Wednesday 22 May 2019

PROGRESS MADE SO FAR AT TANSIAN UNIVERSITY,ONE OF NIGERIA'S PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

TANSIAN UNIVERSITY: ACCOMPLISHMENTS,

 CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTSA LECTURE NOTE BY VERY REV. MSGR PROF JOHNBOSCO AKAM, TITLED: TANSIAN UNIVERSITY: ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNIVERSITY’S FOUNDER’S DAY CELEBRATION, 17TH DAY OF MAY, 2014Image result for tansian university

This is once again, another moment of profound joy and delight for me, as I stand before this cream of the society gathered here today, to witness our Founder’s Day Celebration, as Tansian University marks her 7th birthday.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Governing Council, Management, Staff and Students of the University, I heartily recognize you all in this occasion. We feel particularly honored with the presence in our midst, of the Executive Governor of Anambra State, His Excellency, Chief Dr Willie Obiano and his entourage.
I also recognize our other special Guests, particularly our respected Awardees of the University today:
We are equally glad to have with us, the alumni of the University, our highly esteemed stakeholders, delegates from the Federal and State Governments, our special and highly dependable friends from across the globe and members of the Media (the watchdogs of the society) both from within and outside Nigeria.
May all glory and thanks be to God Almighty, for the journey mercies He has graciously granted all of you, to this place.
As we begin, I would like to introduce to you, the Chief Host of this event, our new Vice Chancellor, Professor Chima Boniface Iwuchukwu – a renowned Professor of Education (B. Phil, P.u.a Rome; M.Ed, Phil, UNN; Mnae; Mpean; KSJI; and JP – Justice of Peace), who, until joining us recently was with the Imo State University.
Vice Chancellor Sir, may you please stand for a brief recognition. May I also invite all the Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments and Directors of various Spheres, to please stand with the V.C.
Our distinguished Guests, this is the Senior Academic, cum management Team of Tansian University; a highly dedicated team that I have been very proud of. I have truly, not found any better or more dedicated team anywhere, considering the enviable height to which the young University has been taken to within this short time of existence! Please, join with me in giving them a round of applause, for their wonderful contributions to the University!
THE PREAMBLES OF THE LECTURE
The Founder’s Day Celebration is an annual event in an Institution, but most special and most cherished ritual in Universities whose celebration is eagerly looked forward to, by both the University community and all her friends and well-wishers in the Diaspora. It is an occasion during which the struggles of the Founding Father are remembered, and cherished; the celebration reminds us of the vision, foresight and courage of the Founding father – the occasion affords the ample opportunity to reflect on the extent to which the original vision has been preserved or actualized, as well as the opportunity to strategize on how to advance this vision in our present and future developments.
When we talk about the vision/dream of the Founding Father, we ask ourselves on a day like this, as we make merry, whether this vision or dream, has carried with it, any steam or warmth or what you may simply call “enabling environment”, sufficient to engender the steady advancement of the noble goals for which the University was established. For it is only when the answer to this very critical question turns out as ‘YES’, at a forum like this, that the Founder can raise his head high, contented and grateful to God, that his dreams are on the RIGHT course, in line with Carl Jung’s views that “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is a much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child”. As the Founding Father of this University, I humbly present myself today for this public assessment – whether from the struggles you have seen these past 7 years, I have been able to provide the Staff and Students with the needed warmth or enabling environment – to show we are committed to our noble course of establishing a University to liberate mankind from the shackles as well as the whirlpool of ignorance and promote human development.
But please, I crave your indulgence not to be in a hurry in passing this verdict on the founder, until, at least I have made some attempts here, at telling you stories, recalling how the journey has fared so far, which I wish to actually begin by expressing immense thanks to our loving and compassionate Father, God Almighty, for all He has made possible to happen to us so far here, and by thanking also, all the men and women – both within and outside the University – who disposed themselves to be used by God as instruments to make Tansian University what it is today and be on the steady course of the advancement going on. I thank you all so much because, I agree fully with William Arthur Ward that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it out.” And when one puts into perspective, the wide range of benefits accruing from living gratefully and thankfully (which is my second nature), one would agree incontrovertibly with Melody Beatie that, “Gratitude turns the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend”.
Those who are close to us and are living witnesses to our struggles and how we have borrowed through and around the mountains on our way towards standing Tansian University on a sound footing and securing for it a pride of place among other winning Universities in Nigeria and beyond, would attest to how this virtue of gratitude has worked more than magic in the psyche of our benefactors.
Once more, I offer my thanks most sincerely and very loudly and clearly to God the omnipotent and all our benefactors and collaborators; in Jesus Name, Amen.
THE BEGINNINGS AND EARLY CHALLENGES
My passion for education had continued even after establishing Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools.
In 2002, the idea of establishing a University also came overwhelming me irrepressibly in the course of a pleasant reflection, alone in my Study Room that historic night. However in the days and some few months that followed, I became rather terrified by gargantuan processes involved in putting any tertiary Institution in place and getting it running well, and I was at the verge of discarding and off-loading that kind of burden called fanciful idea, when something, which later turned into a divine touch, struck me – to share the idea with my foreign friend, Dan W. Hill, a Canadian American, who immediately stamped the conceived idea with applaud and encouragement, by assuring me of how laudable and how realizable such an idea would be – the reasonableness in crowning my efforts of providing education for humanity (which I had seen clearly as my special calling) with the establishment of a University.
I still recall the one-hour brain-storming we had engaged in, that day in South Ascot, South West of London. There, we sealed the bedrock of founding a tertiary Institution to be named after Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi. How time flies! This memory is still as if it were yesterday - bold strides and steps we have taken since then to surmount the challenges that began to rear up their heads as we set out to translate the idea into actions. In the Words of Andy Warhol, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”
So, the brainstorming session with Dan W. Hill over and assurances and arrangements for initial funding in place, I came back to the country and commenced all the processes, determined to follow them one after another: from the search for a suitable take-off site, putting of some structures in place, to extensive and exhaustive consultations/establishment of connections with University Professors and Administrators renowned in running Universities, as well as with all personalities – every Dick and Harry and juggernauts in the corridors of political power. Then, the very rigorous process of the pursuit of the License proper, which involved purchase of form, series of payments, screening of papers, visitations or inspection of facilities, coupled with the task of warding off, of oppositions.
