Petroleum varsity VC appeals to Buhari to sign bill establishing institution
By Nosa Akenzua, Asaba
Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun in Delta state has lamented the absence of a law establishing the institution and has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sign into law the bill creating the university to enable the institution fulfill its mandate.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Akaehomen Ibhadode, who spoke to our correspondent in Effurun, disclosed that the university was at a disadvantage considering the non-provision of any take off grant at its inception.
He therefore, appealed to the federal government to approve the implementation of the special funding window in the University Establishment Act because of the challenges of funding that is slowing down the development of the university.
“We believe that the spirit with which Mr. President assents to the Act would be the same to implement its letters because it’s on that platform that our journey to the apogee of academic glory would commence with earnest zeal and truly make our university the first in Africa and sixth in the world.
“Our major challenge as a university is that of funding which may not be much different from those of other institutions. However, we are particularly disadvantaged considering the manner the university took off, the non-provision of take-off grant at inception has slowed down the development of the university,” Prof. Ibhadode said.
He added that if the university is to live up to the expectations of its founding fathers, government must do more to adequately fund the university.
The vice chancellor said that it was disheartening that key stakeholders in the oil sector have not identified with the university even when they were already getting global accolades.
He expressed optimism that assenting to the University Establishment Act by the president will motivate key stakeholders to collaborate with the university, reiterating that the vision of the institution is to serve the interest of the nation in particular and humanity at large.
“We are not deterred by the uphill task that would culminate in fulfilling our mandate,” he assured, disclosing that the university has achieved 100 per cent full accreditation from both the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for all its academic programmes.
