Tag Archives: lautech

5 ‘Yahoo’ LAUTECH students handed over to EFCC in Ibadan

Posted on by
3

The Ibadan Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Monday, 20th March, 2017 took over five suspected internet fraudsters arrested by men of the Oyo State Joint Security Task Force, ‘Operation Burst’ for further investigation.

The suspects, which includes Oyewole Oyeleye Olatunji (28), Adeniran Adeyinka Yusuf (29), Samuel Olumide Adeola (29), Israel Adeola (24) and Olorunyemi Savior Imonah (24) were arrested March 13, 2017 during a routine surveillance at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomosho.

They were thereafter interrogated at the Operation Burst headquarters, Agodi where they confessed to have defrauded some American women through various romance scam using different dating sites. They also confessed to have obtained different sums from their victims.

At the point of arrest, four HP Laptops, three Nokia phones, four I phones, one Infinix Hot Note Phone, a Flash Drive and four Military camouflage T-shirts were recovered from them.

Investigations have also revealed that the suspects have various incriminating documents in their Laptops and Phones. They were posing on the dating sites as American Soldiers and using different identities to defraud unsuspecting American Ladies.

Oyewole confessed to have been posing as Billy Philip, Johnson Moron and Montegro respectively.
According to him, he collected itune cards from one Stephanie and has been using the card to chat with Holly Donis, Dona Rissmiller and Mona Venziano among others who were also Americans.

Adeniran also posed as Cheryl Ann and Cindy Grant on Facebook and engaged unsuspecting ladies in dating. He had also used the medium to defraud and obtain Dollars from one Cherly Chambers.

Samuel has been posing as Gome, Rundell, and Klaus. He confessed to have collected itune card and different sums of dollars from Linda and Patricia on a dating site.

Israel had online affairs with Jeannie Mae Sherman and obtained different sums running into several thousands of dollars and itune cards from her and another One Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty One Dollars itune cards from Lritz Ortiz. While Olorunyemi using the names Terry Elizabeth and Bunt Janice Muriel had also swindled unsuspecting victims to the tune of Two Hundred Dollars and Three Hundred Dollars itune cards.

The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigation is completed.

ONGOING: LAUTECH lecturers meet, may call off strike today.

Posted on by
Reply

The lecturers at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, are set to call off their eight months old strike today, an official told PREMIUM TIMES.

The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, LAUTECH Chapter, Biodun Olaniran. in a chat with PREMIUM TIMES said the lecturers will hold their congress Tuesday and would take a positive stance on calling off the strike.

“We have made progress and all things been equal we should have the strike called off, I am in a discussion with the ASUU National Executive Council already,” he said.

Members of the National Executive Council of ASUU are also expected to attend the LAUTECH congress.

Commenting on the development, the Senior Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, on Youth and Students’ Affairs, Bolaji Afeez, said “We have done all necessary to ensure that the strike is called off and we look forward to ASUU calling off her strike tomorrow (Tuesday)”.

LAUTECH resumed on January 27 after seven months closure due to workers’ stike over non-payment of salaries. But lecturers refused to resume stating that some of their demands were yet to be met by the Oyo and Osun state governments, who jointly own the university.

One of the major demands of the lecturers is a written commitment by the states on adequate funding of the ?university.

The ASUU congress holds Tuesday afternoon.

 

Source: Premium Times

Remember that thing Governor Ajimobi said? – By Chude Jideonwo

Posted on by
27

Last month, the Oyo governor, Abiola Ajimobi shocked the nation.

Footage of the governor speaking to students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) who had been grounded at home (for eight months from 13 June, 2016 due to a shutdown announced by the Rector), showed a white-hot rage: “If this how you want to talk to me,” he blasted the students for their effrontery in protesting the closure of their school. “Then do your worst. Eight months. Eight months? Is that something we have not seen before?”

Even now retelling the statements, I am shaken.

Let’s stop there and unpack the statement and its many ugly layers: you will find arrogance, you will find insensitivity, and you will find a distinct lack of compassion (if we wanted to get right to the point, we would call it wickedness).

Let’s ask a common sense question: How does a public servant defend a failure of duty based on how he or she is spoken to?

And then let us recall what exactly the issue is here.

LAUTECH is owned by the Oyo and Osun state governments. The two state governments are to each give the schools N295 million as subventions monthly. Oyo owes the institution N2.3 billion and Osun owes N5.3 billion. With this dereliction of responsibility, naturally, teachers in the school have been owed for 13 months. So five months ago, workers went on strike, and the school was shut down.

I know our country has degenerated so badly that the unacceptable has found its place into mainstream tolerance. But it is important to understand this: having students of a university sit at home for eight months is certainly, to put it mildly, not normal.

It should never be acceptable for students to have disruptions to their academic schedule. It sends to them, a clear message – that their country does not care about them. It fundamentally alters any pretentions to structure and order, and the reality of governance.

It costs the nation significantly because we spend more per student in multiple ways when sessions are interrupted – depreciation costs, inflationary consequences, loss of manpower hours as employees are paid for periods of low value (and still have to retire at age limit), double costs with each resumption, cost of maintaining the school at gap periods (including electricity and water bills). Remember that none of these costs are value-driven because they are incurred when the primary reason for the institution’s existence is absent.

Then there is the unbearable cost to the students, and then to the guardians of the students – all of the above doing their part to sustain a vicious cycle of national waste.

It bears repeating, however, that its most important damage is that it else sends a message to young people finding their way in the world that this is a fundamentally messed up country, where hard work isn’t rewarded, patriotism isn’t logical and the system eats its young alive.

It is important to restate this, even if tertiary school shutdowns have become a tradition since the Academic Staff Union of Universities organized its first national strike in 1988 and military dictators, who ruled Nigeria for a better part of the 80s and 90s, decided that wanton school closures are the solution to student dissent.

It is important to restate this for the sake of my own sanity even if I have been a victim of the most ridiculous shutdowns as a student of the University of Lagos in 2005.

