From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
The immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof. Emenike Ejiogu, has said that the faculty has been repositioned to generate more revenue internally for seamless running of its affairs.
Ejiogu made the disclosure in Nsukka at the weekend during the valedictory Board Meeting and handover ceremony to Prof. Ikechukwu Christian-Ezema as the new Dean of the Faculty.
He said that the Faculty had upgraded and expanded its auto mechanic workshop to serve as a revenue-generating organ as well as the faculty’s Journal, which he said had been classed as one of the top three journals in the world, adding that they would help to shore up the revenue base of the Faculty.
“To the glory of God, our faculty has been repositioned to generate more money internally for the smooth running of the faculty. The faculty workshop has been expanded and refurbished to serve as a source of generating revenue for the faculty.
“Our journal is now indexed in Scopus Scimago, many articles will be coming from all over the world for publication in the journal because it is now regarded as a high-impact academic journal,” he said.
Speaking further, Ejiogu who is also the Director, Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), said: “Our NLNG Laboratory which the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company donated to us has the equipment the faculty can use to engage in commercial testing and characterization of materials for industries.
“During my tenure, the faculty established a consultancy unit in the faculty where all the departments will partner to offer consultancy services to clients, this was also another source of income for the faculty.
“With all these sources of revenues, if well-utilized, faculty deans will no longer spend their personal money to run the activities of the faculty like it was in the past,” Ejiogu said.
He also disclosed that among other achievements of his tenure was adding three new departments with the approval of UNN management to the existing eight departments, noting that the faculty now has 11 departments.
He commended the Associate Dean of the faculty, Dr Sunday Ezeoha, and the Faculty Officer, Mrs. Blessing Phil-Eze, as well as other members of the faculty for their positive contributions to the achievements recorded during his tenure.
In his remarks, the new Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Ezema, pledged to remain committed to consolidating the achievements of his predecessors.
He applauded Ejiogu’s performance in the last two years as the Dean of the faculty and solicited for support of staff and students of the faculty.
The new dean pledged to run an open-door policy and assured that every faculty member would be carried along and be given a sense of belonging.
Meanwhile, a group of UNN researchers concerned about the growing cases of accidents in engineering construction sites and workshops, has launched a safety sensitization and training programme, to inculcate a positive safety culture in staff and students.
The group, under the umbrella of Engineering Education Research Group (EERG), on Friday, trained technical and academic staff and students at the Faculty of Engineering on safety protocols that could keep them away from harm in the event accidents in their duty posts.
The training was a part of the Engineering Programme for Safety and Industry (EPSI), a project supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation under the “Engineering X Engineering Skills” initiative.
Addressing participants at the training, the immediate past Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Professor Emenike Ejiogu, said that the training would complement what students learn in class, stressing that students need to imbibe the culture of safety from the undergraduate level.
He urged the technical and academic staff to implement the outcome of the training in their daily routines for the sake of their health and life.
“As an engineer, do not take your safety for granted because a minor accident could lead to fatalities,” Prof Ejiogu said.
Ejiogu highlighted that safety goes beyond physical safety to include environmental and social safeguards, urging participants to be conscious of the different dimensions in their daily duties.
The Principal Investigator of EPSI project, Dr Patrick Udeme-obong Akpan, said that technical staffs were preferred to benefit from the first batch of the training because they have direct contact with machines in the laboratories.
He said that the target of the project amongst other things is to redesign two courses within the faculty to incorporate safety lessons.
Akpan said that the training also considered cultural issues that make engineers averse to adopting safety measures even when they know it is the wrong thing to do.
“Knowledge alone is not good enough because a lot of people actually know what to do but the problem is that safety has not been enshrined in their ways of doing things; for us, imbibing the culture of safety is the main thing,” Akpan said.
Dr Akpan attributed most accidents in engineering sites to unsafe practices and unsafe conditions caused by poor design and maintenance of systems, products and services.
The training, which was attended by 40 participants, covered a range of topics including understanding the difference between hazards and risks; hierarchy of safety controls; strategies for building strong safety culture in departments; emergency evacuation procedures, and ladder safety and fall protection and safe load lifting techniques.