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| Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Professor Francis Eze |
You recently became the
vice-chancellor of this university and you had the first convocation
ceremony under your leadership, what is your experience so far?
It has been a wonderful experience
because I was deputy vice-chancellor administration and I thought I knew
almost everything but I just discovered that I didn’t know the enormity
of the problems we have. For over five months now I have been in the
saddle, I feel the pinch and I weathered the storm but I carry everybody
along. I feel that we are moving and people see us because we say it
the way it is and we have the integrity, we are transparent enough in
all our actions. We touch people. We have the human kindness to govern
the people. So we are forging ahead and I want people to see us the way
we are. So to that extent I am happy and I am not daunted by the
enormity of the problems because I know that we will continue to
confront them one after another. I know that by the grace of God we
shall overcome.
In some universities it is like a
norm that after appointing vice-chancellors, oppositions and internal
wrangling ensue, but in your case it was not so. Were you a consensus
candidate?
I have been here for the past 26 years
having come in as a lecturer one, I grew through the ranks. I have been
acting head of department; I have been a coordinator of a programme; I
have been HOD; I have been dean
for two times; I have been a director;
and I have been a DVC. So you can see many of those positions I held
were by election and there was no election I contested in this
university that I haven’t come up tops not just winning but coming
number one. I was a member of the ninth governing council and my
colleagues in the senate voted me and I came tops. For one the first
time I defeated an incumbent dean, my colleagues voted me when I wasn’t
in the senate and I said I wanted to represent the congregation and I
got into the election and my colleagues voted me and I came tops, so
it’s been like that because I feel a university is not a place you come
for exploitation or for quick money. And I followed a top brace academic
that made all sacrifices but they didn’t have the money. There is joy
in academics. Primitive acquisition of wealth is not a good way to
exist. If I look at people who have done that they are not happy. I
think I am a very satisfied man and anytime I interact with my fellow
human beings I win hearts. They believe me because I say the truth; I
think that is the secret.
You just had the first convocation under your leadership, how did it go and what calibre of visitors did you host?
I think I am on top of the world. This
is my first outing and you know when you do this type of thing you
listen to others and they give you the report. All the reports I have
been receiving are very excellent ones. I give kudos to my assistants,
committee members (ceremonial), this committee has done a wonderful job
to put things together. On our own part we also did our bit to ensure
that everything went well. And FUTO is a brand name, all the people we
invited came. We had two ministers, so many people from Abuja, so that
tells you the extent of its success. Our students were so happy, we
carry everybody along. At some point people asked me ‘are you going to
be vindictive on those who opposed you’, and I said no. I can’t fight
the battle. God fought for me. They are coming back because some of them
have seen that there is no point doing what they are doing. Generally
the campus is quiet, the students are happy, the staff are happy. All
the unions are happy and whatever the misinformation they were getting
some have even come to apologise to
me that they didn’t know. That is the truth.
Encroachment in universities by host communities is rampant, how has it been in this institution?
It is very unfortunate with what we are
seeing here, the level of encroachment is unprecedented. Another flank
was opened recently along the Port Harcourt road axis, precisely at Avu
Junction. There is massive encroachment going on there. We have appealed
to them, we have asked the press to help us. We have written to all the
authorities: the federal, state governments and communities. We have
admonished them but that is still going on. We have taken adverts in
form of caveat emptor in newspapers to tell people that if they go and
invest money in such dealings that they stand the risk of losing their
money and that the best is to keep off but the place is a legally and
duly acquired land. What we have achieved for these communities is so
much and they shouldn’t distract us and I hope that the minister who
represented the president said he wants to intervene. He thinks the
federal government; the state government and the host communities should
come together and iron out issues. So that is the way we have
approached the issue but we feel this type of thing we can’t go there
with force because if in the event somebody is killed and maybe such
person may have very little knowledge about the land. So we are
appealing to them and we will continue to do so.
Has there been any cordial relationship between the university and the host communities in the past?
Of course there has been because what
you call corporate social responsibility, the university has always done
her part. We have outreach programmes: our Optometry department embarks
on an outreach programmes to examine their eyes and so on. We have our
medical centre also opened for them, once a month they come there and
get medical attention free of charge and then the schools are opened for
them: the primary and secondary schools, all the small jobs we reserve
for them, and by 10 am they finish and by the end of the month we still
pay them N10,000 each. All the contracts are there for them for those
who are qualified for these contracts, we give them. For minor work we
give to them and for admission purpose we give them admission, the
record are there. When permanent jobs come we also give them.
