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From Ben Dunno, Warri
Prof. Emmanuel Adigio is Vice Chancellor, Nigeria Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko, Gbaramatu, Warri South-West Local Government, Delta State, which extends to Kurutie, where the ex-militant warlord, Chief Government Ekpemukpolo, aka Tompolo, hails and other adjoining settlements within the locality. He assumed duty in June 2020.
He admitted the challenges were huge and many when he came on board, “but they were insurmountable.” He expressed deep concern about staff welfare, safety, health hazards, external forces and other matters:
“All we craved right now is the patience and understanding of both staff and students. We quite appreciate the sacrifices and pains they have been through. In a shortest possible time things would change for the better and those of us who are here today will begin to enjoy it.
“By then, a lot of the challenges we are having now would have been over. The institution would be well positioned to meet up with some of the pressing welfare demands that most of our staff and students had to contend with.
“We are not unmindful of the difficult terrain we are located and the stress most of our staff resident in Warri, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and other parts of the country have to go through to get here.
Most of them cannot afford to bring their families to come and live with them where they are presently working.
“We are equally not relenting in our collective efforts at getting all these things fixed, including the end of year bonus promised staff. We hope to settle all that once we are able to receive the funds we are expecting.
“We are very optimistic that as we go into the new year we are going to be tackling these issues that had impeded on the welfare of our staff and students one after the other with the support of government, our donors and relevant stakeholders.”
He insisted that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has not released N3billion to the university: “No such money was sent down here. If you divert any fund meant for a particular project on something else, then you are inviting trouble to yourself. Officials of the anti-craft agencies are monitoring such funds. If I have diverted such huge funds, by now they would have come after me.
“At no time was such money released for the settlement of allowances by NIMASA. So the issue of N3billion you raised is unfounded. If such money had been released to this institution, I think I would be most excited. Everybody would have been smiling by now. But as far as such fund is concerned, it was not released to us.”
Unpaid end-of-year bonus to staff: “Yes, I made some promises with huge expectations from the donors, especially those who had promised to give us some funds to meet up with certain obligations in the last quarters of this year.
“We had in mind that from there we could pay the end of year bonus. Up till now, we have not gotten the money from them. That is why we cannot meet up with the bonus payment. But we are very optimistic that it would come. I still want to assure that anytime we receive the
funds, we are going to pay the bonus because it’s a promise we made to them.”
Adigio was not unaware of certain opposition to his management style:
“It is only natural that as human you cannot please everybody. And this does not apply to only institutions of higher learning alone but all facets of human endeavours. In a community like this, it is difficult to please everyone or carry everybody along.
“I may not be categorical in telling you that everybody in the community is satisfied or pleased with the efforts we have made so far. However, quite a number of the community indigenes have appreciated us for the contributions we have made since I came on board. They understood our constraints and knew what we have been able to do with the limited resources at our disposal.”
He spoke also on the external forces working against the university:
“I have come to understand that for every entity that comes to be, there will be forces that work against it. For every establishment including an institution or university, there must be forces against it.
“Since it is like that, I am not going to be surprised. But the assurance is that forces that will rise against us will be having problems. I have that confidence in me that such forces will not succeed.
“Even you since you were born, you have forces against you right from your mother’s womb. Even while growing up the forces are still there till now that you are done with school and independent, they are still with you.
“The forces will always be there. But the truth remains that they will not succeed. More so as you are committed to doing your best in bringing about positive changes in all you do in life.
“I won’t be surprised if we have forces working against the university. I am very optimistic that at the end of the day, we will triumph just as the light always triumphs over the forces of darkness.”
Registrar of the university, Dr Alfred Mulade, captured the progress made by the school right from its inception. He emphasised the need for more funding to meet up with the many challenges hindering academic and infrastructural development: “We are just at phase one of the university growth.
“We are supposed to have entered phase two but we cannot enter phase two now. There was down time between 2015 when the school took off and early 2018. I say down time, because nothing happened academically as the school was put on hold.
“There was another down time due to COVID-19 pandemic. All these things have eaten our take-off master plans. They contributed in making it difficult for us to enter the phase II of our developmental plans.”
On funding, he said: “Yes, funding is an issue everywhere nationally.
I will say everywhere because by the virtue of my position as Treasurer, Association of Registrars of Nigerian Universities (ARNU),
I know what the university system is going through in terms of funding. That is why it has become necessary that since the Federal Government cannot provide all the funding for the universities, the schools are encouraged to see how they can look inwards to generate alternative funding.
“We are really in a hurry to meet up in some areas we are lagging behind to actualise our targets. We want to ensure that our workers are adequately remunerated so as to bring out the best in them. We will also focus more in providing quality and sound academic qualifications that would boost both the highly trained technical manpower and skilled labour in the maritime sector.
“We need more from state government. We need more from NIMASA and we need more from all our stakeholders.”
Professor Innocent Miebaka Aprioku of the Department of Meteorology and Climate Change, bared his mind on some of the challenges facing the institution: “Although the present management is doing everything possible to tackle most of these pressing needs, still it requires a lot of support from its stakeholders in the region and beyond.
“We have two campuses, one at Kurutie and the other at Okeŕenkoko.
Some of our lecturers have to shuttle between here and there because all the first year students’ courses are over there (Kurutie).
“Those lecturers that are here and need to go over there to take the year one students in some courses, sometimes find it very difficult to get there because boats are not available go take them across.
“So far, that is my real experience. But I just pray that NIMASA and other stakeholders will see all these challenges and join hands with the management in tackling it to create an enabling environment for both staff and students.”
