Immediate Past Awo Hall Secretary, Gideon Beaten For Theft

By Abiola Durodola and Farombi Oluwaseun

It was a bloody day for Apoel Gideon, the immediate past Secretary of the caretaker committee of Awolowo Hall yesterday as he begged those that were once his 'boys' to save his life following the criminal treat done him. ‘He was forcefully administered his own medicine in a popular style’ someone quipped.

Gideon was reported to have stolen some items which include a Samsung S2 which was discovered by the owner and another laptop. Upon this discovery, he was told to prove the ownership of the phone which Gideon failed to do. The owner brought out the receipt and the phone pack which has the IMEI number which matched with what Gideon was with. The owner reported the case immediately to the Students' Union Security Committee.

Our efforts to speak with Gideon yesterday proved abortive as members of the SU Security Committee prevented journalists from seeing him on the excuse that he will be moderated today. Students’ continuous clamour that Gideon's case be moderated yesterday fell on deaf ears as the security team insisted that could not be done for security reasons. We eventually learnt the security committee acted based on the instruction handed down by the SU president through a phone call but the Security Committee promised that his case will be moderated the next day (Wednesday) at the level of Awo café by 8am.


Based on the account of the Security Committee, Gideon confessed that he actually stole the phone and laptop. During the early hours of yesterday, students converged at Awo café to see how the moderation would go. After so many submissions by students, it was agreed that he will be given three (3) strokes of cane each by three Awolowo Hall residents which was meted. He was then paraded to Angola hall with students shouting "Gideon Ole Ole" but he was not beaten there due to intervention of the Vice Dean, Division of Student Affair (DSA) and some security personnel after claims that he had fainted and he was bleeding profusely from his nose.

Gideon was later rushed into an ambulance which was later blocked by students with an attack been launched on the driver of the ambulance right in front of the Health Centre but he was bundled into a Red bus which later took him away to OAUTHC for treatment. As at the time of filing this report, the exact health state of Gideon cannot be ascertained.

‘ICT Skill Acquisition Programme Is Alien To Student Unionism’ –TY

By David Adetula

The ICT Skill Acquisition Programme been currently championed by the Students’ Union of Obafemi Awolowo University has been described as something alien to student unionism.

Omotayo Akande a.k.a TY, the OAU Students’ Union President during his welcome note at the pre-training seminar held at Oduduwa Hall on Saturday has revealed how he has continually received criticisms from some students including activists for bringing the skill acquisition and empowerment programme on board.

TY said the sole reason given by those against the programme has been that Students’ Union which is a pressure group is supposed to be focused on activism and not on programmes like this. He however said that his response has been that much more beyond the pressure group which the Union is that will continue to demand and agitate for better welfare conditions, there is a need for the Union to empower its members for the outside life.

“Many students have come to me, even student activists to say that this is not what the Union should be doing. What I always ask them is, beyond demanding, beyond agitating which the Union has been doing, what else can the Union do?” TY said.


The Union president said in the current labour market, certificate alone is not sufficient as these skills will stand one out. Also speaking in similar vein, the Guest Speaker during the seminar, Kunle Oladele, the MD/CEO, AVI LTD commended the Union for embarking on this initiative to add the needed value their students especially those that will be graduating soon.

Oracle University and NIIT are the two major big wigs been brought on board by the powering group, Bridgeup Nigeria Limited in partnership with OAU Students’ Union to train OAU students on courses including PMP, PHP & MYSQL, ORACLE (SQL), AUTOCAD, JAVA and others. Side attractions including cake & confectioneries and driving are also embedded in the scheme.

The Union blamed the poor turnout of students for the seminar on the peculiarity of the examination period and hopes it will improve when the training finally kick-off. The ICT Skill Acquisition Programme is expected to run concurrently for three (3) weeks after the semester examinations.

OAU Geology Students Embark On Field Trip To Edo State

The students of the Department of Geology, Obafemi Awolowo University will on Sunday morning embark on a journey to Edo state for a field work. The students numbering about 45 excluding the staff will be going with a Marcopolo bus and will be spending about eighteen (18) days on the field.


A student of the department who spoke to our correspondent on a condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to do so revealed that the trip should have been undertaken during the last seasonal break but could not happen. He said each student paid over N30,000 for the field trip which covers basically accommodation, transportation and feeding.

OAU Students’ Union Dissociates Self From NANS Award To Kasamu

By David Adetula

The Great Ife Students’ Union has dissociated self from the recent controversial award given to the sacked Nigerian senator, Buruji Kashamu by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

In an exclusive interview with OAU Peeps News Agency on Saturday, the Students’ Union Public Relations Officer, Ojedokun Emmanuel a.k.a Immanuel Kant has disclosed the position of the SU in Ife and condemned the action stating that NANS has continued to remain anti-students. He further described NANS’ action as that which is highly berating to integrity.

“The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS is actually a shadow of itself and even in past and recent histories; the Great Ife SU has always taken an antagonistic position against NANS because NANS has never been pro-students.

“When we saw the news that NANS honoured Buruji Kashamu, an alleged drug baron, someone like that honoured as Golden Man of the Year, it berates integrity and as a Union, we did not fail to issue our position.


“For us as a Union, we condemn the action because we do not believe somebody like Buruji Kashamu should be honoured. We do not have any personal vendetta against him.”

Immanuel Kant restated the OAU SU continued attempts to take NANS back to the status quo. He said the way forward are in two options that were reeled out during the Indelible Impact administration inaugural Statement which are both the OAU SU and other pro-student Unions to fractionate NANS or proscribe NANS. The PRO however stated that these options are not a one man journey else will cause any Union to commit a political suicide. As such, he said the Great Ife Students’ Union has been pushing for pro-students issues at any NANS convention they have opportunity to attend.

