By Rebecca Uwandu
It is very rare in Nigeria to see public functionaries tendering account of their term of service. The former Vice-Chancellor (Acting) of Anambra State University, Awka, Professor Joseph Ifeanyichukwu Ikechebelu, Fameds, Fnamed, has set a worthy example for others to follow. How Prof Ikechebelu restored academic stability and peace at Nnamdi Azikiwe University is the stuff of which history with a capital H is made.
Ever since he became the Acting Vice-Chancellor on June 4, 2024, Prof Ikechebelu charted a profound course of consultation, consummate resource management and restoration of confidence in the system. He was on good grounding having served before as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration). Incidentally, when the constitution of the 10th Governing Council of the University led to the appointment of another Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ikechebelu dutifully reverted to his position as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration).
It needs to be recalled that after the reconstituted 10th Governing Council of UNIZIK later appointed a Vice-Chancellor and a Registrar outside the provisions of the Governing Act of the University in utter disregard of the lawful directives from the Ministry of Education, the Federal Government nullified the appointments and dissolved the Council. It took the fatherly and timely intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for justice to prevail leading to the restoration of sanity to UNIZIK. Prof Ikechebelu had to be returned to office as the Acting Vice-Chancellor, and he has acquitted himself splendidly.
His vision and mission were an open book. For a short-term charge, his mission stood thusly: Beautify UNIZIK; Light-up UNIZIK; Excellent UNIZIK; Safe and Secure UNIZIK; and Digitize UNIZIK. This was uniquely captured as Blessed UNIZIK, with a hedge-hog concept of (HPS)2 – Happy Productive Staff and Happy Progressive Students.
It was not in his make-up to see an acting appointment as merely holding the fort. For him, any task worth doing demands all the energy, not minding if one was working in acting capacity. Prof Ikechebelu can never be accused of being lackadaisical in the performance of his duties. He was committed to the well-being of the University: its students, its staff, and its institutional identity.
Armed with the cognate knowledge of psychology and the neurosciences, Prof Ikechebelu understands that aesthetics can readily be counted to have a big impact on people’s attitude and mindset, thus affecting cognition and the biological responses of the body. This is especially so in educational institutions where it affects students’ learning, discipline, and staff productivity at work. He was driven by these findings and the reality that the general environmental and sanitation situation of UNIZIK prior to his appointment had much room for improvement. It was a call to duty for him to revamp the University’s Cleaning Services and Sanitation Committee.
The recovery of green spaces and maintenance of lawns took pride of place in his work ethic. The lawns became well-kept and protected from trespassers and trespassing. This was followed by the restoration of drainage systems and walkways. The drainages and gutters which had been previously filled with refuse had to be evacuated, and some of the walkways overgrown with bushes and other obstructions were cleared, thus enabling pedestrians to use the walkways. He knew that maintenance is key and insisted that the gutters and walkways must be maintained at all times. He equally undertook the elimination of indiscriminate waste dumps.
Under the charge of Prof Ikechebelu, road maintenance in UNIZIK gained comprehensive momentum. The existing potholes on the roads in the University were filled, and the roads got swept on a regular basis. UNIZIK’s iconic Beautiful Gate that had suffered damages here and there and had become weather-beaten was repaired and repainted. He undertook the reconstruction of the front face, to wit, the southern boundary, of the University’s perimeter fence. This segment of the perimeter fence had been systematically dismantled by obviously big time and well organized iron rod scavengers, assisted by the incorrigible “Iron Kwandem” vendors. The total reconstruction of the fence had to be initiated. With the security arrangements Prof Ikechebelu put in place such cannibalization would not be repeated.
