Web-Mail  |  Saturday, September 04, 2010
Pro-Chancellor's 6th Convocation Address/ Citation
PROTOCOL
The Visitor, Chancellor, Your Excellencies, My Lords Spiritual and Temporal, Your Majesties and Highnesses, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.

I feel privileged and delighted to welcome all our graduands and their accompanying relatives and friend to this 6th Convocation Ceremony of the Imo State University.

For the regular graduands, this day is one more proof that hard work pays. I congratulate you on your achievements. Permit me, however, to say that the real life starts now. Hopefully, your years in this citadel of learning have prepared you to navigate successfully through the vicissitudes of life as well as to take advantage of the opportunities along the way. All that is left for me is to charge you to fight the good fight.

I welcome especially the honorary Graduands, Your Excellencies Chief Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, Senator Liyel Imoke, Obong Ufot Ekaete, Chief Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Prof Maurice Iwu. All of you have served our country and humanity well; your respective citations bear testimony to that. For us today, the old maxim of rendering honour to whom honour is due rings loud. In recognizing you in this way, we are challenging present and future generations to reach for the sky, to render honest service and to give back to society just as you have all done.

By the time I was approached by the Governor’s “search party” to return and serve, I had never met the Governor. I immediately embarked on my own “search” to know as much as I could about Him. And almost to the last man, everyone I asked was anxious to assert that His Excellency is a workaholic, has no patience for routine, is allergic to complacency, hates business as usually, but above all, that he has STYLE. It may surprise some of you to learn that it was the last attribute, STYLE (sometimes described as “good taste”)m that swayed me. As my late father always insisted, a man with STYLE instinctively sees beyond the ordinary; is most likely to make something out of nothing; and had the abiding potential to build small things into great things. I decided to ride the OHAKIM EXPRESS.

Six months down the line, my view mimics that of the generality of Imolites; what a ride! What a man!

The Governing Council was inaugurated in a period of “uncertainty” in the University. There was so much vibration but little movement. Bold and decisive actions were called for. It helped that the Governor approved special financial allocations that enabled us to clear the arrears of salaries and calm prayed nerves.

The Secretary to State Government, Chief Cosmos Iwu and the Chief of Staff to Government House, Sir Emma Ohakim, were both brilliant and painstaking in offering strategies out of the seeming impasse while the immediate past Commissioner for Education, Chief (Mrs) Comfort Chukwu and the Commissioner for Finance, Enmgr. George Irechukwu were reassuring in those whimsical moments when doubt threatened to creep in.

The Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Nana Apiah, the Majority leader, Hon Dr. John Egbuchulam and the Chairman of the House Committee on Budget and Appropriations, Hon barrister Ifeanyi Agwu, among others, were sympathetic to our plight and cooperated in passing a supplementary budget for the University for 2008 and in approving substantial increases in the monthly subvention to the University effective from 2009. We eagerly await the implementation of the 2009 improved subvention.

The tasks and targets that the Visitor set for the Governing Council have provided a vantage platform for the reforms and innovations that are being implemented and which promise to transform the University to a first class institution at peace with itself and its surroundings.

I trust that the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof Anthony Okere, in his speech will avail you of the details of such actions but I cannot resist the urge to mention one that gives the Council great pride and satisfaction namely the introduction of E-ADMINISTRATION of which E-PAYMENT is an integral part. The scheme holds so much potential in terms of instituting a completely computerized university system that will elevate transparency, accountability, and predictability to a new pedestal.

As we steady ourselved to begin the march to build a permanent site for the main Campus, relocate the Okigwe Campus which will now house the College of Agriculture and Engineering (rather than a solitary Faculty of Engineering), as well as complete the implantation of the College of Medicine at Orlu including moving the Faculty of Health Sciences from Owerri to Orlu starting the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Programmes, we are counting, even more than ever before, on the illuminating and transformational leadership of His Excellency, Chief Dr Ikedi Ohakim.

The Council has set for itself ambitious targets in respect of Endowments, Foundations and Gifts to the University that will tremendously improve our internally Generated Revenues (IGR). We will also pursued active Public Private partnership schemes in all future development projects.

All these call for interaction of the intimate kind between the Council and Alumni of the university including those coming off the mill today as well as other identified stakeholders. I plan to invite a core of Alumni to host a “home coming” in the not too distant time. Come one, come all!

And have no doubts about it – we will recognize in every enduring ways those who make sacrifices for our common good. As an example, Council acceptebd the Recommendation of the Court of Governors of the College of Medicine to name the Main Administrative Block of the College after the man who did the most tom realize the project. That man is Chief Festus Odumegwu. We salute him as we challenge others to follow suit.

Furthermore, Council intends to acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of our fellow citizens, friends and Alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields of endeavor by naming our Departments and Faculty Buildings, Sporting Complexes, Theatres, Open spaces, etc after them. Above all things, this will inspire present and future generations of Nigerians to strive to greater glory for the edification of our motherland.

The Governing Council will actively pursue linkages with oversees Universities and Research Institutions particularly in America, Asia and Europe with a view tom expanding our horizons and attracting expertise, equipment and facilities to our University.

We are exploring with the leadership of the State House of Assembly as well as Local Government Council Chairmen the introduction of subsequent passage of a Bill that will permit a contribution by Local Government Councils of a tiny bit (3 percent?) of their statutory allocations to funding the University. This was indeed foreseen by the founding fathers of the university and would follow similar traditions in a great number of State owned Universities including those in the South East zone.

Even as we insist on certain attitudinal changes on the part of our University community in order to clean up our image that has taken a battering, fairly and to some extent, unfairly, Council is paying great attention to the improved welfare package and conditions of service for our staff. For example, late payment of salaries is now a thing of the past, well, almost; it will defineitly be history when substantially improved subventions in the approved 20099 budget kicks in; we became the first university in the South East to implement the CONTISS/CONUASS salary scale; we are reinvigorating the staff pension scheme and plugging into the National Health Insurance Scheme; our staff housing scheme is being revitalized; anomalies in appointments and promotions are being addressed; a Printing Press is in the pipeline to encourage those with a flair for publishing; the University Micro Finance Bank is being rebranded and will open its doors to its clientele soon, etcetera.

In return we have made it clear that our students and their parents and relatives deserve and expect from the staff of the University nothing but the best in teaching and exemplary comportment – to receive a service free from harassment and exploitation of whatever kind and we have stressed our determination to sanction any deviant behaviour.

I acknowledge the support and wise counsel of my colleagues on the Governing Council; I applaud their genius; I appreciate their tenacity and respect their clairvoyance. Their individual and collective sacrifices and input have made the University a much better place than we found it. I thank the University Administration, the staff and students for their cooperation and for courtesies extended to me and the Council.

In ending, I wish to state how auspicious the future looks despite the lingering threat of dangers that never seem too far away; I wish to stress how in pulling together and lifting one another, we can win Gold; I wish to trumpet how in triumph, this State, this Country, indeed humanity at large will be the richer for it. My fervent hope is that I will be the town crier announcing good tidings at your door steps in the days and months ahead.

I salute you all. Thank you.

Prof Chidi Ibe, B.Sc, Ph.D, DIC P.Eng, FGS, FOS Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council

The Pro-Chancellor can be reached via the email address: prochancellor@imsuonline.com

Click here for Prof. Chidi Ibe's Profile
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