“Why New Education University Is Unique”

Recently, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi signed the bill that has elevated Rivers State College of Education to University of Education, into law. For the fact that a lot of emphasis is placed on education, especially training and retraining of teachers in the state, The Tide Roundtable, a personality interview programme of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation invited the Acting VC of the new University of Education, Prof. Rosemund Dienye Green Osahogulu to throw more light on the new development.  She talked about the foundation, challenges, funding and many more issues facing the institution.

The excerpts. Read on, very fascinating.

Madam, how do you want the general public to know you?

My name is Rosemund Dienye Green Osa-Oghulu. I started life in the care of my parents who then were civil servants in Eastern Region of Nigeria. I did my primary and secondary schools there. After my Secondary school we needed to come back home after the Nigerian civil war and my parents decided we should start coming back, especially those of us who finished  by 1974. So when I came back my desire was to read medicine. Then we had College of Science and Technology (CST) and then we had  Advanced Teachers Training College (ATTC). CST offered me Medical Laboratory Technology. The ATTC offered me Chemistry/Biology combination but instead of taking up that Medical Laboratory Technology, I had this inkling that I needed to teach people and that is how I entered ATTC then they were at Orominike street Port Harcourt. From there we moved to main campus, Rumuolumeni.

We started the main campus before it became College of Education, St. John’s campus, as NCE students. When I finished my NCE, I proceeded to do my Youth Service because then as Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE) student you are moblised for NYSC. I was sent to Ogun State for my National Youth Service. When I came back I was able to secure admission at the University of Wales. I traveled out, finished my first degree, came back and fairly enough, I was employed as graduate Assistant into the Rivers State College of Education. And at that time, the state was into manpower development after the civil war so they picked those graduate assistants and they sent us off insisting that the scholarship should be within a Nigerian University. So I went to University of Jos and read my Masters degree. I came back to the College and continued teaching. When I had put in enough years, because for every year you are trained, you put in two years of service. I later went for my Phd, came back and remained in the system until I started getting positions, like the Head of my Department for Integrated Science, because I studied Integrated Science, Education. I became head for the first four years and was able to secure sabbatical leave appointment with the University of Port Harcourt. I went there in 1998 and finished after 12 months and came back in 1999. Upon return, they still put me back as the head of department (HOD). I was there till I was made the Dean, Faulty of Science Education and it was from that position that I became the Deputy Provost. I was a Deputy Provost for just three weeks, when I became the Acting Provost. And I was an Acting Provost for exactly 12 months before I become the Acting Vice Chancellor (AVC).

To get to that position you would say it is easy but it is not. But it’s something I am grateful to God Almighty because I was deprived a lot. I was to rise to the rank of a professor in 2003 but there was some academic politics and I was denied till 2006. Even I was to become the school’s Deputy Provost in 2004. I was also denied so at some point I was temtped to think I suffered all the denials, perhaps because I was a woman. But you can see that when the blessing starts coming, it would come in chains. Today I’am the Acting Vice Chancellor of Rivers State University of Education.

Can we know a little more of your family background?

My family background has been strong even though my dad is late. His name is Warisenibo Victor Piabo Dublin-Green of the Dublin-Green family in Bonny. We were eight of us as children but we lost five remaining three currently. My mum is alive but she went to Canada to visit my last sister and she is still there. she hasn’t come back. I am married to a Professor of Operations Research, Management Information system, Prof. Osa-Oghulu. We met in Rivers State here in the College of Education and we have six children.

As an academic how did you find the time to produce that number of children?

(Laughs). Well it depends on when you started getting serious. You have to learn to marry the two. If you make up your mind to be a career woman, you have to work hard towards it. And you find out most times we hardly sleep. Like yesterday, a job just came in and I left the office around 7.30pm, managed to get to the house around 8.30pm. And there was this job that came from Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Abuja and they needed to see me and I told them that we have left. On that same yesterday night we have to start a proposal writing. When it gets to this kind of duty I wake my husband up, because he is into management information system. He has been the British Council Adviser in Rivers State because he has been trained in that. Most times we stay awake. I remember when I was traveling to be an Associate Professor in 1998, I had my Toshiba Satelite laptop with me, and once I get to work he would never sleep again. So when you put in your best you would always get something good including six children.

How often do you stay in the house to take care of the family?

If I leave for work when I come back, I don’t go out again. And already my children are grown up and it is only the last one that is in secondary school, Jephtah, the rest can take care of themselves some are working, while the others are in the university.

It is often said that too much reading and high academic accomplishments scare male suitors. If your husband were not a Professor, would the marriage remain the same?

Why not? It depends on your career. You work hard to achieve the best in your career. While I am struggling hard to achieve the best, that even makes the fun. When I come home we discuss our jobs and we enjoy it. Any other man could have because it depends on the kind of person you are. Once you see your wife working hard even though that man is not hardworking he would be pushed to put in his best. But I would say, I am enjoying being married to a professor because most times we sit side by side, writing and discussing.