Here, I can only say – with regard to the traumatic experiences we had to go through, that much water passed under the bridge. “Acriter pugnatum est” The Battle was fiercely fought (Caesar Gallic War).
There is no away I can relate all that we went through, but there were enough fears arising from the clandestine activities of the opposition that made me to nearly throw in the towel and give up the quest, if not for the advice of R.L Stevenson in my finger-tips – that, “you keep your fears to yourself and share your courage with others”, which remained in my consciousness, day and night, till we finally got the License to operate a private University in Nigeria – this feat having been achieved after rigorous, painstaking, constant, consistent and concerted efforts made by a powerful Implementation Committee formed by me, as well as the standing Committee on Private Universities (SCOPU) – both committees working closely hand- in-hand.
Finally when we got the License along with 7 other Private Universities on 17th May, 2007, I saw and regarded my own License to operate a Private University, as a FIRST CLASS MIRACLE wrought by our brother, Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, to whom I had committed the cause, seeking his intercession, from the day I conceived this idea in 2002. I say this because, many other would-be founders of Private Universities – mightier, richer, more popular, apparently more connected, et cetera – could not get it, besides the 8 of us – Tansian University and 7 others.
All efforts by different categories of devil advocates to forestall and to obliterate Tansian University from the list of to-be-licensed Private Universities were shattered and frustrated. Those personalities that tried to stand in its way to existence, were fork-lifted and some of them used in German-flooring the road that led to the licensing. That assured us that when Jesus says ‘yes’, nobody can say ‘no’.
With the License in hand, it quickly dawned on me and everybody (both friends and foes) that Tansian University was no longer a dream but a reality; a dream come true; and reflecting on those moments when our search candle light nearly went off, but was rekindled by faith, sheer determination and synergy of the handful of sympathizers then, this saying by one unknown author frequently came to my mind – that “it is hard to wait for something you know might never happen; but it is harder to give up when you know it is everything you want.”
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS SO FAR:
In this subheading, I will be capturing as much as possible, some of the things that have happened to us in the Tansian University Community, which are success stories, one way or the other, towards goal attainment, from inception (take-off time) to date.
  • First was the stumbling into the take-off site at Oba, in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, suitable enough for everything we had in mind to take off with.
    Some buildings were already in place – though in dilapidated state, which we quickly paid for, and proceeded to work seriously on them to come to the standard required. We also put up additional structures and provided other infrastructure and facilities, and before long, we were ready for Inspection Visits by the National Universities Commission.
    The ease with which this take off site was found – which I now recount as a success story – was not by any deliberate human design but by accident of history, evidently wrought by God Himself, through the intercession of our Patron Saint, Blessed Iwene Tansi, who was beatified in a field exactly opposite the site in 1998 by St. John Paul 11– because I had presented the matter to him and sought his help.
  • Within these 7 years of span of life, we have sought and secured approval for four (4) major Faculties – Management Sciences, Social Sciences, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Education, with highly qualified Lecturers in all the Departments of these Faculties.
  • All the required Infrastructure and facilities for these Faculties have been provided and put in proper place to enhance effective teaching and learning in a conducive environment. These include: Academic buildings with well-equipped Classrooms, Science Laboratories with modern equipment, Mass Communication Studios (for Television and Radio Broadcasting), with State-of-the art facilities, fully equipped ICT Centres at both the temporary and permanent sites, fully equipped manual and e-libraries, modern hostel buildings, and sports and recreational facilities, etc.
  • With the temporary site long saturated, and in a desire to steadily attain greater heights, we have since shifted our focus and attention to the permanent site which is in a land mass of 200 hectares (about 4000 plots), with a gigantic Monsignor Franz Rechberger Multi-Purpose Plaza, completed since 2012. Also completed at the permanent site, are: a magnificent building housing Staff Offices and an ultra-modern ICT Centre, while work is in progress on a cluster of Hostel buildings that will accommodate over 1,000 Students on completion, in a couple of months from now, plus a foundation stone laid for a high-rising building meant also for accommodation of over 2,000 students.
  • On academic excellence – which is the be-all and the end-all of our intents and purposes, the young University has begun to make serious waves among its counterparts and have even out-shone them in some cases.
We have a high caliber of Academic Staff (the team that had received your applause at the beginning of this Speech) who were able to attract without much ado, a 100% accreditation of all the Courses available in the University, from the National Universities Commission. Our graduates, initially envisioned to be globally competitive products, have begun to do us proud in line with our dream, by garnering Awards at both State and national levels. For want of space and time let me present just the following few cases:
  1. Mr. Nze U. Nze – made first class in the Mass Communication Department and won the ‘Best Writer’ Award from Anambra State in 2012.
  2. Miss Cynthia Ovia – won a Scholarship Award for her post graduate studies at Cambridge University, at the completion of an exceptionally excellent National Youth Service at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abuja.
  3. Mr. Nnanna Ukaude (a disabled) – won an Ebonyi State Award, for being the most punctual to work at the State’s Government House where he rendered his one year Youth Service, even while on wheel chair. He has been given automatic employment in the State Government Office.
To prove the University’s good name in the eyes of the society, many parents and guardians now want their children and wards, to study with us, so our students’ population is growing in leaps. This academic year alone, 1,520 students registered and matriculated, bringing the total population of our students in 7 years, to 4, 050 (Four Thousand and Fifty).
One other major recent development which I, on a serious note, count as an accomplishment, is the finding at last, of a Vice Chancellor with an outstanding capacity, a Vice Chancellor the entire University has begun to build confidence in, a bridge builder who has come not to be served, but to serve, a leader with a focus and direction, a highly knowledgeable, resourceful, circumspective, perspicacious and foresighted academic guru, in the person of Professor Boniface Iwuchukwu.
