So you just gain admission after all the stress of JAMB, O’level, result and co, and fortunate they gave you your desired course of study, that is a good one, congratulations.
And for those who were are not lucky enough to have their desired courses granted, it is not the end of the world, you may end up liking the field that you have been offered eventually, so don’t relax. Today, I want to share something I believe will help a lot of young people out there who just gained admission into various tertiary institution, some of the things i am about to share will be of great help to you, they will guide you through the years of your program as an undergraduate, so kindly pay attention till the end, even though the title and content of this article will focus more on Lautech students, it is still very much applicable to students of other Nigerian Universities, polytechnics and college of Education.
Some of these things are practical Experiences that I had many years ago, while on Campus, and i will not hesitate to share them with you in practical terms.
5 Things to Take note as a new Lautech Student;
- Focus on Academics First: The honest truth remains, you will encounter all manner of people in School, you will meet various categories of people, and if you are not careful, you will be both confused and misled. The first year in school is always tough for many people basically because of distractions left and right, a lot of things trying to get your attention, making it difficult to be focus, my honest advice is, be deliberate about your focus, choose to remain focus, don’t be easily distracted, let your lectures, assignment, departmental responsibility be your priority, when you are focused, you will not be lost.
Always remind yourself why you left home for School, is academics, nothing else; even though as a student, you are bound to encounter so many things, pressures, challenges and all that will surely come, but let your focus and priority be on your academics, and the easiest way to achieve this is to stay close to friends and mates who are serious minded, you will see people who are academically driven like you too, stay glued to them, they will help you maintain your focus and not be distracted.
Enroll for every necessary lessons, tutorials to help you establish profound academic knowledge in your field of study, the major reason is because, as a fresher you are still equipped with time, zeal and energy to make things happen, when you get to 300L, 400L, you will not have those zeal any more, as a matter of fact, you may not really care about your academic performance again, so this is the time to build the right foundation ahead of your career, build network of serious minded people.
- Avoid Stress by all means: This is another challenge you are probably going to face, stress of all manner, ranging from academic stress of going from class to class, from one lecture hall to another, from one department to another, filling your clearance form, making bank payments for departmental dues, to filling your health profile at lautech health center and other things. Another very disgusting stress zone is ATM machine, thank God for the invention of Point of sales (POS) that reduces that stress now, during my own tenure there was no POS, 100 Students can gather at one ATM Machine to withdraw at the same time, it can be so frustrating and so disgusting, you will also experience stress of reading and cooking, for those who came from humble background, there might be time when you will go broke because your parents don’t have money to send to you at the moment.
Some of these stress can be so overwhelming, another major stress is; low capacity lecture hall and intense student population, that causes excess heat than most people can bear, I remember those early days in 100L, we do have students faint, and collapse, most of the time, they rush them to the health center to revive them, all these and more are due to stress, my advise for new student is, don’t kill yourself, you need sound Health to be able to study successfully, you can not do anything without being in health, don’t break down before you rest, it may be too late.
- Be planted in a Church: I can not over emphasize this, Ogbomosho is not an ordinary place o, which am sure applies to various locations across the world. Don’t miss out in prayers, there are spiritual warfare going on, the earlier you know this, the better for you, you must not loose guard, be at alert always, be sensitive, be planted in the church, this is the only way to remain ever strong.
You need fellowship with God to keep you strong enough till the end of the journey, you need to stay close to God always and the only available avenue to this path, is the church or campus fellowship, they are built for your edification, fortification and spiritual development, some of your fellow students in campus and hostel are not ordinary, you cannot afford to be ordinary too.
Some people get to school and start nursing all manner of sickness and diseases that they don’t have before, simply because they jam an higher power or force that they cannot conquer, if you are planted in the church early, your prayer life will be intact by the virtue of the various activities going on, this will help you to stay above principalities and powers, also staying in Church will help you to know the ways of God, grow in your love for God and be useful for the purpose of Kingdom advancement, you will not live your life for yourself only, God is a rewarder of those that seeks him diligently, you may not have an idea of your church yet, but as you find your way to God through a church, you will begin to learn how to hear from God and develop your spirit man, which will go a long way to help you in Destiny.
