2023: Don’t succumb to manipulation, Babcock VC warns journalists
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
As the political campaign towards 2023 general elections rev up, the Vice Chancellor of Babcock University, Ilisan Remo, Prof Ademola Stephen Tayo has warned journalists to be wary of those politician hell-bent on manipulating them for pecuniary gain as this would only be drawing back the progress of the country.
Prof Ademola Tayo said that at this critical time the journalists will be doing the country and the noble journalism profession a lot of good by sticking to the core tenet of truth, objectivity, fairness integrity among others all of which are hallmarks of responsible journalism
The Vice Chancellor disclosed this while speaking at a dinner held at the Guest House of the university to appreciate the journalists for their invaluable roles in the society and support for the continued growth and development of the institution.
The Vice Chancellor said as preparation for the 2023 general elections gathers momentum, journalists as key stakeholders must continue to foster transparency and information sharing, and of course, facilitate political discourse that could help the public to make informed choice when voting next year among others.
He urged them to steer clear of fake news, half truth, hate speech all of which are good recipe for violence during elections.
The Vice Chancellor said the essence of the dinner was purely to appreciate Journalists for doing so much sacrifices, sometimes putting their lives on the line in a bid to have a better society urging them to redouble their efforts and keep lifting higher the banner of factual journalism.
He said the university has continued to blaze the trail with its culture of academic excellence, strong character and excellent service delivery as this has continued to put the Adventist Church owned university on global rating.
Reeling out some recent achievements of the university, Prof Tayo said the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria has increased the university’s intakes for Nursing from 70 to 150 students while its intakes for Medicine too had been upgraded from 100 to 120 students.
Aside having 44 accredited undergraduate programmes, with addition of two new Schools of Engineering and Environmental Sciences, six of the university’s students who finished recently from the Law School came out with First Class.
He said as part of the university’s contributions to stemming the tide of medical tourism which cost the country over N100bn annually, its teaching hospital has performed over 959 open heart surgeries at its Cardiac Centre with several total knee replacement and spinal surgeries.
The VC added that university teaching hospital in the outgoing year recorded first successful bilateral total knee replacement surgery on a 65-year old female patient. The woman was said to have had severe knee osteoarthritis on both legs but was successfully operated upon and discharged.
Prof Tayo explained further that the university is about to join the league of global institutions to replace butane with methane bio gas as cooking fuel as it puts finishing touches on the biogas project.
The VC said the second phase of the project which is to connect the pipes from the sewage to the bio-digester is at advanced level and the effluence from the breakdown of the bio-digester will be used as fertilizer while the gas will be used for cooking.
This project, according to the Vice Chancellor will be one of the biggest energy savers and wealth creation strategies for the university and this is said to be in line with the UN sustainable development goals.