Because things have now deteriorated so badly, that an elected governor can stand at a podium – after eight months of institutional silence as these students have begged and pleaded for audience – unafraid of consequence, to tell them, essentially, to go to hell.

This is not normal.

In response, rather than apologise, or pretend to contrition, his team decided that a more effective strategy was to share its own edits of the exchange, claiming that the governor ‘apologised’ to the students.

First, in the apology video, he did no such thing. “I am not angry,” was the best he said, and from a place of entitled smugness.

The fact that this public servant even thought the full video of his patronizing statements would make any part of the exchange acceptable is proof further than the events in themselves that the man’s style of governance is also… not normal.

“Students need to learn to engage,” he lectured them after failing them for 13 months. Makes one wonder, isn’t it the job of the leader who is also servant to first engage, to explain, to establish a frame of understanding, and to empathise?

How do you expect calm and restraint from young people whose progress has been cut short for eight months? Is it possible that this man would be restrained and orderly if his children were stuck so?

It bears asking if there is an understanding of the basic nature of service.

Because beyond the evident failure of governance that his action shows, there is an absence in understanding the massive failure in the value chain. He doesn’t know that he has failed, and so he doesn’t know that he should be ashamed, be sorry about it, and be apologetic.

That should shock us. Not because we didn’t know how these guys have always viewed the rest of us; not because we didn’t know the primitiveness that undergirds the thinking of our leadership set, but because, now, they have killed shame.

There is that.

But perhaps we should ask ourselves – how did the governor come about this misguided confidence?

He explained it in the video: constituted authority.

According to him, the fact that he is “constituted authority” means the students should have kept shut, listened to him, and accepted his justifications uncritically.

He fully expected that his sheer presence of his superfluous ‘agbada’ was such a gift to the students that they should have been stunned into ecstatic silence.

And so “His Excellency” was shocked – shocked – that the young, educated people of his state, who were agitated after eight months of abandonment, could still find their voice.

Now, that, right there, is where we should get frightened.

That an elected leader – and there are many like him – still believe, even in a flourishing, adversarial two-party democracy, that they are constituted authority against which questions are disrespect, and questioners risk punishment.

Right there, stands the root of our particular brand of problem.

The respect, and, yes, the fear that leaders should have for citizens is mostly absent in the version of a social contract that Nigeria has.

Unfortunately, the fault for this anomaly doesn’t come only from those who lead.

Today, we have citizens who have ceded their right to be treated with respect. You only need to pay attention to conversation online to see a citizenry that has not only ceded that right, but actively denigrates those who would exercise theirs. People who believe that political affiliation means blind loyalty. Those who believe that relationships with government mean silence whatever happens. Those who believe that those who make high demands of government are being ‘troublesome’ or ‘unreasonable.

But if citizens want respect from their leaders, they have to demand it – and they have to demand it without reservation.

The defense of “constituted authority” is jabber. There should be no respect for leaders who have defaulted in duty.

There should particularly be no regard for Nigeria’s distinguished set of consistently, and aggressively, failing leaders.

Many of our leaders lack empathy. The steady erosion of incentives for demonstrable empathy and consequences for its lack has ultimately led to this death, of common sense. And so they have become, in essence, abnormal.

In that case, it becomes imperative to turn up the heat.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Governments should be worried about how the public receives their decisions and interprets their actions. Government activity would thence be made only against the background of what citizens thinks, what the voters’ reaction will be, of the consequences of each step.

Even if it leads to pandering – that is only a small price to pay for the bigger gain that comes.

But it has to matter that the decision of those we have chosen to lead us must reflect our desires, our wishes, our imperatives and our preferences – and that their reactions must reflect an understanding of who truly calls the shots.

That is how a functioning democracy works. Unfortunately, Nigeria is a long way from this balance of power.

These guys in public office, and their band that lose perceptive when they get a job in government, don’t get it.

They don’t get it, at all.

Our urgent, continuous task is to make sure that they do.

PS: Upon going to press with this piece, it is important to remember that while LAUTECH has technically re-opened, students have yet to continue academic activity because lecturers have not yet resumed. So, indeed, the value chain remains broken.

 

Jideonwo is co-founder and managing partner of RED (www.redafrica.xyz), which brands including Y!/YNaija.com and governance communication firm, StateCraft Inc. Office of the Citizen (OOTC) is his latest essay series.

Governor Ajimobi berated over LAUTECH

Posted on by
16

A chieftain of Accord Party (AP) in Oyo State, Remi Olaniyan, Tuesday berated Governor Abiola Ajimobi, over alleged poor handling of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) students’ crisis.

 

Olaniyan, who said the governor’s outburst was uncalled for, wondered why government would expect aggrieved students to keep quiet after being forcefully kept at home for eight months.

 

He said: “LAUTECH had suffered so many problems that would make the quality of students being produced to be academically unsound and unsuitable for the country.”

 

Olaniyan, who called for an urgent meeting between Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola, on the way forward for the institution, expressed shock that the University of Osun State (UNIOSUN) remains open, while Oyo state indigenes and students of LAUTECH languished at home.

 

Relatedly, a civil society organisation, Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN), wants the governor to apologise to the students for his remarks.

 

A statement in Abuja by the Co-convener of CATBAN, Comrade Ibrahim Garba Wala, described Ajumobi encounter with the protesting students as “act of executive rascality and irresponsibility in the strongest terms.

 

The group said from the video, which has gone viral, the governor wants “everyone to worship him as the ultimate god of Oyo State, with a warning that he could do whatever he wished at any time, even if such actions were against the wishes of his people, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.”

LAUTECH management, students resume as lecturers continue strike.

Posted on by
Reply

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology have resumed for studies after a directive by the university management.

The school was closed in June last year as lecturers went on strike to demand payment of their salaries.

In a circular earlier distributed by management of LAUTECH and signed by Jacob Agboola, the school asked all academic and non-academic staff to resume on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that lecturers had vowed not to resume Friday even when students resume.

By Friday morning, most lecturers did not resume.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, chairman of ASUU, LAUTECH Chapter, Biodun Olaniran, said the Oyo and Osun state governments were not serious with ensuring full resumption of the school.

