₦airaland Forum

All that is required of part-time
students at the Lagos State
University, LASU, is to answer a set
of 70 multiple choice questions
every semester to be awarded a
Bachelors degree, PREMIUM TIMES
has learnt.
In what one university professor
described as a "dangerous
development" in the already poor
standard of university education in the
country, LASU earlier this year directed
all lecturers at its part-time campuses
scattered across Lagos to henceforth
set only multiple choice questions for
all examinations.
Copies of some questions seen by this
newspaper suggest that the questions
were haphazardly put together with
irregular numbering, ridden with
grammatical and sometimes factual
errors. It is devoid of the standardised
quality associated with public multiple-
choice examinations.
There seems to be no effort made by
the university to control and manage
the standard. Invigilation during the
examination was lax, if any at all, we
learnt. Examination halls were so
crowded that some students did their
examination standing in many of the
campuses.
Though results were released in record
time, there were several cases of
missing results.
Al-Amin Alli-Balogun, the President of
the Students' Representative Council,
SRC, said many results were posted in
the wrong campuses. After several
days of searching, some students at
the Agege campus saw their results
posted at Festac campus. Rather than
being an exception, it was the norm
across all campuses, he said.
"The MCQ [multiple-choice questions]
have been able to curb the issue of no
results, missing results and the
excesses of lecturers," he admitted.
However, he described the introduction
of multiple choice questions only as a
"disgusting moment" in the history of
the programme. He said the school
management only introduced it to
deceive students that something is
being done to correct the anomalies of
the programme.
"We don't have qualified lecturers; the
LASU management is only doing this to
deceive the students that the
programme is changing while it is
actually decaying the more. Mass
failure is still an issue. Students don't
have proper records of the examination
they have taken before or the one they
should be taking next," he said.
One student at the Antony campus
described the quality of the printing
papers the questions were printed on
as similar to what one sees during
secondary school mock examinations.
Paradoxically, the examinations were so
substandard that some enterprising
students kicked against the
development to the point of openly
protesting against it to lecturers,
PREMIUM TIMES was told.
A former student leader of the
programme, Julius Adeoye, highlighted
other problems with the examination:
"The literature department, for
instance, write exams based on the
books they've read. We have different
lectures with different books
recommended but are required to
answer the exact same questions. How
do you expect students at the Jibowu
campus, for instance, to answer
questions on a text that wasn't
recommended to them but was
recommended to students at the
Festac campus?
"Writing OMR will not even allow the
students to grow because I can easily
copy and paste but if I'm required to
write theory [essay type questions]
there is no way I can copy everything
from another student. Students don't
even attend classes anymore they just
show up for examination knowing they
can easily copy the answers of other
students," he added.
But LASU management said its
adoption of the multiple choice
questions only for part-time student
was the best solution to the horde of
problems bedevilling the programme.
"For those who know how to develop
the content, multiple choice is a better
assessment than theory," said aide to
the university's Director of External
System, Dayo Akinshola.
"Multiple choice is not an innovation in
Nigeria, as far back as the 1970s
multiple choice has been in existence.
If anybody is against it, it is one of
three reasons: one, the person is lazy
and doesn't know how to set the
questions. Secondly, the person
doesn't want to relinquish his power of
oppression because with multiple
choice questions you're not going to
have contacts with the students again
and thirdly for whatever reasons, the
person wants to frustrate certain
people and he knows with multiple that
will not be possible. The benefits are
endless so whoever doesn't understand
the concept must belong to one of
those three categories," Mr. Akinsola,
who said he has over 20 years
experience as an academic, said.
He said lecturers who criticise the
introduction of the multiple choice
questions are bitter because the
university has effectively plugged their
means of extorting students. He also
denied that the examinations were
conducted in overcrowded rooms. He
challenged any student with proof to
present it.
However, prominent academics in the
country disagree with Mr. Akinsola on
the superiority of the multiple choice
questions as a means of assessment.
Despite their ability to cover wide areas
of the subject matter, multiple choice
questions fall short of assessing the
skills that makes a "total graduate,"
said Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, a former
Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Lagos, UNILAG.
"It is not sufficient. It falls short of
examining all the aspects that are very
critical to the making of a graduate.
