Prides of lions and lionesses converged on the Muson Centre, Lagos, recently for an annual reunion dinner and award ceremony. For students of the University of Nigeria that delightfully pride themselves as ‘great lions and lionesses’, Wednesday, December 16, was a memorable night to roar.
At an eventful dinner organised by the University of Nigeria Alumni Association (UNAA), Lagos Branch, old students relived fond memories of their school days at the dinner table. They popped champagne and broke the silence of the night with prestigious awards bestowed on their outstanding colleagues, including the Deputy Managing Director/Deputy Editor-in-Chief, The Sun Publishing Ltd, Mr Steve Nwosu.
It was a night of bliss for Nwosu, a celebrated journalist, as he was honoured with the Distinguished Eminent Lion Award in recognition of his landmark achievements in his chosen career, his generous support for the association and unwavering commitment to the development of the university. Other alumni of the university, Susan Eshiet, bagged the Distinguished Eminent Lioness Award, while Ano Anyanwu smiled home with the Diamond Award in recognition of his contributions and commitment to the association.
The President, UNAA, Lagos Branch, Chief Mike Okoye, described the event as a historic night for the alumni. He described the association as a critical stakeholder of the University of Nigeria, noting that the occasion provided a social platform to interact and reassess commitment to both the association and the university.
“As stewards of decades-old tradition of higher learning, we must work hard to ensure that the understandable effort to promote welfare of students, especially the hostel facilities is sustained. This is the only way to sustain high morals, confident students and standard of learning that our university has been known and respected for over six decades”, he said.
In an interview with Campus Sun, Nwosu expressed delight with the award and promise not to rest his hands on the plough. He noted that the public recognition accorded him was an encouragement to him to work harder in his chosen field and other areas that would positively affect humanity.
“This means that I am in trouble in the sense that I need to work harder,” he said. “When you thought you are doing something and hiding somewhere but people are taking note, then you need to be more careful and comport yourself very well. Now, I have to represent the school and the country better. It just added more responsibility on my shoulder. I am happy and grateful for it; especially when it is coming from your alma mater, it can’t come any better.”
Although the reunion was a happy moment for the old students, a video-clip of the decaying state of hostel facilities in their alma-mater, which was played at the event, stole the smiles off their faces.
The President of the association, Okoye, bemoaned the decaying state of facilities in the university. He said the appalling decay in infrastructure in the university was quite visible when he visited the institution recently.
“I feel the need to change this condition. This is why I have made the upgrading of the facilities in our university hostels a key objective for this administration.”
Prof. Pat Utomi harped on the need for the association to avoid having its fingers in many pies but instead to focus its attention on a particular project that can be effectively implemented in the school. He insisted that to get anything right, one must employ a strategy. According to him, the best strategy is rethinking the university education in Nigeria completely.
“I think it should concern all of us. I don’t know anybody who really thinks that government can fund all the universities in Nigeria,” he said. “It is madness with this make-belief about universities in Nigeria being free. It doesn’t make any sense. It is only in Nigeria that a parent who pays N300,000 a term for a four-year-old child to go to kindergarten school, will want to pay nothing for that child to attend university.”
On the state of dilapidation of the university’s facilities, Nwosu said he felt very bad that the situation has deteriorated to that level. He recalled that when he was still in the school some decades ago, some of the problems were already cropping up.
“If all the alumni can simply pay N1,000 back to the school; even if it is not on monthly basis, I am sure we will overcome many of these problems,” he remarked. “There is a problem of, when you build a university and hand it over back to the school authority. Chances are it would return to the old state but, we just have to get out of that mentality.
“When I saw the video clip of some of the hostels, I could not look at it for the second time because it is really painful. But we have to do something about it.”
He added: “However most of what the alumni association does is like giving a helping hand to the school. Instead of giving money to the school, you identify a particular project and execute it. It is about having the spirit of service and delivering the services that will touch lives. When you talk of accountability, people begin to think who has and has not embezzled money. All you need do is to deliver the project for the good of the students and the school will be better for it.
“In fact, some of us, who are exposed to knowing these things, have discovered that there are so many floating funds here and there that can be tapped into and can be channeled into the university to improve the state of infrastructures.”
Prof. Pat Utomi said even at the most trying period in the history of Nigeria, that is, immediately after the war, UNN was still looking better than it is today.
“My personal view is to take the original five or six universities in Nigeria and declare them the centre of excellence and fund them very well and students should still pay normal fees. Most of us who are sending our children to American universities that are state-funded to pay 50,000 dollars. You think those children will come back to Nigeria when they graduate?
“When I visited UNN about 20 years ago, I wanted to look around; they warned me not to go near the toilets. The conduct of people in the world around there will reflect the environment they live in. There is no way you will live in a university without toilet and come out into the world to behave like somebody who is cultured. We have real problems. When we are ready for progress, we need to make some real sacrifices and the first sacrifice is by forcing this country to begin to rethink how to be organised. We need a new philosophy. What we have at UNN is not restoring the dignity of man,” he stated.
Many guests attended the event. They include Chairman, Finlab Nigeria Ltd, Chief Uzo Nwaije (1977 set), Chief Emeka Nwanevu, the Managing Director/CEO, Falcon Corporation Ltd, Prof Joe Ezigbo, the President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Malachy Ugwummadu, Sussan Eshiet, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof Fidelis Njokanma, the Chairman, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), AIG Chris Olakpe, among others.
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