-------------------
The Chairman's Opening Remark At The 11th Convocation Ceremony Of The Michael Okpara University Of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State
On
NOVEMBER 24, 2023
BY
SIR PROF. IHECHUKWU MADUBUIKE, OON
A
Historical Perspective
The Yaba Higher College was set up in, Yaba, Lagos, in 1932 as the first higher institution in Nigeria. One of its notable alumnus was our own Michael Iheonukara Okpara, former Premier of Eastern Nigeria. In 1947, Yaba College of Technology was established as a successor institution of Yaba Higher College. The University College, Ibadan came about in 1948. As I wrote in a yet to be published study, these institutions were set up to mainly satisfy imperial tastes. The Ibadan College was a campus of the University of London and was located less than two hours drive from Lagos. The Western part of the country became the preferred zone for higher education in Nigeria, judging by the number of higher institutions in that zone. It took the clairvoyance of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the then premier of Eastern Region, to establish the University of Nigeria Nsukka, in 1960.
In response to a felt need in the area of teacher education, the Eastern Nigerian Government, in agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), established a hybrid institution known as the Advanced Teacher Training College in the old premises of the Shell Camp in Owerri, in 1963.
I was one of the 150 students that started the institution when it opened shop in May of that year. It eventually had a Department of Agriculture in Umudike. I interacted with some of the students of this institution as a faculty at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education in 1977, proudly linked to the gestation of this fast growing institution. We can, therefore say that we are part of this foresight by association.
The principal subject taught in this novel college ,
the ATTC- was education—its foundation, history, philosophy and its
relationship with other subject areas such as Biology, Mathematics, Physics,
Geography, English language and Literature, Language and civilization, Library
Science, Economics and Physical and Health Education and later Agriculture.
These subjects were taught and exposed to the learner from the perspective of
their relationships with education, perceived as the key to individual and
communal development.
In that institution I was taught, from an evaluative point of view, and a utilitarian perspective, that an educated farmer for instance, was better than an illiterate one, just as an educated carpenter was better than one that was not so educated. In a sentence, you are a better human being because of the capability resources of education. Since then I have been a student of life-long education because of the novel existential experiences I get exposed to and the need to adapt or surmount the challenges associated with them.
Time is a scarce commodity and its utilitarian application must be at the soul of qualitative education, the type this institution promises to deliver. It is now some forty-four odd years since I was appointed to the office of the Minister of Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A lot of water, as the saying goes, has consequently passed under the bridge.
I am not an
educationist because I was once a Minister of Education, nor because I lectured
in Universities and higher institutions abroad and in Nigeria, or because I
founded a tertiary institution at the rural setting of Isuochi, my homeland.
I take an uncommon pride in saying that I am
a trained teacher and a practicing educationist. As already stated, I
was one of the first products of a hybrid institution which began in Nigeria in
1963. That was after a successful secondary education in a private school
established by the Church of Scotland Mission in 1846, pioneered by a revered
educationist, the Reverend Hope Masterton Waddell in Calabar.
My teachers
at the ATTC came from all parts of the globe: Canada, Belgium, the United
Kingdom, the United States of America, India, Egypt, Jordan, Australia and, of
course, Nigeria. There were three of these hybrid colleges then, one in the
Eastern Region, one in the Northern Region and one in the Western Region. They
are today Colleges of Education bearing names of some prominent educationists
of the time.
When I became Minister of Education I had no hesitation, following a resource visitation by the National University Commission ( N.U.C.), led by the late Dr. Abel I. Guorbadia, in upgrading them to degree awarding status with the supervision of affiliated universities.That was about a year after I assumed office.
I can say, therefore, that when in 1979 I was appointed Minister of Education (Cabinet Rank) by Alhaji Shehu Shagari I was on a familiar turf. All the higher institutions I attended abroad were either privately owned or State owned, which wasn’t quite the same in the immediate post-war Nigeria. We had just then transited from a military junta administration – which had a narrow view of education – to a nascent democracy that had to adjust to a new experiment on Presidentialism, the novel view on governance, chosen by a war weary nation following the experience of the United States of America. It provided, to a fertile mind, an opportunity to chart a new course in favour of a populist and qualitative education.
During a chat with President Shagari on my portfolio following the swearing in ceremonies, he said: “You are the Minister of Education and we know why we sent you there. Put your ideas together and come to the President-in-Council and convince me and your colleagues on your programmes in education”, he assured, in a very cultured tone. I did not only harmonize the manifestoes of the relevant political parties in government, but added my own ideas in the bargain. One of the paths I convinced Council to thread with me was the establishment of additional universities in Nigeria, especially the universities of science and technology, including the universities of Agriculture in states that had no federal universities. There were nineteen states in the country at that time and six had no university. There was also none in Abuja.