“The truth is that there have been no efforts to ensure that we resume; students who have resumed are only here to play and really we will not resume until our demands are met,” he said. “We have said until our demands are met, we will not resume and that is what we are doing today.”

“If the students stay in school for one or two weeks, I don’t know what they will be doing, until we get a directive from our national body after our demands have been met, we remain on strike.”

He said that lecturers received only a month salary out of the two months promised.

“We have received just one month with a promise to pay the remaining one month today or tomorrow,” Mr. Olaniran said. “Our demand is not about salary, even if we receive the alert , we will not call off the strike.”

One of the demands of ASUU is a letter of commitment from the owner states stating how the university would be funded and how salaries would be paid.

The Oyo government, speaking on behalf of its Osun counterpart, said it cannot write such letter.

Bolaji Afeez, senior assistant on youths and students affairs to the Oyo governor, said.

“We have met all the demands of ASUU and what they are doing now looks like it has a political undertone, if they are not comfortable with the way things are going, they should resign, is it a must to work there? There are many persons looking for same job,” he said.

“They are asking for a letter of commitment and we cannot write it, it is not their business to start asking how we want to fund the varsity, it is like asking the Chief Executive Officer of a company how he wants to run his company. Who does that?”

The public relations officer of LAUTECH, Lekan Fadeyi, told PREMIUM TIMES said “LAUTECH has ordered resumption, the date cannot change and management is trying to put things in place.”

 

Source: Premium Times

ASUU rejects N500m contribution by Osun, Oyo over LAUTECH crisis.

Posted on by
Reply

Hope of resumption for aggrieved students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) has dimmed as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution rejected the N500 million intervention fund provided by the owner state governments of Oyo and Osun.

ASUU described the fund as a ploy to lure its members back to the classroom without addressing the real problems confronting the institution.

The academic and non-academic staff unions of the institution had embarked on indefinite strike action for over eight months over non-payment of salaries.

But ASUU rising from its congress vowed to continue the industrial action, stressing that the fundamental problems of funding and sustainability have not been addressed.

Part of the resolution signed by its Chairman, Dr Biodun Olaniran, and Secretary, Dr Toyin Abegunrin, reads: “The offer of two months is, at best, an ad-hoc arrangement to lure us back to work without addressing the fundamental problem of funding and sustainability. It is our considered opinion that this token offered at this point does not justify the length of time that the crisis has been allowed to linger by the government.”

LAUTECH announces resumption, but lecturers vow to continue strike

Posted on by
Reply

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, has announced its resumption date, months after a strike by lecturers crippled academic activities in the school.

This is contained in an internal memorandum sent to all staff and students of the institution, and also made available on the University’s news portal.

“All staff and students are hereby informed that the University will reopen for normal activities on Friday, January 27, 2017,” the memo says.

It adds: “Students are to note the following for compliance: Friday, January 27: Resumption; Friday. February 3: Revision week ends; Friday. February 10: Lecture free week ends; Monday. February 13: 2015/2016 Harmattan Semester Examinations begin.”

The statement was signed by Jacob Agboola, the registrar of the university.

The school had been closed since June 2016. The governments Oyo and Osun recently paid N500 million for payment of outstanding workers’ salaries, prompting the resumption.

But the Academic Staff Union of Universities, LADOKE chapter, has vowed to continue with its strike until all key issues are resolved.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES shortly after the release of the circular informing students of resumption, ASUU chairman, Biodun Olaniran, said lecturers would not resume work except issues of funding are attended to.

Mr. Biodun said the Congress of ASUU remained on its earlier stance. He also said ASUU was not consulted before the resumption date was announced.

He said the Congress had agreed to wait till the visitation panel submits its reports and other welfare issues are attended to.

When asked what would be the fate of the students, the ASUU Chairman who had earlier hoped that the payment of N500 million would lead to reopening of the varsity said, “They(Students )should impress it on the government to do the needful by showing commitment to the funding of the University”.

 

Source: Premium Times

JUST IN: LAUTECH receives N500 million to pay salaries – Vice Chancellor

Posted on by
Reply

The Vice-Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, Suleiman Gbadegesin, on Monday said the institution had received N500 million from Osun and Oyo State governments to pay the salary arrears owed workers.

 

Mr. Gbadegesin disclosed this in Osogbo when he appeared before the State House of Assembly to defend the university’s N9.9 billion budget for 2017.

 

He said the institution received alert of N250 million each from the two owner states.

 

While thanking Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and his Oyo State counterpart, Abiola Ajimobi, for their efforts in ensuring the re-opening of the university, Mr. Gbadegesin said the money would go a long way in offsetting the arrears of staff salary.

 

The LAUTECH staff have been on strike in the last eight months over the non-payment of salaries.

 

In his remarks, Kamil Oyedele, the House Committee Chairman on Finance and Appropriation, said the assembly would continue to offer support to boost the growth and development of the university.

 

Source: NAN

I’m sympathetic to the plight of LAUTECH students – Governor Ajimobi’s Daughter

Posted on by
13

Ajibola Ajimobi, daughter of Oyo state governor, has denied lambasting students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) over the encounter with her father.

The governor had talked down on aggrieved students, who stormed his office to protest 8-month closure of their school.

An Instagram user who identified herself as Ajimobi’s daughter, had described the students as “generation of manerless children”, attracting scorching criticisms.

But the governor’s daughter denied owning the account, which made the offensive statement.

“My attention has been drawn to a series of publications on social media and the Internet at large, which claim that I, Mrs Ajibola Ajayi (formerly known as Miss Ajibola Abiola-Ajimobi) lashed out at LAUTECH students calling them a manner less generation … on my instagram page,” she said in a statement.

“I wish to state that this story is completely false. It is malicious and willfully targeted at maligning and marring my character.Over the last 48 hours my reputation has been tarnished and my family and I have been subjected to cyber bullying and harassment. I have also received threats of violence as well as limitless insults as a result of this false publication.

“This has now spiraled out of control hence I feel the need to publicly address it since I have received numerous calls from various people, including friends, family members, colleagues and clients.

