Why 54 Anglican Bishops handed over Paul University to Awka

From Obinna Odogwu, Awka

The Acting Vice-Chancellor of Paul University, Awka, Venerable Professor Obiora Nwosu, has disclosed the reasons bishops of the 54 dioceses east of the Niger, which were co-owners of the faith-based university, signed off from the institution, leaving Awka Diocese to be the sole owner.

Before that handover to Awka Diocese, the university was poorly funded. And it was so bad that its members of staff were owed salaries for years, according to the VC. In this interview, the Acting VC spoke on a number of issues of concern.

How has it been running this university? What have been the success stories and the challenges so far since you came on board?

It has been success all the way. I saw the hand of God at Paul University. Our almost collapsed university got revived. He said the dried bone shall live again. That’s what I saw. So, since I came on board, I met 300 students altogether; in all the programmes they were running. And then, with 244 staff. Now, based on that, they could not meet up with the payment of salaries. There were many years – not months. Many years of salary arrears. But as of today, with the introduction of new academic programmes; hot in demand programmes, staff salaries are now being paid every month. Members of staff are no longer owed salaries at the end of every month. I think that’s a success story. That’s to God’s own glory.

Now, another one is that they had four faculties; three actually. They had Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Management and Social Sciences. But I now caused the Management and Social Sciences to be separate. So there were four faculties. But today, we have nine faculties. So since I came in, from May 2021 to date I have introduced five new faculties. The first faculty was the Faculty of Law, which you know is in hot demand. We don’t lack students. We have started rejecting students. So, for the first time, Paul University started rejecting students. So, we have the Faculty of Law as a new programme. We also have the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health and Allied Sciences that is nursing, medical laboratory, radiography and medical rehabilitation – that is physiotherapy. We now equally have a new department added to it; that is Public Health. So, that’s about that. Then, another one is the Faculty of Engineering, which has just been recently approved for us. We will be admitting students this session. We also have Faculty of Computing Science and Technology where we have software engineering, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and the likes. Then, under engineering we have computer engineering and electrical electronic engineering. So, that’s the new faculties – Faculty of Law, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Health and Allied Sciences, Faculty of Computing Science and Technology and Faculty of Education. They are all hot in demand programmes. So, that is success on that. Now, apart from these new faculties, I started a postgraduate programme here. They were not doing postgraduate programmes when I came. I introduced it. So, we now have postgraduate diplomas, Masters and PhD. And then we have graduated students. The last convocation last year, we had both Masters and PhD graduates; the first in the university. Again, we have full accreditation for Law, and the others. That’s the much I can say. I have seen the hand of God. Fifty-five dioceses owned the institution before but presently it is now being owned by Awka Diocese.

You mentioned that staff salaries are now being paid regularly. What happened to the arrears? Have they been cleared or are they still there?

The arrears are not yet cleared. We are making efforts to clear the arrears. Now, with these new courses coming, we intend to clear them. But we cannot clear them at a go. Now, as the current members of staff are being paid, those arrears will equally be paid. But when we can now raise money, we will clear them. Look at these papers that I am holding, they contain the salary arrears. We will be discussing this at the management meeting soon. It is one of the serious items we will be discussing; how to clear these salary arrears. So, it’s not yet cleared but we are making serious efforts to clear them. And then, the management is to meet the proprietor, Awka Diocese.

From your explanation now, you may be of the opinion that funding is also part of the challenge universities, not just Paul University, are facing. But in a recent interview, the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka argued that misplaced priorities are killing universities in Nigeria. Do you agree with him?

How? It depends on what he meant by misplacement of priorities. Here now, what we need is getting hot-in-demand programmes. Federal universities are not the same thing with private universities. The salaries of federal universities are being paid by the federal government.

So, they use their internally generated revenues to do some other things. But here, what you generate from the school fees is what you use in paying staff salary; pay electricity bills and others. Here, I don’t see any misplaced priority at Paul University; instead, with these new programmes now, we will be able to secure the salary of staff from January to December from what we generated; not what the Awka Diocese gives us.

It is from what we generated. So for me, I will now say that universities that will generate that money for the staff salary and to do other things; take up other projects. For me, with these new programmes that are coming in Paul University, we will take on any project and even support the owner diocese, that is the Awka Diocese.

You mentioned that this university is now owned by Awka Diocese. I am aware that it used to be owned by 55 dioceses east of the Niger. What happened? Can you throw more light on that?

There is an Igbo adage that says that ‘A goat that is being fed by many people will always go hungry’. The approval of this university was in 2009 but the actual academic activities started in 2010 with old structures. The 55 dioceses could not raise money to build up structures. The only structure that they have after the Arinne structure that Archbishop Anikwenwa built for Natural Sciences is the Law Faculty. Is there any other one? When the accreditation team from the National Universities Commission came here, they said that Paul University was operating on archaic buildings. Now, we have renovated some buildings for Nursing and other new programmes. But now, we have exhausted the existing structures. It’s getting exhausted. The next thing now is, what are we going to do? How can 55 dioceses own a university they cannot build? In a single synod, they generate a lot of money. They could have said okay one day in a year let us have Paul’s Day where they will generate money for the university. They didn’t do that. They will just share how much they will get but they will go back and do nothing. Now, look at the universities; look at the University on the Niger, see the structures; they are now building their own. Rivers wants their own. Enugu wants their own; many other dioceses want their own. When you go there you see structures. Now they have given this university to Awka Diocese. It is now left for Awka Diocese to develop this place. It is now in their hands. If given the structures, this university will not suffer. For me, give me structures and all these programmes run by recognised universities will also be run here. It is not a problem. Let them get here equipped. I know the terrain on how to get hot in demand courses.

Was there an agreement signed by the other 54 dioceses or did the Primate just hand it over to Awka Diocese?

Yes, there was an agreement. The other 54 dioceses couldn’t fund it. The university was already dying. Or it was already dead. Let me put it that way. When you cannot pay staff salary for years; not even for months, that place is dead. So, they agreed. They signed and hands off. None of the other 54 dioceses objected. And Awka accepted.

Why do you think they were not funding it despite having the resources?

The administrative structure of the Anglican Church is not the best. Every diocese is autonomous. And given that autonomy, they mind their own diocese. So, they cannot seem to agree. So, it is agreeing to disagree. Let us put it that way. Or agreeing not to work together. For me, I think Ajayi Crowther University in the west, all the dioceses in the west are supporting that university. But east of the Niger, they are too wise. I don’t know.

Where do you see this university in the next five years?

The university is well positioned at the heart of the capital city. With these new programmes; we now have law, we now have engineering. Medicine is coming, pharmacy is coming. In the next five years, this university will be known all over the world. It will be fully established. The good foundation is being laid now. So, I see a very bright future for the university. The narrative of Paul University has changed for the best. It cannot decline again or fold, or be closed down. No, no, no! It will continue to move forward.

Are you satisfied with Nigeria’s education system as it is presently, especially looking at the government’s policies on education?

I think they are trying. At least, they are now funding the universities, but it’s the federal government’s universities and that of the states. They are looking after the government-owned universities. I think they are paying their salaries. They have TETFUND – Tertiary Education Trust Fund that sponsors most research, structure, and development of the universities. So, they are trying. And they have the NUC that makes policies to make sure that the university education is standardised. So, they are really trying. You can’t compare them with abroad but they’re really trying.