You know there is this misinformation
going on about the power tussle between the town unions and the
traditional rulers to the extent that during admissions, their town
unions would bring their list, traditional rulers would bring their own
list. The town unions don’t have confidence in the traditional rulers
and the traditional rulers are the chief security officers in their
communities, so that is the problem they usually have. However, I still
believe that the traditional rulers themselves will continue talking to
them. At times they would say they are not being carried along, these
are also some misconceptions they usually have. The university cannot
tar roads, we haven’t tarred the ones in our campus but if there are
some palliative measures we can put for them. One of the traditional
rulere came during the rainy season and complained of no road and we
went and graded the road for them, now there is dry season when our
equipment is put in order we can grade the roads for them. These are
things we can do but if you ask us to do roads and put asphalt we don’t
have the funds to do so. That is the situation. We are talking to them
and we believe they will understand.
I understand that some
students scored high grades in their final examination, how do you
intend to maintain that tempo of excellence among students?
Actually I was part of the immediate
past administration as the DVC administration. This journey started in
2011, though I wasn’t DVC then but I was a prominent member of that
administration and we said the first quality assurance will come from
the admission. If you admit good students, the results will show and we
said if you as a student and for you to get admission you score a
minimum of 180 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)
and a minimum of 180 in our post-UTME. In our post-UTME we make sure
there won’t be any cheating of any sort, no impersonation and we put a
lot of effort in it, and so today it has paid off. We have 39 first
class results, the first in the history of this university. We have 782
second class upper division, we have never had it before because we have
the right students and that is part of my mantra ‘to recruit, to
nurture, to develop quality, uniquely, qualified students; and we want
to also develop exceptional staff in science, engineering, technology
and in innovation’.
This will sustain us for another five
years and then FUTO would be an institution to beat. Initially, people
may not like the policy because when we implemented that it took the
pressure off to ourselves, and we insisted on that policy. It affected
us, it affected our staff and we sustained it for five years and if we
do that for another five years then we will be able to get there. And
that is why we are appealing to the federal government that the
post-UTME is a very important assessment criterion by universities for
admission because if we do that the quality of students we admit will
show and it will be nice for the system. We will continue to beg them to
rescind that decision on the ban of post- UTME because we have the
evidence to show that it is a very important assessment for admission in
our universities.
Fayemi Attributes Crisis in Education to Irrelevant Curriculum
The Minister of Solid Minerals and
former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has expressed concern
over the apparent irrelevance of the education curriculum to life
experience and the gulf between the classroom and the society. He blamed
these for the crisis in the education sector.
Fayemi, who made this known while
delivering the convocation lecture of the University of Lagos (UNILAG)
titled, ‘Building a Successor-Generation: Reflections on Values and
Knowledge in Nation Building’, said universities are meant to be
breeding grounds for society’s elites and are supposed to be the sites
of knowledge production where solutions to the challenges of development
are produced.
“It is not misplaced for society to look
to our universities to produce successive generation of elites that can
fix our country and help us achieve our strategic national development
priorities.”
He urged universities to embrace change,
re-imagine possibilities and revitalise continuously, adding that in
contemplating the challenges of leadership and development in the
country, there is need to critically appraise educational institutions
and make necessary interventions to ensure that they have adequate
funding, world class physical structures and functional teaching
equipment, as well as the right social environment that supports the
education of the total man.
The minister also highlighted lessons
that must be learnt in the university environment that promotes the
inculcation of progressive values and the development of sound character
in young people.
“If we are to improve the quality of our
country’s human capital and invariably have better national development
outcomes, we have to pay attention to the factory that produces the
most important segment of our workforce that we expect to drive
development in every sector, and which is the crop from which our future
leaders will arise.”
He expressed concern about the high rate
of unemployed or underemployed youths being produced by universities
leading to a massive unemployment crisis that has calcified over the
years, with grave socio-economic portents for the future.
“How are our universities addressing
this and other strategic national priorities? Are we paying enough
attention by ensuring that our graduates are well equipped to respond to
this and other challenges of our time?”
He said the country also has the tragedy of academically sound graduates who have no idea of ethical awareness, locus of control or moral judgment in their beings.
He said the country also has the tragedy of academically sound graduates who have no idea of ethical awareness, locus of control or moral judgment in their beings.
The minster advised the students to
learn how to learn, saying that since the university offers the
opportunity for serious minded young people to acquire knowledge, their
ability to prove that they have learnt what they ought to, in accordance
with the curriculum, will be the criterion from level to level till
graduation.
“Some people mistake passing exams for
acquiring knowledge; they are two different things. As a student, you
have to learn the principles behind actually acquiring knowledge. You
also have to quit whining, we have a debilitating entitlement mentality
that is common place among young people today. The earlier we realise
that no one owes us anything, the better for us, and the more prepared
we would be to face life’s challenges.”
The Chairman of the occasion, Major
General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd.), stressed that youths should be allowed
more into leadership positions, adding that they should be more active
in the country’s politics.