“I wish to further state that the instagram page referred to as “conceited_csj” through which it was alleged that I made the purported statement does not belong to me. Having once been a student myself, I am sympathetic to the plight of the LAUTECH students and empathize with them.”

Governor Ajimobi’s Daughter And The Deserving Koboko – By Isaac Oluwasogo

Posted on by
1
Power, especially in a confused society like ours spread like gangrene. It becomes an insoluble dilemma to explain how the opportuned minorities that rides on the wings of the majority tends to confer the same power on their family members. Over time, there have been an un-constituted and assumed level of power that is being given to either the wife or the children of Nigerian leaders. Powers are unnecessarily arrogated to them, thereby leading to creation of money-gulping offices.
This unfortunate development makes them look sacred, untouchable and have an unrestrained regard or respect for the masses. It is in our democracy that you cannot distinctively separate the overbearing influence of the family from the supposed elected leaders. A country that over emphasizes immunity clause beyond the boiling point- a double barrel trouble for the helpless and hapless common men- as they (masses)  suffer verbal abuse from the father, the children or the wife without a proper reconfiguration of their cerebral grandstanding also delve into an unthinkable intellectual assault of the souls of men clamoring for their rights.
This is a social malady that has outlived its age on our terrestrial ball as a nation. The very undoubtedly known reason why the daughter of the Governor of Oyo state could hurled a verbal abuse on the protesting students. This imbalances and wrong sense of judgment that emanated from the odociferous mouth of the Mr. Governor’s Daughter seems to be a general syndrome of Nigerian leaders. These occurrences are products of the wide gap differences that exists between the leaders and the led.
Ajibola Ajimobi labeling the protesting students as “Generation of mannerless children…..” is a statement that is far from the Centre of deep reasoning. And a show of utmost disrespect for the unfortunate development that ransacked the smooth running academic program of the institution. She belongs to a class system that has completely eroded her level of human reasoning vis-a-vis the reactions of the aggrieved students. After all, she might not have experienced what it means to have a school closed down for a month not to talk of about eight months. She only reads or hears about it has a natural phenomenon in Nigeria education system.
I wish the Governor’s daughter will do well to put herself in this condition and stop suffering from the incessant diarrhea of the mouth. She can take a deep reflection by picturing herself among the number of heads that took to the street to demand for their future. May be if she can think like an evolved Homo sapiens that is made up of a well-developed brain, she will be human enough and not spit out such a gall. And may be if she did not understand what it means to be mannerless, history is there to judge. What about her sibling that was caught in sex scandal?
This and many more are the debilitating results of living on the masses common wealth and still have the gut to run bad mouth on why they have decided to be liberated from the siddon – look approach given to the closure of the school.
Mr. Governor’s Daughter, I am trying to borrow you some currency of common sense to know that silence weighs more than untutored courage in the public sphere. Do well to know that life only gave you a chance to be heard because of the poor political structure that we have. You are not in any way different!
This will however remain a reoccurring decimal unless the Nigerian leaders begin to enroll their own children into the same system that they destroying. And until there is no class system again as suggested by Karl Max, it is then that this show of absurdity would be brought to a staggering halt.
“Egbinrin ote, base n pa ina okan lokan n ru” (The seething cauldron of rebellion; the death of one rekindles another.
@isaacsogo

MMM, Sambisa and the boy died – By Reuben Abati

Posted on by
Reply

“Happy New Year, my brother”

“What do you mean happy new year, more than two weeks into the New Year. Have I not been in touch with you since January 1?”

“But for you the New Year has just started. Your January 1 was not on January 1”

“Looks like you have started taking something. I must inform your wife.”

“I say Happy New Year to you.”

“Okay, same to you.”

“You think I don’t know what you have been going through? Your wife told me you have not been yourself since those Mavrodi Mundia Moneybox people suspended their scheme. She specifically asked me to keep an eye on you.  But we thank God the MMM is back, 24 hours earlier than they promised.  Now, you can get your money back.”

“My brother, it is a lo-n-g story. This MMM thing has become a case of the more you hear, the less you understand. And to think I invested my children’s education savings. Everything.”

“What is the problem again? I hear you can get your money back, and MMM says they are ready to change the world.”

“I don’t know about changing the world, but let them change my sadness to joy by just returning my money, but now they say they can only pay a small amount per day and that those who invested big money like me should wait.”

“How much did you invest?”

“If I tell you the figure, you will know that the year is not new at all.”

“Tell me.”

“So you can go and tell your wife and your wife can tell my wife and the three of you can tell everybody. I just pray MMM does not mess me up, otherwise all of you won’t have anything to gossip about when you start looking for a casket.”

“Is it that bad?  Please don’t let it get to that stage. But I can assure you, if they mess you up, I will sue the hell out of them. I will get lawyers and sue them to court.”

“You will defend my rights after I am dead? Now, I see you are a very good friend indeed.”

“I am just trying to help. I almost invested in the MMM myself.”

“Let me ask you something.  What is a bitcoin?”

“Not too sure.”

“MMM says they will pay with bitcoins. I invested with Naira. They say they will pay me with coins, not with dollars, but coins. Ore mi, gba mi. Se kinni yi o ti fe di one chance bayi? And yet they are saying they want to change my world. Government should intervene and monitor the whole thing.”

“I won’t consider MMM the business of government.”

“Everything that has to do with the welfare of a citizen is the business of government.”

“If you decide to go and invest your money with money-doublers, why should government be bothered?”

“Government cannot allow anybody to spread frustration in any form. MMM should give me my money, not coins.”

“By the way, we should find out what a bitcoin is? We learn everyday.”

“I didn’t invest for research purposes. I invested for profit purposes.”

“But suppose the bitcoin is even better than the Naira. Somebody told me that bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, although he didn’t quite explain.”

“Ha. I am in trouble. So, I now have to carry dictionary over this MMM matter. Even a crypto something is now better than the Naira. God, pity your servants!”

“Just calm down.  We have enough people dying everyday. Don’t join the list. I am sure everything will be sorted out. While you are killing yourself over MMM, are you aware that some Nigerians are already investing in another Ponzi scheme?”

