{"id":2550,"date":"2019-07-08T14:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2019-08-26T16:25:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T15:25:34","slug":"did-eksu-award-two-of-its-best-graduating-students-with-n100-n2000-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/did-eksu-award-two-of-its-best-graduating-students-with-n100-n2000-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Did EKSU Award Two Of Its Best Graduating Students With N100, N2000? #YES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLAIM:<\/strong> Two best graduating students in Ekiti State University were awarded N100 and N2000 respectively<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION:<\/strong> TRUE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVIDENCE:<\/strong> One of the recipients confirmed the amount, while the other refrained from commenting. However, EKSU has said that it was a long-standing tradition of the institution, and that the management upwardly reviewed it after the public outburst and it would be effective from its next convocation ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n

FULL TEXT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps because of their outright meagreness, the prize awards stated in a letter received by two best graduating students of Ekiti State University<\/a> (EKSU),\u00a0a school that says it aims to produce \u201cgraduates adequately equipped to handle contemporary socioeconomic and environmental challenges<\/em>\u201d,\u00a0has earned the backslash of the Nigerian netizens.<\/p>\n

This prize money was stated in a letter signed\u00a0by Dr S.O. Afolabi on behalf of the school’s registrar, Akin Arogundade, and dated June 13, 2018.<\/p>\n

The letters were addressed to Messrs\u00a0Uwagwu Oluwadamilare Samuel of the\u00a0Department\u00a0of Crop Production and Bamisaye Tosin Tope of the Department of Civil Engineering, both of whom graduated as their respective departmental best in the 2017\/2018 academic session.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

While the former received\u00a0the Prof M.A.\u00a0Faluyi Prize Award, a prize valued at\u00a0<\/span>two thousand naira (an equivalent\u00a0of $6.5<\/a>)\u00a0for his heroics, the latter was awarded the Ado-Ekiti Patriotic Front Prize Award, valued at\u00a0hundred naira (equivalent of $0.326<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although, it has been over a year since the letter was issued, Nigerians on different online fora, from Twitter<\/a> to Facebook<\/a> were not economical with showing their angst at the reward system in Nigerian schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we rewire the education system in Nigeria when the best graduating student is awarded a sum of two thousand naira? Nigeria is indeed rushing to deliver itself<\/em>,\u201d came the question asked by a user on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy won’t people do Yahoo Yahoo, when we don’t show them that Education is important<\/em>,\u201d read another tweet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cYahoo Yahoo\u201d is the slang used for cyber fraud in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis is Nigeria where nonsense is regarded than useful things<\/em>,\u201d quipped a Facebook user<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dubawa contacted<\/a> Mr\u00a0Uwagwu Oluwadamilare Samuel. He confirmed to us that truly he received two thousand naira for being the \u201cbest\u00a0<\/span>graduating student in my department\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Samuel declined to comment on how he felt when he received the prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that was the prize. I can’t say why it was meagre. It’s just what I got<\/em>,\u201d he told Dubawa.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Mr Bamisaye Tosin Tope, he’s yet to respond to Dubawa\u2019s message to confirm the letter. However, he \u201cloved\u201d and commented with \u201csmiles<\/span>\u201d on a Facebook post<\/a> he was tagged by a user, Moran Cee Onyemaechi, who claimed he \u201cchatted [with] the recipient and he confirmed it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

EKSU AGAINST OTHER NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the University of Ibadan, all first class graduates are at liberty to have their Masters studies for free. This is according to the university’s 2015\/2016 session best graduating student of the Department of\u00a0Statistics, Mr\u00a0Odewole Olaolu Joseph.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor [being] the best graduating student, I got nothing.\u00a0[The] only reward I got was just the access to come back for Masters without paying, with a monthly stipend of 25k.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if anyone who had a First Class isn’t interested in coming back for MSc at the department, [that means there’s] no reward<\/em>,\u201d revealed Mr Olaolu.<\/p>\n

