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Tag: UNILORIN

  • NLNG’s $2m centre for UNILORIN

    NLNG’s $2m centre for UNILORIN

    Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has inaugurated  its $2 million Engineering Research Centre at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

    The centre is part of gas giant’s $12 million University Support Programme (USP).

    So far, NLNG has inaugurated four laboratories in varsities. The  based at the Ahmadu Bello University Multi-user Engineering Laboratory, the University of Ibadan Engineering Complex and the NLNG/University of Port Harcourt Oil and Gas Engineering Centre.

    The scheme, according to NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, was launched in 2014 to boost engineering education.

    The other beneficiaries are University of Maiduguri and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The projects at the UMAID and UNN are at various levels of completion.

    The inauguration was witnessed by a representative of Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed,  the Commissioner for Education, Musa Yekiti, directors of NLNG, the Council members of UNILORIN, among others.

    In his keynote address, NLNG’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Babs Omotowa, said:  “The University Support Programme is one of NLNG’s approaches to developing Nigerian human capital and fostering technological advancement. We recognise that universities, with their crop of young people and nimble minds, when aided properly, are the fertile grounds from which ideas to fast track Nigeria’s progress will spring from.’’

    He continued: “At Nigeria LNG, we like to proudly assert that we have successfully built a great company. That is a fact. But today our challenge and focus is building an even greater one to bequeath to our successors and to Nigeria. Therefore, the USP project is, in a sense, another chapter in that momentous journey and another feather in NLNG’s cap as a socially responsible corporate organisation.

    “We continue to offer scholarships to deserving young Nigerians at secondary school, university and post graduate levels. We also endow the Nigeria Prize for Science and the Nigeria Prize for Literature worth a $100,000 each, and run the Bonny Vocational Centre which awards the International Technical Vocation Level 3 Certificate of London City and Guilds and the Nigerian Skills Technical Certificate to graduates.

  • Fake admission: Unilorin expels 108

    Fake admission: Unilorin expels 108

    The University of Ilorin (Unilorin) has said it has expelled 108 students for gaining admission through dubious means.

    The Vice Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, who spoke yesterday in Ilorin while chatting with Police Commissioner Sam Okaula, who visited him, said because of the stable academic calendar and culture of excellence prevalent in the university, the pressure to secure admission was high.

    “This results in candidates seeking illegal and unauthorised ways to gain admission into the university,” he said.

    Ambali assured the commissioner of the university’s cooperation by giving the police information required in the course of their work.

    He said: “We will volunteer any information you need to succeed.’’

    The VC reiterated the university’s stance on zero tolerance for cultism and indecent dressing, saying this had helped to maintain sanity on the campus.

    Prof. Ambali assured the police boss that eligible personnel of the Force interested in higher education could take advantage of the opportunity provided by the university’s Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies.

    Okaula said the university was regarded as one of the best in Africa because of its stable academic calendar.

    He said security was a collective responsibility of every member of a community, adding that Unilorin demonstrated zero tolerance for cultism.

    The police commissioner said no student of the institution was among the 118 arrested for cult-related activities.

    He hailed the university’s security unit for its focus, discipline and professionalism, assuring the VC of police’s support.

    Okaula said the police adopted scientific investigative method, noting that some officers would require more education in that regard.

    He urged Ambali to assist such personnel in securing admission to improve their capacity to better deal with crime.

     

  • Fake admission: UNILORIN expels 108 fresh students

    Fake admission: UNILORIN expels 108 fresh students

    The University of Ilorin says no fewer than 108 fresh students of the institution were expelled for gaining admission through dubious means.

    The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, disclosed this on Monday in Ilorin while exchanging views with the Commissioner of Police in Kwara, Mr Sam Okaula, who visited him.

    Ambali told the commissioner that due to stable academic calendar and culture of excellence prevalent in the university, the pressure to secure admission into the institution was high.

    “This result in some candidates seeking illegal and unauthorised ways to gain admission into the university,” he said.

    Ambali assured the commissioner of the university’s continuous cooperation by readily offering the police useful information required in the course of their work.

