Precisely on Monday 23rd 2012, my telephone rang, low and behold it was from an academic icon, the most distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Rev. Fr. Jerome Okonkwo, popularly called “Okeosisi’’. I was most excited when I lent he will be delivering the 6th inaugural lecture of theImoStateUniversity. I was highly enthused as I sat at the refurbished audition of the university. I marveled at what a creative mind can offer humanity. The Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor B.E.B Nwoko has turned the auditorium in conjunction with the Fine Arts Department into a haven, I was pleasantly surprised.
As I sat engrossed and savouring the well researched lecture “Okwu dapu ha onu’’ I felt with notstalgia what politics has denied me this past five years. It was a new awakening.
I never felt so good with myself for a long time as Rev. Fr Jerome Okonkwo took us through the philosophy of language using the “word’’ (Okwu) as a launch pad. I was once more reminded of what a university ought to be, a place of excellence, a place of deep thought and truly reasoned views. It is the only place that can truly find a person “worthy in character and in learning’’. The university like the church is a place where those associated with it are considered as persons of finest character, well horned and polished. It is a serious minded institution in which only the best of the best are found. It is not a place for misfits and noise makers. It is not political institution were the qualification to participate is the capacity to rake maximum havoc, through violence, blackmail and propaganda.
At the end of the lecture as I drove round the university to further savour and fully digest the lecture, it was a rude shock and I was catapulted immediate back to reality, as I was contracted by the near lack of infrastructure. The university lacks the most basic facilities. The yard sticks for a conducive learning environment are lacking. The roads have been washed away by erosion, and are over grown with weeds and basic sanitation is lacking. I sighed as I murmured to myself “What a contrast with the quality of the lecture’’
ImoStateUniversityno doubt has one the best academic staff inNigeria. Most professors of the university left various prestigious Universities inNigeriaand abroad out of patriotism and returned home’’ to help nurture a new generation of great Imo Sons and Daughters’. We forget easily that theImoUniversitywas once rated by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as the bestStateUniversityinNigeriaand the ninth of all the Universities inNigeria. How times change.
I was in this near dream situation when a vender flashed Newspapers at me. There was this bold caption that caught my attention “Imo State University relocated to Owerri zone”. According to the newspaper, the Governor had in a broadcast to Imo people announced the relocation or should I say the re-relocation of Imo University from Ogboko his home town, back to Owerri zone. The Newspaper further reported the governor; as having announced that the University will now be relocated to any Local Government in Owerri zone that provides land.
It was a big set back for me after such an enriching lecture. My sense of fulfillment was shattered by, this news which sounds like a story line from a Charlie Chaplin movie.
Since then my mind, brain and thoughts, have been in a tomoil. There are so many question my little brain has not been able to comprehend.
The first of the question is this: was the University ever relocated from Owerri to Ogboko in Ideato in the first place? If it was, how? Was the act of the Imo State House of Assembly establishing the university amended?. If there was no amendment, did the Governor have the power to verbally relocate the University? If indeed he has the power as an “emperor’’ wouldn`t he deny it
was the case with the dissolution of Local Governments when he was challenged in court. It is on record that construction work has reached advanced stage at the university at Ogboko. Now, here is the real question. What has been source of Funding the University at Ogboko so far? If it was originally meant to be anImoStateUniversitythen it follows that the land had been acquired by the Imo State Government and compensation paid to the land owners using state funds. It also follows that the building has been funded by theImoStategovernment
Assuming that the above scenario is true, now that theOgbokoUniversityis to be known asImoEuropeanUniversity(whatever that means and I think University administration should be distanced from comedy), is it still a university to be owned by the Imo State Government, or is it now a new private university? If it is now a private university, what of the state funds used in building it when it was to house theImoStateUniversity?
On the other hand, if abinito it was privately funded which means originally it was being conceptualized as a private university by the owners, why were Imo people meant to believe that it was the site forImoUniversity.
Questions. question. Someone please come to my aid, I confused.
I dare posit that decent minds and products of proper university education will further ask what the role of the management and senate of Imo State University was in this would have been Imo University at Ogboko?
What faculties were been constructed, what role did the Senate and Governing Council play (Italy) in the construction?