On another hand, Mr Emeka Donald Ayo, one of the two 2017\/2018 session best graduating student of Local Government and Developmental Studies in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, told Dubawa he received a \u201cHP laptop and letter of recommendation\u201d for having the highest\u00a0Cumulative Grade Point Average\u00a0(CGPA) in his faculty.<\/p>\n

This was given to all other best graduating students in the university’s other 13 faculties, and also to his departmental mate with whom he had a tied CGPA, Mr Donald said. The overall best graduating student, he added, was given money by different companies.<\/p>\n

COMPARING PRACTISE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES TO THE WORLD…<\/b><\/p>\n

Being a yearly academic awardee while in college, Ely Jay Gomez Enaje, graduated as the 2015 most outstanding student in Agricultural Technology at Bicol University, Philippines.<\/p>\n

The Filipino informed Dubawa that she \u201c<\/span>was recognised during the recognition [ceremony] for outstanding students who excelled in their class\u201d with \u201cmedal and certificate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Also, earlier this year, India’s University of Mysore awarded its\u00a0Best Graduating\u00a0Master\u2019s\u00a0Student, Mrs\u00a0Emelife Chinelo Stella, a Nigerian, with 20 medals and five cash prizes during its convocation.<\/p>\n

Similarly, graduating best in the\u00a0 2012\/2013 academic session (with a CGPA of 4.86) at Usmanu DanFodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), where she had her first degree in Applied Chemistry, Mrs Chinelo compared Nigeria’s reward system to India’s in an interview with Premium Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth are supposed to be laudable<\/em>,\u201d the said of the two countries. \u201cHowever, India celebrates academic excellence the way it should. Every convocation ceremony in Nigeria, there is a best graduating student but no one ever talks about them except in really rare cases but that\u2019s not same with India, as you have seen clearly<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUT WHY IS THE PRIZE MONEY THAT MEAGRE?<\/strong> <\/b><\/p>\n

Majority of those irked by the amount in question questioned how educational excellence is less gratifying while such ventures as entertainment receive number spinning bumper rewards. They mostly call out reality shows like Big Brother Naija whose 2018 winner<\/a>, Miracle Igbokwe, went home with nothing less than 45 million naira ($146,580). In this year’s edition<\/a>, the prize has been said to increase to 60 million naira<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We tried getting answers on why the amount in question is meagre but calls, text and WhatsApp messages sent to the school’s Registrar, Mr Akin Arogundade, were met with silence. A mail, to which the Registrar was copied too, requesting clarity on the prize monies from the school also hasn’t been replied.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Instead, Simisola Awe, a student of law in Ekiti State University, explained that the money is likely meagre because it is a \u201ctestamentary will\u201d. Here’s her explanation to this:<\/p>\n

\u201cA person might decide to award the best graduating student of a department yearly N2000 when the amount had value.\u00a0The person may not be alive but the person would have put it in his will, which is called testamentary will. The family will divide the property but still give that share of money to the school authority. Every time students are convoking, that money will be given to the school [because] the school is like a trustee to the will, and they definitely have to give the money no matter how small it is<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

