By Orakwue Chikelue
His period in office was brief, but not without impacting the fortunes of the foremost University before leaving it. Professor Joseph Ikechebelu, until few weeks back, the acting Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state, is a man of unflagging commitment to the pursuit of excellence and hard work. Although he is seldom in evidence, he exudes strength and self-sufficiency that confounds naysayers and seduces a few others who hedge the bets. Imaginative yet practical, he was able to apply himself to the task of transforming UNIZIK and was fairly rewarded before standing down to attend to his teaching career and matters of personal interest.
It is an undeniable truth that few months into the six he acted as the Vice Chancellor of the University a lot of changes became not just evident, but verifiable to the public, including members of the staff of UNIZIK as well as visitors to the school. His effort at repositioning the school was not long in becoming visible in both infrastructural upgrade and academic reforms. Both the tangible nor intangible aspects of the development matrix were not left out of his focus, signposting he has an administrative genius that will take some beating.
It is important to state here that UNIZIK has a vast untenanted plain – a spatial size of about 499 hectares of land or approximately 4.99km land mass, dutifully secured. However, in the course of time the security of the land space began to crumble before a vandalizing horde. Just as it is the case with infrastructures in ruins or empires in decline, these vandals began to nibble away at the decorative rails on the walls with little or no effort at warding them off. No long after the front face – the southern boundary of the university perimeter fence – mindlessly vandalized became completely defaced and exposed to possible trespassers and land grabbers. Reconstruction of the fence and rail were among the earliest work embarked upon by the Ikechebelu administration.
Likened to the above was restoration of the school’s drainage systems and walkways; elimination of indiscriminate waste dumps that littered the school; recovery of green spaces and maintenance of lawns hitherto overgrown by bushes; repair and repainting of the beautiful gate and maintenance of the campus roads which had become treacherous with successive rainy seasons. All these which gravely contributed in defacing the school and making learning clumsy were tackled immediately Ikechebelu took the acting VC position. He was determined to reinvent the academic environment which augured for the school’s excellent performances and possibly pushed the limit. And he did not succeed less as awards and rewards over research and academic competitions began to stream in torrents through the walls of the university.
For the first time, Nnamdi Azikiwe University in recognition of its advancement of academic activities with regard to trade in developing and least developed countries became the first Nigerian University to win the World Trade Organization (WTO) Chair in the sum of 200,000 Swiss Franc. Lecturers from the school competed and won awards and positions that enhanced its perking order among Nigerian universities and beyond. From the department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry through Parasitology and Entomology, Computer Science, to Educational Foundation awards and positions were won to the glory of the school. Some of these awards which came through research were Alfred Sloan Foundation Research brought the university $99,350 for a two 2-year project on Attaining Typical Enzyme-type Rate Enhancement in the Uncatalyzed Hydrolysis of Phosphate Esters through Ground State Destabilization.
Another research grant of 3824.42 Pound Sterling was also won by the school in conjunction with Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) 2024 for Entomological Assessment of Onchocerciasis Transmitting Blackflies after Years of Community Directed with Ivermectin (COTI) with Aniocha, Delta State as case study. Equally won was the best Artificial Intelligence application for enhanced teaching and learning by the school’s Computer Science Department which was co-hosted by NUC, NOUN and Virtual Institute for Capacity Building in Higher Education (VICBHE). More than that, there were rewarding appointments and elections into higher academic offices within and outside Nigeria of some of the teaching staffers of the University who manifested uncommon administrative prowess.
Infrastructural upgrade and light-up of the university were not left unattended as Ikechebelu spared no expenses to have them renovated. Work was commenced in reconstructing the burnt Department of Physiology building at the Okofia premises of the Nnewi campus of the University. Ditto for the speedy completion of Wing A of the Faculty of Physical Science building as well as establishment of new CBT Centre at Okofia, Nnewi campus fully equipped with 100 units of computers. While he was able to commission the Faculty of Social Sciences Auditorium; Students’ Hostel Type D, Awka campus; TETFund Male Students’ Hostel, Awka campus; 20-room self-contained office building with Cafeteria at Akamili, Nnewi campus; and Emeka Anyaoku Institute of International Studies, renovation work on the only hostel (Chukwuneke hostel) at the Okofia premises of the Nnewi campus of the University as well as the Student’s Hostel Type A at Awka were ongoing.
Digitization of the University was another interesting achievement by the brief, but effective administration of the Professor Ikechebelu. Online release of students’ results as well as on-portal moderation and approval of results, seamless upload of students’ semester results, improved UNIZIK portal for student life cycle with AI enabled features among others took a turn for the better.
Considering the limited time Ikechebelu acted as the Vice Chancellor of UNIZIK and the volume of work he did, it can be safely speculated that an extended time – perhaps substantive vice chancellorship will avail the university the chance to smoothen up the rough edges. He is doubtless imbued with administrative prowess necessary in managing a complex institution like the Nnamdi University, Awka. He appreciates the fact that conducive environment is a prerequisite for sound academic work and worked hard to ensure that knowledge was its own end. No doubt the giant of UNIZIK has been aroused, but its survival depends on who manages it in the coming years.
.Chikelue, a public affairs analyst, writes from Enugu