- Be Careful of your Friends: If there is one prayer, I’d pray for you, is that God will surround you with the right sets of people, you will not be captured in the wrong association, this wrong association thing has rupture people’s destiny in no small way, it has destroyed so many people and even caused some people to dropout of school, the most terrible aspect is, some people died in the cause of their program because of wrong association.
The saying “Show me your friend and i will tell you whom you are” is very true and applicable here, if you see that you have a friend who is driving expensive Cars, always moving around with ladies and he is even giving you money to support you, but you don’t know his source of wealth, or the Business he is doing, please disconnect, before its too late, there was a time last year, that EFCC hit Ogbomosho and went into many hostels, arrested students with Laptop, both those who are into Yahoo Yahoo, internet fraud and those who are not, all of them were arrested, it was a very serious situation then, some ladies who went to spend the night with their boyfriend were also arrested together, so you need to be very careful, and that is why I talked about been planted in a church, it will help you in no small way, it will guide your decision making, your actions and help you to be led by the Spirit always.
Over the years, Lautech has been known for Internet Fraud, infact, there was a time, that undergraduate who intend to start yahoo plus will process Lautech for admission for the sole purpose of getting along with those who are into it over there, the intensity has reduced now, unlike before, but what I’m trying to say is, it has make Lautech to be under the watch list of EFCC and other law enforcement agency, it is therefore, very important that you focus on what brought you to school, so that you can redeem time and rescue your destiny from destruction.
Now, I know there are many people who went to lautech and came up with a lot of useful Tech startup that are relevant to the society, academic and Business world, no doubt lautech is a good ground for technology development and startup, but at the same time, there is a serious mixture of the right and wrong, so you must shine your eyes so as to be positively influenced and not the other way round.
In the cause of avoiding wrong friends and association, it also applies to your relationship, don’t date someone whom you don’t really know, don’t fall in love with someone you can not vouch for, his personality, the nature of his Business and other necessary things, it is in Lautech you will hear about a yahoo boy use his girlfriend for rituals, a lot of those ladies who are hungry for free things, money and co, fall victim of this issue severely, don’t be carried away with freebies, your destiny is more important than freebies, there are those who use their friends for rituals, and all manner of wicked work, so shine your eyes while you are on campus and make friend of Godly people.
Even in your dressing, let your dressing present you as a child of God, let your appearance tell the world whom you are, and whom you represent. That is why you need to be spiritual, embrace the knowledge of God, let it be the foundation for your life, it will rescue you from the onslaught of darkness and traps of the enemy.
- Avoid Night Club, Parties, Politics : This is yet another temptation you will face, there will be departmental night, night clubs, strippers and all, and most of them are always with gate fee for guys and free for ladies, don’t be fooled, don’t sell you destiny in a hurry. God is taking you somewhere, you will not miss it in Jesus name.
Remember we talked about the stress, the distractions that you will face, most of them are in this nightclub thing. Ladies are always the vulnerable ones, because they are broke, someone is willing to offer free money for their body, and from there many sell off their destiny so cheaply, I pray you won’t lose your destiny in Jesus name.
You must also be careful of some offers within the school system, like class rep, departmental president, Student Union President, (I’m not against political careers, for those of us who wish to function in that line, it is not bad) but you must sit down and count the cost, if it won’t be too difficult for you to bear, if you have not been able to meet up with your academic duties, then, those position are not meant for you, they are highly responsibility driven, they place you on a very huge task, you may not have time to attend lectures again, you may have to travel to represent your school at times, you will be very busy and occupied that you do not have time for yourself, and this might affect your academic stand, most of people that want you to join a political party or system in school will not tell you these things am saying. Because , it is the truth and it may discourage you.
But whatever you want to do in life, you must count the cost first and be sure you are capable of it.
I have seen students who had to go fetish and occultism because of the political position, this is not worth it, some also do that just to get themselves equipped and secured, this is not worth it, you are too young to be exposed to certain things at this age.
The bible says, Wisdom is profitable to direct, don’t get yourself into anything that will cause an obstruction to your journey, I pray that God grant you wisdom and understanding in Jesus name.
I wish you the best of luck in your academic and career pursuit.
Written by Matthew Jide, a Lautech Alumni.
Thank you very much God bless you