[To know more, see definition of testamentary will here.<\/a><\/strong>]<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“THE PRIDE IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT SHOULD BE SELF-FULFILMENT”, SAYS REGISTRAR\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Registrar\/Chief Executive of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, told Dubawa that strive for excellence should not be prize driven. Rather, he explained, it should be for self pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from the external reward, the intrinsic value of education should satisfy anybody. You do not wait until someone gives you a prize. The pride in academic achievement should be self fulfilmen<\/em>t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Josiah added that \u201cscholarship and quick job offers should accompany such excellence<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEW CHANGE?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BusinessDay contacted the Registrar of the university, Akin Arogundade, on Monday, July 8, 2019, to verify the authenticity of the viral letter that contains N100. Although Arogundade did not explicitly state that the letter was issued by EKSU, he simply said the management has reacted to the letter and upwardly reviewed the said value of the award prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat award was instituted in the university more than 30 years ago,\u201d Arogundade told BusinessDay on phone. \u201cI am sure you know the value of N100 then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time the award was made, it was a good money compared to the present economic reality,\u201d the statement issued by Bode Olofinmuagun, EKSU Head of Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs, read. \u201cIt is in the realization of this development that the Senate of the university has reviewed the value of the prizes in this category to a minimum of N50,000 for corporate bodies and N100,000 for university prizes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This fact-check was done in collaboration with a Dubawa Fact-checking Fellow working for BusinessDay, the leading medium for up-to-date news and insightful analysis of business, policy and the economy in Nigeria.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLAIM: Two best graduating students in Ekiti State University were awarded N100 and N2000 respectively CONCLUSION: TRUE EVIDENCE: One of the recipients confirmed the amount, while the other refrained from commenting. However, EKSU has said that it was a long-standing tradition of the institution, and that the management upwardly reviewed it after the public outburst and it would be effective from its next convocation ceremony. FULL TEXT:\u00a0 Perhaps because of their outright meagreness, the prize awards stated in a letter received by two best graduating students of Ekiti State University (EKSU),\u00a0a school that says it aims to produce \u201cgraduates adequately equipped to handle contemporary socioeconomic and environmental challenges\u201d,\u00a0has earned the backslash of the Nigerian netizens. This prize money was stated in a letter signed\u00a0by Dr S.O. Afolabi on behalf of the school’s registrar, Akin Arogundade, and dated June 13, 2018. The letters were addressed to Messrs\u00a0Uwagwu Oluwadamilare Samuel of the\u00a0Department\u00a0of Crop Production and Bamisaye Tosin Tope of the Department of Civil Engineering, both of whom graduated as their respective departmental best in the 2017\/2018 academic session. While the former received\u00a0the Prof M.A.\u00a0Faluyi Prize Award, a prize valued at\u00a0two thousand naira (an equivalent\u00a0of $6.5)\u00a0for his heroics, the latter was awarded the Ado-Ekiti Patriotic Front Prize Award, valued at\u00a0hundred naira (equivalent of $0.326).\u00a0 Although, it has been over a year since the letter was issued, Nigerians on different online fora, from Twitter to Facebook were not economical with showing their angst at the reward system in Nigerian schools.\u00a0 \u201cHow can we rewire the education system in Nigeria when the best graduating student is awarded a sum of two thousand naira? Nigeria is indeed rushing to deliver itself,\u201d came the question asked by a user on Twitter. \u201cWhy won’t people do Yahoo Yahoo, when we don’t show them that Education is important,\u201d read another tweet.\u00a0 \u201cYahoo Yahoo\u201d is the slang used for cyber fraud in Nigeria. \u201cThis is Nigeria where nonsense is regarded than useful things,\u201d quipped a Facebook user. Dubawa contacted Mr\u00a0Uwagwu Oluwadamilare Samuel. He confirmed to us that truly he received two thousand naira for being the \u201cbest\u00a0graduating student in my department\u201d. Mr Samuel declined to comment on how he felt when he received the prize.\u00a0 \u201cWell, that was the prize. I can’t say why it was meagre. It’s just what I got,\u201d he told Dubawa.\u00a0 As for Mr Bamisaye Tosin Tope, he’s yet to respond to Dubawa\u2019s message to confirm the letter. However, he \u201cloved\u201d and commented with \u201csmiles\u201d on a Facebook post he was tagged by a user, Moran Cee Onyemaechi, who claimed he \u201cchatted [with] the recipient and he confirmed it!