Madam your institution was recently elevated to the status of a University, how do you intend to confront the challenge?

It is indeed a big challenge. First and foremost the big one is getting a University license and we have started working on it. We have set up a Programmes Development Committee and all the Heads of Department have started developing their programmes because we don’t want to stick with the University of Ibadan programmes anymore. You know we were a College affiliated to the UniIbadan now as a full fledged University, we have to develop a programme and there must be something unique to us. Now if you look at what the Rivers State environment has, you’ll agree oil and gas is key, so we are now talking of Petroleum, Petrochemical Sciences and that is one thing we want to be unique of. So that as our students come we give them that liberal knowledge on Petroleum and Petrochemical because it is like, we in the Niger Delta are struggling over the resource control, while some of our children don’t even know what we are talking about. This Petroleum thing we are all scrambling for let them just have foundation knowledge so that they can discuss very well. And most times it is like our children don’t have the right skill to be employed into these companies. So we need to lay a foundation and give them the basic idea on Petroleum and Petrochemical so we want that to be a unique aspect of the university. And we have decided to include it in our General Studies (GS), which would run from year one to three so that all the students will have knowledge.

However, the biggest challenge we have now is for us to get the license because National University Commission  (NUC) would come back to see how far we are ready.

Currently do you have enough facilities to meet the challenges?

Yes we have what it takes to take-off because we are fortunate to have a professor who was there when Tai Solarin University of Education took off. You know they are the premiere even though we would have been the premiere if ours had started 15 years ago. So, he is with us but then he was a provost while there so when we recalled him to come and discuss, he said what you people have, Tai Solarin didn’t have it, 1/20; that was when they were made a University. And you know there own started as a pronouncement before the legislature came in but you know our own started with the legislature. So we can take off with what we have and we are comfortable with what we have to take-off but to meet up with the Global Standards we will need funding, we don’t intend to be a University of Education servicing only Rivers State, we should be open to the world and being open would also attract funding, from donor organizations from international agencies. Just the name that was declared last month and the time it was signed into law on 20th October by the Governor, we have started getting applications. Already UNICEF has called us, and UBEC which used to give us little jobs are coming in a full swing so it would attract funding from international agencies. Currently that is the only problem we have now in getting the license because NUC will do most of the jobs, they will equally come and conduct soil test based on the structures we intend to put up in the future, to see whether it can take it.

Like how much are we looking at?

Well you know we have three campuses. We have the main campus at Rumuolumeni, we have the Ndele Campus then we have the Rumukalagbor, St. John’s Campus. The Ndele campus has been neglected for a very long time. The structures are dilapidated, the hostels are really bad the same thing obtains in St. John’s campus. Our main campus you will see some of the structures looking good outside but inside is bad, including the hostels. So if you put everything together we may be talking about billions, say going to N3b to N4 billion which would give us a Senate building, Council Chambers and new classrooms because we intend to add new departments. For instance, at the Ndele campus there are about three new departments added, the same thing at St. John’s and main campus. So with what we have now, the existing department can survive but in the next five years these new departments will spring up with new structures.

Prof. earlier on you said you were denied your position several times how do you curb such internal hiccups now you are on top?

Let me tell you that all of us worked hard to get to this stage, including those who worked against us and today all of us are working together. You know we had a rally where all of us came together. In short we had a public forum and we had to mobilize the whole campus whether you are there or not we are now working together, everybody. And I like working as a family. When I was the Dean of Science – Education it was like a family unit. We were always doing things together. And a times we cook and bring to the faculty and we all eat together and that is the kind of atmosphere that I appreciate.

Madam you talked about the new departments you intend to introduce, how many departments do you have now and how many more would come in the next five years?

We have 26 departments now. We have introduced six more departments making it 32 and we intend to add some departments because the school subjects are sometimes increasing like we talk about population and family life to be infused into the curriculum and in future we may have these departments to take care of how to educate our children to manage their homes instead of having too many children.

Before the pronouncement when you were affiliated to the University of Ibadan, how much did that cost you?

Yes that affiliation was costing us almost N50 million a year. And it was difficult to pay and the only money we had was generated from fees and to pay we had to make sure we spend exigently so that we just don’t run into debt. We are not owing a kobo currently (laughs).

How long was the affiliation?

We became affiliated for degree programmes since 1981, that is about 27 years. But we were affiliated as a College of Education for NCE, before then. I think that started when ATTC started that  was when the College got affiliated to the University of Ibadan

Would you say the expenses started when you wanted a degree programme?

