Students in Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, have thanked Governor Ayodele Fayose for restoring electricity supply to Iworoko-Ekiti, where majority of them reside.
The town had been in blackout for nine months owing to non-payment of electricity bills to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) by residents.
The restoration followed a meeting Fayose held with the students last Wednesday, where he promised to resolve power supply within one week.
The EKSU Students Union Government (SUG) in a statement by Oladimeji Bayo (President); Okunoye Ayobami (General Secretary) and Daniel Stephen (Publicity Secretary) described the governor as a friend, promise keeper and father.
“EKSU students appreciate the students’ friend, the promise keeper and a passionate father, whose intervention has brought sanity back to our students’ area. We are so grateful.”
The University of Calabar was Monday shut down for two weeks following a protest by students of the institution.
Activities in the school were grounded to a halt as the students of protested poor welfare.
The students in their thousands bore placards protesting lack of water, electricity and increase in school fee and other charges.
The protesting students locked all the entrances to the institution for hours.
A statement signed by the Registrar of the institution, Moses Abang, read, “The management of the University of Calabar has announced a two week mid semester break for all students of the University with effect from today, 12th October, 2015.
“Students are expected to vacate the hostels on or before 6 pm to enable management address the issues raised by the students.
“Normal academic activities would resume in Friday 30th October 2015.
“No students should be found on campus, especially within the hostels are 6pm today.”
Students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) on Monday carried placards protesting against neglect of their welfare by the authorities of the university.
The protest, which began at about 5.30 a.m., created panic as workers and traders got stranded at roads linking the university, including Etta Agbor, IBB Way and Mary Slessor Road.
The placards read: “VC, give us water and light, students cannot study without light and water, electricity and water is our right,’’ among others.
One of the students, Mr. Emeka Ebere, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the students had been staying without light and water in hostels for more than three weeks.
Ebere added that the school authorities were doing nothing about the plight of students.
“Rats come to eat our legs when we sleep because everywhere is bushy and there is no light for more than three weeks now.
“Again, we have not had water for months now and students have to go long distances into the town to fetch water.”
He blamed the situation on the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. James Epoke, alleging that the VC was not showing concern over students’ welfare because his tenure would expire next month.
Another student, Miss Theresa Kahi, claimed that the vice- chancellor was the reason for the protest.
“The last time we demonstrated within the school premises, they charged us for damages but now we are protesting outside the school gate because we want water and light.
“We, the students of this school are tired of the attitude of the university’s management.
“The protest is to send a strong message to the VC that we need water and light inside the university,’’ she said.
NAN reports that a detachment of anti-riot policemen was stationed at the Mary Slessor/Marian Roundabout, about 700 metres from the main gate of the university.
When contacted on telephone, the vice-chancellor said the students had the right to protest, assuring however, that the situation would be resolved soon.
“They are students and they have the right to protest.
“On the issue of light, I believe everyone in Calabar knows that there is power outage for weeks now.
“The issue of light has been a general problem, not only to the university alone but the entire Calabar, we will try and supply them water.”
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.
The colourful celebration, excitement and joy that come with Eid-ul Kabir (Muslims’ festival) should have been enough for students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) in Niger State to ease off academic stress. But, the ongoing semester examination made some of them to celebrate Sallah with caution.
Many Muslim students of the school remained on campus during the Sallah holiday. Some of them, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, relived why they chose not to celebrate Sallah.
Taking a break after hours of reading, Hadizah Omoniyan, a 300-Level Estate Management student, moved round a lecturer theatre to refresh her brain. She said the Sallah period was not a time “grooving”, saying: “It is time to study hard.”
Asked how she felt marking the Sallah in the classroom, Hadiza said: “It is not funny, because many of us could not go home to celebrate with our parents. The exam came at a wrong time.”
Usman Mobolaji, a 300-Level Entrepreneurship and Business Studies student, said: “It is not easy staying on campus during a festive period but we have got no choice.”
According to Usman, the school should have given extensive break for students to refresh their brain. He said: “The school management did not give us enough time to read. You can imagine a student taking exam from Monday to Friday. We even write exam in the evening. So it has not been easy but l just have to cope.”
On what should be done, Usman said the management should make provision for holiday whenever examination coincided with major festivals.
Sodiq Yusuf, a 100-Level Mathematics and Statistics student, said the management should have fixed the examination before the Sallah. He said: “This apart, the timetable has not affected me. Everything is okay.”
Hassan Yahaya, also a student, expressed similar opinion, saying: “The Sallah went fine and it was fantastic marking it on the campus.”
National Coordinator, Democracy Vanguard, Adeola Soetan, has criticised the way the government and authorities treat students unions in universities.
