A total number of 4,379 students graduated at the 43rd Convocation ceremony of the Ignatius Ajuru University (IAUE) on Saturday.

Of this number, 2,887 fell under Undergraduate category, out of which four bagged First Class Honours, 403 had Second Class Upper, 2,030 came off with Second Class Lower, while 450 had Third Class.

At the Post Graduate category, 374 persons had Post Graduate Diploma (PGD), 812 had Masters, and 306 had Ph.D.

The IAUE Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Okechuku Onuchuku, disclosed this on Saturday at the 43rd Convocation ceremony of the institution.

Prof. Onuchuku said that the theme of the convocation, “The University Culture In Practice: The IAUE Experience”, was deliberately picked to tell the story of what the institution stands for.

According to him, the theme “was deliberately chosen to emphasize the need for us to go beyond just academic accomplishment and embrace those cherished traditional and intellectual values for which great universities are known and celebrated.

“IAUE has come of age, and it’s a sign to prove to our stakeholders and development partners that this institution is moving in a positive direction as a proof of our maturity in all facets of academic and administrative activities.”

He highlighted various achievements recorded by the university under his leadership, including full accreditation of 48 out of 65 programmes at the undergraduate level by the NUC.

He also said over 17 new programmes in the school have been resource verified and approved by the NUC.

The Vice Chancellor urged the  Rivers State Administrator to look into executing some key projects already approved by the suspended Governor of the State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara.

He listed those projects to include construction and furnishing of two-storey building with 15 classrooms and 18 professorial offices; construction and furnishing of two units of two storey buildings with nine classrooms each; and construction and furnishing of two units of two storey building with four rooms of 336 capacity hostels each.

The visitor to the university and Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), in his address asserted that education remains a cardinal pillar of his administration.

Ibas, who was represented by the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Prof. Ibibia Lucky Worika, expressed delight over the strides recorded so far by the leadership of the university.

“I am pleased to note the considerable strides made under the leadership of the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Okechuku Onuchuku, particularly in programme accreditation, infrastructure renewal, and institutional discipline.

“I commend the university in securing full accreditation for 48 academic programmes, successfully verifying new programmes, and implementing the Nigeria University Commission’s (NUC’s) Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards,” he said.

He stated further that these feats “represent not just compliance, but vision. The infrastructure gains, including perimeter fencing, students housing, academic buildings, clean water projects, and resource centre signal a university that is preparing for tomorrow, and not merely coping for today”.

Ibas also commended all other efforts the school authority was making to upgrade the institution, such as partnership with institutions, to develop the school.

“Let me also recognise the impact of partnership with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), TETFUND, and private donors.

“The donation of Salvation Ministry Hostel, the Chief Emmanuel Aguma building, and the ongoing Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies are commendable and underscore the need for sustainable collaboration between government, private sector, and the academic community”, he said.

The Administrator assured that atttention will be given to all the demands made by the Acting Vice Chancellor.

He advised the graduands to hold on to the values instilled in them by the university.

“As you step beyond these walls into a wider world of possibilities and challenges, I urge you to hold fast to the values instilled in you by the university: integrity, resilience, and unquestionable taste for knowledge”, he stated.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who was the only recipient of the prestigious and honorary “Dr. of Letters” degree, expressed his appreciation for the recognition, and restated the Federal Government’s commitment to the educational growth of the nation.

Senator Akume, who was represented at the occasion by Prof. Bolaji Babatunde, said the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has taken notable steps to set the country’s education on the right path of development.

“The government has taken giant strides to enhance our educational sector, to attain its pride of place. We’re pursuing science and technology, mathematics and medical sciences, reducing the number of out-of-school children, enhancing technical and vocational education and training, advancing girl-child education, harnessing data and digitalisation, and strengthening quality assurance mechanisms in the country’s education.

“The students’ loan scheme has taken off successfully and over 300 students from about 109 universities are already benefitting from the scheme,” he said.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo

A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Don Baridam, has identified key challenges impeding university education in Nigeria.
Such challenges, he said, include mismanagement of scarce resources and internal wranglings.
Prof Baridam, the 6th Vice Chancellor of UNIPORT, who stated this while delivering the 43rd Convocation Lecture of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), titled “Effective University Management And Art Of Nation-Building: The Nigeria Experience”, noted that in addition to the above-listed challenges, there are also poor governance structure with other associated factors that also undermine the true ideals of tertiary education in Nigeria.
“In recent times, undue political interference has played a very detasteful role that has helpef to undermine the true ideals of universities in Nigeria.
“Worst of all is the appointment of practical politician to serve on the governing council of Nigeria universities.
“These mostly unruly politicians carry their dubious talent for institutional disorder and aggressive nature into the academic arena, where they predictably muddle-up everything in sight”, he stated.
Emphasizing on the crux of the lecture, Prof. Baridam said, “my position in this lecture is that effective university management is critical to harressing the full potential of over 210 Nigeria universities (private, state and federal) as drivers of true nation-building efforts.
“Academics cannot achieve this onerous task if they continue to pander to the whims and caprices of politicians”.
Speaking as the chairman of the occasion, Prof. Williams Okowa, harped on the importance of the position of the convocation lecturer in his presentation in which he picked holes in the role of politicians in the management of universities, saying academics cannot truly achieve effective management of universities, “if they continue to pander to the whims and caprices of politicians.”
According to him, this area needs to be truly reconciled.
Declaring the convocation lecture closed, the Acting Vice Chancellor of IAUE, Prof. Okechuku Onuchuku, emphasised the need for an academic institution to produce products that can achieve greatness.
He said, “one major thing we do here is to mould character, if we have people here with terrible character, it means that the nation will be terrible, but if we mould our people (students) correctly and ensure that their characters are properly moulded to fit into society, it means that we are going to achieve greatness.
“So, our jobs as university lecturers and university managers is to ensure that our final products will come out very solid, both academically, and as entrepreneurs.”