Am aware that theImoStateUniversityhas a faculty of Architecture. Did they execute the design and drawings for theOgbokoUniversity?
While waiting for answers to these puzzling questions, I must say am further scandalized by the request on Owerri people to provide land for the newImoStateUniversitypermanent site. Is the governor not aware that the issue of a permanent site for the university is a settled matter?
Let’s say for personal reasons the Governor does not like the Mbaise/Ngor Okpalla site because the report of the panel set by Ikedi Ohakim had recommended that site, is he not also aware that an alternative site exist in Ogbaku, Mbaitolu Local Government Areas? Or is this a deliberate ploy to turn Owerri people against themselves? If the governor is not privy to these locations then that speaks volume of the quality of advice he gets from the Commissioner of Education who incidentally is from Owerri zone.
This brings me to the issue of the role being played by Owerri zone indigenes in this administration. Am aware that the main reason why a government chooses appointees from various local government areas and zones is to reflect the character, aspirations and wishes of the majority of the people in the polices of government.
Am at a loss as to why the Deputy Governor of Imo State Chief Jude Agbaso, a distinguished son of Owerri, Barr. Soronnadi Njoku, a man who made a name for himself as a law maker who never compromised on the interests of Ngor Okpalla have both maintained a ghostly silence on this matter. Am even more dumbfounded that the Commissioner of Education Mrs. Dozie and more so the erudite Prof. Fabian Osuji former Minister of Education now the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education have all kept mum on this issue which is most dear to Owerri zone.
For the avoidance of doubt since the time of late Sam Mbakwe no issue has united the people of Owerri zone more that the location ofImoUniversity. I recall that as a legislator during the Government of Sir Ikedi Ohakim this matter also came up. In spite of our cordial working relationship with Governor Ohakim, legislators of Owerri zone and all politicians irrespective of party affiliations worked hard to ensure that the university was not moved out of Owerri zone.
The silence of prominent APGA leaders in Owerri zone on this relocation saga has been noted in the big book of history and at the appropriate time Nde owere ga ju ajuju.
This brings me to the issue of loyalaJesuitUniversitybeing located at Ngor Okpala by our dear Governor, Chief Rochas Okoracha.
Every minion and dumb nosed idiot is aware that loyala Jesuits is an order of the Catholic Church committed to providing quality education inAfricaand elsewhere. We have been aware more than a year ago that the order had completed plans to site their first Africaa university in Ngor Okpalla, Imo state. One is therefore at a loss as to the involvement of the Imo State Government in a private university or is Loyola one of the three Universities the Governor said his administration will build inImoState.
I am of the considered opinion that all these noise are part of the well articulated programme to run down the state owned university in the interest of private Universities were some people may have more than a passing interest.
My take in all these is to advice the State Government to play less polities with education administration in Imo state. We are inducing a lot of high powered polities in the administration of educational in Imo state and our education system is the worse for it. Let’s face the facts, the State Government. like other State Governments in the country hardly has any funds left after payment of salaries. In spite of all the grandstanding, this Government cannot build a completely new and befitting campus for theStateUniversitynow or in the foreseeable future.
My honest and sincere advice is that at these austere times even in Europe andAmerica, let’s cut our size according to our cloths. The most reasonable thing to do today is to get intoImoStateUniversityat its presentlakeNwabelesite and upgrade the infracture already in existence.
Imo State University has all the manpower it requires, what it lacks are lecture halls, laboratories, academic offices a good network of roads, other required academic infrastructure and a clean conducive environment for learning and not a tower of Babel. A present less than 50% of the land pace is undeveloped. The argument that the university is in the city and therefore should be relocated is neither here nor there. Wherever it is located will sooner than later become a city, like most other universities both inNigeriaand overseas.
The current Acting Vice Chancellor has shown capacity to move the university forward. He has the trust and support of his colleagues including students and parents. What he needs are the working tools translated into proper funding and motivation. No media propaganda on relocation, free education, bursary awards and gift of pocket money to students can develop the University. These run contrary to the basic tenants of producing graduates who have been “found worthy in character and in learning’’.
Only God can truly rescueImoState
Ray Emeana