“What is that one?”

“It is called Swissgolden. They offer gold or cash profit.”

“I don’t want to hear about it. And you say government should not get involved? We are almost becoming a nation of desperate money-doublers.”

“Government should worry about more serious things, except of course someone sets out to commit a crime.”

“Nothing can be more serious.”

“Like the Southern Kaduna killings, for example”

“That is sad. Ethnic and religious violence has been a source of threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence. We need to build a nation first.”

“The Catholic Church says the casualty figure in Southern Kaduna so far is about 808.  Over 1, 422 houses, 16 churches, 19 shops and one primary school have been destroyed.  The challenge is how to prevent these things.”

“Too much politics in everything and that is why ordinary things become big things and so much tragedy is invited. Government must be pro-active.”

“That’s like saying nothing. I have heard that cliché too many times. The root of our national crisis is much deeper. Oftentimes the people themselves are the problem.”

“I hear in the Niger Delta, the people are also threatening to resume hostilities, shut down oil installations and destroy NDDC projects.”

“It is not the people. It is the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) with their ‘Operation Walls of Jericho’ and the Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders (NDRC).  Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has led a delegation to go and talk to them, particularly the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).  I think the resort to dialogue is wise.”

“I’ll like to see that too in Southern Kaduna, coming from the highest levels and I like the fact that the Federal Government is talking to the Bring Back our Girls Group and that for once they are willing to listen. Before May 2015, that group never wanted to listen to government. Now they are in Sambisa Forest.”

“I call it the BBOG Journey to the Sambisa Forest of a Thousand Daemons. When you go to a forest like that, you will have stories to tell.”

“I like the strategy. Get the protesters to help government sell its own story. Quite clever.”

“What if the strategy back-fires?”

“Oh, come on. It won’t.”

“You are always cynical. Thank God you are not in Tanzania where media cynicism of any sort is now a crime.”

“Under President John Magufuli, the bulldozer? Everyone has been praising him for fighting corruption and administrative opaqueness.”

“Magufuli is now bulldozing the media and free speech. Just the other day, he threatened Tanzanian journalists. According to him: ‘We will not allow Tanzania to be a dumping yard for inciting content. This will not happen under my administration”

“What?”

“They now have in Tanzania, The Media Services Act of 2016 which gives government officials the powers to shut down media houses and seize their printing machines.”

“That is even worse that that Nigerian Decree. Decree… Decree….”

“It is not from my mouth you will hear that one. Just be careful. Magufuli’s position is that journalists provoked him with their inciting content.”

“What is it with our leaders in Africa? In other words, Magufuli is saying he is a constituted authority.”

“Not a…he is the constituted authority.”

“One of these days, he too will just say, “Bring that boy here…Leave him…Who do you think you are talking to…I am the constituted authority.”

“You are quoting someone else now, not Magufuli.”

“African leaders sound alike when it comes to the use and abuse of power. You are right, I am quoting the Governor of Oyo State, Nigeria, Governor Abiola Ajimobi. Students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) provoked him. They had the temerity to remind him that their school had been shut down for eight months. The Governor was so irritated, he sounded as if the students were disturbing him.

“The students were rude. Nigerian students don’t respect constituted authority. They don’t know how to address power.”

“Which authority? Is that why they should be tongue-lashed and shot at by the police?”

“I know the Governor.  One of the students must have said something nasty to him.  I got that much from his daughter’s alleged reaction.”

“Who is that?”

“The Governor’s daughter defending her dad.”

“What does she know about a university being shut down for eight months and students having to stay at home because government is suffering from a disease called lack of funds. This democracy sha.”

“Don’t worry yourself. It is not an African thing. In the United States, the President-elect’s daughter is going to be very powerful in his in-coming government. Her husband, Jared Kushner is already warming up to play a major role, and his only qualification for the job according to the father-in-law is that he is a good lad and a natural talent”

“That Donald Trump. He should stop disturbing everyone with his reckless comments.”

“I pray he doesn’t cause a Third World War.”

“With the way he has been provoking China.”

“Everything is under negotiation including One China”, says Trump.

“Nobody can negotiate that,” says China.

“And Trump picks up his phone and makes a long-distance call to the President of Taiwan, and China says that is a terrible insult”

“Trump definitely thinks his trip to the White House is one of his ‘You’re fired’ episodes. He is busy burning bridges.”

“Meanwhile, in Nicaragua…”

“What’s happening in Nicaragua?”

“The President has just been sworn in for a third term in office, with his wife as his Vice-President!  A husband and wife Presidency”

“You think that can happen in Nigeria?”

“You are not aware that in some states in Nigeria, family members are the ones who run the government?”

“Which state?”

“Go and find out for yourself?”

“So, how is our friend, Jim Obazee of the Financial Reporting Council (FRCN)?

“He broke the law”

“He was trying to enforce the law”

“He broke the law of the Psalms. Psalm 105: 15 – “do not touch my anointed ones/And do my prophets no harm.” He wanted to use a Governance Code to force men of God to observe term limits.”

“You are missing the point.”

“And to think he would start implementing the Code from his own church, where he is a pastor, with Daddy G.O. of the Redeemed Church.  So he means charity begins at home.”

“You don’t get it. Are you recommending nepotism? The whole point of the Code is that when religious groups become business entities, they must pay taxes and respect corporate governance rules.”

“Nigeria is a secular state. Government should not dabble into religious matters.”

“But government can dabble into the matter of El-Zakzaky and his movement. I beg.”

“The Bible says…”

“Yes, I know what the Bible says. Don’t bother.”

“We should pray for the people of Gambia and the President-elect Adama Barrow who is supposed to be inaugurated as President on January 19. Yahya Jammeh is still insisting he will not step down.  The people are already fleeing the country, Ministers and other government appointees have resigned, the whole world is angry, but Jammeh is sitting tight.

“You know something?”

“What?”

“In the midst of all this, while Adama Barrow is in exile in Senegal waiting for January 19, his eight-year old son was bitten by a dog last Sunday.  He was rushed to the hospital.  The boy died.