I also
convinced Council on the need to involve the private-sector on the
establishment of private universities in the country. We made it a public
policy and the active citizenry desirous of making input in human capital development
embraced the idea. I made the National Universities Commission to set up the
guidelines for setting up new universities in the country, including private
and state universities, and, in a broadcast through the Nigerian Television
Authorities (NTA), announced to the nation the broad conditionalities to be met
in this regard. The interview was anchored by a former ace broadcaster and
journalist, Chris Anyanwu, on March 11,1981 in Lagos. This action became
necessary following the aborted attempt by the late educationist cum
politician, Dr. Nnanna Ukaegbu to set up a university in Imerienwe, Imo State
without following the relevant protocols. The right to set up private
institutions is a guided affair, even in the most democratic countries of the
world.
We also set up the Professors Ojo and Afigbo Committee on the Open University of Nigeria in May, 1980, and sent a draft bill for its enactment to the then National Assembly in January, 1981.We had also approved the establishment of seven new universities of Science and Technology to be located in states without universities. Three vice chancellors were appointed for the universities at Imo, Gongola and Benue. They were Professors Umaru Gomwalk, Ethelbert Chukwu and Gaius Igboeli, respectively for the immediate take off. Others would follow in due course. [2]
New Developments in Education: A freedom-centered
perspective.
And you might wish to know why these innovative
approaches to education:
1. 1. Anticipating the future: The Obasanjo regime we succeeded
had initiated the Universal Primary Education Scheme which envisaged increased
enrolment of pupils of school age into all levels of education. This would
obviously have its implications for the tertiary level. Adequate arrangements
had to be made for these future entrants.
2. 2. Equity and Social Inclusion: Seven of the 19 states
(including The federal Capital Territory, Abuja,) had no universities to absorb
the teeming number of qualified students looking for admission into our
universities. Mission oriented universities such as we envisaged would increase
student enrolment, reduce the syndrome of out of school children due to
restricted slot allocations-the notorious carrying capacity-and, enhance
libertarian opportunities. Universities do not only respond to national and
international interests and objectives; they also respond to specific local
challenges. Equity, through reasonable geographical spread of opportunities,
addresses these local concerns, while not ignoring freedom-centered
perspectives, through adaptations.
3. 3. The Need for Curriculum Reform: The introduction of specialist
universities also impelled curriculum reforms and the expansion of the areas of
episteme. The reforms would encourage skill acquisition and address the issue
of nurturing student’s innate endowments and capabilities with the
consequential beneficial effects on the larger society.
4. 4. The Democracy Perspective:
These reforms revealed a progressive mindset of returning the political and civil rights of the people through the agency of education, especially in a heterogeneous society with different capabilities and motivations. They took into cognizance the fact that the war and the thirteen years of military dictatorship created destitutes in all parts of the country with serious negative implications for the future. Individual participation was therefore central and foundational in restoring these rights. In deed, education cannot thrive where there is no democracy –the agency of the individual’s civil rights and powers. As rational beings, it is part of the responsibility of the individual to chart a remedial course to alleviate the myriads of problems around us.
We created opportunities for many
to respond to that challenge, not minding the difficulties.[3]
It is important to go back to these developments because of the need to keep
history intact, to know where the rain started to beat us, as the Igbo would
say. This is more so because of the advent of the highly unregulated social
media and the failure of the memory institution. Even the famed WIKIPEDIA has
subjected itself to continuous editing.
When, for instance I read that the University
of Agriculture, Makurdi, was established in 1988, I wonder if it was the same
university which we established in 1981, under the administration of Shehu
Shagari, with Professor Gaius Igboeli as the first Vice Chancellor. I also
wonder when I read about someone who claimed he invented the famous mass
killer, Ogbunigwe, also claiming that he founded the Universities of
Science and Technology in the country, an achievement that happened when I was
the Minister of Education. Identity
thieves are on the prowl and we must be careful what we read. The claimant was
neither a Minister of State in the Ministry of Education nor my Permanent
Secretary.!
The establishment of specialized
institutions, like the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, was
indeed a response to address special needs, including food security and the
constitutive political mantra of the green revolution of the era. An extension
of that ideology is the program of commercial farms which this institution has embraced.
Food security is a global challenge which calls for more research and capacity
building, including huge subsidies to Agriculture. I share the view that we
cannot be truly independent until we can feed ourselves. In all these, the
farmer must be at the center of cutting-edge interventions that induce
progress. We must move from our reliance on hoes, machetes and knives to the
use of simplified mechanical equipment for agriculture.
Withholding relevant funding in this sector will be counter-productive. We must, therefore, continue to refine and redesign existing “stomach” infrastructure models through acceptable value-addition processes devoid of parlous political rhetoric.