When people finish they will be faced
with actually writing up opinions in a
very legitimate literate version. So we
need to teach them the concept of
composition; of writing," Mr. Ibidapo-
Obe, a Professor of Applied
Mathematics and Engineering Systems,
said.
"I think it is a dangerous development
as it may not be able to fully assess a
student's performance," said Professor
Akii Ibhadode of the University of
Benin, UNIBEN.
He advised that a mixture of multiple
choice questions and essay type
questions can be useful up to the
second year level but not further than
that.
The National University Commission,
NUC, spokesperson, Ibrahim Yakassai,
said universities have been directed to
desist from setting entirely multiple
choice questions. He promised that the
commission will investigate and stop
LASU from continuing with the practice.
Theses for sale
The LASU part-time programme is a
thriving auction for the sale of results
and theses, PREMIUM TIMES can reveal.
The sale of theses, we discovered, are
so widespread that lecturers now
brazenly ask students to pay into their
bank accounts and present copies of
tellers as proof of payment. Students
are required to pay as much as
N50,000 before their proposals are
supervised or up to N150,000 to have
one written for them by the lecturers
themselves.
Female students are given
considerable discounts if they
agree to sleep with lecturers.
A student, who asked not to be named,
at the Jibowu campus said he knows
lecturers who merely give part-time
students theses written by full-time
students and ask them to be reprinted
with the names of part-time students.
Another student at the Festac
campus said he paid because
everyone else was paying.
"You don't expect morality from where
immorality looms. When lecturers are
not paid you don't expect them to
behave professionally. Imagine LASU
just paid lecturers three days ago
[October 30] for salaries that have
been due for over two years. How do
you expect them to survive if they
don't engage in immoralities and
misconducts," said Mr. Alli-Balogun.
Mr. Akinshola said any lecturer who
indulges in malpractices under the
pretext of owed honorarium is just
being dishonest. He said lecturers are
paid on time. He explained that the
only lecturers who were not paid were
those from the School of
Communication because they were
ripping the university management off.
"The only honorarium that was delayed
and paid two days ago was the one for
the School of Communication. They are
the people saying all these kinds of
rubbish. We know their antecedent. We
know their stock in trade. We are not
going to bleed our eyes over 1400
students when we have 50,000
students elsewhere. These are people
who see it as a means of enriching
themselves. They are busy inflating the
amount they want to collect and the
university management in its own
wisdom said no.
"The issue was investigated by the
director and at the end of the day it
was discovered that the university has
been thoroughly ripped off. They were
forced to revert to the norm and once
they complied they were paid. That
money was processed within two
months. If they had complied two years
ago they would have been paid their
money. They were asking to be paid
the money that they never had." The
spokesperson said.
He said the school management has
already come up with plans to stop
extortions of students by lecturers but
declined to say what these plans are.
He said any student who pays for his or
her theses to be supervised or written
is doing so at his or her own risk.
An image tarnishing programme
The disorderliness of the examinations
and in fact the entire part time
programme indicates that the
university management is doing
everything to rid itself of a programme
with a long history of malpractices as
quickly as possible.
Following report of widespread
malpractices soon after the part-time
programmes were relocated from the
university's main campus in Ojo into
poorly equipped campuses across the
state, things spiralled out of control.
The programme was over taken by a
hostage mentality. The university
management, lured by the high fees
paid by the students, admitted more
students than it could handle. Because
regular lecturers couldn't cope with the
rigour of teaching regular students as
well as part time students, the
university management resorted to
employing part-time lecturers, many of
whom are secondary school teachers
without any experience in teaching at
the tertiary level. Worse, they were not
properly monitored or mentored as one
would have expected. They were left to
their own devices.
Frustrated by delayed payment of
honoraria, many of these part-time
lecturers resorted to brazen-faced
extortion of students. Results were
withheld for close to two years by some
lecturers. For instance, results of some
English Language examinations written
in June 2012 were released in October
2013. Saddened by rampant
malpractices, many full-time lecturers
washed their hands off the programme.
Worried that incessant scandals
associated with the part-time
programme was going to irreparably
tarnish the university's reputation, in
2011, the State government scraped
programme. The university
management was directed to stop
admitting new students. The last of the
current students are expected to
graduate in 2016 when the programme
would be finally rested.