    “We will volunteer any information you need to succeed,’’ the vice chancellor said.

    He reiterated the university’s stance on zero tolerance for cultism and indecent dressing, stressing that these had helped to maintain sanity on the campus.

    Ambali also gave an assurance that eligible personnel of the Force interested in higher education could take advantage of the opportunity provided by the university’s Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies.

    Earlier, Okaula said the university was highly regarded as one of the best universities in Africa because of its stable academic calendar.

    Okaula also said that security was a collective responsibility of every member of a community, adding that the university had demonstrated zero tolerance for cultism.

    He said that no student of the institution was among the 118 recently arrested for cult-related activities.

    The commissioner commended the Security Unit of the university for its focus, discipline and professionalism, assuring the vice-chancellor of the continuous support of the police.

    Ukaula said the police had adopted scientific investigation method, noting that some officers would require more education in that regard.

    He pleaded with Ambali to assist such personnel in securing admission to improve their capacity to be able to better deal with crime in the country.

     

  • Court orders UNILORIN to pay N970m tax arrears

    Court orders UNILORIN to pay N970m tax arrears

    An Ilorin High Court has ordered the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) to settle its outstanding tax liability of N970 million to the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIIRS).

    The presiding judge, Justice Bayo Yusuf, gave the ruling at the weekend.

    According to him, the application for stay of execution by the applicant (University of Ilorin) on the judgment earlier given in favour of claimant (KWIRS) is not valid and is dismissed.

    Justice Yusuf ordered that University of Ilorin, being the judgment debtor, should pay N100 million on or before May 31 and N50 million monthly until the N970 million is liquidated.

    He said interest accrued on the liabilities should be paid as well.

  • US firm partners UNILORIN on power

    A New York-based company, Arrow Capital LCC, is partnering with the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) to generate 500 megawatts of solar energy in Nigeria.

    The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Brian Travis, said while signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with authorities of the university at the weekend that the project would cost the firm about N600 billion.

    Travis added that the project would be sited on the UNILORIN campus, saying “University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) is an ideal location for a solar power. The backbone of the electricity distributions of Nigeria runs through this line.

    “They run through Egbin thermal power station in Lagos up to Shiroro Dam in Niger State. So it is a great honour and location for us.

    “Interestingly, when President Muhammadu Buhari came to the United States last year, he announced the country’s commitment to solar power and President Barack Obama announced that jobs from the solar industry are growing in the country.”

    Travis said the project, expected to be completed in five months, would supply 10 per cent of the country’s power needs.

    “It is going to supply 10 percent of power to Nigeria; we have three major grids and with significant manpower, we will extend to Lagos, Kano and other parts of the country,” he said.

    On his part, the UNILORIN Vice Chancellor, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, said the project would meet the institution’s power and training needs.

    He said: “The total consumption of the UNILORIN is four megawatts and they are going to generate 500 megawatts.  They have made all arrangement to sell the rest to the Federal Government.

    “We at the UNILORIN see it as an opportunity to contribute to the efforts of the federal government in terms of power generation and distribution.

    “Again, we are looking at the benefits the university will derive from the whole exercise. This includes, most importantly, the constant power supply to our university.  We cannot over emphasise the need for that because we have a lot of departments that depend on constant power supply; especially our biomedical research.

    “This also, will go a long way in encouraging our own graduate students in their research to generate data that will be acceptable and comparable to other people around the world.

    “The company intends to build a solar panel assembly plant that will afford our engineering students to get state-of-the-art training and skills of producing solar panels.

    “It will also afford our entrepreneurship centre the opportunity of training the middle level manpower that will be needed to assemble and maintain such facilities when made available to the general public.

    “The positive effects that the project will have on Kwara state, on Nigeria as a whole are enormous and we look forward to the fruitful completion of the project. They intend to start immediately after the signing the MoA and it is our target that come October this year, the project will be part of what UNILORIN will commission through the various guests that will be here.”

