The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Students

  • Lecturer ‘sacked by students’

    The Cross River State College of Education, Akamkpa, has sacked a lecturer voted “the most corrupt lecturer” by students.

    The Provost, Prof Anthony Owan Enoh, told reporters in Calabar yesterday that the sacked lecturer was notorious for collecting money for grades, despite warnings by the authority.

    He said following complaints by students, he conducted a referendum among the students who voted the lecturer the most corrupt.

    A couple of months later when examinations had set in, Enoh said a sting operation was carried out in which he was caught and shown the way out.

    “If students can be expelled, lecturers can be sacked,” he said.

    Several other lecturers, he said, have appeared before the disciplinary committee for various offences.

    He said the institution would not compromise on standards.

     

  • Varsity students create flooding solution

    Final year students of the Niger Delta University have created the “Floating Complex”, a prototype designed as a solution to the severe flooding situation in the Niger Delta.

    It is a housing complex erected on materials that can withstand floods and stay afloat.

    The complex is solar powered to deal with power outages that occur during floods and has facilities that can store food and manage waste.

    The Floating Complex won first place during a session on Innovation and Creativity at the recently completed Internship Centre Clinic for graduates at the University, supported by Afrigrants Resources Ltd.

     

  • Students, hoodlums protest in Ibadan

    There was a riot yesterday at Monathan in Ibadan, as students and hoodlums attacked and set ablaze a truck.

    The action followed the serious injuries sustained by a student of Oyeshina High School, Monathan, Ibadan, Oseni Yusuf, after a truck, which was on the fast lane, knocked him down.

    The students, thinking their colleague has died, stormed the scene of the accident and attempted to kill the driver.

    But the driver, whose identity is unknown, was said to have escaped. The students, however, burnt the truck belonging to Seven-up Bottling Company.

    Motorists abandoned their vehicles and fled. There was a confrontation between policemen, students and hoodlums, who capitalised on the confusion to harass people and steal.

    Gunshots and canisters of teargas were fired by the police to scare away the protesters.

    Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) were later drafted to the scene of the riot.

    Many shop owners were forced to shut down and there was a traffic jam on Iwo Road, Monathan.

    Fifteen people were reportedly injured in the fracas.

    Peace was later restored by anti-riot policemen.

    Police spokesperson, Mrs. Olabisi Ilobanafor, described the action of the students as unfortunate.

    She said: “There was an accident involving a Tata truck with registration number EKY 990 XA driven by Adegoroye Kamoru, which hit a student of Oyeshina High School, Monatan, Oseni Yusuf. He was taken to Divine Hospital and is responding to treatment. “Policemen moved to the scene to control the irate students but they went on the rampage, throwing bottles. They set the vehicle ablaze. Patrol teams were mobilised to restore peace. The area is now calm.”

  • UI VC orders students to vacate hostel

    Following the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Isaac Adewole, yesterday ordered the students living on campus to vacate their halls of residence before 6pm today.

    In a statement issued by the institution’s Director of Communication, Mr. Olatunji Oladejo, the VC asked the students to proceed on a two-week semester break with immediate effect as a result of the prevailing circumstances.

    In a telephone chat with The Nation yesterday, Mr. Oladejo noted that it was necessary for the students to go home as the ongoing ASUU strike has paralysed academic activities and there is no need for them to stay on campus.

    He added that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.

     

  • Chevron lifts blind students

    Chevron lifts blind students

    The Niger Delta Blind Students Association and beneficiaries of the Blind Students Scholarship Programme initiated by the Chevron/NNPC Joint Venture have commended the JV partners for the gesture.

    The President of the association, Tariye Ben Omietimi, said the scheme has helped its members to continue their education and to measure up to the requirements of higher education in Nigeria.

    Omietimi, an indigene of Bayelsa State, explained that his compassion for the teaming visually-impaired students, who lacked help, informed the decision to set up the body, whose members are among over 200 blind students in various tertiary institutions who receive N150,000 annually since the scheme started in 2007.

    A recipient, Emmanuel Sylvanus, said the scheme has proved that there is hope for blind students whose aspirations for further education are being hampered not by their physical challenges, but financial handicap.

    The final year student of Mass Communications at the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, said life was even more difficult for him as a blind child of a blind woman with four blind persons in his family.

    “As a child of a blind woman and brother to four blind persons in my family, you can understand that the means of survival for daily bread is even difficult not to talk of affording higher education.”