This strike already overdue.i dont see any reason the strike should continue. The government have played their own part

God1stson: I think u hav d premise to argue ur point.I can understand hw u feel, after dealing with those heavy calculations u would xpect d society 2 reward u.The trut is that those calculations are rubish compared 2 realities on ground.The Nigerian soc. of engineers knows about this,yet are not doing anytin 2 change the statosque.If I'm made d minister of eduation,i will make mechanic village,technical sch GTC, phone repairers,bricklayers,electricians,carpers and d lot 2 have B.tech nd city n guide.u can only get

Btech is not meant for phone repair, bricklayer, carpenter and co. Degree is much more than that.its bec of ur ignorance ure typing all this rubbish above. All these people are called artisan and craftwork. It takes only primary school leaving certificate to be an good artisan

Gamji007: You are wrong my friend. That is a general misconception and problem with most engineering graduates in Nigeria. You believe holding spanners and screwdrivers are not meant for you, whereas engaging in such practical work could make you improve on your skills and make you relevant in everywhere you find yourself especially in a country like Nigeria, where Engineers,Technicians,Foremen, electricians, roadside mechanics etc are all considered the same.

In a saner economy engineers are trained to design and technician, elecrician, mechanics are to look after technical equipment and do practical work like repair. due to lack of job an engineer could downgrade to be a technician but that does not mean engineers are to become road side mechanic as uve descibe above

indomitable234: If engineers are the most unemployed graduates then its all their fault,as an enginneer,u shouldn't bee looking for job,instead u should be providing jobs,let's break it down
Elect elect grad...u can work on ur own as an electrician,do house wiring,work as a communication engineer,get into the field of networking,fiber optics etc
Mechanical eng.....u can start on ur own by fixing cars engine,generators
Civil engineering,u can start on ur own as a building contractor

These jobs u mention above are not meant for engineers they are for technician. Why go and spend 5yrs in a uni to end up as an electrician or engine repairer

Change of attitude is what we need.its not about being black. We need orientation in all areas of our life.God bless Nigeria

May God save us.

eyitayoemmanuel: Thanks everyone for your comment. My fear is that once a man cannot provide for his family, he gets frustrated at every small issue. Dont want my case ending like the guy who butchered his wife over a similar issue cos my husband is beginning to get frustrated cos I complain more these days. At times he feels bad about the whole situation but I think he's just pretending otherwise he would have done something about it.

Let him get frustrated if that will solve the problem. I can see ure living in constant fear. U don't want to hurt him. If he sincerely feel bad as uve said he should at least try his best but from all indication he is a lazy man.

Op@ if what u describe above is true, u must be a big fool for u to be fending for a complete grown up lazy man. The responsibility of a man is to take care of his family even if ur income is more than his. ur husband is a complete irresponsible lazy man. From what u describe above, it seem ure making him see ur marriage as a favour for u. I would advise uve one on one talk with him.let him know that marriage is not suppose to be like this. A man should not depend on a woman likewise a woman.after sometime,if he is still adamant, not ready to get a job I advise u open a secret account and stop providing for him. if not u will be working and end up living a wretched life.

Joagbaje: Have you ever experience kindom of darkness sending you an SMS ,or a demon? I have had some experience while ministering to some cases. But I want to sample opinion first before I give details of my experience .

If you have heard of such experience or you have actually experience such. Either as a threat or whatever the content .


I have had 2 experiences . The first one happened when minitered to a young woman Several spirits were cast out of her. But I wasn't through with her because it took a long time so we had to take a break to finish up the following day. But the following day ibegan to recieve series of SMS from "THEM" insulting me and warning to keep away from her, that she belong to them.

At first, I thought it was a prank from her, then few minutes before our appointment I began to recieve SMS from her line that I should not deliver her, that she belong to them , Then they said they were inside her phone using it to warn me.. I replied saying christ has delivered her already .her body soul and spirit belong to Jesus .

Now this is the funny part . She came I asked who was sending me SMS through her phone . She said nobody , she said she was only surprised to see SMS from me. I collected her phone . Suprisigngly i only saw my replies. There was no trace of the messages sent from that phone ,Then she said she doesn't even have credit at all since day before . I then took the phone again and checked the balance 0:00 kobo ! . That's my firsts experience .

The second experience I had to send someone else to the person house few block away to call her, she was deeply sleeping yet, I was Receiving warning messages from the phone . This particular person was involved in witchcraft . Checking the phone only my responses were there . Yet ony phone both her SMS and mine are there , even till now

Op@ it is either this is a make up story or somebody is playing some tricks with u. I don't think a demon will have hand with fingers to be typing what u describe above. Don't try to fool anybody.

greatest man: too much money without appropriate motivation u won't get the best out of ur workers.

Motivation is 95% money and others 5%.unless u want to deceive urself

If ure able to see all this things, it means u yourself is not concentrating in ur church. I urge u to always concentrate on what d pastor is preaching

shayhun31: Nt connecting wit mtn

It work with mtn. I've used it before. Set ur APN

solarenergy: Can d glo bis still be used on pc?