     

  • Unilorin hospital performs heart surgeries on three kids

    Authorities of the University of Ilorin (UITH), in collaboration with Appollo Children Hospital, Chennai, India, have carried out open heart surgeries on three children.

    This brings the number of open heart surgeries performed by the hospital to five. It carried out its first open heart surgeries on two kids about nine months ago.

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UITH, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, told reporters yesterday in Ilorin that about one million children in the country had heart problems.

    The team from the Appollo Children Hospital was led by the Head, Paediatrics and Cardiology, Dr. Neville Solomon.

    Prof. Olatinwo said: “UITH’s partnership with Appollo Children Hospital, Chennai, India started about 12 months ago. Don’t forget that quite a number of children, about one million children, have problem with their hearts. These are either congenital or acquired.

    “If correction is not carried out on them, they may die before the age of maturity. As part of our mandate of service, training and research, the hospital found a way of reversing medical tourism. That was what necessitated our venturing into this area.

    “About nine months ago, we carried out open heart surgeries on two patients with congenital hearts. They are feeling fine. The patients visited us as a follow-up.

    “The second mission entailed operating three children, all boys, between ages four and nine. They are doing well. They are off ventilators- that is, they are doing their things on their own and we believe in the next few days they will be discharged.

    “As part of the collaboration, three of our doctors are in Chennai, India, undergoing training in cardiac catheterisation. Hopefully in the next three weeks, three nurses and laboratory scientists will join them. The vision of UITH is to be the best centre in Africa before 2018. Today, we are laying the foundation of the cardiac catheterisation centre.

    “Cardiac cathererisation laboratory (CATHLAB) is a minimum invasive procedure that involves the use of machines and other images toward ensuring diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions. The conditions are babies that have congenital defects, such as holes, problems with the vessels supplying blood to the heart and irregular heartbeats. In the next six months we should complete and equip this building so that by time our workers undergoing training in India return, they will start the process.

    “We believe that with this in place, people with heart problems in Africa can come to Nigeria for treatment.

    “I want to emphasise that government cannot do this alone. We are aware of the economic crisis in the world. I urge philanthropists to assist us because a heart surgery will cost between N700,000 and N1.5 million. Unfortunately, the majority of our patients cannot afford this. The cost of operation for the five patients was subsidised.”

  • Unilorin students shine at Mathematics competition

    Unilorin students shine at Mathematics competition

    Students of the Department of Mathematics, University of Ilorin have once again made the institution proud at the 8th edition of the National Mathematics Competition for University Students (NAMCUS 2016), held recently at the National Mathematical Centre Abuja.

    The University team emerged the first runner up (Overall 2nd best institution) out of about 30 institutions that participated in the competition.

    The team also garnered one gold and three silver medals based on their individual performances.

    Speaking with our correspondent, a member of the Unilorin Team, Raheem Ridwan Lekan said: “The competition is indeed an eye opener, it has really exposed us to many aspects of Pure Mathematics, and we are happy and thankful to Almighty God that we didn’t let the University down at the end of the day”

    The University team has always been among winners in the previous editions of the keenly contested competition, emerging the overall best and first runner up in the 2014 and 2015 editions respectively.

    Other participating institutions in this year’s competition include: Federal University of Technology Akure (Overall best institution), University of Uyo (Second Runner up), Bayero University Kano (Third Runner up), University of Lagos and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Osun State University.

    The University contingent led by Dr. K. Rauf and included Raheem Ridwan Lekan, Ogunkunle Oluwasegun Abiodun, Adeyemi Adeoye Damilare and Ayoola Faith Mobolaji

     

  • On Unilorin admission

    SIR: Whatever selection criteria used for admission of new students into any Nigerian university, merit should be given adequate consideration. This does not mean outright jettisonning of affirmative considerations such as catchment areas and gender balancing but prioritized meritocracy in the admission process.