By: Sogbeba Dokubo

The Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Peter Ryan, has expressed delight that the projects being executed by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project(HYPREP) in Ogoniland are all about the people, and commended the Project for the feat.

Ryan, who made the commendation during a working visit to the Project Coordination Office of HYPREP in Port Harcourt, said HYPREP’s projects and programmes can be impactful when they are owned by the people, thus, the small changes the Project is bringing about in Ogoniland are worthwhile, as they directly and indirectly benefit the people.

He noted that he and his team are also delighted to be part of what HYPREP is doing, the project being a multi-generational effort, stressing that Ireland would be exploring the potential of partnering with HYPREP in the research and education sector through its Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration for the project to achieve greater success.

Ryan said the work of the Project Coordinator is more like a vocation than a job, because, according to him, his community is depending on him to deliver, to do things properly and doing something at the world-class level that is sustainable, and urged HYPREP to carry out this noble task with diligence and be mindful of the high expectations and dependency from the communities to deliver a world-class project that is sustainable.

He noted that there are people in Ireland who are desirous of knowing the progress HYPREP is making and the level it has attained in the cleanup project, and praised the Project Coordinator, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey and his team for not being new on the Project, and for building immense collaboration networks across the world, describing them as people with global standard track record.

He hinted that his country could also partner with HYPREP and Nigeria in the areas of research, education, culture and business, in a bid to “be the best we can and do the best to impact on resilient communities, and address years of under investment, exploitation and other negative things that come with globalisation.”

He further indicated that his visit to Port Harcourt was significant and special in Ireland’s history in Nigeria, because the day of the visit was the first working day at the new Ireland Embassy in Abuja.

Ryan praised the strong connections between Ireland and Port Harcourt and the wider Niger Delta region, saying, “you don’t have to go very far to see the impact the Irish had here “.

He expressed joy that two Irish companies are working successfully on the cleanup project, devoting their time and efforts in contributing to the development of Ogoniland, stressing that just as his wife had noted, what they were missing when they were still in Ireland were the people of Nigeria and not the food, the weather and the mangroves.

According to him, Ireland is willing to partner with HYPREP to actualise the Project’s mandate for the future of Ogoni, as the project is all about the people.

He said the visit had given him an opportunity to appreciate the pace of the Ogoni cleanup project ,which is focused on the people.

He noted that as the 17th Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, he has come to the country not to invent the wheel but to stay true to the legacy of his predecessors and other Irish people who had worked in Nigeria for over 40 years.

“I am the 17th Ambassador to come to this country.But I am not coming as the first.While we might not have a lot of missionaries today, there a lot of people who remember those connections between Ireland and Nigeria in Ireland. And to me, those connections are what we can build so many other contemporary connections on,” he said.

In response, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey expressed delight over the visit, and the opportunity to inform the ambassador about the ongoing and completed projects, including the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration; the Ogoni Specialist Hospital; the Buan Cottage Hospital; the Ogoni Power Project; the shoreline cleanup; the water projects; and the mangrove restoration project; among others.

While describing the envoy’s visit as very special and motivating, Zabbey said it had boosted the morale of the HYPREP team.

He noted that while the core mandate of HYPREP is to remediate oil spill impacted sites in Ogoniland and restore the livelihoods of the people, it is also the responsibility of the Project to transform seemingly bleak situations to opportunities, considering the fact that the Ogoni environment consists of wetlands.

The Project Coordinator further hinted that HYPREP is building a world-class Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration, which is expected to be a hub for international research, where researchers would conduct cutting-edge innovative research, adding that it is a centre every stakeholder would be proud of.

He disclosed that HYPREP is going to partner with universities in Ireland and the private sector in Ireland to contribute to the work of the Project, and to also build local capacity as well as advance knowledge, and assured that HYPREP and the envoy would continue to do the best, to contribute to environmental sustainability in Ogoniland.

Zabbey noted that the basis for the sustainability of the project is the fact that the people are the drivers of the HYPREP’s mangrove restoration intervention in Ogoniland.

He emphasised that the focus of the cleanup project at the moment is Ogoni, stressing, however, that HYPREP is building a template that would be replicated in other parts of the country.

He explained that HYPREP is passionate about delivering a sustainable cleanup in this region, “which all of us will be proud at,” saying, “we will continue to do our best to leave behind a knowledge legacy that will drive environmental sustainability in Ogoniland.”