SIFE OAU AND THE JOURNEY

SIFE OAU AND THE JOURNEY TO NEW YORK CITY: THE FULL STORY

About SIFE
Students in Free Enterprise is a global student organization involving students in over 1400 university campuses from over 45 countries of the world. These students form student teams that conceive and develop community outreach projects based on market economics, success skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and business ethics.
SIFE is a partnership between the business world and higher institutions challenging students to apply their classroom knowledge to solving real life economic problems and in the process creating a new set of entrepreneurs and leaders poised to positively change the world in a way yet to be imagined.
In the spirit of best practice sharing, competitions are organized at the regional, national and international levels where teams showcase the summary of their projects and the team judged to have carried out the most impacting project is declared the winner.

SIFE in Nigeria
SIFE started operations in Nigeria in the year 2000 and has since been waxing stronger and stronger with the overall impact being; the execution of 96 community projects, coverage of 16 states, involvement of over 500 students from more than 20 university campuses and a total of 67,234 project hours invested.

2006 SIFE Nigeria National Competition
The 2006 SIFE Nigeria National Competition took place at the Golden Gate Hotel in Lagos where a total of six schools competed. The Schools are the University of Uyo, Kaduna Polytechnic, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Agriculture Markurdi and Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko. At the end of it all, Kaduna Polytechnic emerged the winner and the first team to win the National championship a record 3 times back to back. The win gave them the ticket to represent Nigeria in France for the 2006 SIFE WORLD CUP. The first runner-up was the SIFE team from the University of Uyo while the second-runner up was the Obafemi Awolowo University (Great Ife). The result was a slap on the face of the leading Information Communication Technology (ICT) university in Nigeria housed in one of the top 15 estates in the universe. That result marked the turning point in the history of SIFE Nigeria as a world class SIFE team was about to be born.

Re-organisation
Shortly after the 2006 SIFE Nigeria National Competition, a change of leadership was effected due to the graduation of some of the former members from the school. The baton of leadership was passed to Ahmed Razaq, a bright student Economist from the Faculty of Social Sciences. Ahmed demonstrated that he is not only a genius in the academic world but also in real-life management as he embarked on massive re-organization of the team. Together with able hands as executives, membership of the team was opened up to include students from other faculties such as the Faculty of Technology, Agriculture, Health Sciences and Environmental Design and Management. Membership considerations were based on special skills and in line with the pressing needs of the team.

Project conception
The re-organised team highly spirited and envisioned to unleashing endless possibilities sat down to critically analyse the existing projects determining how effectively they met the judging criteria. At the end of very intensive brainstorming sessions, innovative project concepts came up which includes; Building Enterprise Experience (BEE), Saving to be Safe (STBS), Peace Harmony and Socio Economic Orientation (PHASE O), Web Wisdom and Wealth (WWW), e-farming, Literacy in Investment and Financial Empowerment (LIFE). Specific target groups cutting across the different sections of our society were identified for the projects and willing partners identified.

SIFE Leadership Conference in Lokoja
A leadership Conference organized by the SIFE Nigeria bringing all SIFE teams from 25 universities together at the Confluence Beach Hotel provided a unique opportunity for the organizers to see a brand new SIFE OAU team delivering a presentation the like of which has never been witnessed before in Nigeria.
Majority of the guests had to exchange cards with the team members, but that was a little taste of what they are yet to see, as the team gradually moulds itself.
When the team got back to the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) campus, the school has been closed down, marking the beginning of a 4 month’s break in academic activities. While many of the other students went home to the comfort of their homes, the SIFE OAU team stayed back, camped in the 2 homes of their amiable Faculty advisors. They went back to the drawing board, re-planned and re-strategized. Field works of the projects were concluded, impacts measured and the design of the visuals and report started steadily. It was the setting of the stage for what was to happen at the First Round competitions in Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on May 22, 2007.

First Round Competitions
On May 22, 2007 over 400 students from 20 universities and 38 top executives of leading companies converged at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja for the First Round Competition of SIFE Nigeria. The Schools were drawn into 4 Leagues of 5 schools each. Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Abuja, Federal Polytechnic Offa, Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) and Kogi State University (KSU) were drawn into the Interswitch League. Federal Polytechnic Offa opened the floor with their presentation, followed by KSU and TASUED. The fourth presenting school, University of Abuja proved they were first class motivational speakers with Tarfa as their lead presenter, but they were no match for the charismatic SIFE OAU team. The OAU team was just too overwhelming in all aspects of presentation, visuals; verbal; report and even the pose and composure on stage. Other schools had to congratulate the OAU team immediately after that superb presentation as the league winners, even before the result came out officially.

The Epic Final
Uncertainties surrounded the date of the Final Round competition mainly due to the Labour strike, such that the date was changed twice. When the final date was eventually announced, it came with a big surprise – the OAU examinations.
Members of the team received the new date with mixed feelings as it clashed with the OAU examinations that was suspended four months earlier. Even at that, what most people were unaware of is the fact that the OAU SIFE “brand” can take up any chanllenge. With members dusting up the books they dumped 4 months back, yet they prepared for the Epic showdown, making a few changes in the process.
The Muson Centre Onikan Lagos has only witnessed few of such massive corporate programmes as it witnessed on July 13, 2007. The SIFE team from the University of Uyo led other teams in the presentation as they presented to a panel of 25 judges drawn from leading companies and organizations in Nigeria. University of Agriculture Makurdi team followed suit with OAU SIFE team and Ahmadu Bello University SIFE team presenting third and fourth respectively. When the time for the awards came, the OAU team was simply unstoppable as they carted away all the available awards including; Best Faculty of the Year award, the Coca Cola Africa Foundation Entrepreneurship award and a lot of individual awards for the team members.
Oh! The SIFE Nigeria National champion award? Of course, it can only go to the team that revolutionalised SIFE presentations in Nigeria – the team from Great Ife. Everything stood still for a second and exploded the next second as the first runner-up ABU SIFE team was called. It is a pity they missed New York, but were they as good as the OAU SIFE team?

“Success comes as a result of strong dedication to a cause, commitment and the will to succeed despite all odds”

See you all in New York come October

Thanks for reading.