Finalists Suffer Setback In Registering Special Electives

The course registration for harmattan 2014/2015 has finally began but laden with challenges as expressed by Great Ife students.

Even as students are glad that the long awaited course registration has been activated, they have however continue to express the problems and challenges that come with the registration as they cannot register courses without completing the Teaching Assessment Form online. According to some students, they cannot even assess most lecturers that took them on some of their previous courses because their names are not online. "Whenever I try clicking one of my courses, it will tell me that the Course Lecturer(s) for that course is yet to be defined by his/her HOD. To Assess the Lecturer, inform the Course Lecturer(s) to request his/her HOD to define him/her in the Course Allocation Form on the E-PORTAL for Rain 2013/2014 Session."

It will be recalled that many students also experienced similar challenges last session and many could not register their courses not until the Teaching Assessment Form was suspended. The current problem being experienced will definitely delay some final year students who had plans to register Special Electives on time so as not to be held back on that basis from graduating.

Apple Buys Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com For $1 Billion

Apple has bought Mr. Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com for one billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal’s publication, AllThingsDigital has reported.

Founded in 2005, Hopstop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed as at the time of this report. Echeruo, formerly an analyst at the investment banks and hedge funds, founded Hopstop.com in 2005.

Echeruo is now Chairman of the Board for Hopstop, and has been compared to Israel’s Waze, which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion. The move is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering, especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze. A serial entrepreneur, Echeruo grew up in the Eastern part of Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos.

He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded Hopstop.com after working for several years in the mergers and acquisitions and leveraged finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, financing and private equity transactions. He also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million volatility-driven convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund. He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S based internet companies: Hopstop.com and Tripology.com. Tripology.com was acquired in 2010 by American travel and navigation information company, Rand McNally.

True to form, Echeruo is working on yet another venture but this time, focused on small businesses in Africa.

According to him, “There is no reason why every entrepreneur should have to reinvent the wheel every single time in all the countries in Africa.

"My idea is to essentially have one place where a budding entrepreneur can access a template for starting a business, and then customise it to suit their own situation; essentially, a business-in-a-box.”


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E-portal Opens For Harmattan 2014/2015 Course Registration

The course registration for students of Obafemi Awolowo University for the Harmattan semester of the 2014/2015 academic session has finally started.

A 72-hours delay was experienced in opening the e-portal for the registration as against the 18th May, 2015 date initially set for it. All registered students are expected to log in to their e-portal page and register courses for this semester bearing in mind that there are limited Special Electives to register.

OP-ED: 5 Useful Tips For The Fresh Students

Adigun Olayemi

It is a great joy for you gaining into one of the best universities in Nigeria. You have stressed yourselves through rigorous reading for your UTME and Post-UTME and it fortunately paid off. I am sure you were very joyous when you checked and saw your name on the JAMB and the school portals. I congratulate you for your admission into Obafemi Awolowo University.

Before i proceed, let me at this junction tell you some useful secrets of success in this institution.

MAKE GOOD FRIENDS
As soon as you enter the campus, make friends with some of your course mates. Make good and zealous friends, collect their numbers and make sure you chat or call them when you want to ask questions. Try to make good friends, keep company of good ones and be of good friend to them too.

ATTEND CLASSES
In this institution, one important thing that you have to do is to attend classes. Some lecturers do discuss what will come out in their tests and exams with the students during lectures. Therefore, try as much as possible not to skip classes whatsoever because attendance counts a lot here. Your attendance must be up to 75% before you can write any examination. Do not be tired of classes, some may be stressful, boring but try to grab what the lecturer teaches for that day.

READ ALWAYS
Read always, read everyday! Try to read at least three hours daily. Read what you are being taught per day. Let your brain grab something for the day. Do not shift your reading to during test and exams only when the pressure will be much. Commence your reading as early as possible. Reading brightens the brain and brings the best out of you during examinations.

DETERMINATION AND HARDWORK
Be determined to do anything given to you in class. Hardwork pays for those that does it diligently. In anything you are doing, in any course you may have found yourself, be determined to make it. Leave your past and face your present, because your present is what determines your future and life. Be zealous, diligent and positive in doing things.

PRAY ALWAYS
Obviously, prayer is over everything. Pray everyday to achieve your goals. Prayer is the key to every good and bad things. Wisdom comes from God only and not from man. Solve it spiritually through prayer. Pray as if you are not reading and read as if you are not praying.

