From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
The Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof Oguejiofo Ujam, has said that nobody inside or outside the university community has disputed the assertion that, Prof Frank Ndili’s era remained a golden era in UNN.
Ujam said this in Nsukka during the maiden edition of the Professor Frank Ndili Memorial Lecture & Induction of the awardees of the Ndili Foundation Scholars Programme.
Prof Ndili was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria from 1980 to 1985. He was born in 1934 and died in 2024. His administration is widely regarded as the golden age of the university.
The VC said during that era, UNN had a good number of expatriates including Americans, Britons, and Indians among others, as lecturers at the university.
“These expatriates all lived on campus and enjoyed what was truly a modern university that paraded the best standards of academics and municipal services.
“Sadly successive generations of leadership have struggled to sustain and even improve on such grandiose municipal infrastructure.
“Apart from creating and maintaining a strong academic and ethical culture, Prof Ndili is also credited with building the most magnificent among the buildings in this university, I am also personally impressed with the extensive municipal infrastructure he put up in this university.
“Prof Frank Ndili era remained a golden era in UNN,” he said.
He commended the choice of Prof P. N. Okeke to deliver the Maiden Memorial Lecture of Ndili as Okeke was Prof Ndili’s PhD student as well as holds the honour of being the first-ever recipient of the doctorate of this prestigious University of Nigeria.
Ujam thanked Dr Amachi Ndili, the Chairman of the education-focused foundation and other members for the sponsorship even as congratulated undergraduate students who would be maiden inductees of the Ndili Foundation Scholars Programme for their academic excellence that earned them the selection.
“I urge them to remain academically focused to justify the foundation’s investment in them as well as to be selected again next year.
Speaking, Chairman of Prof Ndili Education Scholarship Foundation, Dr Amachi Ndili, expressed appreciation for UNN’s recognition of his father’s immense contributions to the university.
“Ndili’s family is happy over the recognition and support to our father both as an academic and administrator during his sojourn in UNN.”
He said the foundation was a way of giving back to society, especially the youths who needed education to make positive impacts in their future.