St. Valentine’s day and NUGA opening ceremony was due for a day later. Maybe for the peculiarity of the day or as a matter of pure coincidence, the National Agency for the Control of Aids, NACA, conducted a free HIV/AIDS test and distributed condoms to members and guests of the university community (young and old).
There was also a NUGA Forum/Conference held with the title: DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY SPORTS; THE ROAD MAP TO SPORT ECELLENCE IN NIGERIA and the keynote speaker was Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, a former minister of sports. The unpleasant part of this conference however was that the one thousand capacity hall which was the set venue for the event was slightly above empty like nobody was interested in or affected by the prospective outcome of the conference as NUGA delegates were barely aware of it.
Another not very interesting event occurred against the interests of the Association of Campus Journalists, ACJ, Obafemi Awolowo University, which is the umbrella body of all press outfits in the school and a major stake-holder in information dissemination. The trouble occurred when members of the body were supposed to be accredited for their participation in the games. A member of the local organizing committee (LOC) who was in charge of the accreditation in all his might treated the team like they were there to ask for special favours as he initially denied them the number of slots they required. But after a long and persistent persuasion, he heeded their request. This incidence goes a long way to show the rate at which the university management does not value the impact made by the body in the lives of students and their disdain for campus journalism and information in general.
The most disturbing highlight of the day and of NUGA so far occurred later in the afternoon when sports men and women of the host university, O.A.U, took to the major roads in protestation and disturbed traffic in the process. They protested and complained very bitterly against the lack of welfare which they were currently suffering as a result of non-payment of allowances for the period of their training and preparation for the games. A sports man said: “we have been training all this while on our empty bellies. No food, no money, nothing! And they expect us to win the games, how?” In addition, they also complained that necessary tools and kits have not been made available to them as the eve of the opening ceremony. It later took the intervention of members of the university sports council to take the sports men and women off the roads with promises that their demands would be met. The success of team O.A.U or indeed any other team in any completion whatsoever is largely dependent on the welfare of its members in all ramifications.
There was also a NUGA Forum/Conference held with the title: DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY SPORTS; THE ROAD MAP TO SPORT ECELLENCE IN NIGERIA and the keynote speaker was Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, a former minister of sports. The unpleasant part of this conference however was that the one thousand capacity hall which was the set venue for the event was slightly above empty like nobody was interested in or affected by the prospective outcome of the conference as NUGA delegates were barely aware of it.
Another not very interesting event occurred against the interests of the Association of Campus Journalists, ACJ, Obafemi Awolowo University, which is the umbrella body of all press outfits in the school and a major stake-holder in information dissemination. The trouble occurred when members of the body were supposed to be accredited for their participation in the games. A member of the local organizing committee (LOC) who was in charge of the accreditation in all his might treated the team like they were there to ask for special favours as he initially denied them the number of slots they required. But after a long and persistent persuasion, he heeded their request. This incidence goes a long way to show the rate at which the university management does not value the impact made by the body in the lives of students and their disdain for campus journalism and information in general.
The most disturbing highlight of the day and of NUGA so far occurred later in the afternoon when sports men and women of the host university, O.A.U, took to the major roads in protestation and disturbed traffic in the process. They protested and complained very bitterly against the lack of welfare which they were currently suffering as a result of non-payment of allowances for the period of their training and preparation for the games. A sports man said: “we have been training all this while on our empty bellies. No food, no money, nothing! And they expect us to win the games, how?” In addition, they also complained that necessary tools and kits have not been made available to them as the eve of the opening ceremony. It later took the intervention of members of the university sports council to take the sports men and women off the roads with promises that their demands would be met. The success of team O.A.U or indeed any other team in any completion whatsoever is largely dependent on the welfare of its members in all ramifications.
No comments:
Post a Comment