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THISDAY Newspaper publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, at the weekend, donated N1 billion to Western Delta University (WDU), Oghara, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State during its 25th Founders’ Day celebrations and lecture. Also, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the just concluded general election and Kayode Fayemi, immediate past governor of Ekiti State have agreed to become visiting lecturers at the university.
Fayemi, who delivered a lecture entitled: “Sub-National Governance, the Ekiti State Example” promised to set up a School of Policy Implementation in the institution. He also promised to become the first lecturer once the school is completed.
The visitor to the university, James Ibori, former Delta State governor, appealed to Obi whom he described as an experienced leader who has greatly contributed to nation building to join Fayemi as a lecturer upon the completion of the policy school. Obi agreed to help set it up and join as a visiting professor.
Fayemi, who cited personal examples of what transpired during his tenure as Ekiti State governor, urged political office holders to ensure balancing when making appointments and avoid the pitfalls of selecting those who will end up as liabilities to the government.
“One of the important challenges that every governor will face early is that of making key appointments. Apart from the challenges of ethnic and religious balancing, you also have political IOUs to settle.
“Every governor will have to strike the right balance between appointing core politicians who have been involved in the long and tortuous political struggle like mine that brought the governor to office and appointing technocrats who will be required to undertake specific assignments for the smooth running of the government.
“While the local political context will determine what the right balance is, this is something every new governor must always be mindful of. But it will always be helpful if you understand what your key priorities are. This will help you to understand those appointments you can play politics with and those you have to assign to the best possible hands. The balance is that you cannot take all away from politics and you can also not give all to politics. However, a key lesson from my own experience is that whether one is a technocrat in government or a core politician, all political appointees must be strongly connected to their communities. Otherwise, they will become liabilities to the governor,” he said.
He said despite the dwindling revenue accruing to the state, especially owing to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and drop in price of crude oil, his administration was able to improve on the infrastructure development of the state.
He further said Ekiti State was in the doldrums when he took over due to avalanche of challenges facing it.
He said his administration was able to restore the core values the state has been noted for and returned it to the path of development.
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“There are three major ways you make money in government. You either make it, you beg for it or you borrow it. What you make from internal generated revenues and investment holdings is what you make. Your receipts from the Federation Account and what you may get as grants from international development agencies are your unearned incomes which I classified as products of begging. Then the loans you are able to obtain from banks, infrastructure bonds and so on are your borrowings.
“In all categories, Ekiti as at the time I took over was in dire straits. This was the time that oil price had dipped in the international marker, leading to a significant reduction in oil revenue to the federation account. The IGR of Ekiti was nothing to write home about as at the time I took over at N100 million per month. And to make matters worse, it was also a period of agitation for increased minimum wage by the trade unions and there was little or no support from multilateral and bilateral support agencies.”
On his part, Obi called on political office holders to go beyond the barriers of political partisanship, tribal affiliations and religious inclinations in their contributions to the development of the society.
According to him, though Ibori and Fayemi, were in different political parties from him, he attended the event because of his love for education and its developmental impact on the nation.
Obi emphasised that political parties should present credible candidates based on character, competence, integrity and track records.
“And when they are given opportunity to serve, they must serve without recourse to any form of bigotry.”
He wished the students well in their academic endeavours, urging them to remain committed to their educational pursuits.
Obaigbena said he donated N1 billion to the university to encourage it in its quest to build a first class institution committed to the pursuit of excellence in all areas of academic learning, technological development and social service.
Obaigbena described Ibori as a long time friend and a people-oriented leader who is ever ready to sacrifice for the development of his people.
The Arise Television promoter who gave Ibori, an all-round eulogy, also commended him for his large heart and great vision for establishing the university, remarking that running a university is money-intensive and the promoters do it virtually for development purposes and not really for profit-making.
He said he was at the university Founder’s Day, “to rejoice with, and encourage, a friend who is giving back to society what it needed to grow.”
Ibori, the visitor to the university and former governor of Delta State, who personally welcomed Obaigbena, drew thunderous ovation from the people.
Dele Momodu, publisher of Ovation Magazine, said, if it were to be the election period, issues would have been made out of the invitation because of the presence of the guest lecturer, Fayemi, a chieftain of All Progressive Congress but quickly added that the issue of developing has nothing to do with party.
He said building an institution like the Western Delta University, established to promote intellectual development that competes with the best in the world, requires people and resource collaboration outside the limited scope of party affiliate.
Ibori pleaded with the Arise television promoter to help build the Western Delta University to make it one of the best private universities in Nigeria.
Earlier, Ibori introduced Obi as his younger brother, who was invited in view of his abundant talent and crave for human resources development.
Obi, whose presence led to loud ovation and a momentary uncontrolled rowdy movement of the guests mostly the students in the hall, acknowledged Ibori’s reference to him as a junior brother and promised to contribute to the overall development of the Western Delta University.
He accepted Ibori’s invitation to come and lecture at the school so as to impact his knowledge of entrepreneurship into the students.
Others who donated to the Western Delta University are Ighoyota Amori, N250,000, eremiah Fufeyin, N5 million, Greg Ighere, an unspecified amount, Williams Makinde, unspecified amount, Emmanuel Uduaghan and his family, an unspecified amount, amongst others.
On the significance of the Founder’s Day lecture, the Vice Chancellor of WDU, Augustine Ovuoronye Ikelegbe, said the occasion is geared towards highlighting its journey so far in offering educational training and preparing students to build competence for their future careers.
Fayemi, Uduaghan, Andrew Onokeroraye, former vice chancellor of University of Benin and the pioneer pro-chancellor of Western Delta University; renowned scholar and the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Western Delta University, Peter Hugbo; G. G. Darah, former chief of staff to Ibori, Dere Otubu, Williams Makinde, former managing director of Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission; Moses Ogbe, former Independent National Electoral Commission resident commissioner to Lagos State; and Greg Ighere of the Niger Delta Development Commission, were among the eminent personalities that received awards of recognition for their contributions to the development of the Western Delta University.