Hon. Seun Has To Prove His Eligibility –Ibiyemi

The former Angola Hall Chairman and an aspirant to the post of the Secretary General of the Great Ife Students’ Union during the last elections, Comrade Ibiyemi Joseph has said the much embattled Secretary General-elect of the Union, Oketooto Oluwaseun a.k.a Hon. Seun has to come out to prove his eligibility so as to wash himself clean from the allegations levelled against him.

Ibiyemi who confessed to have had a prior knowledge of this allegation against Hon. Seun even during the election said he did not bring it up then because he had little or no evidence to raise any dust during that time so as not to tarnish his image.

“Though I have been aware of that matter even during the election but I couldn’t do anything due to the fact that I don’t have evidence and I won’t like to tarnish his personality nor challenge his victory”

“...but recently as I went online and I saw the result, I was so baffled and I would have been a coward to see such a thing and not asking questions”

However, Ibiyemi confirmed to us that he has written to the Election Petition Committee to ask Hon. Seun questions about his results for the sake of posterity and sanctity in our Union. Ibiyemi went further to say that despite his urge to know the real truth in the matter on ground; he holds no grudge against Hon. Seun in person because they are friends. He also said he has even accepted Hon. Seun as his Union’s Secretary General but he has to prove to us.

The former Angola Hall Chairman also played down propaganda from some quarters that the 2.5 CGPA minimum requirement was never a Union thing before now and no one should be crucified on that basis.

“A law will always be a law. When we got the form, it was clearly stated that we must meet up to 2.5 and if any candidate does not meet up with that, I am not sure the candidate is qualified. The candidacy is even wrong from the beginning.”

“I could see some people reporting that the 2.5 was forced on us by management, yes, let’s say that but why didn’t they challenge that from the beginning before the election. Why now that these things are coming up that some people are proving that it shouldn’t have been 2.5. No! I won’t support that. He should have known that if he has met up with the requirement, he could have gone for it and if he has not met it, I see no reason why he should not be disqualified.”

In a similar response, Hon. Captain who came second runner up after Ibiyemi for the Secretary General post during the election also said he has concluded plans to challenge Hon. Seun’s eligibility before the Election Petition Committee. This he said owning to nothing but to protect the image of our Union.

OAU 267th Inaugural Lecture

The University’s 275th Inaugural lecture:“Literature and the art of shaving a man's head in his absence” by Prof. Gbemisola 'Remi Adeoti, holds on Tuesday, 26th May, 2014 at the Oduduwa Hall, by 5:00pm.

Professor Gbemisola 'Remi Adeoti is a professor of Literature In English & Director, Institute of Cultural Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University.

Kidnappings: ASUU Protests In Ekiti, Threatens Strike

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday protested the kidnapping of its members in Ekiti State, and threatened to withdraw their services, if the victims were not rescued by Friday, May 22.

The body lamented that the captors were demanding N210 million as ransom for the release of three out of five members kidnapped at different locations, describing the scenario as frightening and disturbing.

ASUU members, led by Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti chapter chairman, Prof Olufayo Olu-Olu were protesting the kidnapping of Dr Femi Omisore , a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr Folasade Alade of EKSU and Dr. Kikelomo Adegun , wife of the former Chief Medical Director of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.

Armed with placards with inscriptions like,“ASUU says no to kidnapping,” “kidnapping is a crime against humanity,” “ASUU demands unconditional release of members,” “Ensure safety of lives and property’’, among others, the protesters marched from the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital in Ado Ekiti to the Ewi’s Palace, where they were addressed by Oba Rufus Adejugbe and members of his council.

Prof Olufayo in the company of his colleagues from OAU, Dr Caleb Aborisade and Federal University of Technology, Dr Bola Oniya later moved to see Governor Ayodele Fayose’s office, where they were received by the deputy governor, Dr Kolapo Olusola, with the governor reported to have gone to Abuja to meet with the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase over the incessant abduction in the state.

Decrying the kidnap of his members and their colleagues in the health profession, he urged the government to do all within its powers to rescue the state from sliding into anarchy.

Prof Olufayo said, “This is the same way Boko Haram started in the North. It started like a child’s play, but today, a visit to the North would show the level of callousness and damage the sects have done to the system.
IGP deploys special squad to Ekiti
The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase has assured people of Ekiti of a rapid response to the spate of kidnappings in the state.

Arase while playing host to the Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose in his office, promised to deploy a special team in the duo of Ekiti and Kogi states within the next 48 hours to stem the tide.

The IGP who noted that the police will do everything within her power to ensure that all states of the federation are rid of people with criminal tendencies, assured the governor that Ekiti State will soon become safe for economic activities.

Earlier, the governor congratulated the IGP on his well deserved elevation noted that he was at the Police Headquarters to intimate the IG on the state of security in Ekiti.


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