Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Vice Chancellor of Godfrey Okoye University (GOU) Enugu, Monsignor Christian Anieke has said that the university was one of the fastest growing private universities in the South-East of Nigeria.
Anieke said this at the university’s matriculation ceremony for 2022/23 academic session.
“This is a clear testimony of our rapid growth in the number of students matriculating today,” he said.
He said that 1,093 new students were matriculated for 2022/ 2023 academic session
According to him: “A breakdown of the list showed that 750 were fresh students from Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), while 88 came in through Direct Entry.
“Also, 43 students transferred from different universities, 118 for Sandwich programme, 56 came from Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) and 38 students from College of Practical Skills.
“They were drawn from the faculties of Arts, Education, Management of Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Environmental Studies, Law and College of Medicine.”
Anieke said the matriculating students had their reasons for choosing GOU among over 200 universities in Nigeria, adding that it might not be an easy choice.
“But for many others, the decision was a tearing struggle, since each university had got its beauty and attraction.
“I will not tell you today, why you should choose GOU since you have already made your choice.
“But I will surely assure you that this choice, your choice, will make all the difference,” Anieke said.
He told them that in the next three, four to five years, they would be painted with the beautiful colours of the university, thus acquiring the GOU identity, “which is pretty unique in Nigeria.”
According to him, the identities are to produce graduates who would be outstanding in learning, balanced in character and personality, as well as ready to pursue epistemic unity in all its ramifications.
The vice Chancellor said, to achieve this GOU had employed a team of brilliant scholars in various programmes of the university, including the College of Medicine.
“It has a spiderweb of national and international collaborations, our university is a member of Africa-UniNet.
“A network of African and Austrian universities, where he, Anieke is one of the seven board members.
“GOU is very popular in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and many European countries, because of our connections and collaborations with many institutions and universities in Europe.
“We have very functional collaborative arrangements, with a good number of institutions and universities in Europe, North America, and Asia.”
“This includes exposure to programmes for students in the UK, and as many students as possible travel to the UK,” he said.
The VC explained that students who failed the character assessment at the end of their studies were usually sent to do community service before they graduate, or even suspended or expelled.
He, however, warned the students against barbarism, cultism, drug addiction and prostitution in the form of reprehensible merchandising of the female body.
“No positive nod to male chauvinism and rascality, no welcoming of primitive shouting and insults, and no coming with opens arms to lunacy in the form of neopaganism.
“As you know, your university is spiritually clean. Please do not open our doors and windows to unclean spirits” Anieke said.