“Oh. Oh, Africa.”

“Generation of Mannerless Children”, Governor Ajimobi’s daughter reacts to protesting LAUTECH students

Posted on by
604

As reactions continue to trail the outburst of Governor Abiola Ajimobi at a protest organized by students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technolgy, LAUTECH, the governor’s daughter has gotten involved in the controversy.

Mr. Ajimobi’s daughter, Ajibola, labeled the protesting students “Generation of Mannerless Children” on her Instagram page.

“Generation of Mannerless children, they don’t respect their parents, how will they respect the Constitution” , the governor’s daughter said in apparent reaction to the students’ outburst on January 9.

Ajibola Ajimobi who got married last September is believed to be the second child to the Oyo governor.

LAUTECH students had on January 9 protested the continued closure of the university since June last year.

While addressing the protesting students, an angry Mr. Ajimobi told them to do their worst.

The Oyo governor, whose state jointly owns the University, miffed by the outbursts of the protesting students, said the closure of the university for over 7 months was no big deal.

“Your school being locked for eight months is no big deal. Is your school the first to be locked, if this is how you will come to talk to me, go and do your worst, I dare you,” he said.

Nigerians have continued to lampoon the governor since the video was released as Ajimobi continued to trend on Twitter on Sunday morning.

Reacting to the governor’s daughter’s statement, aware, the Senior Assistant to Mr. Ajimobi on Media, Yomi Olayinka, said the governor’s office is not aware of it

“As the governor’s spokesman, I am not aware of this development and I cannot comment since I am not aware,” he said.

When asked what he feels about such comment even if he aware, he said, “Well, I will call Mrs. Ajibola to ask her what she meant by that, but for now I don’t want to speculate, so I can’t react to anything of such.”

LAUTECH has been shut since June 2016, due to the inability of Osun and Oyo states to meet their obligations financially to the institution.

Screenshot of her Instagram post 

 

Source: Sahara Reporters

LAUTECH: Of Constituted Authorities And Their Cosmpolitan Wahala – By Isaac Oluwasogo

Posted on by
22

In a democratic system of government, leaders are meant to be responsible for every of their actions and inactions. The citizens are also constitutionally right to make certain demands. . Essentially how they are being governed and how the resources that are meant for the public consumption are being harnessed.

This is the expected and obtainable modus operandi in any ideal society. However,  this seems not to hold true in our own clime because of how democracy has overnight been transformed into Autocracy.

 

Whatever leaders does are thus seen as a show of kindness and mercy and not a function of their responsibility.  Most of the masses show of displeasures over time have persistently met with a roadblock and an undeniable abuse of their intellects. The same people that voted them in amounts to nothing. Their struggles and clamours are seen as a mere noise and distraction. That is the irony of the society we find ourselves.

 

To an average American leaders, the masses concerns is a top list of their priority. Their leaders also may have their flaws, but at least to a reasonable extent, they have a listening ear and heart to their followers. The more reason they are democratically stable than we do and are termed developed world.

 

The opposite of the above is what is obtainable in our states. A retrospective look at the address given by the Governor of Oyo state to the aggrieved students of LAUTECH who have been on an incessant strike of eight month justifies the truism of this piece.

The video which went viral seemingly sounds and looks incredibly ridiculous that a friend of mine have to confirm if it is real. Well, I told him that, that is the sad reality of the nation we have found ourselves. When leaders become intellectually abusive, we only need a miracle to wriggle out of the whole mess.

 

That the school was closed for eight months does not even sound like a news in the hearings of our self-acclaimed constituted authorities. And these are men that rode on the wing of ‘Awolowo ideology’ when it comes to education in order to be trusted with power. How sad is it to see that they betrayed the ideology of this great sage?

 

For the Governor of the state to have said that, “This is not the first time the gate of the school will be closed and that it is not his problem”  and many others is very sad and show the level of importance attached to the education in this part of the world. They cannot really know how wasteful eight months could be in the pursuit of one’s educational career since their wards are flown out of the country to study. And one can ask if this is the same manner in which schools were being closed down during their time.

 

The body language is a clear pontification to what may be the fate of education in this country in years to come. That a country can conveniently joke with the future of his youths is a pathetic development.

When the government of a state failed, it tends to seek for the lost identity. Leadership authority can only be sustained by good deeds with deep affection for the masses and not trying to earn it by beating your chest that they should know you are a constituted authority. It is just like a father telling his son that, don’t you know I am your father? If this happens, it means that there is a missing link- responsibility.

 

The constituted authorities have done little or nothing to better the situation of the country. Instead, they have caused us more havoc than expected. Their power is a shame to the integrity of a formidable education in the country.

I pray there is a quick sanctuary of reasoning wherein our leaders will be able to rightly evaluate how they have hemorrhage this sector and then put on a thinking cap on how to make things bounce back. Till then, we would continually be in a stupefying retrogression. It is not a curse but an unarguable reality of life.

 

It is time for our leaders to borrow not a modicum of common sense but a large bulk of knowledge from men like Nelson Mandela who believes that, “Education is the only potent tool to change the world” and not what can be treated as a trash bin.  When we get to this stage, we can then say boldly that we are ready for a better tomorrow.

 

@isaacsogo

Whether I owe salaries or schools are closed, I remain governor, says Ajimobi.

Posted on by
Reply

A video where Abiola Ajimobi, governor of Oyo state, is seen boasting to students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) has since gone viral.

The aggrieved students staged a protest to his office over the closure of their school, but the governor felt they were unruly.

“You are complaining that your school has been shut for eight months. Am I the person who closed your school?” he asked.

“If you want to go violent, we are here waiting for you. Whatever you want to do, do it. You are supposed to have little respect for constituted authority, no matter what.”

The students were more interested in being heard than listening to the governor.

From the tone of his voice, Ajimobi tried to pacify them. Sensing that the approach would not yield result, he lost his cool.

“Eight months of what?” he barked and the students responded.

Then he said: “And so what? Is this the first time that a school will be closed?”

