OAU Students Can Restore Nigeria Back to Glory Days - Ex Nigerian lawmaker
Peter Oyebanji
Professor Banji Akintoye, a former senator and the first to reside on Obafemi Awolowo University's campus along side his family, says that OAU students can restore the country back to her glory days.
Mr. Akintoye took a leading part for some time in the politics of Nigeria and served on the Nigerian Senate from 1979 to 1983
In his keynote address at the 52nd anniversary of Fajuyi Hall, OAU, he made it known that with the quality of education given to the students, despite the decline in the educational sector, the politically inclined students have the ability to bring back glory to the country.
Meanwhile, he stated that the country is controlled by people who have no love for modern education and that the students must be the forerunner in the restoration of the country back to order.
"Under a Federal Government controlled by people who have no love for modern education, all of Nigeria’s educational system, and all of Nigeria’s universities, have suffered abominably. For decades, the employees of our universities at all levels have been denied their due entitlements, and our universities have been denied vital educational infrastructures."
"As a result, strikes and other labour actions have become endemic to our universities. The conditions of student life have become simply barbaric in our university campuses also. With drastically inadequate and poorly maintained hostels, and with students having to mass chaotically in the available hostel spaces, much of the joy of university studentship has been denied to our students."
"Much is being given to you in this university. Therefore, much must be expected of you. I refer particularly to your relationships with, and your interventions in, the affairs of your unfortunate and badly managed country. I know that many of you are student members of Nigeria’s political parties, and that is as it should be. University students are normally important factors in the politics of the countries of the modern world."
"But, for you as children of this country, your relationship with your country’s politics and with your political parties needs to be such as would pave some of the way to the kinds of change that your country desperately needs. It would be a great pity if you simply allow yourselves to celebrate and holler effusively after the leaders of your political parties."
"True, that kind of behaviour is typical of young people; but, in your case, and in the kind of degradation that your country has been pulled into by the political leaders of your country, habitually hollering after the political leaders of your parties, and habitually yelling at one another over political parties that offer little or no good for the quality of life of your people, must be counted as a betrayal of your duties to your people."
"You are not “area boys”; you are frontline members of the informed citizens who must find ways to pull Nigeria back up to a life of orderliness, to a culture of service to the people, to a revival of opportunities, and to a new dedication to equitable share of opportunities for all Nigerians."
Professor Akintoye, however, urged the students to be continually inquisitive while he provided questions that can be asked, which will provide the solutions that are needed to change the trend.
"With the quality of education you are receiving in this university, you can accomplish these goals. What you would need is to develop a new orientation that will equip and direct you to ask meaningful questions about what is happening to your country and to your people, and about what is needed to change the trend."
"Here are the questions: Given all the enormous material and human resources of this country at independence, how has this country fallen into the abject poverty of today? Why has our country become “the extreme poverty capital of the world”? What are the reasons why we are unable to have regular electricity supply? What are the consequences of our not having regular electricity supply?"
"What is the origin, and what are the main features, of the pervasive public corruption that reigns over Nigeria’s public life today? One president says he is waging a war against public corruption. What are your views about his anti-corruption war? Do you think it is succeeding? If you don’t think so, why do you think it is not succeeding? If you think it is succeeding, why do you think so? What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a country like Nigeria as a “unitary’ state as we are now doing?"
Professor Banji Akintoye, a former senator and the first to reside on Obafemi Awolowo University's campus along side his family, says that OAU students can restore the country back to her glory days.
Mr. Akintoye took a leading part for some time in the politics of Nigeria and served on the Nigerian Senate from 1979 to 1983
In his keynote address at the 52nd anniversary of Fajuyi Hall, OAU, he made it known that with the quality of education given to the students, despite the decline in the educational sector, the politically inclined students have the ability to bring back glory to the country.
Meanwhile, he stated that the country is controlled by people who have no love for modern education and that the students must be the forerunner in the restoration of the country back to order.
"Under a Federal Government controlled by people who have no love for modern education, all of Nigeria’s educational system, and all of Nigeria’s universities, have suffered abominably. For decades, the employees of our universities at all levels have been denied their due entitlements, and our universities have been denied vital educational infrastructures."
"As a result, strikes and other labour actions have become endemic to our universities. The conditions of student life have become simply barbaric in our university campuses also. With drastically inadequate and poorly maintained hostels, and with students having to mass chaotically in the available hostel spaces, much of the joy of university studentship has been denied to our students."
"Much is being given to you in this university. Therefore, much must be expected of you. I refer particularly to your relationships with, and your interventions in, the affairs of your unfortunate and badly managed country. I know that many of you are student members of Nigeria’s political parties, and that is as it should be. University students are normally important factors in the politics of the countries of the modern world."
"But, for you as children of this country, your relationship with your country’s politics and with your political parties needs to be such as would pave some of the way to the kinds of change that your country desperately needs. It would be a great pity if you simply allow yourselves to celebrate and holler effusively after the leaders of your political parties."
"True, that kind of behaviour is typical of young people; but, in your case, and in the kind of degradation that your country has been pulled into by the political leaders of your country, habitually hollering after the political leaders of your parties, and habitually yelling at one another over political parties that offer little or no good for the quality of life of your people, must be counted as a betrayal of your duties to your people."
"You are not “area boys”; you are frontline members of the informed citizens who must find ways to pull Nigeria back up to a life of orderliness, to a culture of service to the people, to a revival of opportunities, and to a new dedication to equitable share of opportunities for all Nigerians."
Professor Akintoye, however, urged the students to be continually inquisitive while he provided questions that can be asked, which will provide the solutions that are needed to change the trend.
"With the quality of education you are receiving in this university, you can accomplish these goals. What you would need is to develop a new orientation that will equip and direct you to ask meaningful questions about what is happening to your country and to your people, and about what is needed to change the trend."
"Here are the questions: Given all the enormous material and human resources of this country at independence, how has this country fallen into the abject poverty of today? Why has our country become “the extreme poverty capital of the world”? What are the reasons why we are unable to have regular electricity supply? What are the consequences of our not having regular electricity supply?"
"What is the origin, and what are the main features, of the pervasive public corruption that reigns over Nigeria’s public life today? One president says he is waging a war against public corruption. What are your views about his anti-corruption war? Do you think it is succeeding? If you don’t think so, why do you think it is not succeeding? If you think it is succeeding, why do you think so? What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a country like Nigeria as a “unitary’ state as we are now doing?"
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