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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Dr. Basilia Igbokwe is the 9th substantive Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri in Imo State. She has been in office for one year. In this interview, she talks about the achievements she has recorded since she took on the mantle of leadership.
You have been the Rector for one year. What has the journey been like?
In the last one year we have touched all sectors. Let me start from infrastructure – we have renovated most of the hostels. By the time I assumed office the hostels were nothing to write home about but now most of them have been renovated. The other ones that were not renovated were remodeled like Hostel E that has not been in use for decades and another block in hostel B were totally remodeled. We also revitalised the IGR projects like the water factory. Our tissue factory is also functional. Recently, last month we started our printing press because I don’t want a situation where we take our printing outside this place. Every printing would be done in house. In the area of farming, we have revived our poultry farm, fish farm and piggery. In fact we have signed an MOU with the bodies concerned and hoping that in no distant time we would start. In terms of training we have done marvelously well training staff especially in ICT. We discovered that a lot of the teachers are not ICT-compliant – that was why we decided to have short term ICT courses. We go beyond that to do training in other areas. We just started our skill acquisition centre. In fact it’s just taking off in this academic session. It is managed by one of our staff who’s doing well in the area of entrepreneurship. In the area of ICT, we’re trying to have an integrated system because we discovered that students would finish writing exams and their results would not be seen anywhere; they keep on waiting but with this unified system we have taken care of academic records.
You unveiled an 11-point agenda when assumed office. So far, What impact so far have it on the institution and students?
The 11-Point Agenda has done a lot in bringing stability to this place and engendering academic excellence. We try to ensure that there’s excellence in teaching and learning. We didn’t just stop at that – we tried to remain focused. The agenda actually spurs me knowing that I have a goal and mission which must be accomplished. Knowing that goal I remain focused. n the area of infrastructure, it has also helped me because when you have your goals it will help you to remain focused and that has really helped a lot to achieve what I have earlier enumerated.
Do you think it has made any impact?
Both the students and staff will attest to it that it has made great impact. We know that nothing thrives without security. With good security you have an environment conducive for learning. There is no week we don’t send teachers for refresher training and give all them enabling environment to flourish
What strategy did you employed to make teaching and learning a great thing in the school?
We adopted several strategies. First, we mapped out training strategies for all areas. When we went to Abuja for a training programme, people would always ask: “Is it only your school that comes for training but it’s for them to get the right information. Another strategy we have put in place is that we ensure that the environment is conducive for learning. The classrooms have electricity – we have solar energy panels everywhere – such as the medical centre and other places. All these places have solar energy panels on the roofs. For this reason we don’t indulge in the alternative to practicals, instead we do the real practicals here. I must say that it has helped a lot in bringing investors to the school. We have received a lot of intervention projects in the past six months. It is all because of the conducive atmosphere and the security arrangements we have put in place. Even some members of the House of Representatives are bringing their constituency projects to us because of the secured environment.
What is the status of the polytechnic regarding the new policy of CBT based examinations?
We don’t only have CBT exams here we also have CBT continuous assessment. The essence of the CBT exams is to ensure that the students come back to campus on time because we’re talking about quality teaching and learning. Before I assumed office, students didn’t come to school. You would see them coming towards the end of the semester. So, we decided to discourage a situation where somebody would write for another person. With the manual writing,somebody could just sit beside you and write for you, but with the CBT exams and continuous assessment, you must have the proper assess code to write for the person and it didn’t just end with assess code. We took biometric details of all the students. Without the biometric identification, you can’t even log in to begin to write for anybody. The essence is to ensure that we no longer have ghost students. If you say you’re a student you must be a real student. So, that’s why when we said we have 21,000 students we were sure that those 21,000 students are with us and not like before you would stay wherever you were and somebody wrote exam for you. That’s one thing I’ve achieved.
What specific steps have you taken regarding staff welfare and development?
I’ve said it before, to ensure staff welfare I send them on different trainings. I want them to be abreast of what’s happening in the globe. I try to ensure I give them the right training. Secondly, when I assumed duties there were so many arrears of unpaid claims and the staff were not happy about it. I concentrated on putting smiles on their faces by paying all their claims. In order to to encourage them, we do give awards to the best staff. These are some of the areas we’ve tried to improve on their welfare.
What are your projections for the coming year?
In the coming year, we will sustain what I’ve already started. In 2026, we will complete the integration of the ICT Directorate and all the portals to ensure that we have a unified ICT programmes. In terms of infrastructure and manpower we’re doing well. I want to empower about 3000 youths. The personnel budget of this institution is the highest in Nigeria among polytechnics. It is over N1 billion. When it comes to personnel, the youths are empowered. Already, we have employed about 400. I’m looking at every year to get about 200 to 500 students employed so that by the time I leave I would have employed about 3000 to 4000 youths.
You were honoured as the Best Rector in Nigeria. How has the award reflected to the institution?
That means a lot to the institution. The award was given to me by an international body. Regarding how it has reflected on the school, let’s start with the environment of the school. When I came here the environment was horrible. If I tell you what amount I used in cleaning this place you will be so shocked. The infrastructure was terrible. By the grace of God, I have revived all the factories, the block industry, water factory, tissue factory and printing press which we just started last month. We have revived the farms. we didn’t just stop at that we had electrification of the whole environment. We have 466 solar lights which I attracted through Niger Delta Development Commission. We’ve done the phase one and we about completing the second phase. When you enter the campus and talk about security, the staff and students are secured. We’ve also gotten a lot of interventions from good spirited individuals. In fact most of them have indicated interest in what we’re doing and want to be part of it. Recently, we signed agreement for 1600 bed space hostel on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with a particular company that is in Partnership with TETFund. So there’s no sector of the institution that was not affected by the transformation process. May be that was why they deemed it fit to honour me. At first I didn’t want to accept the award, but on a second thought I accepted it because they did not ask for money.
As a mother how do you cope with the rigours of the office and still play your motherly role at home?
Well when you’ve mapped out your goal and say this is what I want to do, you must then look at yourself as Proverb 31 talks about the virtuous woman. I went to school as a spinster and also went to school as a mother. Even as a mother I made the best result in my university. I graduated from University of Uyo and my husband is the type that will tell you that my wife can never leave where she’s working. You know those people that love there wives so much and wouldn’t want to let her off their sight for a second. So, he would always say I won’t stop you but ensure you don’t sleep there. For me to get to University of Uyo from Aba, you have to wake up by 4 am and do all the house chores, bathe the children. I was even pregnant then and before six am I would be off to Uyo. The funny thing was that my lectures normally started by 8 am. I would get there before people living around there. I would even enter the class and before 6 pm I would be back in ABA. So, it’s just about being focused. When you’re focused and don’t allow anything to derail you. I can’t because I’m a Chief Executive, my husband will not eat in the morning. There should be time and planning for everything.
What have been your challenges so far?
Apart from the challenge of sourcing funds for our projects, one other major challenge is sabotage. People wantto sabotage your efforts. I want to be a rector that has achieved more than any other rector in this institution and because of this you have some people trying to sabotage your efforts. I remember when we started installing these solar lights. Some people removed the cables. But sabotage will not deter us, we will keep on forging ahead.