He blamed the lack of direction and power of students unions on the consistent attacks on them by school authorities and government.
Soetan, who served as a students’ union president, Obafemi Awolowo Univerity, Ile Ife, spoke at the second yearly meeting of the Great Ife Alumni Association at the Springhill Hotel, Oko Oba on Independence Day.
The event had as theme: “Survival strategies in an economy in recession.”
He said: “Nowadays, because the university authorities attack the radically progressive organisations in their institutions, they have almost completely vanished in schools. What we have today is just students’ union for students’ union sake. Corrupt politicians use them to achieve various corrupt means, forgetting that what you sow is what you would reap.
“So until the culture of attack on student unionism is stopped, you are going to have emergence of cultists and commercial students’ activists, who will go to presidents, governors, politicians to collect money. In those days, it was a great crime to fraternise unnecessarily with government, not to talk of politicians. So what is happening today is just the result of the collapse of radical students’ movement in the university.”
Soetan, who is well-known as one of the most radical students union presidents of his time in the 1980s, also encouraged students to be more active in their unions’ electoral and leadership activities and cautioned students union leaders against corruption.
He said: “Students union must exist. However, the students must be watchful and active in who makes up their students union, so that if anyone goes against your wish, you impeach the person. There is no power beyond the student’s power in the university. It is only when students decide to sleep that you get ridiculous charlatans and criminals as leaders, because when you spend students money for yourself, you are simply a criminal.”
Also speaking, Chairman of the association, Steve Mbanefo emphasised the importance of alumni associations in higher institutions.
He said: “Alumni association is for greater bonding among our members and important for every institution. The functions are limitless. Students still come to us for help, we fight for the right and good of the students. They tell us what they want to tell the university and we relay the information to the school because we have the ears of the institution. We investigate unjust treatment of students. In fact, ours is such that the world wide president of the association is always a member of the senate of the universi ty. So they can never make decisions that would be militate against students right.”
Mbanefo also suggested that government should increase funding for education and cease corruption.
The Nigerian Association of University Women (NAUW), FUNAAB Chapter, has held an empowerment programme tagged: ‘Be your own boss’.
It was aimed at teaching interested female students and women, skills, such as bead-making, cake-baking, fashion designing and decoration.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, represented by the Dean of Student Affairs, Prof ‘Yemi said: “Any woman who goes to her husband’s house without any trade may end up as a failure, both to her husband and children.’’
He praised the participants for making out time to attend the programme, adding that acquisition of an extra skill or knowledge would make them independent and respected.
The Chairperson of NAUW, FUNAAB Branch, Dr. Comfort Onifade, expressed optimism that the exercise would add value to the lives of the women. She said the society has abandoned the women, thus creating more burden for NAUW.
Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria (UNN) Prof Benjamin Ozumba has advised students of tertiary institutions to consider using bicycles for their intra-campus movements.
Ozumba spoke yesterday at the 55th founders’ day of the university held at the Enugu campus.
The vice chancellor was reacting to allegations that movement within the Nsukka campus was becoming a problem as most buses were old and beyond repair.
He said the advice was necessary so that students can depend less on campus buses, as obtained in civilised countries.
He urged the students to imbibe the culture of riding bicycles within the campus even as the management was making plans to replace some of the buses.
“In most universities in civilised countries, students ride bicycles from their hostels to lecture rooms. The fact remains that most of our students are not exposed and my administration will strive, within its limited resources, to devise avenues for our students to keep abreast with developments in the Western countries.”
According to Ozumba, other welfare measures his administration had taken included ensuring regular water supply on the two campuses.
He said: “We have boosted regular supply of water on our campuses by sinking boreholes close to the hostels. To the best our ability, we have been providing power in our hostels. Our Internet services have improved through our network fibre optics project. It will interest you to know that Journals Consortium maiden ranking placed our University first on Internet presence among universities in Nigeria. I make no pretence to say that my administration is pro-student.”
The vice chancellor noted that his administration was very proud to host the university’s 55th founders’ day.
“There is no doubt that the University of Nigeria has in the last 55 years contributed to the growth of our country in manpower development, generating creative ideas and research innovations.”
According to Ozumba, events mapped out for the founders’ day included, among others, founders’ day lecture (Legislation as instrument for social justice in a growing Democracy), to be delivered by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi tomorrow at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, Nsukka campus. There will also be the ‘Dignity of Man’ debate among the students. The debate captioned,’ Social media as a veritable instrument of change in Society today’, will hold on Thursday, October 8.
The crisis rocking the Niger Delta Students’ Union Government (NIDSUG) may have taken a new dimension, following the accusation against an official of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), who allegedly ‘financed’ the union president’s impeachment. EMMANUEL AHANONU reports.
