By Bose Adelaja

_IT came as a pleasant surprise to most of them. Indeed many students of the Lagos State University, LASU, still have cause to cherish the event of Thursday July 10, 2014, which took place in the school campus.

LASU Students

It was an event that evoked much joy, prompting them to compose and sing songs of appreciation after about 200 of them went home with scholarship awards and other gift items.

One of the beneficiaries, a 300-level student of Accounting, Oluwafemi Okunleye, was full of praises for the gesture. So was Lawal Omoniyi, who inspired his fellow students to embrace the entrepreneurial path early in life. According to him: “Nobody owes us a job after graduating. It is up to us to create the future we really want and one thought-provoking seminar like this is enough to change people’s lives”.

Recently, the students were engaged in a prolonged face-off with the state government over astronomical school fees before government eventually bowed to public opinion to reduce the fees.

Last Thursday, a non-governmental organisation, “Life Can Be Greater”, visited the students with the message: “Life can indeed be greater and better without government by proffering practical solutions to everyday problems.”

During the first few minutes of the event which took place at the Faculty hall of Social Sciences, some of the students were immediately rewarded with a N20,000 cheque after participated in a game which entailed looking under their seats and pulling out brown envelopes tightly sealed underneath.

While some on opening their envelopes burst out in ecstatic exclamation, others hissed in disappointment as they read out the words printed on the cards: ‘Better luck next time’. There were rapturous screams from various parts of the hall as others proudly waved their prizes which will certainly go a long way in helping them pay their tuition fees.

During one of the sessions, several pertinent issues directly affecting students were thrown up. Among these were worrisome trend of students dropping out of school in large numbers every year because of high tuition, inadequate funding of education, insecurity problems, incessant disruption of academic calendar owing to ASUU strike, and absence of accommodation for LASU students.

Some of the participants said they were challenged to think creatively and proffer solutions to everyday problems in their communities. A marketing executive and Public Relations Director of LCBG, Mr. Derin Olukayode, said the organisation proffers solutions to societal issues on a small scale and galvanises citizens to push for their implementation on a wider scale.

“There are little things we can do to make life better for ourselves and the next person and that is what we want to inculcate into the students. Life indeed is hard, schools fees are high, but life can be greater if we focus our minds on solving those little things that make the country and ourselves greater,” he said.

“LCBG is here to let you know there is hope. If I have learnt anything in life, it is the power of hope and the power of one person to change the world by giving people hope. Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela, Obama and even the young girl from Pakistan, Malala are examples of the power of what one person can achieve,” he said.

The president of LASU Students’ Union, Comrade Nurudeen Yusuf, popularly known as Optimist, was also full of praise for the LCBG team for bringing such huge relief to students through the programme.

“When it began, just like the Nigerian thing, we never thought it could come to reality, but as an optimist, I was hoping something good would come out of it, but not in this fashion. We are happy as student union leaders, because we did not only fight for the reduction of the tuition fees, but we fought for cushioning the effect o f the new fees for our students.

“We look forward to more rewarding cooperation with the LCBG team. We believe there can be greater life in LASU, in Lagos, and even in our country. As a student body, we have the vision of launching a students endowment fund where we can dip our hands into some millions of Naira and give to indigent students. With this, the public will have more confidence in us and even support the project.”

As the event ended, there was a palpable air of inspiration. The students filed out with a controlled entropy, and unable to mask the euphoria, the winners lined back to redeem their prizes. The Life Can Be Greater team promised that this was only the beginning. They emphasised that almost every aspect of life in this country had major issues, most of which they truly believe can be solved with simple solutions from individuals. In the very near future, they intend to launch a solutions session.