I am aware that, all this while, our inability (as fate would have it) to find a suitably qualified candidate for this very important office (in spite of our diligent search), has irked members of the University Community who have hungered for the right leadership, our friends and well-wishers who show genuine concern about our progress, as well as those on the other side of the divide, who call themselves our foes, who only laugh and scorn at us when we meet with obstacles. While in search for the ideal, this office has had to witness change of guards at very short intervals, and our critics must have had their field day pointing at the obvious danger of instability, which usually attends such frequent changes in leadership. But ironically, our honest intention has been to actually forestall instability – the series of internal and external crises among stakeholders which arise from unsound leadership.
What has happened in this regard (appointments of VCs) just reminds me of the story of the tribal wisdom of the Lakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, that “wisdom tells us that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount”. But in ‘modern’ business, higher education and government, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including the following:
  1. Buy a stronger whip
  2. Threaten the horse with termination
  3. Appoint a committee to study the horse
  4. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses
  5. Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse
  6. Harness several dead horses to increase speed
  7. Declare that the dead horse carries lower overhead and therefore contributes more to the bottom line than other horses.
  8. Or, if all else fails, promote the dead horse to President
Fortunately in Tansian University, God has been so kind to us in virtually all our dealings with the wisdom of recognizing a sickly horse, even before it actually dies, and dismounting as quickly as possible.
We have been taking a cursory look at our journey of progress so far, and much as we cannot want to become judges/adjuters in our own case (“Nemo iudex in-causa-sua”), I think we can simply take the position of the proverbial agama lizard, who, falling from the tall iroko tree, nodded his head a number of times, saying, that he would praise himself for the feat, if no one else did. If you doubt this saying, please, ask our forefathers from whom the story was sourced, from time immemorial.
If actually in your assessment of us – my team and me – you find good reasons why we should indeed nod our heads, feeling accomplished, it is because we have worked with a common and united spirit scoring in the same goal mouth, true to what Harry S. Truman said, that, “It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you do not care who gets the credit.”
OUR PRESENT CHALLENGES
In spite of how far well we think we have run this race of nurturing a private University, aiming at the best, this ambition of being counted among the foremost private Universities of the 21st century, is being hindered by inadequacy of resources to fund our requisite infrastructure needs, as follows:
  1. Though we have the Staff Offices ready now, we need more Faculty buildings, in order to facilitate mounting of more and more academic programmes and engagement of more Lecturers, especially Professors to man these Faculties. Foremost of the buildings needed is the Signature House, i.e. Senate Chamber.
  2. A lot are still yet unaccomplished in the area of Infrastructural developments: provision of Road networks within the campus, as reflected in the Master Plan, Electricity, Water resources, Solar energy – which is to be mainly relied upon, in view of the epileptic electricity supply in the country, etc.
  3. Construction of more Students Hostels is also a major challenge staring us in the face. At the moment, due to lack of accommodation at the permanent site, students are being transported from the temporary site to the permanent site.
  4. As soon as fund is available we have to provide structures and facilities, as well as the manpower for the Tansian University Primary and Secondary Schools, because this would offer a lot of relief to the Staff of the University, most of whom would like the arrangement of coming to work with their children and possibly going home together, for security reasons.
  5. With enough funds also, we need to fence round the University Premises, to establish ownership and above all, ward off external invasions and secure life and property much better. A fence round a University is a common tradition, famed for its potential to help give such University a noble identity.
Sufficient fund is needed to help us stand up to numerous other newer challenges brought about by globalization and advances in technology and the resultant changes in pedagogy, research and development. Thus a centre for Research and Development of international standard is also needed to be in place. And whatever status or reputation Tansian University attains in future, will be determined to a great extent, by how we deal with these challenges of today.
At a forum like this therefore, we take advantage of the presence of representatives of government, distinguished guests, captains of industries in the private Sector, our teaming friends from all over, and special lovers of education to renew our appeals (like Oliver Twist) for support, to enable us continue the laudable tasks we have begun, to empower our youths by providing adequate global infrastructure and facilities needed in the University.
Because our cause is such a noble one – to complement government Universities/tertiary Institutions to broaden the opportunities for the increasingly intimidating population of our youths seeking admissions into tertiary education, with the available vacancies in government schools grossly inadequate, we have come out without shame, to solicit your support in various capacities you can afford, to enable us complete the journey to our clearly set out destination. As Horace Mann put it, you will, “be ashamed to die, until you have won victory for humanity.” Since conceiving this dream and assembling a team to actualize it, we have not rested on our oars, until this arrival at a point of no return; of forward ever and backward never. Manoj Arora had pictured this right, saying that “coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle and awesome in the end … because in the end, it shows you a whole new world. Make an attempt.” We are, accordingly, at the chaotic middle of the road, and the better option is never to go back but to go forward and finish the journey.
OUR PROSPECTS
It is my strong belief that by our journey so far, we have “crossed the seven hills and seven deserts”, as our people used to say, and we are already surely heading towards the Canaanite land of our dreams of finally providing Tansian University with all the necessities it requires to be at the fore-front of teaching and learning, knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination, human capital developments and community and global service, in line with my specific dream of “a dynamic institution of higher learning, equipped with the factor of relevance to the needs of its environment, both locally and internationally.”
At the moment, there are some serious signs of support from Banks, individuals and various groups, since our making serious appearance at our permanent site - indicating interest in investing in our affairs; in helping us to provide infrastructure – which never happened while we remained in the take-off site – because, all along, no one had taken us seriously.
However, these Banks, individuals and groups, still require and look out for local backings from our government, especially the Anambra State government, on whose soil the University is situated. What gives us a great joy is that the State Government’s interest in us is at this same moment, rising quite steadily, having seen our persistent efforts.
