were usually paid to the student union government.

    “We had a meeting with them that since they are collecting the money from the Mami traders, they should give us some percentage.

    “We needed the money to repair the bus and some other things.

    “Even the park, there are some buses that are operating within the school campus, they hijacked the running of the park from us”, he said.

    Rector of the polytechnic, Dr Israel Afia said in a text message that he was in a meeting and would not speak to the press today.

    He said, “Not today please. I am in a meeting somewhere. Let’s talk later.” (NAN)

  • Mass Comm students bid HOD Farewell

    Mass Communication Department of the Kogi State University (KSU) in Anyigba, has bade its Head, Dr Chika Asogwa, farewell. The event, which held at Prof Francis Idachaba Theatre, was attended by staff and students.

    Asogwa, a Catholic Reverend Sister, was described as a woman, who  revolutionised the department.

    Staff and students took turns to eulogise the HOD for her dedication, hard work, discipline and academic brilliance. Asogwa was said to have used her creativity to stop malpractice and manipulation in the department.

    The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC), Dr Salihu Musa, who represented the university management, described Asogwa as “a woman of taintless character”, saying her dedication to service was unparalleled.

    He said: “It is painful to lose this woman of virtue to another institution. We can’t help but let you go. You have shown us that, where there is a will, there is always a way. You came to touch our lives in different ways. All we can do now is to wish you the best in your new capacity.”

    In an emotion-laden voice, a lecturer, Dr Gabriel Ottah, said the exit of Dr Asogwa had created a large vacuum that would be difficult fill. The department’s Examination Officer, Mr. Success Ojih, said Asogwa changed the department’s fortunes during her tenure.

    Reacting, visibly overwhelmed Asogwa expressed gratitude to the staff and students for support and cooperation she enjoyed while she was in the saddle. According to her, there is no way she could have succeeded in her role as HOD without the cooperation of staff and students. She said everything she did was for the benefit of the department.

    Highlights of the ceremony included a drama presentation in which students humorously portrayed the former HOD’s character. This elicited admiration from members of the audience.

    The drama was followed by presentation of gift to Asogwa by students.

  • When students went wild in Oyo

    When students went wild in Oyo

    Incessant undisciplined behaviours among students nowadays have become a source of worry to parents, government, school administrators and other stakeholders.

    The situation has affected the school system, as academic calendars are often disrupted.

    The most recent manifestation of undisciplined behaviours among students was the violent protests by students of some public secondary schools in Oyo town, which resulted in loss of life and wanton destruction of properties worth millions of Naira.

    For several hours penultimate Monday, secondary school students poured to the streets of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, to protest what they termed government’s intention to return some schools to stakeholders.

    The state government had notified the public of its intention to return some schools to their original owners. Organised labour unions in the state, however, expressed their displeasure at the plan, describing it as “privatisation”.

    Apart from the secretariat, other places the students visited included the All Progressives Congress secretariat Oke Ado, which was vandalised as well as the governor’s private residence in Oluyole Estate.

    Recall that under the new academic policy of Oyo State Government, students would no longer be promoted to another class on trial, as was the situation in the past; they have to meet up with reasonable cut off marks in joint promotion examinations.

    After the examinations, answer scripts were swapped among schools before markings, to prevent favouritism and other forms of malpractices.

    After markings, results are collated and sent to owner schools for distribution to students.

    However, on the ill-fated day, managements of Isale-Oyo Community High School, Oroki; Anglican Secondary School, Apara and Oba Adeyemi High School, Agbogangan, located in Atiba and Oyo-East Local Government Areas respectively, distributed the joint promotion examination result cards to their students.

    On receiving their results, the irascible students, it was gathered, felt enraged and immediately mobilised themselves to wreak havoc on their school structures.

    At Oba Adeyemi High School, students were to have stormed the school in groups, hounded, and armed with dangerous weapons such as cutlasses, sharp knives, broken bottles, fetish objects, iron rods and sticks.

    Narrating the ordeal to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, who paid unscheduled visits to the affected schools, the school’s Principal, Mrs Oyewo Olufade, said the incident was like ‘guerilla warfare’.

    She said: “The students, who covered their faces with masks and armed with dangerous weapons, stormed the school in groups. Immediately the teachers saw the rampaging students, they ran into my office. The students were hurling stones continuously at my office.

    She explained the school’s night guard sustained similar injury and has also been hospitalised.

    Our correspondent gathered that one person, who was neither a member of staff nor student died in the incident.

    The deceased, who allegedly wore a mufti to the school premise during the crisis, according to some source, was sent by his parents to take his brother home from the school, while the crisis lasted.

    “On entering the school, he (the deceased) went straight to the night guard who was writhing in pains and in a pool of his blood for an enquiry.

    The night guard mistook his identity for one of the students who injured him. The night guard, out of anger, brought out a fetish object and hit the deceased in retaliation. He died on the third day,” she said.

    At the Anglican Secondary School, Apara, office louvers, classroom windows and part of the fence were destroyed.