They still did not fall for his subtle intimidation, and he said: “If things get tough, I won’t be affected. Go and do your worst.”

He explained to them that Oyo and many other governments lacked funds.

Having realised that the students would not give in, he said: “I’m not gonna talk to you, and If you want to start troubles, go ahead. This government will not tolerate nonsense from anybody.

“If you want to be troublesome, I dare you, I’m ready for you, let’s see what happens then.

“What we’re saying is that some of you should have little respect for constituted authority, no matter what. Whether I pay salaries or … this is the constituted authority for Oyo.”

Watch the video below:

 

LAUTECH student leaders in free-for-all over governor’s ‘N500,000 largesse’

Posted on by
Reply

The much-publicised protest by students over the seven-month closure of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomosho, ended in controversy on Monday as student leaders fought over a largesse, allegedly from Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

Students from various universities had gathered for the protest in Ibadan, capital of one of the two owner states of the university, when Mr. Ajimobi agreed to meet with their representatives to assure them of his commitment to the reopening of the university soon.

After the meeting, the governor was said to have released some money for the entertainment of the representatives.

But a disagreement over how to share the largesse soon became physical and deteriorated into a free-for-all among the student outside the State Secretariat office of the governor.

One of the student leaders, Fawole Isreal, told PREMIUM TIMES that the commotion occurred because the representative who collected the money decided to spray it on the protesters.

An aide of the president of the Senate of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Olanrewaju Umar, blamed the student leaders of LAUTECH for collecting money from the governor.

Another LAUTECH student, Oyedeji Ahmed, condemned the gesture of the governor.

“At a time when Oyo cannot pay salaries, why will the governor give out N500, 000 to students?” Mr. Ahmed quipped, adding that the gesture was an encouragement of “corruption”.

The Senior Assistant to the Governor on Youth and Students Affairs, Bolaji Azeez, however defended Mr. Ajimobi, saying he only acted “as a caring father”.

LAUTECH has been shut down since last June. But the two owner states have promised to reopen it by February 1. They also promised to contribute N200million each in an intervention fund to settle outstanding salaries.

Mr. Ajimobi is scheduled to meet with leaders of the university’s branch of the Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities on Wednesday as part of the process of resolving the crisis that forced the closure of the school.

We Will #ReOpenLAUTECH End Of January, Ajimobi Tells Protesting Students.

Posted on by
Reply

Business and commercial activities were disrupted for hours on Monday in Ibadan as students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) took to the streets protesting the closure of the school since May 2017.

The students in their hundreds stormed the Oyo state secretariat demanding to see the Governor to explain why the school has remained unopened for eight months despite all entreaties.

Reacting to the protest, Gov. Abiola Ajimobi described the protest as needless as efforts are underway to re-open the institution latest by the end of the January.

He said a meeting had been scheduled between the two governors, the management of the institution and the labour unions in the school for Wednesday, January 11 for final deliberations that would lead to the opening of the school.

Governor Ajimobi said the two states are looking for every opportunity to improve on the quality of education and provide a conducive learning environment for the students in the state.

Gov, Ajimobi further disclosed that as a result of series of consultation among all stakeholders, Oyo state Government in collaboration with the Government of the  state of Osun have agreed to raise the sum of 500 million Naira for the immediate re opening of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso.

While responding to questions from the students regarding a possible increment in school fee, Governor Ajimobi said a visitation panel headed by Wole Olanipekun SAN had been set up to look into all issues that will enhance a smooth running of the school.

He stressed that their recommendations would determine the position of Government on school fees.

Governor Ajimobi who frowned at the manner with which the protest was carried out, however admonished the students to shun all manner of unruly behaviour, respect constituted authority and be ready to engage through dialogue and consultations.

The Governor made the same promise in a statement by his spokesman, Mr Yomi Layinka, after a meeting with the national, zonal and state leadership of the students’ unions in his office, three days earlier.

LAUTECH: The Story of a Motherless Baby [Poem] – By Pele Olabanji

Posted on by
6

The groaning of child birth

Reminds me of mothers

All over the universe

Those who are still alive

Even those who have gone beyond

 

In pains, unbearable and excruciating

They long for the cry of their baby

Their discomfort notwithstanding

The innocent loud cry

Is more than a comfort to them

 

Nine months of determination

Nine months of perseverance

Nine months of heaviness

Still, they remain steadfast

Waiting for the arrival of their child

 

A child curdled in his/her mother’s arm

Unlike a child in the hand of an hiring

Can tell of how satisfying

That calm, and tender loving arms could be

It’s a place of comfort, an heaven on earth!

 

A child that enjoy motherly affection

Have a better story of life to tell

They who do not, mature in suffering

With their rights denied

And their hope, cloudy.

 

But how unfortunate is a motherless child?

Everyone voices to be her mother

Yet, nobody is ready to pick up her responsibility

A deceived child of all

Who is indeed a child of none.

 

What then is more unfortunate

For an innocent child to be mistreated

What then is more unfortunate

Than toying with his/her future

Creating more havoc than good.

 

The saying that a new born baby

Should not suffer evil in the market square

When the elders are present.

Is becoming an old saying

A mere codswallop and claptrap

 

For I have seen a new born child

Suffered humiliation in the hands of the elders

I have seen an innocent child

Disregarded by wicked hiring, called mothers

An heartless, irresponsible ones.

 

The same is the case of LAUTECH

With innocent sons and daughters

Who are students of the institution

They’ve suffered, in fact still suffering

In the hands of those who ought to curdle them.

 

Seven wasted months of industrial actions

A seven fold waste of destiny

Yet no one listen to the cry of this helpless baby, LAUTECH

Who will stand up for her?

Who will come to her rescue?

 

Enough, enough of this malady

Enough, enough of scattering

Enough, enough of irresponsibility

Let the womb that brought this child

Takes full responsibility of her.

 

Thousand of disciplined students

Across the country beg for the re-opening of her gate

Oh, helpless fearless LAUTECH

Normality will be restored to you

And your once upon a time integrity

 

LAUTECH is crying aloud,

She seeks for justice

Justice in all its ramifications

For it is only justice

That can remedy injustice, not time.