Only recently the immediate Past Executive Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, came to our rescue with a Hundred Million Naira (N100, 000, 000) and two (2) Vehicles. And as an Igbo adage goes, “okuko kpara n’aka nri, kpaa n’aka ekpe, wee si na nke di n’iru ka”. Thus much more of similar support and assistance are expected from the present Government of his Excellency, Chief Dr. Willie Obiano, whose presence here today, we are privileged to enjoy.
With government thus very much around us now, we look forward strongly to more and more financial institutions, groups and individuals approaching us for various forms of support, assistances and collaborations. Our people are accustomed to say in Igbo, “Nwata kwochaa aka ya, osoro ndi okenye rie nri”. Tansian University has come of age to “dine with the elders”. This we have achieved through dint of hard work; of floating an idea and following it up by trying our hands on every available chance, because, “you cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind” so says Gordon B. Hinkley.
As always we look back with pride on our past, are mindful of our present and confident in our future.
Thank you so much for the attention given to me.
Very Rev. Msgr. Prof. J. B. Akam (FCON, UN Peace Ambassador)
Founder/Chancellor/Chairman Board of Trustees
Tansian University, Oba/ Umunya.

ANSIAN UNIVERSITY: ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

A LECTURE NOTE BY VERY REV. MSGR PROF JOHNBOSCO AKAM, TITLED: TANSIAN UNIVERSITY: ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNIVERSITY’S FOUNDER’S DAY CELEBRATION, 17TH DAY OF MAY, 2014
This is once again, another moment of profound joy and delight for me, as I stand before this cream of the society gathered here today, to witness our Founder’s Day Celebration, as Tansian University marks her 7th birthday.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Governing Council, Management, Staff and Students of the University, I heartily recognize you all in this occasion. We feel particularly honored with the presence in our midst, of the Executive Governor of Anambra State, His Excellency, Chief Dr Willie Obiano and his entourage.
I also recognize our other special Guests, particularly our respected Awardees of the University today:
We are equally glad to have with us, the alumni of the University, our highly esteemed stakeholders, delegates from the Federal and State Governments, our special and highly dependable friends from across the globe and members of the Media (the watchdogs of the society) both from within and outside Nigeria.
May all glory and thanks be to God Almighty, for the journey mercies He has graciously granted all of you, to this place.
As we begin, I would like to introduce to you, the Chief Host of this event, our new Vice Chancellor, Professor Chima Boniface Iwuchukwu – a renowned Professor of Education (B. Phil, P.u.a Rome; M.Ed, Phil, UNN; Mnae; Mpean; KSJI; and JP – Justice of Peace), who, until joining us recently was with the Imo State University.
Vice Chancellor Sir, may you please stand for a brief recognition. May I also invite all the Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments and Directors of various Spheres, to please stand with the V.C.
Our distinguished Guests, this is the Senior Academic, cum management Team of Tansian University; a highly dedicated team that I have been very proud of. I have truly, not found any better or more dedicated team anywhere, considering the enviable height to which the young University has been taken to within this short time of existence! Please, join with me in giving them a round of applause, for their wonderful contributions to the University!
THE PREAMBLES OF THE LECTURE
The Founder’s Day Celebration is an annual event in an Institution, but most special and most cherished ritual in Universities whose celebration is eagerly looked forward to, by both the University community and all her friends and well-wishers in the Diaspora. It is an occasion during which the struggles of the Founding Father are remembered, and cherished; the celebration reminds us of the vision, foresight and courage of the Founding father – the occasion affords the ample opportunity to reflect on the extent to which the original vision has been preserved or actualized, as well as the opportunity to strategize on how to advance this vision in our present and future developments.
When we talk about the vision/dream of the Founding Father, we ask ourselves on a day like this, as we make merry, whether this vision or dream, has carried with it, any steam or warmth or what you may simply call “enabling environment”, sufficient to engender the steady advancement of the noble goals for which the University was established. For it is only when the answer to this very critical question turns out as ‘YES’, at a forum like this, that the Founder can raise his head high, contented and grateful to God, that his dreams are on the RIGHT course, in line with Carl Jung’s views that “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is a much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child”. As the Founding Father of this University, I humbly present myself today for this public assessment – whether from the struggles you have seen these past 7 years, I have been able to provide the Staff and Students with the needed warmth or enabling environment – to show we are committed to our noble course of establishing a University to liberate mankind from the shackles as well as the whirlpool of ignorance and promote human development.
But please, I crave your indulgence not to be in a hurry in passing this verdict on the founder, until, at least I have made some attempts here, at telling you stories, recalling how the journey has fared so far, which I wish to actually begin by expressing immense thanks to our loving and compassionate Father, God Almighty, for all He has made possible to happen to us so far here, and by thanking also, all the men and women – both within and outside the University – who disposed themselves to be used by God as instruments to make Tansian University what it is today and be on the steady course of the advancement going on. I thank you all so much because, I agree fully with William Arthur Ward that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it out.” And when one puts into perspective, the wide range of benefits accruing from living gratefully and thankfully (which is my second nature), one would agree incontrovertibly with Melody Beatie that, “Gratitude turns the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend”.
Those who are close to us and are living witnesses to our struggles and how we have borrowed through and around the mountains on our way towards standing Tansian University on a sound footing and securing for it a pride of place among other winning Universities in Nigeria and beyond, would attest to how this virtue of gratitude has worked more than magic in the psyche of our benefactors.
Once more, I offer my thanks most sincerely and very loudly and clearly to God the omnipotent and all our benefactors and collaborators; in Jesus Name, Amen.
THE BEGINNINGS AND EARLY CHALLENGES
My passion for education had continued even after establishing Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools.