Yes still working on PC if only u use bb and follow the steps above

nipeks001: Hmm,this might be a plan by competitors to bring fcmb down cos op just registered today,only has 3 posts and is narration is not even well detailed;like the branch where this occurred and except you are dangote's son,I don't think you will just back down like that loosing 4mil without a fight.
I think this is just some fabricated lie to debase fcmb..........my 2cents

Supported. I think someone lost over four million and take it lightly. He must be Dangote son. If this story is really true I think he should have come here and describe full detail of what transpire between him and the bank

Chiscomax: hahaha... so do you mean blackmen have blackheart? it is advicable you follow the steps before becoming aggressive with collecting back your momey

Yes, after uve talk,talk and talk and the debtor seem to be stubborn. U can even use thug to collect ur money

This method are meant for white people. if u are dealing with black man and you are talking softly like this there is little possibility for u to get back ur money. At times if ure not aggressssive and use threat u will not get ur money back

I think great product should be the first priority of business owner anything from this doom failure

7 Marketing Lessons From
RIM's Failures
.

You remember, don’t you? The
emails magically appeared while
you weren’t looking. That blinking
light turned us into addicts. And
that keyboard copied often, but
never matched.
It was the BlackBerry, the glorious,
beloved, and life-changing
BlackBerry. It made us feel good,
and it never let us down.
Long before the iPhone the took the
world by storm, and before Google
even dreamed about getting into
the phone business, Research in
Motion was on top of the consumer
electronics mountain.
Today, sadly, it is buried under it,
and industry insider everywhere wonder whether RIM will survive.
What happened? Harmful strategy.
Unforced errors. And, mostly, really
bad marketing. On this, RIM is in
good company in the consumer
electronics industry, where so many
manufacturers market poorly. But
few have made so many marketing
mistakes so quickly.
Here are seven marketing lessons
from RIM’s dark and difficult
journey.

1. Make Great Products
.
Consumer electronics success
begins with excellent products. The
BlackBerry was once perceived as
the very best smartphone — or, at
least, “emailing phone” available.
It was exciting, emotional and it
made people feel good. RIM sold
BlackBerries on the strength of
word-of-mouth recommendations.
BlackBerries were aspirational, and
people wanted to own one because
friends and colleagues were so
passionate about them.
Now, fast-forward to today.
Consider the excitement and energy
around the iPhone and all those
Android handsets. RIM enjoys none
of that today. Not one percent of it.
In part, it's because it stopped
making good smartphones in favor
of a poorly received tablet called the
PlayBook.
Successful marketing begins with
having a tremendous product or
service to market. Nothing happens
without this.

2. Build on Strengths
Instead of Improving on
Weaknesses
I’m constantly telling clients that
they should build on strengths
instead of trying to improve their
weak areas. For RIM, the BlackBerry
was a great strength, and they all
but abandoned its development
and marketing for a year or longer
to create the tablet. RIM did this to
try to prevent the world from
passing it by in the tablet space which it did anyway. Tragically, as a
result of diverting talent, attention,
resources, investment and
innovation from the BlackBerry to
the Playbook, the consumer
smartphone world has also passed
RIM by.
It doesn’t matter what business
you’re in. If you focus on developing
weaknesses, your strengths will
atrophy due to neglect. If you want
to market well, identify your
strengths — products, services,
techniques, approaches,
relationships and exploit them
relentlessly. This technique
overcomes nearly all weaknesses.

3. Gravity Pushes
Backwards
If you’ve attained a measure of success, you must continue
innovating your products, services
and your marketing just to maintain
your position. Because you can bet
the competition is innovating
aggressively, and they’ll pass you
by in thre seconds if you stop
doing the things that brought you
success. RIM not only stopped
releasing new BlackBerries while
focusing on its PlayBook, it basically
stopped talking to its customers
about them for an extended period.
We’ve seen this story before with
Palm and many others. Gravity
pushes backwards in business.
Consistent and aggressive
innovation is required not only to
attain success, but to maintain it.

4. Know Precisely Who
Your Customer Is
RIM’s management famously
disagreed on who their customer
was. Then co-CEO Mike Lazaridis felt
the customer was the corporation.
Others, probably including his
counterpart Jim Balsillie, wanted to
aim BlackBerry products at
consumers. If you don’t know
exactly who your customer is, it is
impossible to market. Language,
messaging, platforms, branding and
public relations change completely
depending on the customers you
target. So identify your customers
as precisely as possible, and aim all
of your marketing efforts at them.