Buruji Kashamu is a senator representing one of the senatorial districts in Ogun state. Kashamu recently suffered a major setback in his political career as his election was nullified by the Election Petition Tribunal ordering a fresh election. The senator rose to recent controversial media prominence following failed attempts by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to extradite him the States to face trial for alleged drug offences.

Motherland- Pope Jay

I believe Olanrewaju Fasasi is one of the artistically creative men that Nigeria has produced so far. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of hip hop music in Nigeria but one of the most amazing things about this man is that despite the recent rise in the level of mediocrity in the music industry, Sound sultan, as he is popularly called, has managed to retain a high standard for himself. As a child, his track ‘motherland’ was one of the songs that spurred a sense of belonging and patriotism in me and very recently I heard a remix of the track. A particular modification to the song got me thinking, he started the remix with the words “I would rather be a Lion in the jungle than a dog in the city”.
 In my ruminations on these words, I considered quite a lot of things. Firstly, if there were bomb blasts every day in the jungle killing other lions, would he still rather be in the jungle? Or if the rate of corruption in the jungle was so high that the antelope had to pay bribe to eat grass, would he still rather be in the jungle? In fact considering the current state of our jungle (Nigeria), I was almost sure that the city held better prospects.

After a while, it dawned on me.  The semantics of the sultan’s words wasn’t quite as deep as I had thought. The jungle itself in the real sense was not a perfect place but there was a strong bond between it and the lion, it was the Lion’s home. The Sultan was simply reemphasizing the message he had been preaching all along; he would rather be at home.

 As young children, we were enthusiastic to be presidents, governors and leaders so we could buy our mother; ten cars and our father; five houses. This, of course, was due to the orientation that the society gave us. We saw these leadership positions as more of a paycheck rather than what it really was; a bigger opportunity to serve. This is one of the factors that corrupted the leader of tomorrow mentality, youths started to wait for a virtual tomorrow so they could get into office and eat their part of the “national cake”. They forgot to lead their lives well today.

 There are a few obvious and auspicious reasons to believe that the current leadership of Nigeria would make things better but there is still the need to establish the change we desire at the very fundamental level; the individual. In the words of Mahatma Ghandi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. The coincidental part is that; most Nigerians obviously wished to see “Change”.

Pope Jay

New Private Security Outfit To Complement OAU Crackers

By David Adetula

The Management of Obafemi Awolowo University has announced that a new private security outfit is being brought on board to complement and reinforce the existing security personnel within the University estate.

This development was contained in a Statement signed by the University Registrar, D. O. Awoyemi. The Management said her new decision was triggered following the Report of the Federal Government Visitation Panel to the institution in 2011 and the Federal Government White Paper accepting the recommendations contained therein on outsourcing of the Security outfit of the University.

The implementation of the FG White Paper was finally given a nod by the University Governing Council during a meeting with the University Management on Thursday, September 10, 2015.

Since the announcement of this development, we have been able to gather from some quarters that the current security personnel known as the Crackers have raised fears over their fate cum job security. To this, the university authority has however allayed fears saying the new development will not affect the existing security personnel.

It will be recalled that the popular OAU Crackers were branded sometimes three years ago to work as internal security personnel. Ever since their commissioning, they have repeatedly received applause from both the staff and students population for their outstanding activities.

2016 Commonwealth Scholarships - MSc And Phd

Commonwealth Scholarships for Master’s and PhD study in the UK are offered for citizens of developing Commonwealth countries. These scholarships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth. For information on other scholarships offered by the CSC, visit our Apply page.

You can apply for a Commonwealth Scholarship for the following levels of study:

- Master’s (one-year courses only)
- PhD

All subject areas are eligible, although the CSC’s selection criteria give priority to applications that demonstrate the strongest relevance to development.

You should apply to study at a UK university with which the CSC has a part funding agreement.

Eligibility
To apply for these scholarships, you must:

Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country
Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2016
By October 2016, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree)

The CSC promotes equal opportunity, gender equity, and cultural exchange. Applications are encouraged from a diverse range of candidates. The CSC is committed to administering and managing its scholarships and fellowships in a fair and transparent manner.

Selection process
Each year, the CSC invites selected nominating bodies to submit a specific number of nominations. The deadline for nominating bodies to submit nominations to the CSC is 17 December 2015.

The CSC invites around three times more nominations than scholarships available – therefore, nominated candidates are not guaranteed to be awarded a scholarship. There are no quotas for scholarships for any individual country. Candidates nominated by national nominating agencies are in competition with those nominated by other nominating bodies, and the same standards will be applied to applications made through either channel.

Each nominated candidate’s application is first considered by a member of the CSC’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned, and then by the CSC’s selection committee in competition with other candidates.


Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:
Academic merit of the candidate
Quality of the proposal
Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

For further details, see the Selection criteria for 2016 Commonwealth Scholarships for developing Commonwealth country citizens

You may also find the Feedback for unsuccessful candidates useful.

How to apply
You must apply to one of the following nominating bodies in the first instance – the CSC does not accept direct applications for these scholarships:




National nominating agencies – this is the main route of application
Selected universities/university bodies, which can nominate their own academic staff.
Selected non-governmental organisations and charitable bodies

All applications must be made through your nominating body in your home country. Each nominating body is responsible for its own selection process. You must check with your nominating body for their specific advice and rules for applying, and for their own closing date for applications. The CSC does not impose any age limit on applicants, but nominating bodies may do so in line with their own priorities.

You must make your application using the CSC’s Electronic Application System (EAS).

Your application must be submitted to and endorsed by one of the approved nominating bodies listed above. The CSC will not accept any applications that are not submitted via the EAS to a nominating body in your home country.

All applications must be submitted by 19 November 2015 at the latest . Please note that this is an earlier deadline than in previous years.


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