OAU: Education Dean Announces Professorship Of Five Lecturers

The Dean of Faculty of Education, Professor P.O Jegede has announced the elevation of four Doctorate lecturers to the rank of Professor and associate Professor in the circular pasted on all departmental notice boards at Faculty of Education.

The statement of the dean as inscribed in the circular says "To the Glory of God I announce the elevation of Dr. Y.A Ajibade (Arts and Social Science Education), Dr. J. O Akande (ALL), Dr. M.A Adeleke (Science and Technology Education), Dr. B.A Omoteso (Educational Foundation Counseling) to the rank of Professor and Dr. L. M Oyewusi (ETL) to the rank of Associate Professor".

Campus Editors Gather At UNILAG For Summit

Adekunle Adebajo, Lagos

Yesterday, January 30 2016, saw the historic convergence of campus editors and student journalists at the Centre of Excellence, Department of Mass Communication in the University of Lagos. The delegates came from various tertiary institutions in the country including the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo Univerisity, University of Lagos, University of Ilorin, Ladoke Akintola University of Techonology, Ahmadu Bello University, Crawford University and Tai Solarin Univeristy of Education.

Many of the participants had arrived in the state of Lagos the previous day for the Pre-Summit Conference during which they got to interact and network. The programme, themed ‘21st Century Campus Journalism: Issues, Challenges and Prospects’, was notably the first of its kind to be held under a national body, the National Association of Nigerian Campus Editors (NANCE).

The event was graced by such dignitaries as Mr Sam Omatseye, Chairman of the Nation Newspaper’s Editorial Board; Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, Online Manager of the Nation Newspaper; Mr Raphael I. Bowoto, the Deputy Director of Programmes at the Lagos Chapter of the National Orientation Agency and Dr Sunday who represented the Chairman of UNILAG 103.1 FM.

While delivering his address, Mr Lekan Otufodunrin highlighted and illustrated various rules contained in the Code of Conduct guiding Nigerian journalism. He listed as part of the challenges bedevilling campus journalism the lack of interest from students, obstacles posed by school managements and the lack of training.
He explained that with training, a student may proceed to become a successful journalist, regardless of his non-journalism-related discipline of study. To corroborate this point, he cited the examples of Dele Momodu, the progenitor and owner of Ovation Magazine, Segun Adeyeye and Fisayo Soyombo of The Cables who happens to be graduate of Animal Husbandry. Further, Mr Otufodunrin mentioned that the perfection of writing skills is one of the big prospects of journalism.

Mr Sam Omatseye was presented an Award of Excellence by the NANCE Chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Oyedeji. This award, Mr Oyedeji noted, was for his standing by the association and campus journalism generally. In his reaction, Mr Omatseye thanked the association for the gesture. He thereafter advised the delegates to understand that there is no royal way to success. He substantiated this with life instances of Princess Diana and Thomas Edison who he quoted as saying success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. “If you don’t try to dare failure, you will not succeed”; he said as part of his closing remarks.

The event did not end without the winning of plaques and prizes. Mr Ali Toyin Abdul, defeating 12 other entries, emerged as the Best Campus Editor for year 2015. Also, Ladoke Akintola University of technology was declared winner of the Political Report Contest beating OAU, UNILAG, UNILORIN and UI. Asides these, every one of the delegates left with something to remember as certificates of participation were handed to them by the personages. It is most certain that all now have their eyes fixed upon the next edition of the Campus Editors Summit which most likely will be held in a different geo-political zone.

An Educated Mind With An Idle Hand; The Devil’s Amoured Tank

This title was inspired from a recent public debate organized by Prof Pat Utomi, with its crux being whether skills acquisition should be mandatory in tertiary institutions or not. Meditating over this topic, I became nostalgic and started to have a reminiscence of my childhood days with grandma. She was a woman who controls a bountiful and overwhelming respect basically for her height of literacy and passion for education. Grandma was the principal of a secondary school in my home town for a lengthy period until she peacefully kicked the bucket. The most important moment this topic made me remember was her usual mantra “Arakunrin (young boy), if you want to be somebody in life, go to school, study very hard and get yourself a good job” I am much older now and I begin to wonder why she never said “Arakunrin, if you want to be somebody in life, go to school, study very hard and CREATE jobs.” After all, there is an evident discrepancy between seeking for a job and creating one. Grandma, no apologies, your words were for the days of yore, we are in a new dawn. Unfortunately, we have been bamboozled by the ill and hereditary mentality of seeking for jobs after tertiary education and that counts as a reason why we still remain in a pathetic economic ecosystem.

