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We are lucky to have Senator Ndoma-Egba as FUL’s Pro-Chancellor – Prof Akinwumi
The Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Lokoja (FUL), Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi, has said that the institution was fortunate to have Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba as Pro-Chancellor/ Chairman of its Governing Council.
Few months ago, new Governing Councils for tertiary institutions were constituted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Senate Leader, was announced as its Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council.
Speaking in an interview on how the relationship of the Ndoma-Egba-led Governing Council has been with the FUL’s management team since it was constituted, Prof. Akinwumi, a distinguished Professor of History, believed to be working hard to transform the 13-year-old University, said: “We thank God for the appointment of a man like Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba as our Pro-Chancellor. Immediately he was appointed, many of my friends started calling me to say you are a lucky man, you are a lucky man. And our interactions so far have shown that we are indeed lucky to have him as our Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council. We are very much convinced that with his support we are going to take the university to the next level. He is such a nice gentleman, an intellectual, influential and well-connected politician. Somebody who is not after the pocket. It is what he is giving to the university that matters to him. We are really fortunate to have him. God has answered our prayer.”
Maintaining that he feels quite comfortable with Ndoma-Egba as FUL’s Pro-Chancellor, he added: “Look at the way he conducts our meetings. The way he presides over the meetings. Before this time when we want to go for our meetings, I always have blood pressure. But now with the Distinguished Senator Ndoma-Egba, everybody is relaxed, no tension. He is such a fantastic man.”
On the efforts he has put into making FUL a better citadel of learning since he assumed office in February 2021, Prof Akinwumi, former president of the Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN), stated: “We are filled with happiness and joy that one has been able to change the narrative. Let me give you a brief background. Before we came in, the university had four faculties. But in the two new faculties – Education and Management programmes were introduced without resource verification. This is not proper. And NUC frowns at it. So, it was when I came, I started the battle to do resource verification for those new programmes. So, as at the time I became the VC, in a way I can say that we only have four faculties in name and on paper. But the real commencement came with the steps I and my management team took to ensure successful resource verification for those programmes. Today, as we speak, we now have up to ten faculties in the university.
“We have a College of Medicine or Health Sciences. We now have engineering. We have nursing. We have added law. We have added Pharmacy. We equally added agric and new programmes under education and management. And apart from that we have many institutes that we have created. They include Institute Gender Studies, Institute of Governance and Development Studies. Actually, we should call it the Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies.
“We invigorated the Postgraduate School. We now have postgraduate programmes in collaboration with the National Institute of Legislative Studies. Our agreement with Federal Polytechnic Auchi to run some programmes together has been approved by NUC. We now have programmes for distance learning. We have established the Centre for Distance and E-learning. We have been able to achieve a lot in this direction since we came in, particularly in the area of securing accreditation for our academic programmes.
“In terms of infrastructure we are also doing all we can to give the school the best. Most of the infrastructure you see here today we brought them in. When we came in, we were determined to make a clear difference. It was my time that we fully moved to the permanent site and began full academic activities here in the Felele Campus with the relocation of all the faculties from the Adankolo Campus where we have the College of Health Sciences.
“We have done much to get support from the government and individuals. My PhD students supported us in road construction. I went out seeking for these projects and seeking for assistance. The agric business centre was given to us. We started the zoo which was recently commissioned. Former Governor Babatunde Fashola had assisted the school with the rehabilitation of internal roads, when he was minister of works.
“Hon James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives is one man that has really assisted the Federal University Lokoja. Most of the projects we got were through Faleke. The stadium was through Faleke. The street lights and most of the buildings were through Faleke. He has done much for us. There are some projects that are under construction too. The Assembly hall and a lecture theatre under construction were also part of what we got from Faleke.
“Then the Faculty of Pharmacy building. We got somebody (Alhaji Ahmadu Saleh, the Madaki of Lokoja) who built it and provided everything there. Construction of another lecture theatre by another person (Dr. Gladys Makoju). We have the lawn tennis court here donated by the Commissioner for Finance in Kogi State. All of these we are able to seek. And as we move on, we are going to have more structures in this university than what TETFund is giving.”
The VC disclosed that he has gotten a high level of cooperation from his colleagues and members of the management team.
According to him, “There is cooperation among us. I have a fantastic principal officers committee. Fantastic one! We work together for the good of the university. We work together for the growth of the school. We are one big family. Of course, sometimes you have this internal crisis. But we try as much as possible to resolve it amicably. There is obviously that cooperation. My principal officers are 100% dedicated, very dedicated and committed to the service of FUL. The working relationship among the principal officers have been very much cordial. In fact, nobody will know who is the Vice Chancellor amongst us. We do things together all for the interest of the university. Superior argument prevails.”
