From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), is once again in the news for a commendable feat. Its business school on October 2 made history, having become the first business school in Nigeria to graduate doctoral students.
The students who graduated from different executive doctoral programmes, including economic policy management, business and public leadership, became the pioneer doctorate students of the school. The pioneer Doctor of Business Administration Class of 2018 of the school include Billy Okoye (Oil, Gas & Energy Marketing), John Nwakoby (Project Finance), Emmanuel Ezeh (Entrepreneurship and Innovation); Festus Ajanwachuku (Finance) and Emmanuel Okpalaoka (Business Leadership).
Others are Iheanyi Nwogu (Finance), Emmanuel Ohakim (AgricBusiness and Innovation), Ifeanyi Ndihibe, (Project Management) and Vincent Eluu (Public Sector Accounting).
This set of people for the past three years of pursuing professional doctorate had sought how they could apply theoretical knowledge in business practice.
Daily Sun gathered that the nine of them are no doubt corporate titans in their own right, including an executive director in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and top bankers.
Speaking at the graduation dinner organised by the students, Director of the Business School, Professor Josaphat Onwumere, said the students must always keep the flag flying, being the their pioneer students.
“They must always represent the true image of the university, which sets out to restore the dignity of man wherever they find themselves,” he said.
As the first institution to offer doctorate degrees in Business Administration in its Business School in the country, Prof Onwumere noted that the school has a programme called public leadership which is intended to groom students interested in leading in both business and government.
“We introduced the programme because, in public leadership, we not only look at those who occupy positions but also those who are following,” he said, adding that “if the leader goes astray, you should be able to call him to order.”
He explained that when they came in, the management promised to make sure that they graduate after three years. “We kept to our promise, although many people do not believe it was possible to achieve that, especially in UNN.”
The director also praised the quality of its pioneer students for the DBA, while also extolling the virtue of the institution. He said: “Of course, we have a good brand, the owners of the place, the University of Nigeria, belongs to a class.”
He urged them to “carry the image of the school, the vision of the school, pass it round, be good ambassadors and then support us when we need them.
“University business schools depend on alumni for so many things. That is the basis we are coming from; what we give you enriches you one way or the other.”
In an interview with Daily Sun, Coordinator, Consultancies and Training, UNN Business School, Dr. Chuka Ifediora, said with this feat, the school had just shown that it can be done.
Though the experience was like learning while on the job, but Ifediora noted that the main issue was that they took time to formulate the programme, conceptualise the content of the courses.
He said: “What we have in the Business School is an offshoot of a well-reputable brand that has come to stay. So, this is professionalism in an academic environment and the truth is that the director or the coordinators are people with industrial experience. So, we brought that to bear in what we do. At the business school, we emphasise industrial experience and not just the academic. So, for most of our facilitators – the lecturers, we look at their industrial background.”
Asked how the business school could help in solving problems in the society, Ifediora noted that that was one of the reasons they initiated the DBA to imbue people with industry experience.
“What we’ve done is to unbundle a lot of areas. If you look at our graduands today, they are people entrenched in different areas in different sectors. And from what we’ve given them, we believe they should give their own input. When you say the school, the school makes achievements through its products.
“We have enough PhDs at the faculty level and that’s academic but what we have here is industry experience -practical. So, we believe we can proffer practical solutions to societal challenges through our products,” he stated.
One of the pioneer graduating students, Emmanuel Eze, an Enugu-based entrepreneur, was all praises for the management and staff of the institution because, according to him, the journey they started three years ago had just ended.
Eze, who said he is prepared to add value to society with the knowledge he has gained over the last three years, declared that “the future belongs to those who are willing to unlearn and relearn and that is essentially what I came to the UNN Business School to do for three years. I would not have gone elsewhere to seek the knowledge I have gained here.
“The essence of business school is beyond university certificate; it’s what you do with it afterwards and the branding that comes from it, the value we add back to school and the society.
“As an entrepreneur, time has gone when people believe it’s all about making money. We live in very complex environment, agility is part of the game, uncertainty has become a norm and for you as an entrepreneur, you must be prepared, you must also go back and retool yourself.”