In 2002, the idea of establishing a University also came overwhelming me irrepressibly in the course of a pleasant reflection, alone in my Study Room that historic night. However in the days and some few months that followed, I became rather terrified by gargantuan processes involved in putting any tertiary Institution in place and getting it running well, and I was at the verge of discarding and off-loading that kind of burden called fanciful idea, when something, which later turned into a divine touch, struck me – to share the idea with my foreign friend, Dan W. Hill, a Canadian American, who immediately stamped the conceived idea with applaud and encouragement, by assuring me of how laudable and how realizable such an idea would be – the reasonableness in crowning my efforts of providing education for humanity (which I had seen clearly as my special calling) with the establishment of a University.
I still recall the one-hour brain-storming we had engaged in, that day in South Ascot, South West of London. There, we sealed the bedrock of founding a tertiary Institution to be named after Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi. How time flies! This memory is still as if it were yesterday - bold strides and steps we have taken since then to surmount the challenges that began to rear up their heads as we set out to translate the idea into actions. In the Words of Andy Warhol, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”
So, the brainstorming session with Dan W. Hill over and assurances and arrangements for initial funding in place, I came back to the country and commenced all the processes, determined to follow them one after another: from the search for a suitable take-off site, putting of some structures in place, to extensive and exhaustive consultations/establishment of connections with University Professors and Administrators renowned in running Universities, as well as with all personalities – every Dick and Harry and juggernauts in the corridors of political power. Then, the very rigorous process of the pursuit of the License proper, which involved purchase of form, series of payments, screening of papers, visitations or inspection of facilities, coupled with the task of warding off, of oppositions.
Here, I can only say – with regard to the traumatic experiences we had to go through, that much water passed under the bridge. “Acriter pugnatum est” The Battle was fiercely fought (Caesar Gallic War).
There is no away I can relate all that we went through, but there were enough fears arising from the clandestine activities of the opposition that made me to nearly throw in the towel and give up the quest, if not for the advice of R.L Stevenson in my finger-tips – that, “you keep your fears to yourself and share your courage with others”, which remained in my consciousness, day and night, till we finally got the License to operate a private University in Nigeria – this feat having been achieved after rigorous, painstaking, constant, consistent and concerted efforts made by a powerful Implementation Committee formed by me, as well as the standing Committee on Private Universities (SCOPU) – both committees working closely hand- in-hand.
Finally when we got the License along with 7 other Private Universities on 17th May, 2007, I saw and regarded my own License to operate a Private University, as a FIRST CLASS MIRACLE wrought by our brother, Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, to whom I had committed the cause, seeking his intercession, from the day I conceived this idea in 2002. I say this because, many other would-be founders of Private Universities – mightier, richer, more popular, apparently more connected, et cetera – could not get it, besides the 8 of us – Tansian University and 7 others.
All efforts by different categories of devil advocates to forestall and to obliterate Tansian University from the list of to-be-licensed Private Universities were shattered and frustrated. Those personalities that tried to stand in its way to existence, were fork-lifted and some of them used in German-flooring the road that led to the licensing. That assured us that when Jesus says ‘yes’, nobody can say ‘no’.
With the License in hand, it quickly dawned on me and everybody (both friends and foes) that Tansian University was no longer a dream but a reality; a dream come true; and reflecting on those moments when our search candle light nearly went off, but was rekindled by faith, sheer determination and synergy of the handful of sympathizers then, this saying by one unknown author frequently came to my mind – that “it is hard to wait for something you know might never happen; but it is harder to give up when you know it is everything you want.”
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS SO FAR:
In this subheading, I will be capturing as much as possible, some of the things that have happened to us in the Tansian University Community, which are success stories, one way or the other, towards goal attainment, from inception (take-off time) to date.
  • First was the stumbling into the take-off site at Oba, in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, suitable enough for everything we had in mind to take off with.
    Some buildings were already in place – though in dilapidated state, which we quickly paid for, and proceeded to work seriously on them to come to the standard required. We also put up additional structures and provided other infrastructure and facilities, and before long, we were ready for Inspection Visits by the National Universities Commission.
    The ease with which this take off site was found – which I now recount as a success story – was not by any deliberate human design but by accident of history, evidently wrought by God Himself, through the intercession of our Patron Saint, Blessed Iwene Tansi, who was beatified in a field exactly opposite the site in 1998 by St. John Paul 11– because I had presented the matter to him and sought his help.
  • Within these 7 years of span of life, we have sought and secured approval for four (4) major Faculties – Management Sciences, Social Sciences, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Education, with highly qualified Lecturers in all the Departments of these Faculties.
  • All the required Infrastructure and facilities for these Faculties have been provided and put in proper place to enhance effective teaching and learning in a conducive environment. These include: Academic buildings with well-equipped Classrooms, Science Laboratories with modern equipment, Mass Communication Studios (for Television and Radio Broadcasting), with State-of-the art facilities, fully equipped ICT Centres at both the temporary and permanent sites, fully equipped manual and e-libraries, modern hostel buildings, and sports and recreational facilities, etc.
  • With the temporary site long saturated, and in a desire to steadily attain greater heights, we have since shifted our focus and attention to the permanent site which is in a land mass of 200 hectares (about 4000 plots), with a gigantic Monsignor Franz Rechberger Multi-Purpose Plaza, completed since 2012. Also completed at the permanent site, are: a magnificent building housing Staff Offices and an ultra-modern ICT Centre, while work is in progress on a cluster of Hostel buildings that will accommodate over 1,000 Students on completion, in a couple of months from now, plus a foundation stone laid for a high-rising building meant also for accommodation of over 2,000 students.
  • On academic excellence – which is the be-all and the end-all of our intents and purposes, the young University has begun to make serious waves among its counterparts and have even out-shone them in some cases.
We have a high caliber of Academic Staff (the team that had received your applause at the beginning of this Speech) who were able to attract without much ado, a 100% accreditation of all the Courses available in the University, from the National Universities Commission. Our graduates, initially envisioned to be globally competitive products, have begun to do us proud in line with our dream, by garnering Awards at both State and national levels. For want of space and time let me present just the following few cases:
  1. Mr. Nze U. Nze – made first class in the Mass Communication Department and won the ‘Best Writer’ Award from Anambra State in 2012.
