–Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA):
NIGERIAN universities have been charged to always comply with global best practices in terms of corporate governance, operations, benchmark, quality assurance and judicious application of resources for impact.
The chairman of the Federal Government Visitation panel to the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Emeritus Prof. Ikenna Onyido,stated this on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 when he led a 7-member team to FUPRE.
He noted that it was important for the Federal Government to at interval check the books of the various universities owned by it to ascertain compliance to the various regulations and assess their development, in line with available regulations overtime.
Prof. Onyido, a former Vice-Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike stressed that though the assignment was not an inquisition, it has become imperative to streamline things in the universities to accomplish their goals as mandated by the laws.
According to him; “my team is made up of men and women of integrity and we are here to carry out our assignment without fear or favour, and we are not here for inquisition or witch-hunting but we shall not close our eyes to systemic anomalies”.
He said their assignment would further strengthen the university to carry out her mandate and attract global acceptance as required by the founding fathers and regulatory agencies.
To support learning and research in the university, the chairman of the Panel, Prof. Ikenna Onyido further donated sets of academic and leadership books to the university, one of which was on advocacy on returning quality leadership to the Nigerian university system.
It could be recalled that the Federal Government recently constituted visitation panels to 37 universities and four Inter-University Centres and was inaugurated to commence work by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu on Tuesdya, April 13, 2021.
The Visitation Panel to FUPRE include Prof. Suleiman Abdul (Niger); Prof. Kenechukwu Udechukwu (Anambra); and Dr. Kazeem Olaniyan (Oyo). Others are Alh. Sani Ibrahim Amin (Kaduna); Prof. Ambily Etekpe (Bayelsa) with Dr. (Mrs.) Felicia Innamchi-Ukaegbu (Imo) as Secretary.
Speaking earlier while welcoming the team, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Prof. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh commended the panel for their commitment to streamline things in the university, assuring that the management was ready to make every document available to enhance the panel’s work.
The Vice-Chancellor, while giving a brief on the university noted that with the visitation of the panel, the university would be disposed to also present her challenges to enable the government provide urgent intervention for the university to pursue her mandate of training high level manpower in the oil and gas sector.
