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Colourful Carnival At U.I
By Folusade Ajayi & Damilola Oyewole
Students during the carnivalTHE students residing in Tedder Hall
in the University of Ibadan had their rally/ carnival train on the 17th of last month. The event has remained the most talked about semester.
The day was colourful as a result of the elegant costumes the students wore which were of different shades and colours. Yellow, purple, pink and orange colours were combined by the students. The whole idea of the rally was not to follow any particular dressing format but to express themselves in odd ways.
They combined outfits like wearing a camisole on buba, boxers on sokoto, with leg roll up and different shoes. Some of them tied towel or wrapper on trousers while some knotted ties on buba or T-shirts. It was exciting to see these students, who on normal days, dress casually or corporately.They wore out-of-fashion outfits. Their faces were painted like clowns.
Their appearances looked like the usual Rag Day appearance of other universities but this was just a hall of residence’s awareness programme. The residents of Tedder Hall were charged to do all within their means to capture and retain the attention of not only students, but everyone on the campus.
Apart from the costumes they wore, there was a lot of drumming, singing and dancing all around the campus. This caught the attention of the non-participating students who hailed them as they danced along, while some actually joined the train. They had performances that served as rib crackers for the students and people had no choice other than to abandon what they were doing to watch as the events unfolded.
It was a different picture from the usual as the carnival allowed them to act anyhow, though not to the extent of violating the school rules or acting like hooligans. They did everything with decency and still enjoyed themselves.
Carnival train is now a common feature in Nigerian universities and students see it as a means of creating awareness of one thing or the other as well as a way of relieving themselves of the school stress.
Instead of following the normal routine of printing on T-shirts or wearing uniforms, they have introduced a funny way of attracting people’s attention. People on campus, this memorable day, wondered what the show was all about.
Residents of the other halls in the university have been given a pace to match and a record to beat.
Mr. Akin Akande Sanyaolu, the Hall Chairman and a 400- Level student of Agricultural Economics, said that he was happy to see his people express their free-style life, albeit, within the bounds of decency.
It was a big task for him to make the carnival a success and he was quick to comment that the supports he got from the executive and the hall members had made the programme a success.
While thanking Tedderites, he said they all believed in possibility and this made their team-spirit work out for the success of the carnival.
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OOU Students Launch Reform Team
By Damilola Oyewole
A group of students at the
Olabisi Onabanjo University are set to engage in some reforms.
These students have distinguished themselves in all spheres of life, even while in school. They have etched their thoughts and vision into the minds of many.
Their thinking is “if we can concieve it, we certainly can achieve it. We refuse to be handicapped by impediments like time management and finance, or hide under the fallacious thinking that our stay in school is “primarily to bury our heads in books just for the benefit of ourselves and leave the school the same way we met it.”
This group of students called themselves the OOU Reform Team. The aim of the group is to bring back the lost glory and dignity of the institution. They aim to reform, rebrand and redeem OOU’s image which has received a dent in recent times.
Graduates, as well as undergraduates of OOU, usually receive a second look from people as soon as they associate themselves with the university. They are being stereotyped as students of misplaced sense of value and sub-standard education.
One of the students, Awe Olajumoke, who had an encounter with a man of repute, said that his comments and impression about the institution was not a very pleasant one.
“He had compared my school to a league of worms. Some other people would refer to this citadel as a glorified secondary school” he lamented.
The group is made up of student-entrepreneurs, students who have shown a high level of responsibility as well as stakeholders who have distinguished themselves positively in different facets of life.
Strategies have been mapped out to formally present a movement for the revitalisation and rebranding of the institution by using institutional students and authenticated agents for the procurement of change.
The team seeks to effect a timely correction of the analysis and impressions of the outside world, and also provides a vehicle and avenue for the promotion and restoration of the lost prestige of the school.
The reform team, present in all five campuses of the institution, called on fellow students to join hands with them on a regular basis to move the institution to an enviable height they can all be proud of.
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