  2. Miss Cynthia Ovia – won a Scholarship Award for her post graduate studies at Cambridge University, at the completion of an exceptionally excellent National Youth Service at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abuja.
  3. Mr. Nnanna Ukaude (a disabled) – won an Ebonyi State Award, for being the most punctual to work at the State’s Government House where he rendered his one year Youth Service, even while on wheel chair. He has been given automatic employment in the State Government Office.
To prove the University’s good name in the eyes of the society, many parents and guardians now want their children and wards, to study with us, so our students’ population is growing in leaps. This academic year alone, 1,520 students registered and matriculated, bringing the total population of our students in 7 years, to 4, 050 (Four Thousand and Fifty).
One other major recent development which I, on a serious note, count as an accomplishment, is the finding at last, of a Vice Chancellor with an outstanding capacity, a Vice Chancellor the entire University has begun to build confidence in, a bridge builder who has come not to be served, but to serve, a leader with a focus and direction, a highly knowledgeable, resourceful, circumspective, perspicacious and foresighted academic guru, in the person of Professor Boniface Iwuchukwu.
I am aware that, all this while, our inability (as fate would have it) to find a suitably qualified candidate for this very important office (in spite of our diligent search), has irked members of the University Community who have hungered for the right leadership, our friends and well-wishers who show genuine concern about our progress, as well as those on the other side of the divide, who call themselves our foes, who only laugh and scorn at us when we meet with obstacles. While in search for the ideal, this office has had to witness change of guards at very short intervals, and our critics must have had their field day pointing at the obvious danger of instability, which usually attends such frequent changes in leadership. But ironically, our honest intention has been to actually forestall instability – the series of internal and external crises among stakeholders which arise from unsound leadership.
What has happened in this regard (appointments of VCs) just reminds me of the story of the tribal wisdom of the Lakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, that “wisdom tells us that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount”. But in ‘modern’ business, higher education and government, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including the following:
  1. Buy a stronger whip
  2. Threaten the horse with termination
  3. Appoint a committee to study the horse
  4. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses
  5. Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse
  6. Harness several dead horses to increase speed
  7. Declare that the dead horse carries lower overhead and therefore contributes more to the bottom line than other horses.
  8. Or, if all else fails, promote the dead horse to President
Fortunately in Tansian University, God has been so kind to us in virtually all our dealings with the wisdom of recognizing a sickly horse, even before it actually dies, and dismounting as quickly as possible.
We have been taking a cursory look at our journey of progress so far, and much as we cannot want to become judges/adjuters in our own case (“Nemo iudex in-causa-sua”), I think we can simply take the position of the proverbial agama lizard, who, falling from the tall iroko tree, nodded his head a number of times, saying, that he would praise himself for the feat, if no one else did. If you doubt this saying, please, ask our forefathers from whom the story was sourced, from time immemorial.
If actually in your assessment of us – my team and me – you find good reasons why we should indeed nod our heads, feeling accomplished, it is because we have worked with a common and united spirit scoring in the same goal mouth, true to what Harry S. Truman said, that, “It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you do not care who gets the credit.”
OUR PRESENT CHALLENGES
In spite of how far well we think we have run this race of nurturing a private University, aiming at the best, this ambition of being counted among the foremost private Universities of the 21st century, is being hindered by inadequacy of resources to fund our requisite infrastructure needs, as follows:
  1. Though we have the Staff Offices ready now, we need more Faculty buildings, in order to facilitate mounting of more and more academic programmes and engagement of more Lecturers, especially Professors to man these Faculties. Foremost of the buildings needed is the Signature House, i.e. Senate Chamber.
  2. A lot are still yet unaccomplished in the area of Infrastructural developments: provision of Road networks within the campus, as reflected in the Master Plan, Electricity, Water resources, Solar energy – which is to be mainly relied upon, in view of the epileptic electricity supply in the country, etc.
  3. Construction of more Students Hostels is also a major challenge staring us in the face. At the moment, due to lack of accommodation at the permanent site, students are being transported from the temporary site to the permanent site.
  4. As soon as fund is available we have to provide structures and facilities, as well as the manpower for the Tansian University Primary and Secondary Schools, because this would offer a lot of relief to the Staff of the University, most of whom would like the arrangement of coming to work with their children and possibly going home together, for security reasons.
  5. With enough funds also, we need to fence round the University Premises, to establish ownership and above all, ward off external invasions and secure life and property much better. A fence round a University is a common tradition, famed for its potential to help give such University a noble identity.
Sufficient fund is needed to help us stand up to numerous other newer challenges brought about by globalization and advances in technology and the resultant changes in pedagogy, research and development. Thus a centre for Research and Development of international standard is also needed to be in place. And whatever status or reputation Tansian University attains in future, will be determined to a great extent, by how we deal with these challenges of today.
At a forum like this therefore, we take advantage of the presence of representatives of government, distinguished guests, captains of industries in the private Sector, our teaming friends from all over, and special lovers of education to renew our appeals (like Oliver Twist) for support, to enable us continue the laudable tasks we have begun, to empower our youths by providing adequate global infrastructure and facilities needed in the University.
Because our cause is such a noble one – to complement government Universities/tertiary Institutions to broaden the opportunities for the increasingly intimidating population of our youths seeking admissions into tertiary education, with the available vacancies in government schools grossly inadequate, we have come out without shame, to solicit your support in various capacities you can afford, to enable us complete the journey to our clearly set out destination. As Horace Mann put it, you will, “be ashamed to die, until you have won victory for humanity.” Since conceiving this dream and assembling a team to actualize it, we have not rested on our oars, until this arrival at a point of no return; of forward ever and backward never. Manoj Arora had pictured this right, saying that “coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle and awesome in the end … because in the end, it shows you a whole new world. Make an attempt.” We are, accordingly, at the chaotic middle of the road, and the better option is never to go back but to go forward and finish the journey.
