MUSINGS FROM MY BUNK 1 By Ifeoma Nwalisi

This was not what i had in mind when i applied for an hostel. Actually, i was forewarned but what could i have done? After all, many students were looking for a bed-space. Shouldn't i thank God for what he gave me rather than give it away based on people’s scare tactics? General Mohammad Buhari once said

that 'Nigeria is ours, we must savage it together' and that had been my philosophy—my room is mine and i must salvage it even if i have to do that with 11 other people (such is my fate this session).

Well, the first few weeks were cool. I had rushed to be the first to enter the room and picked the best bed. Everywhere was calm and cool. Hmm.. I am just musing with nostalgia. But when my roommates began to troop in, the room became lively. I and cupboard owners B, C and D are as different as four days in a week. Different courses, levels, shade of complexion, ideologies in-fact almost everything! One was an SU, another one- a ''Jassi'' Muslim, a book nerd and me- the ''child'' in the middle.'

Life is all about tolerance, and that’s why roommates can live without poisoning each other. Everybody was just acting all 'nicey' nice. Soon after squatters found their way into the hostel; hostel became hostel.

There is a girl that came to stay with my bunkie, Kemi was her name. When she came in, she was just friendly and a little too friendly. Soon everyone began to feel weary of her over familiarity and 'conc. famzing'. Ah!  Kemi can 'famz' for Africa. It became a public knowledge when at one night, we were gisting about top musicians and their controversy. Kemi just declared that Wizkid was her brother's close friend. Everybody in the room just kept quiet... (To be
continued next week)

You know how malicious girls can be; we kept on encouraging her and feigning amazement. "Wow, does he visit your home? Do you chat with him?" we queried. That seemed to fan the embers of her exaggerations.

"Yes, of course. He was even trying to woo me but i refused. Now he is forming for everybody." Kemi enthused. Soon everyone relapsed into silence again and exchanged knowing looks. Suddenly, one of the girls spoke up and said "Kemi, you are really powerful."  Everyone burst
into laughter, while Kemi made feeble attempts to salvage the situation. From that day, we all began to call Kemi, 'Wizkid's babe'.  

Life in the hostel has really been boisterous despite its ups and downs. When i said 'ups', i mean the fun such as cooking, sharing, group reading, gist, gossips and things along that line.  The 'downs' has to do with the fighting, stealing, quarrelling, dirty habits of some so called big girls and stuffs like that.

Talking about fighting, the room adjacent to mine is a gladiator war zone. I don't know how balloting or whatever form of hostel application they used that could have
brought these kind of fiery temper  and brawling girls together.  

I felt pity for the quiet Fresher girl there. She was in most occasions in her friend's room than in hers. Whenever they start quarreling, she would quietly find her way to the next wing, where her friend stays.

They fight on just about anything. It can be about ordinary slippers or clothes or guys--just anything! Victoria, the occupant of cupboard A, has two squatters and she presides over them like a queen does to her subjects. The other two girls have a squatter each. Whenever a squatter quarrels with another, the bona-fides would take over the quarrel.

The whole wing is tired of their noises. We just take their brawling and bickering as part of everyday life activities. The last time they quarreled, Victoria had brought her friends from her department to the room and they were having fun. Titi had come in when they were about leaving. Seeing the whole place in shambles, Titi angrily called them back and ordered them to clean up the room before
leaving. Victoria the amazon did not take the matter lying down. She began to rain hot insults on Titi while the latter fired back. While the mudslinging continued, some occupants of the room returned and each took sides. It became such a heated affair that secrets began to
spill. The guests quickly left before they would reveal their own.

This, to me, was unfair. Earlier that day, I had an impromptu test and three elaborate lectures. All i wanted was just some quiet time but these girls are hell bent on giving me migraine. Who do you think would put a stop to their melee? Me, of course. Promptly, I went downstairs and reported to the porters that "some girls were fighting and breaking the school properties."  The porters hastily went upstairs and march all of them downstairs. Good riddance to bad nonsense!  With a smirk on my face, i nestled myself to a comfortable rest.