Skill in this context is the quality of performance which is derived and developed through training and practice. Today’s youths have found themselves in a niche of numerous employable opportunities but with little employment opportunities. However, these opportunities can only be employable if one possesses the gifted hands and make judicious use of them even if the white collar system is not welcoming. In my personal opinion, the best institution to sharpen these gifted hands is the tertiary institution.

One of the inadequacies of the Nigerian tertiary education system is that it has failed to groom students for self-employment in the labour market. The egregious norm of always seeking for jobs after school has developed the mindset of being a job seeker and not a job maker. However, many graduates of today have become unrepentant job seekers, dauntless in their job search despite not being oblivious that job competition is becoming tougher and our unemployment status is near the double digit radar. Adequate machineries should be put in place by the government in order to incorporate several skills acquisition programmes into the curriculum of tertiary institutions so as to equip undergraduates for self-creation of numerous opportunities when they get to the labour market.

Going by the popular religious quote, “Man shall not live by bread alone but…” Permit me to phrase my version which goes thus; man shall not live by certificates alone but by every skills that cometh from his higher education. I believe this should be the general mentality in an economy like ours that has suffered from four consecutive increases in the unemployment figure. As at the third quarter of 2015, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported that unemployment was 9.9% an increase from 8.2% of the second quarter with youths culminating 50% of the figure. I madden seeing the ridiculous status skills acquisition enjoy in present days. Only a few are conscious of the fact that the future of the Nigerian economy lies in the hands of those who possess entrepreneurial abilities and can display the dynamics of the operation of the hands. The Nigerian Universities Commission should see to the redesigning of both public and private tertiary institutions to enable skills acquisition and entrepreneurial prowess before graduation. If this is actualized, graduates will get to enjoy diverse number of job opportunities at their disposal. In addition, it will help to stab to death the monstrous malady of unemployment ravaging our nation.

It is tragic and unfortunate that the government has not accomplished the task of actualizing item four of the National Policy on Education which aims to acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self-reliant and useful members of the society. Let me pronto sound to the helmsmen, a country’s development is a function of its manpower. Ditto, many academics have opined that effective skills acquisition in education is sine qua non to a self-reliant economy.
According to JAMB, there are 378 tertiary institutions in Nigeria, this figure should never make one imagine a whooping shortage of skilled manpower but the reverse is the case. This is sorrowful and embarrassing! As a reminder, the modus operandi of today’s higher institutions is mere theoretical delivery, relegating practicality to obscurity. Little wonder many Nigerian graduates have become ‘theoretical robots’ delivering only what is read on paper and failing to showcase what can be done with their hands. Education is not about sharpening the brain alone but also the hands. It is high time the government delivered our tertiary institutions from the hangover and overdose effect of theoretical delivery to embrace a practical dispensation of education.

In conclusion, there has to be a paradigm shift to provide a juxtaposition of academic and vocational skills. This can only be a successful accomplishment, if the curriculum of tertiary institutions is restructured, there should be a synergy between the government and private sector and the various vocational skills should be aligned to the interest of the students based on the skills they want to acquire.

This article was written by Abubakar Muideen Oladayo. A 200 level student of the Department of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University.

LLB 4 Trash LLB 1 To Win Animashaun Cup

The annual Animashaun soccer fiesta came to an end today as the LLB 4 of the Obafemi Awolowo University Faculty of Law pummeled their junior colleague from LLB 1.

It was such a glamorous duel today as teeming crowd turned up to witness the final of the annual competition. The Part one team has been keeping an unbeaten run right from the outset of the competition defeating all their senior colleagues. However, reverse was the case yesterday as they unfortunately lost to their colleagues from Part 4. It was goalless draw all through the first half of the encounter. Many thanks to a beautiful drive from Fakeye, who eventually bagged the highest goal scorer of the competition which eventually ended the goal drought.