    The last and which is the most devastating was the Isale Oyo Community Grammar School, Oroki, where blocks of classrooms were

    Speaking with reporters after visits to the affected schools, the Alaafin of Oyo, who was accompanied by the Oyo traditional council (Oyo Mesi), some traditional rulers from Oke-ogun area and three out of the four Councils’ caretaker Chairmen, described the incident as “disheartening, worrisome and disturbing”.

    Oba Adeyemi said the rate of indiscipline and crime among youths, and in recent times, among secondary school students, was becoming worrisome.

    “It is also sad to note that students’ indiscipline has had a lot of negative effects on the school system and learning, as many academic calendars are being disrupted as a result of this undisciplined behaviour.

    “Many students now form themselves into gangs; they threaten lives of fellow students and even teachers. It is as a result of this that we now have secret societies or secret cults even in our primary and secondary schools. It is necessary for the stakeholders to pay attention to the frequent unruly behaviours among our students, if the country is to achieve fame and progress in all fields of human endeavour. This is because the fate of any nation depends on the youth she breeds, as they are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said.

  • New students to pay N10,000 acceptance fee at LASU

    New students to pay N10,000 acceptance fee at LASU

    The Lagos State University (LASU), has directed successful candidates in the first round of its 2016/2017 admission screening to pay non-refundable acceptance fee of N10,000. ‎ This is contained in the varsity’s bulletin obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos on Friday. ‎

    It said the candidates were expected to report for clearance ‎from Nov. 7 and proceed with ‎the payment of the fee. ‎ ‎ The university directed the candidates to visit the LASU E-payment website to access guidelines for the approved procedure for the payment of the fee. ‎

    According to the bulletin, successful candidates are expected to appear before the Faculty, School and College clearance team‎ with evidence of payment, and original and photocopies of credentials, among others.

     

  • Nigerian students in UK raise funds for

    Nigerian students at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom (UK) have held a cultural festival to mark Nigeria’s 56th Independence anniversary. The event was part of the activities lined up to celebrate the National Day.

    The event tagged: Colour Me 9ja, was organised by Nigerian Students Society (NSS) to promote Nigeria’s diverse cultures. It was attended by some notable Nigerians in the UK, including Dr Kelechi Anyikhude, Mr Ikpe Abanga, Mrs Adebukola Adegbulugbe and Ramo Ayoka. Representatives of groups, such as Angel of Youth, Majestic Marvina and Arsenal Fan TV were present at the event.

    The students raised money to support those in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) across the country on the occasion.

    During the cultural ambassador contest held to showcase the country’s rich heritage, the students, clad in flamboyant traditional attires, danced to entertain the guests. The contest was anchored by Manager of Events and Logistics, Ubokbong Nmah.

    Akinkunmi Busari, a Master’s student of Engineering, won the contest.

    Miss Amanda Umobi, NSS’ first woman president and a 300-Level Law student, said the event was held to foster unity among Nigerian students in the UK. She enjoined the students to support the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s drive to change the country.

    She said: “We must collectively look at ways we can help move Nigeria forward, whether we are at home or in diaspora. We must support our government to make our country better. This is the reason for this fund-raising. The total money raised will be added to the money we are expecting to raise through ‘Go Fund Me’ to support the IDPs.”

    NSS Vice President Mr Victor Enedu advised President Buhari to consider engaging more youths in his administration. He said: “Youths are the drivers of positive change if they are well-engaged. If youths are seen as tomorrow’s leaders, they must be equipped with right leadership values to engage the future for sustainable development.”

    A poem titled: My Lagos, which told the story of business activities in Nigeria’s commercial nerve-centre and the dichotomy between the highland and the mainland was composed and delivered by the society’s Public Relations Officer, Tinoye Adeniyi-Taiwo.

    The event ended with dinner, where guests were served local delicacies supervised by the Society’s Hospitality Manager, Miss Fiyiann Olatoye, and General Secretary, Ojoside Ugbaje.

  • Students declare support for Agunloye

    Students declare support for Agunloye

    Students of the Federal School of Agriculture (FECA), Akure, the Ondo State capital, have called for support for the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dr Olu Agunloye.

    Student Union President  Ogunleye Babatunde, who spoke during a visit to Agunloye, said the SDP candidate has a solid reputation.

    He said of all the contestants only Agunloye will not make unfulfilled promises, going by his antecedent.

    The student union leader said they are ready to support the former minister, saying 95 per cent of them have their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) with which they will vote Agunloye into power.

    The SDP candidate told the students that they should be ready to cooperate with others to rescue the state.

    He cautioned them against being deceived with pledges of bursary, which is their constitutional right.

    The SDP candidate decried the lack of amenities, such as hospitals, roads and potable water in the four local governments that constitute Akokoland.

    “We cannot continue with the old system,  there is need to overhaul governance by ensuring that people have records through which provisions could be made for them when planning policies,”Agunloye said.