    Recently, the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu Ambali, was quoted to have said that only 7,800 out of over 65,000 candidates that participated in the post-UTME screening exercise of the institution could be admitted lamenting that its quota for the year had been reduced by JAMB. Prior, the Vice Chancellor had reportedly hinted that less than 50% of candidates (30,384) that participated in the Post UMTE computer based test scored 50% and above. In this sense, the chances that a candidate that applied to study English Language with post-UTME score of 64 in addition to over 230 score in JAMB/UTME and excellent result in WAEC/SSCE/NECO/NATEB should stand a better chance of being admitted if the information pegging down cut off mark at 50 for admission into studying English in 2015/2015 session is correct. Or how do we explain why such an applicant/candidate would not merit being seriously considered for admission?

    It is interesting to read in the media that the JAMB/NUC has increased the university admission quota from 7800 to 9000 meaning more candidates would be admitted. Therefore, I want to appeal that special consideration should be given to candidates that already passed the post UTME conducted by the university; not doing so would amount to denying some of these better qualified candidates, who more often than not come from disadvantaged background in terms of socio-economic status, access to tertiary education. Higher education should not be for the children of the elite alone. A world class university such as Unilorin must always factor meritocracy above other considerations in all its admission selection policy and process.

    Generally, our governments and management of tertiary education system in the country must invest heavily in infrastructural development in the education sector in order to increase the carrying capacity of Nigerian universities thereby expand access to university education.

     

    • Tunde Salman,

    Ilorin, Kwara State.

     

  • Injustice at Unilorin

    SIR: We are compelled to invite the special attention of the public to the exploitation of postgraduate students of Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin. It would be recalled that the University of Ilorin recently released the list of its admitted students for postgraduate programmes for the 2015/2016 session. Going by the school instruction, successful candidates are expected to perform their registration online, including payment of school fees and other sundry payments through the university website. It has become the university policy that all money due to the school are to be paid through banks or online transaction.

    Curiously, on December 30, 2015 postgraduate students of Faculty of Law received email and text messages from the coordinators of faculty of law postgraduate programmes to the effect that all postgraduate students of law should come to the faculty the following day for manual registration of courses. Unknown to the students, the coordinators have laid down a well-coordinated plan to extort them of N5000 each under the cover of a dubious “clearance fee”. All the students who registered that day were made to cough out N5000 as a condition for manual registration of courses. What is even shocking is that the coordinators collected these money by hand without issuance of receipt against the university policy prohibiting staff from receiving money manually from students. It was obvious from their conduct that this was an attempt to corruptly enrich themselves.

    We the concerned students call on the Vice Chancellor and the Dean of Postgraduate Studies to use their good offices and call these coordinators, who are bent on milking us dry, to order and sanction them appropriately. Our demand is that the money so far illegally collected be returned to the affected students.

     

    • Sanni Onyekachi Adaba,

    University of Ilorin.

  • UNILORIN awards scholarship to 246 students

    UNILORIN awards scholarship to 246 students

    The Senate of the University of Ilorin has awarded scholarships to 246 students during the 2014/2015 academic session.

    According to the University Bulletin issued on Wednesday in Ilorin, the gesture was in recognition of the students’ brilliant academic performances at their various levels across all faculties of the University.

    The bulletin stated that the breakdown of the awards was contained in the just published University of Ilorin 2014/2015 Annual Report.

    It stated that the scholarships were awarded to 12 students of the Faculty of Agriculture, 32 students of the Faculty of Arts, 14 from the Faculty of Basic Medical Science and six from the Faculty of Clinical Science.

    It said that 16 were from the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, 37 from the Faculty of Education and 36 students from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology.

    Further breakdown showed that one student from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, 13 students from the Faculty of Law, 16 from the Faculty of Life Sciences, 12 from the Faculty of Management Sciences and six from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, among others.

    It said that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, noted that the scholarship award was “basically to reward hard work and to serve as morale booster for the recipients while it will further motivate and encourage other students to strive hard to attain that great height.”

    Ambali, however, commended the University scholars and advised other students to attach seriousness to their studies for them to be recipients of the award in the 2015/2016 academic session.

    The VC pointed out that the University of Ilorin “is known for the best’’ and pledged that his leadership would continue to do everything humanly possible not only to sustain the feat and to consolidate on the existing achievements.