The last may not have been heard of the Niger Delta Students’ Union Government (NIDSUG) crisis, which culminated into the purported impeachment of its president, Obada Akpomiemie. Four weeks after parliament members of the union allegedly removed Obada, what transpired behind the scene has started to emerge.
•Obada
Some members of the union have alleged that the parliament’s members were induced to unseat the embattled president. A special assistant to the chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was alleged to have “financed” the impeachment.
To justify the impeachment, it was learnt that some members of the union executive and parliament were asked to write petition against Obada, following his rift with the NDDC official (name withheld) at the inauguration of NDDC Hostel at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) in Abia State.
The process was, however, described as “kangaroo panel” by state coordinators of the union, who said Obada remained the president. They said the Senate President, Chimdi Obiarandu, did not have the right to preside over the parliament sitting, because his election was declared inconclusive.
Obada said his disagreement with the NDDC official led to the crisis. He said: “The problem started when I complained about action of some people, who are preventing us from meeting the NDDC chairman, Sir Bassey Dan Abia. Each time we wrote to the NDDC boss, one of his Special Assistant would throw the letter into a trash bin. He has been feeding his boss with wrong information about our union.
“We saw a good platform at MOUAU to tell the NDDC boss of our plight. But, when the official sensed I would expose him, he altered the programme agenda and removed the item reserved for students’ opinion. So, we embarked on a protest to draw Dan Abia’s and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s attention to the alteration, which the Special Assistant saw as an affront and swore to deal with me.”
His opposition to NDDC’s inconsistencies, Obada said, led to the inducement of the parliament members to disorganise the union.
The co-ordinator of the union in Rivers State, Maxwell Othemidia, a final year Chemistry Education student of Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), said the impeachment of Obada was null and void, saying there was no sitting.
Asked if he was aware of the parliament members’ inducement, Maxwell said: “When you see a bird dancing at the middle of road, its drummer is close-by.”
Chimdi denied any inducement, saying Obada’s impeachment followed a petition by members of the union. He said some of the parliament members were being owed their sitting allowance, adding nobody gave them money to impeach the president.
Genesis Jeremiah, the union’s pioneer president, said NIDSUG’s problem started and ended with the union’s complaint against NDDC. He said the NDDC official met with the parliament members at LandMark Hotel five days after Obada led a protest at MOUAU to contrive the president’s impeachment.
Genesis, who claimed to be at the meeting, said: “When I barged into their secret meeting, I saw the NDDC official giving members of the parliament instructions. He was surprised to see me with others. I confronted him on why he wanted to cause crisis in the NIDSUG, he replied that members of the union were having a meeting and he decided to greet them,” Genesis said.
The Vice President, Bariture Mgbee, corroborated Chimdi’s position, saying Obada was invited to answer allegations against him but said the president did not show up.
Juliet Manyo, treasurer of the union, said: “I am ashamed of the ongoing crisis. Some so-called students’ leaders have been compromised by politicians to kill the union. I was offered a bribe but I declined, because I was not elected to destabilise the union. They are victimising Obada because he is fighting for the interest of all Niger Delta students.”
The union Clerk, Chinenye Aniogwu, a student of Delta State University (DELSU), also accused the NDDC official of intimidating the union leaders. “It is clear that they want to intimidate our members with their sudden wealth; we cannot be intimidated,” she said.
Students of three Nigerian universities have built cars that will feature at the Shell Eco-marathon, Africa (SEMA) in South Africa from October 2 to 4. They are sponsored by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) Joint Venture.
The students of University of Lagos, University of Benin and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, collectively known as Team Nigeria, will join 40 teams from four countries to test the energy efficiency of their cars at the Zwartkops Raceway, near Pretoria. The event will be hosted by the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. The Shell Eco-marathon competition challenges students in different continents (America, Europe, Asia and Africa) to build and race energy-efficient cars, and rewards those that travel farthest with the least amount of fuel.
“The sponsorship of the students opens an exciting phase in our long-standing support for education in Nigeria,” said Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria.
“In addition to awarding scholarships, building schools and donating science equipment, we’re challenging the leaders of tomorrow to begin to think about, and act on the difficult energy choices facing a rapidly increasing world population.”
In 2014, the SPDC JV provided seed funding for the three universities and sponsored them to the European edition of the competition in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. They also participated in the maiden edition of Shell Eco-Marathon Africa which held in South Africa in 2014, with the University of Benin team winning the Best Designed Car award. SPDC organised a test drive at the Campos Mini stadium in Lagos in March 2015 to test the readiness of the students.
