Nigeria university system under pressure -Funai VC

The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba said the Nigeria University system is seriously challenged and under pressure.

The Professor of Agricultural Economics made this known when members of a United States Christian group visited him in his office over the weekend.

“The Nigeria university system is seriously challenged and under pressure. Our nation veered off educationally from the 70’s, a consequence of military era,” he noted.

Welcoming the team to the university, Prof. Nwajiuba thanked them for their thoughtfulness in pledging to collaborate with the FUNAI, noting that the doubt about the quality of Nigerian graduates has made it more imperative to re-jig the country’s education sector through diaspora collaboration.

“The doubt about the quality of our graduates in terms of their inability to speak good English, read and write appropriately has made it necessary for immediate intervention if our graduates could be employable

“On our part we have started a compulsory zero credit Language Enhancement Programme (LEP) to train our students in those salient areas. I believe it is the first of its kind in Nigerian Universities

“We have also established a Centre for Internationalization to drive our partnership with Nigerian academics in diaspora in other to make this University different,” the Vice Chancellor stated.

He further added that it was his vision to establish a Diaspora village in the Southeast zone of Nigeria where Nigerian academics in the diaspora could congregate to compare notes with their local peers, and called on Nigerian academics abroad to think home not just through their finances but also their intellectual works.

Earlier, the group, through Apostle O.C. Obikaram, said their goal as a Christian organization was to take the church to the outside world, noting that they had done this for over 13 years, trying to reduce the suffering of people in different parts of the world.

He further said: “We believe that when people’s academics, spiritual and social life are properly harnessed and combined, it will lead to a better society.”

Expressing appreciation with the developmental strides of the Vice Chancellor, another member of the group, Joe Agumadu advised: “Keep doing what you are doing because the news is already going outside the country”, and prayed that God should sustain the solid works of the Vice Chancellor as he strives to make the University great.

“We are behind you. Whatever you desire, God will give you the grace to accomplish it for this University,” he concluded.