    “Chevron has made it possible for some blind students who would have dropped out of school because of lack of money to remain in the school system,” added Emmanuel who graduated in 2010 as the second-best student in the Ordinary National Diploma level before he proceeded to the Higher National Diploma level.

    The story is the same for Gabriel Godwin, an Urhobo final year Mass Communications at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). He described the company’s gift to him and others as “unique”, adding that the Chevron’s scholarship has gone a long way to alleviate his financial plight in the school.

    “I find it easy to pay my school fees, buy the necessary textbooks, tape recorder and some other materials needed in the school for the smooth running of my academic activities,” he said.

    “This (Chevron) is the only oil company in Nigeria and even in Africa that has given this exceptional scholarship to the visually impaired particularly the Niger Delta students – there is no aptitude test, nothing whatsoever.”

    Felix Lodio and Idowu Philip are also beneficiaries of the NNPC/Chevron Blind students’ scholarship. While Felix is a final student of English/Literature, Idowu, an indigene of Ondo State is a final year student of Mass communication at the University of Nigeria Nsukka.

    Mr. Edison Edhere, father of one of the beneficiaries, Omoefe Edhere, a final year student of Special Studies at the University of Jos, was also full of commendation.

    He stated: “I had stroke for over 10 years now. If not for this scholarship from Chevron, there would have been no hope for me and my family. “

    He particularly expressed joy that Chevron deviated from the norm of companies concentrating Corporate Responsibility programs on the healthy and able-bodied people while neglecting the plight of physically challenged like the blind students.

  • OAU Post-UMTE: 44 candidates score above 300

    OAU Post-UMTE: 44 candidates score above 300

    The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, says that only 44 candidates of the 12,200 people, who sat for the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Saturday, scored above 300.

    This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Abiodun Olarewaju, the Public Relations Officer of OAU, in Osogbo on Sunday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the OAU Post UTME cut-off mark for 2013/ 2014 session is 400.

    It stated Durotoluwa Olanrewaju, who applied to study Chemical Engineering, had the highest score of 332, while Soile Adetola, an intending Medical student, scored 327.

    According to the statement two candidates, Odimayo Moses and Nafiu Oluwadamilare, who applied to study Electrical and Electronics Engineering, scored 323 each.

    It also stated that 5,691 others, scored 200 and above.

    The statement quoted Prof. Bamitale Omole, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, as commending the candidates who scored 300 and above.

    It, therefore, advised candidates who took part in the screening exercise to check their results on the university’s Website or where each candidate registered.

  • Salaried students

    When we hear parents recount tales of their growing up, they tell how they survived seemingly difficult situations and still ended up successful. However, they are unable to employ the same standards used by their parents on their children – perhaps out of fear that their wards would be unable to cope. Chief executives of today may have trekked to school in their time. But today, they employ drivers and house maid to pick up their children from school, ferry them to extra classes, and other places they want to go.

    As an undergraduate, pre-GSM era, I remember submitting long lists of needs anytime school resumes. I used to quote a desired amount to cater for all the comforts of life a student could wish for. But my father usually gave me what he felt was enough for me. And, by the time I adjusted my list over and over again, cutting out luxuries and going for necessities, I was always well catered for. After providing funds for my school/registration fees, accommodation (and I had to cut my coat according to my size), and books, I usually focused on buying enough food, provisions and toiletries to last the most part of the semester. I always reasoned that if I ran out of money, I should at least not run out of food. Most times, there was hardly extra to spend on clothes so I made do with what I had or tried to make extra money from holiday jobs.

    Usually, half way through the semester, when broke, I would seek out those students traveling home to send to my parents. Oftentimes they returned with foodstuff and some cash to replenish my stock and that was it until the end of the semester. By the time we were completing examinations, I usually had little to spare apart from my transport fare back home.

    But my brothers that have gone to school after me had a different experience. They received pocket money on monthly basis, a luxury I could not have dreamt of. I remind them of this fact ever so often. However, their modest pocket money cannot be compared to what I learnt some parents give their wards. At a time the Nigerian Labour Congress had to fight governments to pay N18,000 as minimum wage, some parents give their undergraduate children between N60,000 and N100,000 monthly. I learnt this from a parent whose child attends a private university. As a result the children have so much more than they need to spend on frivolities. Some, I am told, maintain off-campus accommodations even though their institutions provide hostel spaces for all.