LEARNING ZONE: ORAL COMMUNICATION By Taiwo Ekeleme

          Oral communication can be defined as an aspect of communication where phonetic and phonological skills are employed in communicating through the oral media. It has been applied in various fields of knowledge and  is also a companion in writing. It does not just require spoken words, but also other tools employed in writing such as pen, paper e.t.c.Communication, which is a medium of the exchange of information from an initiator[encoder] to a receiver[decoder] .It comprises the oral and written form which is said to be complete via a medium referred to as the feedback process.

       Oral communication, goes beyond facial expressions and gestures but also involves the use of other forms of body language while in writing, correct and adequate punctuations are required. As an aspect of communication, it has the advantage of create conversations and building interactions and is also regarded as the  the most reliable means of communication due to its ability to use words to its detriment. It is the most dominant of all means of communication and could be employed in both formal and informal settings.

             Despite its being a convenient means of disseminating information, it has certain barriers which could lead to a break down in dissemination of information . For instance, there could be a lack of audibility which is as a result of the encoders low vocal quality. It could also be hindered by noise. Noise could occur in form of network failure, environmental noise which is caused by generator sets e.t.c. Wrong articulation of words also hinders effective communication.

           Though there are barriers to oral communication with proper consideration of these barriers there would not be any more hinderance. We can only attain this by constant practise so why not start today!.

ILLUMINATI VS ITANIMULLI By Tope Ojedele

The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus), which means enlightened is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an enlightenment era secret society, founded on May 1, 1776 to oppose superstition, prejudice, religious influence over public life, abuses of state power, and to support women’s education and gender equality. They were outlawed along with other secret societies by the Bavarian government leadership with the encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church, and permanently disbanded in 1785.

The movement was founded in Upper Bavaria as the Order of Illuminati, with an initial member of five, by Jesuit taught Adam Weishaupt; who was the first lay professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria). It was made up of Freethinkers as an offshoot of the enlightenment and seems to have been modelled on the Freemasons. The Illuminati took a vow of secrecy and pledged obedience to their superiors.

In subsequent use, Illuminati refers to various organisations, claiming or purported to have unsubstantiated links to the original Bavarian Illuminati, and often alleged to conspire to control world affairs by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations to establish a New World Order and gain further political power and influence. It has been noted to be connected with novels, movies, television shows, comics, video games and music videos.

Modern fraternal societies claim to have a link to the Order of Illuminati (Bavarian Illuminati), but, this is not proven; as it is observed that they only do this to attract members, hence making it public-whereas, the Bavarian Illuminati is a secret organisation, they don’t make noise.

According to the interview granted by one of the twelve-man ruling council, the Illuminati Order is a secret organisation that wants to fight for humanity and their members are less than a thousand. 

Though, over the years, politicians and most especially entertainers, have been linked to Illuminati, which is not portrayed as fighting for humanity; but a medium to obtain wealth, fame and respect, with the inclusion of devilish ritualistic processes; which includes initiation, sacrifices and sinister emblems. The question is which is truly the Order of the Illuminati?

Now, the mystery is that if you take your pen to write, or decide to spell Illuminati backward, you will get a name that will lead you to the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States-ITANIMULLI. The NSA is a Cryptologic Intelligence Agency of the United States Department of Defence, formed on November 4, 1952; responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S government communications and information systems, which involves information security and cryptanalysis/cryptography. NSA is a key component of the U.S intelligence community, which is headed by the Director of National Intelligence. The question is, is it a coincidence that these two societies are linked together? If no, which of the Illuminati Order does it belong to; because the NSA actually saves humanity.

BEING A PEER EDUCATOR: SERVING HUMANITY By Dipo Mohammed

The route that the morality of young people should take in the 21st century has been a topic of great discourse. Often times, people who give advice on the behaviour that young people should exhibit will normally do so based on their understanding without concrete analysis of the belief of others.

Such understanding could be religious or liberal. However, I am more concerned about the kind of morality that every young person should possess in other to have a positive effect on each other.

