OAU reopens, directs students to continue semester examinations

*Authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, in Nigeria, also urge parents and guardians to inform their children and wards, particularly those who have already finished their examinations to stay at home

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has announced the reopening of the academic institution after 28 days of the closure of the school over violent protests by students.

ConsumerConnect reports Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, in a statement issued Friday, October 29, 2021, said that the decision to reopen the University was taken at an emergency meeting of the Senate same day.

It is recalled the students of the institution October 1 this year protested over the death of late Miss Aishat Adesina, a final-year student of the Department of Foreign Languages,  after they had alleged that the University Medical Centre mismanaged her healthcare.

Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University

The students were sitting their semester examinations before they embarked on protests at the time, thereby scuttling the writing of the remaining examinations.

Olarewaju stated the students would come to the residence Friday, November 5, 2021, and continue with their examinations Saturday, November 6 in accordance with what was previously on the ground before the closure.

The statement noted: “Parents and guardians are hereby advised to inform their children and wards, particularly those who have already finished their examinations to stay at home so that none of them would use the excuse of the reopening of the University to do something untoward.

“Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, then charged the students to be law-abiding and not to engage in anything that could further elongate the session.”

OAU Vice-Chancellor urges Nigerian youths to shun cultism, other negative tendencies

In a related development, Prof. Ogunbodede, Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, fondly called ‘Great Ife’ by the students, has urged youths to shun cultism and other tendencies that could jeopardise their future.

Prof. Ogunbodede gave the admonition at the recent inauguration of the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, as part of moves to curb the menace in the society.

Prof. Ogunbodede (left) makes his presentation at the POCACOV event in Osogbo

It was gathered Wale Olokode, Osun State Commissioner of Police, had inaugurated the campaign and urged youths to shun cultism and other vices.

Prof. Ogunbodede, who was the Guest Speaker at the event, in his lecture highlighted the negative consequences of cultism on the youths and the society.

The OAU Vice-Chancellor, who delivered a lecture titled, “Cultism: A Growing Menace and Threat to Education”, warned youths not to join cultism in order not to jeopardise their future.

He urged the Nigeria Police authorities and other relevant security agencies to intensify efforts at sensitising youths on the need to stay away from criminal tendencies including cultism, hooliganism, thuggery and internet scam known as Yahoo-Yahoo.

Students who perpetrated crime on the pretext of cultism should be prosecuted, and that any member of cult group who renounces cultism sincerely and repents genuinely, should be rehabilitated and reintegrated rather than expelling such students from school, said Ogunbodede.

Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun Stare, represented at the event by Yemi Lawal, Honourable Commissioner for Youth in the state, commended the Police authorities on the initiative and appealed to youth to imbibe the good character and Omoluabi ethos in the state.

Other dignitaries at the event include the former Deputy Governor in the state, Otunba Grace Titilayo Laoye Ponle; Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal; and the Commissioner for Special Duty, Lekan Badmus, among others.