    I used to think all parents hope to rest from their labours after their children graduate from the university. But with this practice of spoiling children with fat pocket money, I do not think their parents can easily hands off overseeing their affairs at the end of their schooling. I wonder how a child that got N60,000 as pocket money can survive when it is time to participate in the one-year National Youth Service Corps scheme where the Federal Government pays them a monthly stipend of N19,800 (recently upgraded from N9,770). Are parents expected to extend the pocket money to cover the service year as well? The answer should be obvious if they fall in the category that pay their children more than the minimum wage monthly even before they get the certificates to start earning an income.

    Salaried students will also find it difficult to take up the average jobs for fresh graduates. Naturally, they would snob jobs with pay margins little different from what they got from their parents when in school. That is why parents have to go the extra mile nowadays to also seek lucrative jobs for their wards. For those with established businesses, they have little problem. They just give the child a big title, office, and fat salary and he begins to reap without knowing how to sow. Not many parents give their children the training they need to run their organisations successfully after they are gone. As a result, their success dies with them and does not continue to the next generation.

    In today’s world, when should a parent pull the brakes? The answer to this question is one every parent should provide long before the child owns a bank account.

     

  • Yobe students’ killers will go to hell, says Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday  described the killing of over 40 students and a teacher of Government Secondary School in Mamudo village, in Yobe State,  as wicked, horrific and barbaric.

    Jonathan, who spoke through the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati,  said that his administration will not be undermined by any group or persons.

    According to him, any person who target innocent children as a result of emotional dyfunction will certainly burn in hell.

    He sympathized with the affected families as he assured that the war against terror is still very much on course.

    Jonathan was optimistic that his administration will see the end of terror in the country.

    Describing terrorists as cowards, he said: “the killing is barbaric, completely wicked. Anybody who will target innocent children for any kind of grief of emotional dyfunction will certainly go to hell.”

    The attackers, who stormed the boarding school about  3 a.m. on Saturday, were said to have set fire on the hostels which burned the victims alive as they were asleep.

    The students that managed to escape from the fire were reportedly shot by the attackers.

    Some of the injured students in critical conditions are being treated in hospitals in the state for varying degrees of burns.

  • Students plead with Jonathan to end ASUU strike

    Students plead with Jonathan to end ASUU strike

    Some students of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki, on Thursday appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and stop the ongoing strike by university lecturers.

    The students told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview that the ongoing strike in its fourth day was not in the interest of university education and commended lecturers in EBSU for not participating in the strike.

    The students, who spoke include Miss Rebecca Okoro, a 200 level student of the Department of Biotechnology as well as Enyinnaya Oko and Stephen Onwe both first year students of the Department of Mass Communication.

    They said timely intervention by President Jonathan would salvage the situation and appealed to him to act fast to save the university system from collapse.

    The students expressed regret that their colleagues affected by the strike had remained at home.

    “We commend the wisdom and decision of the local ASUU chapter for not participating in the ongoing industrial action.

    “You know we just resumed on May 12 for academic activities after six weeks closure of the institution by the authorities in the wake of violent protests by students over fee hike.

    “Joining the strike now will have serious consequences on the students of the university.

    “We, however, feel for our colleagues in these affected universities who are now wasting in their respective homes,’’ Okoro said.

    The students said that their first semester examination had just started before the commencement of the ASUU strike.

    They said the industrial action embarked upon by the union could distort the smooth running of the academic calendar if nothing was done to end it soon.

     

  • Mapoly students block road over lecturers strike

    Mapoly students block road over lecturers strike

    Thousands of students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta on Thursday morning blocked
the four lanes Abeokuta - Siun - Sagamu road, trapping hundreds of vehicles wanting
to leave or enter the state capital.

The students who obstructed the traffic flow on both sides of the road at the point
of entrance to the Oke Mosan Governor's Office, Abeokuta with their buses, were
protesting the nationwide strike embarked upon polytechnic lecturers across the
country.

The protest was led by the Students Union Government President, Anbdul- Gafar
Adeleye and other executives. They had embarked upon the peaceful protest to the
Governor's Office, to plead with Senator Ibikunle Amosun to prevail on the lecturers
of MAPOLY to back out of the strike like their counterparts in some institutions.

Lecturers of the state - owned institution had joined the month old strike in
compliance with the directive from their national body,  to compel the State and
Federal Governments among other issues, to enlongate the retirement age of
polytechnic teachers as well as halt the disparity in treatment by employers of
labour between graduates of polytechnics and that of the universities.