Among young people, the issue of Sex has been a theme of debate, many questions come to fore and varying answers are provided to it. Such questions no doubt get different responses.

However, by virtue of being a Peer Educator courtesy of the UNILAG ANTI AIDS CLUB, I have been educated on certain issues that relates to Sex as well as the sexually transmitted Infections; being a member of THE UNILAG PRESS CLUB makes this medium suitable to educate my peers and colleagues.

Who is a peer Educator? A Peer Educator is someone who enlightens people who are of the same age group or status on issues that concern them. This is what I intend to do in this article. 

With the kind of exposure that has surfaced on the psyche of young people today and the misconceptions that have come with it, it may be quite difficult to convince young people not to have sex till marriage. However, I intend to focus more on putting in place mechanisms that will enhance attitudes and behaviours that will bring about responsible characters in relation to sex. This is one of the ways I intend to serve Humanity.

The attitude and Behaviour earlier referred to, will stem out of certain values that comports with the overall well-being of the society. When this is gotten right, it becomes easier to relate it to issues about sex. The starting point of such values is helping young people understand who they really are.

It may well be said that people love to hang on to certain beliefs however; pretence takes over when people try to put in place the values they put in for sex. The objective of a peer Educator is about giving the right knowledge and tips on precautions that need to be taken to avoid sexually transmitted infections.

It is important to note that the greatest challenge in our society is that we get to know about things late. As such, much damage might have been done even before an infection is discovered. The male reproductive organ has only one opening while the female reproductive organ has two. For an infection such as Gonorrhea, the male gets to know about it quickly because having eaten through the urethra by the virus, the male feels pain when he is about to urinate.

The female has a urethra which is meant only for that purpose so if she is infected with the virus, it may take a long time before it is discovered and this could have caused severe damage to the body and even destroy the womb. Based on this, it is very important that apart from the HIV status which some people try to check on regularly, there is also the need to have checks on Hepatitis B and C status. There are checks to be taken to avoid many more STIs. This I believe every young person should take serious.

HOW TO GET A JOB WITHOUT EXPERIENCE By Abdulsalam Amoo---@ibnamoo

The ‘tension headache’ of most graduates is getting a job. It becomes a ‘migraine headache’ when all the jobs you see require certain years of experience because “you actually need to work to get the experience”. How do you get a job without experience or how do you get the experience

without a job?

Here are 8 tips for getting that job of your dream with little or no experience for it:

1. Find your passions in life – Open up a spreadsheet on your computer (Google Docs, Excel, whatever), and start making a list of anything that you are passionate about. Mine would be something like: Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Video Games, Cooking, Web apps, Hip Hop, etc. We are trying to give ourselves some leads on where to take our research.

2. Start to research companies that are in an industry associated with your passion – Don’t worry about what your position would be OR if they have openings listed on their website just yet! Let’s just look for the companies that interest you. A good place to look is industry blogs, Google, or even curated lists like the Inc. 500 or 5000. Once you have your list of 10 to 12 companies, feel free to jot down the different types of jobs you might like to have at these companies. This next part is CRITICAL, write down what you like about the company. Even simple things that you notice can play a big part.

3. Create a LinkedIn account to research your potential boss – Go to Linkedin.com and open an account. When prompted, import that contacts that you feel you could connect with, from your email. There is a powerful network effect on LinkedIn that allows you to see more users/employees from companies through your connections. After that, start looking at the people that work for the companies you are researching. Look for your potential boss, co-workers, executives, and just the overall feel for the people that make up the culture of the company. From this research, you should be able to tell how you are connected, what similarities you have from work experience in the past, and other clues about recent changes at the company. Add the contacts that you find on LinkedIn, to the spreadsheet.

4. Prepare for and carry out a call to your future boss – With the information that you have collected; you are going to call your future boss to get this process started. This is best to do, before you send in your resume. The first thing to note is that this is a great way to set yourself apart from every other joker that submits a resume. Grab the information you got from your research and call the company. Mention who you are, why you like/are interested in the company, why you are calling that specific person, that you are thinking about your next career move, and ask what they look for in a team member. Use the information that you get and let them know that you are very interested in joining the team, if that is the case.