OUR PROSPECTS
It is my strong belief that by our journey so far, we have “crossed the seven hills and seven deserts”, as our people used to say, and we are already surely heading towards the Canaanite land of our dreams of finally providing Tansian University with all the necessities it requires to be at the fore-front of teaching and learning, knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination, human capital developments and community and global service, in line with my specific dream of “a dynamic institution of higher learning, equipped with the factor of relevance to the needs of its environment, both locally and internationally.”
At the moment, there are some serious signs of support from Banks, individuals and various groups, since our making serious appearance at our permanent site - indicating interest in investing in our affairs; in helping us to provide infrastructure – which never happened while we remained in the take-off site – because, all along, no one had taken us seriously.
However, these Banks, individuals and groups, still require and look out for local backings from our government, especially the Anambra State government, on whose soil the University is situated. What gives us a great joy is that the State Government’s interest in us is at this same moment, rising quite steadily, having seen our persistent efforts.
Only recently the immediate Past Executive Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, came to our rescue with a Hundred Million Naira (N100, 000, 000) and two (2) Vehicles. And as an Igbo adage goes, “okuko kpara n’aka nri, kpaa n’aka ekpe, wee si na nke di n’iru ka”. Thus much more of similar support and assistance are expected from the present Government of his Excellency, Chief Dr. Willie Obiano, whose presence here today, we are privileged to enjoy.
With government thus very much around us now, we look forward strongly to more and more financial institutions, groups and individuals approaching us for various forms of support, assistances and collaborations. Our people are accustomed to say in Igbo, “Nwata kwochaa aka ya, osoro ndi okenye rie nri”. Tansian University has come of age to “dine with the elders”. This we have achieved through dint of hard work; of floating an idea and following it up by trying our hands on every available chance, because, “you cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind” so says Gordon B. Hinkley.
As always we look back with pride on our past, are mindful of our present and confident in our future.
Thank you so much for the attention given to me.
Very Rev. Msgr. Prof. J. B. Akam (FCON, UN Peace Ambassador)
Founder/Chancellor/Chairman Board of Trustees
Tansian University, Oba/ Umunya.
A LECTURE NOTE BY VERY REV. MSGR PROF JOHNBOSCO AKAM, TITLED: TANSIAN UNIVERSITY: ACCOMPLISHMENTS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNIVERSITY’S FOUNDER’S DAY CELEBRATION, 17TH DAY OF MAY, 2014
This is once again, another moment of profound joy and delight for me, as I stand before this cream of the society gathered here today, to witness our Founder’s Day Celebration, as Tansian University marks her 7th birthday.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Governing Council, Management, Staff and Students of the University, I heartily recognize you all in this occasion. We feel particularly honored with the presence in our midst, of the Executive Governor of Anambra State, His Excellency, Chief Dr Willie Obiano and his entourage.
I also recognize our other special Guests, particularly our respected Awardees of the University today:
We are equally glad to have with us, the alumni of the University, our highly esteemed stakeholders, delegates from the Federal and State Governments, our special and highly dependable friends from across the globe and members of the Media (the watchdogs of the society) both from within and outside Nigeria.
May all glory and thanks be to God Almighty, for the journey mercies He has graciously granted all of you, to this place.
As we begin, I would like to introduce to you, the Chief Host of this event, our new Vice Chancellor, Professor Chima Boniface Iwuchukwu – a renowned Professor of Education (B. Phil, P.u.a Rome; M.Ed, Phil, UNN; Mnae; Mpean; KSJI; and JP – Justice of Peace), who, until joining us recently was with the Imo State University.
Vice Chancellor Sir, may you please stand for a brief recognition. May I also invite all the Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments and Directors of various Spheres, to please stand with the V.C.
Our distinguished Guests, this is the Senior Academic, cum management Team of Tansian University; a highly dedicated team that I have been very proud of. I have truly, not found any better or more dedicated team anywhere, considering the enviable height to which the young University has been taken to within this short time of existence! Please, join with me in giving them a round of applause, for their wonderful contributions to the University!
THE PREAMBLES OF THE LECTURE
The Founder’s Day Celebration is an annual event in an Institution, but most special and most cherished ritual in Universities whose celebration is eagerly looked forward to, by both the University community and all her friends and well-wishers in the Diaspora. It is an occasion during which the struggles of the Founding Father are remembered, and cherished; the celebration reminds us of the vision, foresight and courage of the Founding father – the occasion affords the ample opportunity to reflect on the extent to which the original vision has been preserved or actualized, as well as the opportunity to strategize on how to advance this vision in our present and future developments.
When we talk about the vision/dream of the Founding Father, we ask ourselves on a day like this, as we make merry, whether this vision or dream, has carried with it, any steam or warmth or what you may simply call “enabling environment”, sufficient to engender the steady advancement of the noble goals for which the University was established. For it is only when the answer to this very critical question turns out as ‘YES’, at a forum like this, that the Founder can raise his head high, contented and grateful to God, that his dreams are on the RIGHT course, in line with Carl Jung’s views that “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is a much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child”. As the Founding Father of this University, I humbly present myself today for this public assessment – whether from the struggles you have seen these past 7 years, I have been able to provide the Staff and Students with the needed warmth or enabling environment – to show we are committed to our noble course of establishing a University to liberate mankind from the shackles as well as the whirlpool of ignorance and promote human development.
But please, I crave your indulgence not to be in a hurry in passing this verdict on the founder, until, at least I have made some attempts here, at telling you stories, recalling how the journey has fared so far, which I wish to actually begin by expressing immense thanks to our loving and compassionate Father, God Almighty, for all He has made possible to happen to us so far here, and by thanking also, all the men and women – both within and outside the University – who disposed themselves to be used by God as instruments to make Tansian University what it is today and be on the steady course of the advancement going on. I thank you all so much because, I agree fully with William Arthur Ward that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it out.” And when one puts into perspective, the wide range of benefits accruing from living gratefully and thankfully (which is my second nature), one would agree incontrovertibly with Melody Beatie that, “Gratitude turns the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend”.