Another reason for the establishment is the need for inclusiveness. When, in 1980, I took a memorandum to the Executive Council under Alhaji Shehu Shagari for the establishment of additional universities in the country, I pleaded and Council accepted, that the Federal government should establish universities in all the states of the Federation that had none, including the federal capital, Abuja.
That policy was decided and has been the rule since
then. And it would, in parenthesis, be stating the obvious if we include
Michael Okpara University of Agriculture as a beneficiary of that inclusive,
foresighted democratic ideology, when it was established twelve years later in
1992 with Professor Placid C. Njoku as its first Vice Chancellor. Abia State
was founded in August 27, 1991, and was qualified according to our 1980 policy
to have a Federal University.[4]
Other mission-oriented universities have also been established in the same
spirit, irrespective of whether due process and diligence have been properly
followed, and irrespective of whether these institutions have all fulfilled the
objectives of the founding fathers, of which I am proudly one.
Concluding Remarks:
Today we are in a period of stock taking, of
re-examining our reasons for being here, a time to reap, and a time to
celebrate. It is like the yam festival celebration. The entire yam harvested
may not be robust, or of equal size, yet we celebrate at the end of the farming
period because we have not laboured in vain, and because it is good for human
beings to come together and evaluate themselves in a process of renewal.
Convocation is not also unlike the Argungu festival, where annually the
fishermen celebrate the essence of fishing and elevate the trade and the
festival to an existential art. Of
course, there are differences, but the spirit of celebration and achievement
cannot be discounted.
Convocation is therefore an art of introspection,
the coming together of the relevant investors and beneficiaries of education,
the town and the gown, to confirm the valent functions of education, of
knowledge and character. It is an integral part of our university culture.
For the above reasons you would begin to understand
that going to a university is not just about getting a degree, what in my days
we called the “meal ticket”. It’s more than that. It’s about assuming a world,
an adult rite de passage-sort of—
confronting its challenges, its burdens, its joys and pains, and how to manage
existential problems. Today’s performance is about expectations and
fulfillments. For some it is the end of a journey. For others it is the
beginning. If you have lived on the campus all these four or five years under
the care of a defunct parenthood, that transition period is over. The
activities of this week depict joy and expectations, joy that a phase of your life is over;
expectation of what lies ahead – life outside the campus.
The outcomes may not be the same for you all. You may not have passed in the class of your
dream. You may not have received the best prize in a particular subject; you
expected to be the valedictorian but that honour has gone to another. It is
okay. Remember therefore, that this is just a phase. As some one told parents and students alike,
in an admonition that has gone viral on the internet: “One exam or low marks won’t take away their dreams or their talents.
And please, do not think that doctors and engineers are the only happy people
in the world.” A distinction in the classroom does not always translate to
a distinction in the world. But be happy that this institution has equipped you
with enough skill sets and characters to enable you live a successful life out
there.
May God help you as you internalize these precepts and go into the world to see and to conquer.
Thank you for listening.
*PROF. IHECHUKWU CHIEDOZIE MADUBUIKE,NCE,BA.(magna-cum Laude);M.A., Ph.D; Hon.D.Lit; Hon. LL. D .OON; Hon. emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Relations.
*Former Minister of Education; Former Minister of Health; Former Commissioner For Finance (Old Imo State); Enyi Abia; Author: I Also Served (A Memoir of Things Nearly Forgotten).
[1] Says
Lord Lugard: “The African perspectives who lightly say 'the time has come to
found a West African university on lines of African nationality,' do not
indicate a single donation from the wealthy members of the community towards
its realization”. Lugard had also expressed doubts “whether there are at
present a sufficient number of candidates to make a university a practical
possibility". The dual Mandate in
British Tropical Africa, Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1922
,,page 456.
Lugard seemed to have forgotten that Universities such as Yale and
Harvard started with small number of students: some with as low as four or
eight students.
[2] Affirmed a former Minister of Education, the very cerebral Professor Tunde Adeniran in a personal note to me on October 19,2022: ‘I know all these, courtesy of my access to official and non-official papers and meticulous reading of “I ALSO SERVED” on three different occasions. I have had to draw people’s attention to how much you achieved at a relatively young age”.
[3] Unfortunately, Ndibanyi, one of the foremost progressive and educational minded ethnic formations in Nigeria, have not responded enthusiastically to this challenge. They would rather build institutions in other climes or patronize others outside Igboland.
[4] The first of the three Universities
of Science and Technology took off on October, 1980 at Owerri, with Professor Umar
D. Gomwalk as the first Vice-Chancellor. Abia was then part of Imo State.
Because of funding considerations we had decided to commence with three of the
approved seven Universities (FCT inclusive).
The other two of the three were the Federal University of Science and
Technology, Gongola, with Professor Ethelbert Chukwu as the Vice Chancellor and
the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, with Professor Gaius Igboeli as
the Vice chancellor.
No comments:
Post a Comment