Well I met the N50 million. They were calculating based on the number of students and there was a period we had up to 11,000 and then school fees was about N5,000 per student. Then later it was increased to N10,000 per student. It is like every year the fees increase and then not only just paying the fees, we were paying them for supervision. You know the programme is theirs, we are running their programme. When we admit from year one to year four, we set the questions we take it to them to moderate, then they send back the moderated ones then they now agree on the date for the exams; they will come down and do the supervision, while we conduct the invigilation, when we finish, we would mark the scripts. After marking we would take the scripts to Ibadan. It’s Ibadan that would moderate, send back the scripts and we would compute results and we also approve it in our own academic board here we then make up corrections and parcel back to Ibadan. Ibadan will go through it and moderate, give us the date to come for the Joint Examiners Board Meeting. After we will bring back our results and converge for another joint meeting when we have finished and agreed we now take it back and present to the Senate. So you find out that these processes takes us about five months to conduct and it was affecting our students, delaying them from graduating at the normal time they would have graduated, even when they are supposed to be mobilised for Youth Service. And all that period they come for supervision they come with a team of not less than 10-15 persons we have to keep them in good hotels, feed them and provide them with allowances and you know the least that comes with the term is a Senior Lecturer and if they are staying for 10 days you know you have to take care of their upkeep for the 10 days, so you see how expensive it is.

Madam you mentioned that the new University would introduce courses on petrochemical? Is that not off your scope as a university of education?

Yes! For General studies (GS). Giving them just the background and basic foundation.

Like I said, we want to use that as a GS course so that we give all of them this liberal education on petroleum and petrochemical.

What new courses have you introduced?

We have introduced Environmental Science Education. Before we had Business Management but now we are going to have Educational Management. I know that Ndele Campus has three extra courses, St. Johns has one and the main campus has two. These total to about six.

Do you think it would be easy breaking that bond from the University of Ibadan considering what you have on ground now?

For now, our year two students currently are reopening this week. Our year two to year four for 2009, 2010 session are still University of Ibadan students because it was the university that did the admissions. So it is a gradual process you can’t just cut-off. And if I may further inform you, in 2004 when we had our convocation ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan turned to our Governor then, Sir Peter Odili and said, “this College is ripe to stand on its own”, then I was in Council representing Academic Board. And the Governor was too impressed because that year we graduated about 4,000 graduates and the Governor was saying there are some Universities that don’t even graduate up to 2,000. For a College to be graduating 4,000 he was very impressed. And actually we thought that was when our autonomy would have taken place. So we are not cutting off we have to tidy up, because we can’t start today and then graduate students immediately.

With the university status, these new intakes we are having now are our own because we are concerned fully with admission. The other ones, they influenced our admissions and they gave us conditions as to who and who to admit at one time we became stubborn and said No! We would admit our children because we found out that our children weren’t coming in as much.

Few years ago you started a master’s programme, do you think that with this elevation  you have all it takes to maintain it?

Of course. You crawl before you jump but I know that in the next few years they would come up.

Earlier, this year there were controversies surrounding the employment of staffers and one of your staff was indicted for employment racketerring. What is the situation now?

You know how that employment took place, there were no Due Process. Whatever happened I just came in on the 17th of November to inherit it. They were not interviewed, they were just collecting employment letters. I mean everybody knew about it, inshort it was a very big scandal and you don’t employ people that you can’t pay. The number of people employed at that time was about 1,243, which was beyond our capacity and vouch for their employment. There were a lot of others who were taking signatures of employment officials, When the racket was discovered by the chairman of Council we discovered that they were about 1,664. And the total workforce combining the three College campuses came to 1,019. So if you add 1,664. What do we do with them? I was even summoned when I was barely two weeks old on the sit, to come and bring the approval for that employment. Since there was no approval to that effect, the only thing to do was to terminate all such employment. That paved way for a Due Process, during which we can carry out proper interview. And immediately, their appointment were terminated in less than two weeks we advertised and those who thought they were qualified re-applied. And we got about 8,000 applications in the process and out of the 8,000 applications, we can only employ 319 but then we decided to give everybody a fair chance. If you are qualified for the position you applied, you are invited for interview. And the rest is left to you to defend your academic qualification.

As I am talking to you now, we are still collating. You can imagine a situation where we ended up interviewing 6,000 people it is not easy because we decided to give everybody a fair chance. Currently we are still collating and I assure you that we are going to appoint people basically by merit, if really we want the new University to stand.

What about the allegation that one of your staff was involved in the scandal, that she was collecting money from applicants?

One thing about our society is that when things happen to somebody or somebody gets involved in a scandal and there is a panel of inquiry, nobody could come out and tell us that he had money to get the job. So it became very difficult for us to ascertain the corruption involved. But we made sure that everybody that were involved in the process were effectively punished. Because to me I saw it as criminal.

What kind of punishment was meted out to them?

Some were demoted, some were posted out. We made sure the head person was demoted. The lady in question was demoted and for three years she can’t come in again for any promotion and she was posted out to Ndele campus secondary school over there.

To be contd.