\u201d EKSU AGAINST OTHER NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES? In the University of Ibadan, all first class graduates are at liberty to have their Masters studies for free. This is according to the university’s 2015\/2016 session best graduating student of the Department of\u00a0Statistics, Mr\u00a0Odewole Olaolu Joseph. \u201cFor [being] the best graduating student, I got nothing.\u00a0[The] only reward I got was just the access to come back for Masters without paying, with a monthly stipend of 25k. \u201cAnd if anyone who had a First Class isn’t interested in coming back for MSc at the department, [that means there’s] no reward,\u201d revealed Mr Olaolu. On another hand, Mr Emeka Donald Ayo, one of the two 2017\/2018 session best graduating student of Local Government and Developmental Studies in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, told Dubawa he received a \u201cHP laptop and letter of recommendation\u201d for having the highest\u00a0Cumulative Grade Point Average\u00a0(CGPA) in his faculty. This was given to all other best graduating students in the university’s other 13 faculties, and also to his departmental mate with whom he had a tied CGPA, Mr Donald said. The overall best graduating student, he added, was given money by different companies. COMPARING PRACTISE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES TO THE WORLD… Being a yearly academic awardee while in college, Ely Jay Gomez Enaje, graduated as the 2015 most outstanding student in Agricultural Technology at Bicol University, Philippines. The Filipino informed Dubawa that she \u201cwas recognised during the recognition [ceremony] for outstanding students who excelled in their class\u201d with \u201cmedal and certificate\u201d. Also, earlier this year, India’s University of Mysore awarded its\u00a0Best Graduating\u00a0Master\u2019s\u00a0Student, Mrs\u00a0Emelife Chinelo Stella, a Nigerian, with 20 medals and five cash prizes during its convocation. Similarly, graduating best in the\u00a0 2012\/2013 academic session (with a CGPA of 4.86) at Usmanu DanFodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), where she had her first degree in Applied Chemistry, Mrs Chinelo compared Nigeria’s reward system to India’s in an interview with Premium Times. \u201cBoth are supposed to be laudable,\u201d the said of the two countries. \u201cHowever, India celebrates academic excellence the way it should. Every convocation ceremony in Nigeria, there is a best graduating student but no one ever talks about them except in really rare cases but that\u2019s not same with India, as you have seen clearly.\u201d BUT WHY IS THE PRIZE MONEY THAT MEAGRE? Majority of those irked by the amount in question questioned how educational excellence is less gratifying while such ventures as entertainment receive number spinning bumper rewards. They mostly call out reality shows like Big Brother Naija whose 2018 winner, Miracle Igbokwe, went home with nothing less than 45 million naira ($146,580). In this year’s edition, the prize has been said to increase to 60 million naira. We tried getting answers on why the amount in question is meagre but calls, text and WhatsApp messages sent to the school’s Registrar, Mr Akin Arogundade, were met with silence. A mail, to which the Registrar was copied too, requesting clarity on the prize monies from the school also hasn’t been replied. Instead, Simisola Awe, a student of law in Ekiti State University, explained that the money is likely meagre because it is a \u201ctestamentary will\u201d. Here’s her explanation to this: \u201cA person might decide to award the best graduating student of a department yearly N2000 when the amount had value.\u00a0The person may not be alive but the person would have put it in his will, which is called testamentary will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[122],"tags":[347],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[880],"class_list":["post-2550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-featured"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-F8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":880,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"yusuf-akinpelu","display_name":"Yusuf Akinpelu","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b809f751eeab15a98b7d6d37846ad6b403b48db479e0f0c6bc2b578721a57a3?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Akinpelu","first_name":"Yusuf","job_title":"","description":"Yusuf Akinpelu<\/strong> loves stories and he tells them for DUBAWA, having tested them against available facts. He is a graduate of Statistics from the University of Ibadan, where he won the 2019 Youth Digest Campus Journalism Award of the Best News Writer, and 2018 UCJUI Award for Campus Journalist of the year. Occasionally, he writes satires. He has interest in human rights and believes in the Nigerian Project."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ekiti.jpeg?fit=225%2C225&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}