The aesthetics, sanitation, and beauty of UNIZIK witnessed significant improvements in the months that Prof Ikechebelu served as acting Vice-Chancellor, to the delight of the students, faculty and alumni. Before he became acting Vice-Chancellor, the University had been having seemingly intractable electricity challenges, arising from supply disruptions from the national grid, and the exacerbation by the theft of armoured cables within the campus. Almost on a daily basis, the offices, classrooms, laboratories were off the national grid, forcing the University to rely on power supply from generators. This was not sustainable over time on account of the high cost of diesel and premium motor spirit. The sad situation seriously impaired office work and academic activities. From his first stint, Prof Ikechebelu took decisive actions which put to rest the vexatious issue of power blackout in UNIZIK.
He constituted an Electricity Task Force that expeditiously tackled the issues of power outages as they arose. Following intensive discussion with the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), power was restored to the University on Band A; thus ensuring regular power supply to the Awka campus of the University. He took a similar action to restore power to the Okofia premises of the Nnewi Campus of the University which had been disconnected by EEDC from the national grid, and had for several months been in darkness. The business premises in the Awka Campus had to be metered, enabling the University to earn income from the energy consumed, and in this way assisted in defraying the energy bills of the University at large. In this connection, MoU had to be signed with Sibrud Consortium for the production of meters. Prof Ikechebelu initiated progressive solar-powered lighting of the streets in the Awka Campus, beginning from the Administrative Block, an initiative replicated in other campuses and premises of the University.
Prof Ikechebelu’s drive for an “Excellent UNIZIK” had the thrust to raise to higher pedestals the service delivery of the University in the areas of its core mandate: teaching, research, public and community service. For him, administrative excellence is key and can never be compromised. He sees the administration in an organization as akin to the lubricant that enables a machine to operate smoothly, as per efficiently and effectively. That’s the prism through which he viewed and sought to run the administration of the University. Through this means he maintained the academic calendar of the University without any disruption whatsoever. He resolved all lingering issues with the 2024/2025 admission process and successfully concluded the exercise. UNIZIK had a well-attended matriculation ceremony for the 2024/2025 fresh students on January 24, 2025. He conducted rancour-free free and fair Deanship elections in 9 faculties where elections were due. The University had a smooth election of the Provost and Deputy Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the College Academic Assembly on January 16, 2025. The position of Provost of the College of Postgraduate Studies was conducted at the University Senate via a keenly contested fair and free election on February 26, 2025. Prof Ikechebelu undertook the re-deployment of Deputy Registrars to improve efficiency and innovation in the Administration.
Academic excellence soared under the watch of Prof Ikechebelu. The upward trajectory of the academic feats of the University in national and international academic echelons were amply showcased. For instance, Emeritus Prof Ikenna Onyido, flsn, fwif, frsc, faas, fas of the Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, as principal investigator, leading four (4) other investigators from the University and one from the nearby Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, won the Alfred Sloan Foundation Research grant of $99,350 to undertake a 2-year project on: Attaining Typical Enzyme – type Rate Enchancements in the Uncatalyzed Hydrolysis of Phosphate Esters Through Ground State Destabilization. Furthermore, Nnamdi Azikiwe University became the first Nigerian University to win the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Chair in the sum of 200,000 Swiss Francis in recognition of the University’s advancement of academic activities related to trade in developing and least-developed countries anchored by Prof. Ngozi Egbuna, Director, International Centre for Regional Integration and Trade Research. The academic feats achieved by UNIZIK under Prof Ikechebelu will indeed need an entire book to document, not a short article like this.
The infrastructure excellence accomplished by Prof Ikechebelu is best illustrated by the Emeka Anyaoku Institute of International Studies and Diplomacy Building which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently came to Awka to commission.
A safe and secure UNIZIK has been guaranteed as well as the digitization of the University. Reducing analogue operations as it relates to students’ results and records has been a Prof Ikechebelu benchmark.
Prof Ikechebelu doggedly strived with much gusto to upscale the development trajectory of the University in all areas of its endeavours notwithstanding the transient nature of an acting appointment.
In truth, Prof Ikechebelu is aligned to the statement of Nigeria’s first president Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe after whom the University is named, to wit: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Rebecca Uwandu is an independent education researcher based in Awka, Anambra State.