5. Executives Set the
Marketing Tone
Consider the most successful
companies in consumer electronics
(and two of the most successful
companies in all of business): Apple
and Amazon. Their chief executives
set their marketing tone, and
everyone follows. If you haven’t
seen it yet watch this YouTube
video of Steve Jobs introducing the
iPad, and listen to how everybody
who followed him on stage used
exactly the same words.
This is no accident. The next day,
thousands of articles used the same
words to describe the amazing,
remarkable and awesome iPad.
Amazon’s Bezos is the same way.
The best marketers have high-level
executives setting the tone. They
not only teach the rest of the
company how to talk about their
products and services, but the
customers, the media, and the
market itself. Obviously, RIM’s co-
CEOs did not set this tone. They
couldn’t even agree on who the
customer was.

6. Avoid Unforced Errors
Most marketing problems are self-
made and entirely avoidable.
Consider the major developments
from RIM’s recent past:
It voluntarily stopped
focusing on the BlackBerry to
make a product it had no
experience with.
It could not identify its
customer.
It stopped marketing to
consumers, allowing
competition to roar past.
Don’t try to outsmart
yourself. Avoid unforced errors.

7. Keep Talking to Your
Customers
My work with clients often involves
conducting qualitative
conversations with their customers
to deeply understand how they feel
about what the company is doing
and. what the company is thinking
about doing. If RIM had talked to its
customers like this, it would have
quickly learned that they probably
weren’t particularly interested in a
BlackBerry tablet without built-in
email, messaging or contacts!
If you’re not talking to your
customers, you’re just guessing
from a conference room.
I believe RIM has enough of a
corporate and government
customer base to sustain it through
this most difficult period. To
recover, the company must
precisely identify its customer,
make terrific products for it, and
orient all of its marketing and
messaging toward it. In the
meantime, we can all learn from the
mistakes that brought the BlackBerry maker to this point.

Link:[www.mashable.com/2012/02/10/marketing-lessons-rim-blackberry/]

Kaylasc0tt: what type of model of curve7 does etisalet bis supports?. because someone told me etisalet bis doesnt work on all blackberries.. and i dont wanna waste my money to recharge for wat i'm not gonna derive joy in. #waiting for responce/responces#

Etisalat Nigeria does not support BlackBerry CDMA device.
If it is blackberry CDMA phone like bb tour 9630, its not supported by etisalat. Use google to verify the type of bb phone uve

mikolis: Set ur carrier apn to wat? Cos its telling me i can't. Connect cos no internet is found on my fone. Am using a glo bis, wah do i chanhe ma apn to?

.

If ure using glo ur apn is blackberry.net also tick apn autentication enable. Leave apn username and apn password empty. It will surely connect

mrvocalprowess: Can't watch youtube videos 4 2days nw!! Am I d only 1 facing dis problem??

Etisalat has finally blocked watching youtube video on bb and tethering. They claimed that is not part of bis subsription.

israel007: How is it done pls

Search in google pdanet. Download pdanet for bb and for desktop, install as directed. Just connect ur bb and lappy through usb or bluetooth. U can then use ur bis subsription for normal internet.u can download and update ur anti virus ,and even do anything with ur lappy. Note u must set ur carrier APN in ur bb. Tethering has been blocked on etisalat yesterday but glo, mtn,and airtel are still working. I'm using glo now. Pdanet is easy to set up and free.

JW214: Please is anyone experiencing this: my browser is refering me to a page "buyetisalat.com" even with my active bis which I just activated some hours ago, likewise when shared with other devices (tethering), I get refered to "buyetisalat.com" webpage to buy data to browse

Any help from anyone?

Thank you

I too experiencing the same. I think its due to network problem. Disconnect and reconnect but always use the bb application before u do that.

newman10: I heard you can tether to your lappy via wifi on Etisalat bb. How true pls?

Yes you can tether with lappy. even with any bb using pdanet or tether software

Still working .chgeck ur settings

You need to confirm that the battery is charging correctly i.e the alternator is producing appropriate voltage(13.5-16v) volts. If the alternator is okay the next culprit is the battery.for how long have u been using the battery , if it is above 3yrs , it may need replacement. To know whelther the battery is draining , remove the +terminal when the car is not in use and use a digital multimeter to measure the voltage across the 2 terminals of the battery. U should see something around 12-13 v. Take the reading after sometime like 5hr later , if the voltage has dropped below 11volt , u need a replacement.

Blasphemy of the highest order. They have Sin against holy spirit. Man can do anything for money

Billyonaire: I doubt this robbery story; The Police is always searching for culprits to label as robbers to prove that they are working.

I will rather go with a report that they used the arms to intimidate people over land matters. But their own don be, cos there is no efficient office of the public defender.

Fullstop.

The story sound fake, made up.

Illusion of the highest order. Their imagination is deceiviing them

Bec security is zero