 

Pele Olabanji

LAUTECH may hike student fees ahead of planned January resumption

Posted on by
Reply

The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomosho appears set to resume in January as the owner states of the university consider the report of a panel they set up on the crisis that has kept students away since June.

Multiple sources, however, told PREMIUM TIMES that a key recommendation of the panel is an increase in tuition and other fees to shore up internally generated revenue as a solution to the recurrent funding challenges of the university.

Another recommendation, said the sources, would be to share out the faculties to the owner states under a new funding arrangement.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union, and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities in the university had declared a strike on June 9 to protest inadequate funds to run the institution and pay the workers.

LAUTECH is jointly owned by Oyo and Osun, the two states that constituted old Oyo State before Osun was excised in 1991 to form a separate state.

PREMIUM TIMES can exclusively report that the visitation panel set up by the governments of the two states has concluded its work and is about to submit its report.

A member of the committee, who pleased anonymity, confirmed the development.

The spokesman of the university, Lekan Fadeyi, in a chat with reporters said there was confidence the protracted crisis was coming to a close and that the management was waiting for the directive to reopen the university.

Mr. Fadeyi cited the visitation panel as a demonstration of the seriousness Oyo and Osun state governments attached to resolving the crisis.

A top source in the University, who also asked not to be named, said the reopening of the university hinged on the submission of the report of the visitation panel.

“Nothing can be done until they submit their report and then the directive to open the university will follow soon, all things being equal”, said the source.

In an audio obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, expressed dismay over a recent street protest by students of the university on the long closure of the institution.

“One of the students called me that they were arrested by the police”, the governor, speaking in Yoruba, said in the audio. “I asked them what they have done and they said they blocked the main road. Why will they block the main road, for what?

“Well, there are universities that operate without subvention and a committee has been set up to look at how LAUTECH can operate; when they submit their report in January, we will reopen the university.

“There is no subsidy anywhere again, but some students should not start going on the streets to protest, if there is anything wrong, one doesn’t have to fight”, the governor said.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the academic staff had at some point turned down an offer of 41 percent of their salaries from the university management.

It is not clear whether the management intends to go ahead with the payment before a white paper on the report of the visitation panel is released.

“If they receive alert on Monday (December19), if ASUU changes her stance, the university will resume for sure by January,” a top management staff told this newspaper at the weekend.

The protracted crisis in the university had been blamed on the failure of Osun state to meet its financial obligation to the university.

#ReOpenLAUTECH: Police fire shots to disperse protesting LAUTECH students [Video]

Posted on by
1

Students of the Ladoka Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, on Friday took to the streets to protest the lingering strike action by teaching and non-teaching staff in the institution.

The strike action, which started over six months ago in June was embarked upon by the workers due to the non-payment of their salaries and allowances by the owners of the university, the Oyo and Osun state governments.

The strike action has led to total inactivity in the university.

Friday’s protest by the students later turned rowdy as police tried to disperse protesters.

The protest, held in front of the LAUTECH College of Health, later witnessed police officers firing shots to disperse the students.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, a student of the school who begged to remain anonymous said “We have been on strike since June. There have been several protests held but nothing was done; so students decided to go on a peaceful protest (today).

“Police came and started shooting at students and they have started arresting students,” he added.

There is no evidence yet that any of the protesting students sustained gunshot injuries.

Watch Video Below:

LAUTECH: Oyo Assembly Begs Ajimobi, Aregbesola to Negotiate with Striking Workers

Posted on by
1

The Oyo State House of Assembly has appealed to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola, to negotiate with the striking workers of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso.

This followed the submission of a report by the state Commissioner for Justice, Oluseun Abimbola, and his Education counterpart, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, on the LAUTECH crisis.

The House had on September 27 ordered the two commissioners to appear before it to clarify the grey areas on the ownership status of the university.

Abimbola, while presenting the reports, said that the two states had on Wednesday reached an agreement to maintain status quo over ownership of the institution, and affirmed their commitment to its funding.

Abimbola said: “After the meeting co-chaired by the two governors and attended by their deputies and senior officials from the two states, a communique was issued, a copy of which we are presenting to the house.

“The communique, which reads in part, restates the commitment of the two governments to moving the institution forward.

“They also agreed to an irrevocable commitment to the institution.

“The meeting also agreed on the necessity for a comprehensive restructuring of the institution.

“This is to ensure fair and effective development and distribution of academic resources, physical structures and other assets of the university.”

Abimbola said further that the two governors also appealed to the striking workers to resume academic activities, while amicable solutions were being worked out.

The lawmakers, in their reactions, said that the communique and agreement of the two governors did not address the real issue that led to the industrial action.

In her contributions, Olawunmi Oladeji said that the indifference of Osun governor caused the crisis in the institution.

Oldeji sid: “The apathy exhibited by Governor Aregbesola crippled the smooth running of academic activities in the institution.

“How can a state government that claims to lack revenue, have the fund to build six mega schools when each cost about N1.3 billion?

“We should all know that an injustice to one is the injustice to all, and we are writing our own history; posterity will judge us all.”

Also, Olusegun Olaleye said that the issue of non-payment of workers’ salaries and funding of the institution was not addressed by the governors.

Olleye said: “This communique only portrays a long-term goal, not how the issue of non-payment of salaries and funding would be addressed.

“This is what is more urgent so that the workers can suspend the strike and students can be recalled; education of these students should not be jeopardized.”

Fatai Adesina said that the communique did not state how the two state governments intended to resolve the issue of 15 months outstanding salaries owed the workers.

Adesin said: “We want to see how this can be resolved so as to ensure the immediate resumption, not some long-term solutions.

“Obviously, the decision reached is as a result of the friendship between the two governors and that they also belonged to the same political party.”

In his remarks, the Speaker, Michael Adeyemo, said that the union leaders in the institution should be included in the panel being proposed by the two state governments.

LAUTECH had remained closed since June 13 following series of protests by students and industrial action by the unions in the institution.