IAUOE Set For Maximum Impact In Sports

The Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, IAUOE, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt is set for a new impact in sports competitions and activities as a new vision sweeps across the campus.
A new reawakening began at the university penultimate Saturday when the entire community effectively participated in what was tagged walking for Health Exercise, that saw staff and students walk from the campus to the St. John’s Catholic Church area and back to the campus.
Speaking at the end of the exercise, which was led by him, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele said that the exercise was a sports flag off and work out as an entry point to key into sports by the university.
According to him, knowing the relevance of sports to good health and as an enterprise, his administration sees sports as a veritable tool that would not only lift the community healthwise, but open up income earning opportunities for the school and student athletes.
“I want to see sports as a very big enterprise, it is going to be very competitive and we are going to focus on different types of sports, especially where we have comparative advantage to launch the university among the comity of schools that take pride in sports excellence”, said the vice  chancellor.
Already, Professor Mekuri has tasked the school’s sports director in liaison with the coach to commence competitions among faculties and departments, which is aimed at identifying and training talents that will fly the schools’ flag in external competitions.
The new vision has seen the introduction of lecture free period every Wednesday to ensure effective participation in sports by students and lecturers, while efforts are on to see that students who are involved in sports, especially during competitions do not suffer academically.
The Vice Chancellor further promised to make the school one of the leading universities in sports in Nigeria in a few years. The first step of which he said would be sending his officials to Bayelsa and Makurdi this year to learn first hand how Nigerian University Games, NUGA, is organised and run.
When reminded that University of Port Harcourt has been a dominant force in the field, the VC said, “Luckily, I know the secret of UNIPORT, I am from there. We want to bring the magic of UNIPORT in sports to IAUOE”.