5. Ask for the next steps and push forward through the hiring process – When you end the conversation, ask if you can come into the office to chat about opportunities. This is a great time to share your resume if that is what they want next. So if they ask for the resume upfront, tell them you can come in to drop it off. From here, it’s business as usual when it comes to interviewing and hired. After that interaction, assuming it went well, you have separated yourself from the rest of the applicants. In the case of a company without a job posting, you probably don’t have any competition and despite what you might think, this is a highly successful way to look for jobs/network with companies you like. In some cases, they will create a job for you. Can you imagine telling your friends and family that your next job was created just for you?

6. Know your professional skills- Know what makes you different from the other person, what you like doing and what you do not like doing. Know the skills you possess which must have been reflected in your academic or extracurricular activities. They could be marketing, negotiating or leadership skills. If there is need to develop them, this is an opportunity to do just that.

7. Reflect your skills in your resume in a way that enhances them, not diminishes them- You have acquired a number of excellent skills. It is important you package them well in your CV. The content might be superb and the packaging not attractive. Make your content and packaging catchy. Put your skills, activities and achievements in an attractive way in your CV.

8. Acquire experience through internship programs and volunteer activities- Most graduates see their first few years in the labour market as the money making period. As such, they think of the salary rather than the experience. This is a faulty perception. See your first few years as the time to gain experience and improve on your skills. Take up voluntary jobs and internship programs paid or not. These would help you sharpen your skills.

TEN BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS TO AVOID By: Adeyemi Olalemi

As many of us would be trying to cope with the academic workload that January and February bring in the semester, it is very imperative that we take cognizance of the habits that could hinder our academic progress this time, knowing fully well that the brain must be in good condition for the mind to function well.

According to World Health Organization, the following are habits that will damage your brain severely:

1. No Breakfast – People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain, causing brain degeneration.

2. Overreacting – It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking – It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption – Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients, causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution – The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation – Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping – Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon IV oxide and decreases concentration of oxygen that may have brain-damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness – Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts – Thinking is the best way to train our brain. Lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely – Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

It is widely believed that the greatest father of science, Albert Einstein used 9.8% of his brain while most us uses just 3 to 4% and you know his great works are evergreen. Therefore, make effort to avoid some of these habits and put your brain in good condition for the big task that lies ahead. The world awaits you.

WHY THE RIVERS NO LONGER CRY By Arikewuyo Yusuf

The most anticipated and recordable success of the twenty-first century is the emergence of the World’s fastest global market inter-link called the “internet.’’ The African culture no longer takes credence, as to the proper uplifting of the moral values, etiquette and social norms. It has become a far cry from what the norms ought to be.

Values have been neglected and ignored for the exchange of a few Naira. Though quantity may vary, man is faced with so many agonies. There are those he can solve and those he can’t. The story begins to take a new dimension, all in the name of socialization.

Those days of moon light tales have been replaced by the emergence of the PlayStation. The child no longer knows the values portrayed as good by the society. The family system now operates on a social network for communication. The child now has a “virtual daddy” and an ever “busy mummy.” Thus, the family name has no value. Gone are those days the name speaks volume. It is now the issue of a sudden occurrence to share the family name.

Reputation is fast losing its place in the modern Nigerian society, all in the name of technology. Moral values are fast depreciating. The rivers no longer cry because the tears have reached their limits. The Nigerian child no longer speaks his native dialect all in the name of it being too barbaric or not being westernized.

Cultural values are dying. The animal in man is fast being awakened. Grandma(s) and grandpa(s) who pay a visit to their offspring’s house are confronted with the grandchild’s new mode of greeting via extension of hands all in the name cultural integration. The grandparents have no choice. 

Their screams on the child’s behavior only earns them the tag ‘locals’. The cultural values are far gone and nobody is salvaging the situation.

King Sunny Ade, the Yoruba music legend will always be remembered for his value stimulating song: ekilo fomo ode. Asa, the award winning musician made this clarion call in “there is fire on the mountain” yet, nobody is running.