Issues
RSU Driving The Wheels Of Educational Excellence
Three months after
assumption of office, the Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike on August 1, 2015, appointed an erudite scholar, Prof. Blessing Chimezie Didia as acting Vice Chancellor of the Rivers State University.he was confirmed Vice Chancellor in 2016. The appointment came at a time when the premier Science and Technology University was in a state of turmoil arising from mal-administrative challenges of the past administration. In the midst of the crisis, many lecturers were sacked by the administration of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
The university witnessed a very bad academic season with the record of experiencing the highest industrial action in the history of universities in the country.
Professor Didia, confronted by the enormous challenges and task of returning the institution to fall in line with the new Rivers vision of Governor Wike, quickly unfolded his administrative road maps in order to regain the lost glory of the former “University of Science and technology, (RSUST), now renamed (Rivers State University (RSU).
In an exclusive interview with The Tide in his office recently, the Vice Chancellor, recounted his experience since he assumed office and expressed gratitude to the State governor for giving him the needed support to return the university to normalcy.
“The task before us was enormous. I came to the university in 2015 when it was engulfed in serious crises and strikes. Every where and anybody who lived in the state as at that time can attest to the condition of things at the State University before my assumption”.
“Luckily for me, the governor who appointed me just took the first shot by inviting all those staff that were sacked, talked with them and resolved to make peace. That move by governor Wike brought the first peace and I have to leverage on it and called for forgiveness, reconciliation and commitment and the staff listened to me and that was how peace returned, and we have our dedication, forgiveness, peace and commitment to duty till today”.
The Vice Chancellor explained that prior to his appointment in the university, only the faculties of Engineering and Sciences had their own buildings while other faculties were either housed in makeshifts or clustered apartments, adding that such situations have changed as seven faculties in the university now have their own well furnished buildings.
He disclosed that his administration engaged both the state government and corporate organisations in the rebuilding process of the university. Today, the university has witnessed tremendous infrastructural development, adding that such approach, paved way for the massive infrastructure and development currently being witnessed in the university.
“Talking about achievements, not by our power, may be the approach we adopted, we appealed to the state government, Tetfund and corporate bodies to come to our aid so that we can regain what we lost within those period”.
“The state government has been quite helpful to the university despite the lean resources within its purview in the midst of many demanding needs of the state. “We were able to achieve all these through the prudent management of fund, applying fund, where necessary. Moreso, the governing council of the institution has been quite forth coming through the approvals of funds that propelled the actualisation of the various projects”.
Apparently, the visible infrastructural development of Prof. Didia across the university has justified the confidence and political trust placed on him by the Chief executive of the state, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Concerned by the state government’s commitment and determination in realising the dreams of having a College of Medical Sciences established in the university, the Vice Chancellor through the instrumentality of the state government, mid-wifed the change of the institution’s name from the former Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) to the Rivers State University (RSU) with the aim to liberalise the university, so that it can expand its scope and operations to include other disciplines without losing the focus of its core mandate of remaining the leading Science and Technology institution in Nigeria.
The dream of establishing a College of Medicine came to reality under the watch and guide of Prof. Didia.
The College of Medical Sciences has taken off with the admission of 100 pilot students in the departments of Anatomy and physiology for the 2018/2019 academic session.
With the appointment of the provost of the medical school and the employment of both senior and junior lecturers into the college, it is evident that the coast is now clear for the commencement of full-fledged college of medical sciences at the state university.
“The state government is building the faculty for the College of Medical Sciences which will be commissioned in May this year. The university is working in that direction to realise the mandate.
“With hope that the on-going projects will be completed accordingly, we have at the moment four Professors, Jack, Ordu, Jaja and Uriel. Our sons and daughters who are consulting at the BMH have all indicated interests to come over to the school to lecture, so we have enough manpower. When the University of Port Harcourt’s College of medical sciences was established, they did not have enough manpower as we do”.
“We have been up and doing to stand the test of time and we are working to ensure that our university becomes among the best in Africa. Things are slowly picking up in the medical school. The first hurdle we had was to ensure that the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) approved the laboratories and courses, that we have achieved. The law for the establishment of a Teaching Hospital had been approved and what is left now is the appointment of a Medical Director for the Hospital which will be done by the state government. We have admitted hundred students into the College, a good beginning”, said Prof. Didia.
Professor Didia, former Provost of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Port Harcourt observed that the state was lagging behind in the area of raising medical professionals compared to other states due to the absence of a medical college, adding that the state depended much on the admission from the University of Port Harcourt for her students to study medicine and other allied courses.
According to him, UNIPORT is a federal institution that spreads its admission across the country, and that the quota given the state is shared between Rivers and Bayelsa States, adding that the establishment of the College of Medical Sciences would also help to bridge the existing gap in other allied medical sciences that the state has few professionals.
To consolidate on the various achievements and to ensure that graduates of the institution become self-sufficient and create wealth for themselves without depending much on white collar job, Prof. Didia disclosed that efforts were being made to ensure the completion of the Entrepreneurship centre within the university before the end of the year, adding that the centre when completed would train graduates of the institution on skills acquisition and also award certificates.
The Vice Chancellor averred that the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) has also approved seven more disciplines as courses to be offered by the university, adding that the new courses are Anatomy, Sociology, Geology, Biochemistry, Micro Biology and Agric Economics.
The VC opined that his administration desires to make agriculture a major source of revenue to the state and indeed to provide the needed food sufficiency for the state. Prof. Didia said arrangements have been concluded to revamp the Onne Campus which used to house the faculty of Agricultural Sciences, adding that when that is completed, the university will play a major role in achieving food sufficiency to the country as well as boosting the internally generated revenue of the institution.
Worried by the issues of sorting and cultism in the institution, Prof. Didia said his administration is fighting the scourge, hinting that some lecturers had already been placed on suspension, while some matters had been referred to the senate. He said, cultism which used to be rampant in the university before his appointment has now been reduced to the barest minimum.
“Those who lived in the state can say what the situation was, but today such things are no longer happening again. Yes, we can say that those cultists in the society are students but in RSU any student caught indulging in these criminal activities will be shown the way out of the university.
“The university law is there; we have proscribed sorting, selling of handouts. Any lecturer who cannot stand and teach his or her students in the class, he or she is not worthy to be called a lecturer. I am not protecting the lecturers, this sorting is in two phases, sometimes, students pay money to lecturers. My office is open for any student to come and report such issue”, he added.
The Vice Chancellor however used the opportunity to thank the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), SPDC and NDDC for the various projects executed in the campus and also called on corporate bodies, indeed Rivers indigenes, to show interest in the development of education in order to immortalise their names.
Many pundits believed that Prof. Didia’s appointment as the Vice Chancellor of RSU by the state governor in August 2015 was a mere political settlement and compensation and not for service delivery, but the numerous achievements of the Vice Chancellor within this short period in office have proven them wrong.
Amieyeofori Ibim & Amadi Akujobi
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
