Ex-VC advocates adequate power supply in schools

Culled from The Nation
The education system will be better if adequate power is provided in schools former Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU), Ile-Ife, Prof Akinola Salau, stated this in a paper entitled: Towards sustainable energy provision in Nigeria, which he delivered at the yearly party/lecture of Oluyole Club, Lagos at Kankanfo Inn, Ibadan.

    Salau identified inadequate supply of electricity as one of the major problems affecting the quality education.

He said: "This country is blessed with energy. We have gas, coal petrol, but we have the problem of sustainability. Human existence depends on electricity. If you are in the education system without the electricity, it will reflect on the result. People in sciences will not be able to perform experiments; people at home will not do assignment very well; more importantly, many of us dwell in rural areas without adequate power supply and if I am the teacher in such an area, it will be difficult."

 President of the club, Prof Bashir Akande described inadequate power as a major setback for education. 

"We are aware that the lack of solution to our energy needs has been the major drawback to our development in this country; sustainable energy being the basis of industrial economic power and many other indices of progressive societies," he said. 

Oluyole Club, Lagos comprises Ibadan indigenes in Lagos. The group empowers students to achieve their goals.

At the event, the group rewarded brilliant undergraduates with N50, 000 each. Some of the beneficiaries  spoke with The Nation.

Olatunji Sameul, a student of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, OAU, said the bursary would enhance his education.

He said: "I'm very happy to be a partaker of this kind gesture stretched to us by the club. This will help students in the higher institution to aim higher academically. There are numbers of youths in the country who desire to be educated but without help this will help some of us to further."

Another beneficiary, Oladeji Idris, a Pharmacy student at OAU, said the bursary will help to reduce the financial burden on his parents.

"My parents are going through stress to get me educated. This in a way lessens their burden," he said.

Asimiyu Opeyemi also from the institution said the programme is a hope to the indigent students.

"Looking at the members of the club, they have all made it in their careers and I believe they know that the only way to help the youth is by investing in the education system. May God continue to bless them," he said.

On why only OAU students benefited from the award, the club’s Secretary, Mr Niyi Fatokun, said they were the only ones who applied.

"I wrote several letters to government universities in the country, asking them to submit the names of Ibadan indigenes who have high grades, but I never received any reply apart from OAU.  Here we are rewarding only those who participated. If next year, it is the only university that participates, we will not hesitate to do the same," he said.