The match proceeded as the luminaries struggled to get an equalizer. Alas, the equalizer would not just come. Shortly after the luminaries failed to convert the penalty kick that was awarded to them, the LLB 4 team punished them by utilizing a beautiful corner which turned out to a goal, courtesy of a beautiful header from Uche.

The second goal confirmed the victor of the day as the luminaries struggled and laboured for a goal they never got even though they wrote their names so boldly in the history book being the first part one class to play in the final.

Photos From Lai Mohammed's Visit To OAU

Here are some exclusive pictures from the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed's visit to Obafemi Awolowo University yesterday.

“When You Are Eating, You Don’t Talk” – Lai Mohammed

The Honourable Minister for Information and Culture – Alhaji Lai Mohammed was at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Friday 29th of January, 2016 in honour of the University’s Faculty of Arts invitation, who invited him to their annual Faculty’s Distinguished Guest Lecture as the guest lecturer.

In his delivered lecture titled “Nexus between corruption and Underdevelopment of the Nigerian state”, the minister examined burning national issues, most especially those relating to corruption and administration. At the closing stages of his delivery, he presented an analogy during which he stated that it is not right for a person to be talking while he or she is eating.

“Once a time, a very vocal and (God) fearing professor was nominated as a Minister. Because he was so vocal, so (God) fearing and he was actually seen as a defender of the masses, his constituency – the academics – were very happy that at least, they have somebody who is going to represent them and represent the masses in the government. But after about 2-3 years in government, nobody heard him champion the course of the masses, nobody heard him denounce corruption. After three years, there was a cabinet reshuffling and he went back to the university. When he got there, his colleagues were very infuriated and narrated to him their disappointment. They told him they felt with him in government, war against corruption would be championed by him. The professor looked at them and replied by saying “You don’t understand. It is about etiquette and table manners, when you are eating, you don’t talk”.

The message behind this analogy is very tricky to decipher. While some school of thought believes that Alhaji Lai Mohammed is trying to suggest he might keep mute even in the face of scandals and irregularities that may arise in the course of the current administration, some others believe he just put up the analogy as a form of reference to past administrators and administrations who have in one way or the other committed such offences.

The highlights of the event include; Presentation of distinguished alumnus award to the Minister himself, who is an alumnus of the Department of French, Faculty of Arts, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and performances by the ever-entertaining Dramatic Arts Department troupe. Other awardees at the event include; Hon Kehinde Bamigbetan and Hon Oluseye Oladejo who were both alumni and former Student Union leaders. Prominent guests who graced the event include the Dean, Faculty of Arts – Professor Gbemisola Adeoti, former Dean of the Faculty – Professor Y. K. Yusuf and Kowa Party’s presidential candidate in the last elections – Mrs Remi Shonaiya. There were also in attendance representatives of the Ooni of Ife and other distinguished guests.

Now to you our distinguished readers, what do you really think Alhaji Lai Mohammed is trying to bring out of his analogy?

OAU Students Ask Buhari To Probe Vice Chancellor

Hundreds of students of Obafemi Awolowo University on Friday asked President Muhammadu Buhari administration to probe the activities of the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Bamitale Omole.

The students passed the message to the President through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was at the university.

They also bombarded the minister with requests that the Federal Government should ensure decent hostels for students on the campus.

The minister was at OAU to deliver the distinguished guest lecture, titled ‘Nexus between corruption and underdevelopment of Nigeria’ at the University’s Faculty of Arts.

The students had staged series of protest against poor condition of their hostels which led to the closure of the school by the management late last year.

“Our halls of residence are in bad shape and my colleagues are saying probe Omole (VC) and so on,” said one of the students allowed to ask the minister a question.

“It is not only at the national level that the government should concentrate its fight against corruption, it should come to universities and we welcome President Buhari’s war against corruption on OAU campus.”

The entire students present applauded the students, while the minister promised to meet with the VC to discuss the issue of students’ union leaders under suspension.

The minister urged Nigerians to support the government in the fight, saying corruption had already started fighting back.



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