Ogbafemi: Where Ambition Meets Identity Through Different Organizations

               Adedeji Fawas

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is undoubtedly a hub of learning where students  are being over pampered with academic excellence. It's indeed a great citadel of learning where culture is the fulcrum of intellectual pride and prowess. Apparently, “African Most Campus (Ogbafemi),” as fondly called, is the only climactic epiphany where many students can actualize their focused dreams, and an avenue of creating a unique personhood or self-identity capable of giving expression to life.

 Student organizations however, are platforms where students engage in a simulacrum of educational co-curricular, preparing them to keep their ambitions in ambience— “self-discovery begets self-made.” This implies that dabbling in these extracurricular activities on campus, affords the students an assurance of a better tomorrow. 

Ideally, “it is the nature of human beings in the modern world to scheme and aspire.” This foregrounds the empirical fact that for someone to make meaning in this contemporary world, one must optimize tactics to sustain a meaningful existence. The bottom line is that belonging to any student organization paves the way for OAU students to experiment with life. Although the extra-curricular activities enlisted below might be a game of number plus network, it is indubitably a gateway to survival.

 Association of Campus Journalists, Obafemi Awolowo University (ACJOAU)

The Association of Campus Journalists, Obafemi Awolowo University (ACJ-OAU), is the oldest campus-based media outlet in Nigeria, founded in 1963, and it is at the front line of student organizations on OAU campus till date. It is the mother-body of all campus news agencies  with the purpose of  gathering, verifying, creating,  dissemination of news and information for the purpose of public consumption.

Several news agencies subsumed under this body include The ICONS Organization, Great Ife Network (GIN),  Nasels Communication Bureau (NCB), InFocus News Agency, among others.

Journalism as a calling is a profession grounded in intellect, observation, empathy, and courage. According to Walter Cronkite, “Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.” This foregrounds the fact that journalism is not only a profession but, also, a public trust. In a nutshell, ACJ-OAU propagates her impulsive members through intermittent professional awareness programmes such as conferences, seminars, webinars, etc so as to navigate the journalism space. In journalism, the only popular aphorism is that “professionalism is nurtured by experience— ‘experience teaches,” ACJOAU prepares its members for becoming a professional journalist.

 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANAOAU)

The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA-OAU) is a literary movement of creative minds on OAU campus, with  the purpose of developing and redefining budding artists. It is a platform where celebration of the language of today’s artists through books, music, painting, and performance, is sacrosanct and inner’s ego sanctum of young litterate is cracked. 

ANAOAU is predominantly helpful to the creative world through literature. It is a community of book minds, artistes, and art lovers on OAU Campus. The organization proffers and lays the groundwork for students who are enthusiastically inventive in their artistic expressions.

OAU Equity Chambers 

 The Quintessential Equity Chambers established in 1987, is the foremost and prominent chamber in the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, with the goal to train and promote a new generation of intellectual and excellent cub lawyers.

This student organization has produced distinguished and leading legal professionals in Nigeria and diaspora. Equally, the chamber organizes moot and mock competitions, debate competitions, as well as public speaking training for their members. Therefore, every law student in the university should determine to associate themselves with this life-changing organization.

 Rotaract Club

The Rotaract Club is a rotary-sponsored organization meant for bringing together young adults (18+) to take action in their communities and global status, to develop their leadership and professional skills. And this is usually done while networking and engaging in funfair. One of the benefits of joining the Rotaract Club is that it serves as a platform for idea exchange with the leaders of communities, to foster administrative and professional skills, and have amusement through community service. 

Moreso, the purpose is to provide an opportunity for young men to enhance knowledge and skills that will secure them in personal development.

LEO Club

Just like the Rotaract Club, the LEO Club is a youth organization sponsored by the Lions Club International, focused on developing leadership skills, gaining experience, and seizing opportunities for community service, with members aged 12-30. 

The motto, “Leadership, Experience, Opportunity” with two tracks; Alpha (12-18) for personal development and Omega (18-30) for professional growth, uniting young people in service and friendship globally. 

The Leo Club, by implication, emphasizes respect for the rights of others, to promote ethical standards and the dignity of all useful occupations; to provide opportunity for the community in cooperation with sponsoring Rotary Clubs and to influence young people for eventual membership in Rotary.