Those who are close to us and are living witnesses to our struggles and how we have borrowed through and around the mountains on our way towards standing Tansian University on a sound footing and securing for it a pride of place among other winning Universities in Nigeria and beyond, would attest to how this virtue of gratitude has worked more than magic in the psyche of our benefactors.
Once more, I offer my thanks most sincerely and very loudly and clearly to God the omnipotent and all our benefactors and collaborators; in Jesus Name, Amen.
THE BEGINNINGS AND EARLY CHALLENGES
My passion for education had continued even after establishing Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools.
In 2002, the idea of establishing a University also came overwhelming me irrepressibly in the course of a pleasant reflection, alone in my Study Room that historic night. However in the days and some few months that followed, I became rather terrified by gargantuan processes involved in putting any tertiary Institution in place and getting it running well, and I was at the verge of discarding and off-loading that kind of burden called fanciful idea, when something, which later turned into a divine touch, struck me – to share the idea with my foreign friend, Dan W. Hill, a Canadian American, who immediately stamped the conceived idea with applaud and encouragement, by assuring me of how laudable and how realizable such an idea would be – the reasonableness in crowning my efforts of providing education for humanity (which I had seen clearly as my special calling) with the establishment of a University.
I still recall the one-hour brain-storming we had engaged in, that day in South Ascot, South West of London. There, we sealed the bedrock of founding a tertiary Institution to be named after Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi. How time flies! This memory is still as if it were yesterday - bold strides and steps we have taken since then to surmount the challenges that began to rear up their heads as we set out to translate the idea into actions. In the Words of Andy Warhol, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”
So, the brainstorming session with Dan W. Hill over and assurances and arrangements for initial funding in place, I came back to the country and commenced all the processes, determined to follow them one after another: from the search for a suitable take-off site, putting of some structures in place, to extensive and exhaustive consultations/establishment of connections with University Professors and Administrators renowned in running Universities, as well as with all personalities – every Dick and Harry and juggernauts in the corridors of political power. Then, the very rigorous process of the pursuit of the License proper, which involved purchase of form, series of payments, screening of papers, visitations or inspection of facilities, coupled with the task of warding off, of oppositions.
Here, I can only say – with regard to the traumatic experiences we had to go through, that much water passed under the bridge. “Acriter pugnatum est” The Battle was fiercely fought (Caesar Gallic War).
There is no away I can relate all that we went through, but there were enough fears arising from the clandestine activities of the opposition that made me to nearly throw in the towel and give up the quest, if not for the advice of R.L Stevenson in my finger-tips – that, “you keep your fears to yourself and share your courage with others”, which remained in my consciousness, day and night, till we finally got the License to operate a private University in Nigeria – this feat having been achieved after rigorous, painstaking, constant, consistent and concerted efforts made by a powerful Implementation Committee formed by me, as well as the standing Committee on Private Universities (SCOPU) – both committees working closely hand- in-hand.
Finally when we got the License along with 7 other Private Universities on 17th May, 2007, I saw and regarded my own License to operate a Private University, as a FIRST CLASS MIRACLE wrought by our brother, Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, to whom I had committed the cause, seeking his intercession, from the day I conceived this idea in 2002. I say this because, many other would-be founders of Private Universities – mightier, richer, more popular, apparently more connected, et cetera – could not get it, besides the 8 of us – Tansian University and 7 others.
All efforts by different categories of devil advocates to forestall and to obliterate Tansian University from the list of to-be-licensed Private Universities were shattered and frustrated. Those personalities that tried to stand in its way to existence, were fork-lifted and some of them used in German-flooring the road that led to the licensing. That assured us that when Jesus says ‘yes’, nobody can say ‘no’.
With the License in hand, it quickly dawned on me and everybody (both friends and foes) that Tansian University was no longer a dream but a reality; a dream come true; and reflecting on those moments when our search candle light nearly went off, but was rekindled by faith, sheer determination and synergy of the handful of sympathizers then, this saying by one unknown author frequently came to my mind – that “it is hard to wait for something you know might never happen; but it is harder to give up when you know it is everything you want.”
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS SO FAR:
In this subheading, I will be capturing as much as possible, some of the things that have happened to us in the Tansian University Community, which are success stories, one way or the other, towards goal attainment, from inception (take-off time) to date.
  • First was the stumbling into the take-off site at Oba, in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, suitable enough for everything we had in mind to take off with.
    Some buildings were already in place – though in dilapidated state, which we quickly paid for, and proceeded to work seriously on them to come to the standard required. We also put up additional structures and provided other infrastructure and facilities, and before long, we were ready for Inspection Visits by the National Universities Commission.
    The ease with which this take off site was found – which I now recount as a success story – was not by any deliberate human design but by accident of history, evidently wrought by God Himself, through the intercession of our Patron Saint, Blessed Iwene Tansi, who was beatified in a field exactly opposite the site in 1998 by St. John Paul 11– because I had presented the matter to him and sought his help.
  • Within these 7 years of span of life, we have sought and secured approval for four (4) major Faculties – Management Sciences, Social Sciences, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Education, with highly qualified Lecturers in all the Departments of these Faculties.
  • All the required Infrastructure and facilities for these Faculties have been provided and put in proper place to enhance effective teaching and learning in a conducive environment. These include: Academic buildings with well-equipped Classrooms, Science Laboratories with modern equipment, Mass Communication Studios (for Television and Radio Broadcasting), with State-of-the art facilities, fully equipped ICT Centres at both the temporary and permanent sites, fully equipped manual and e-libraries, modern hostel buildings, and sports and recreational facilities, etc.
  • With the temporary site long saturated, and in a desire to steadily attain greater heights, we have since shifted our focus and attention to the permanent site which is in a land mass of 200 hectares (about 4000 plots), with a gigantic Monsignor Franz Rechberger Multi-Purpose Plaza, completed since 2012. Also completed at the permanent site, are: a magnificent building housing Staff Offices and an ultra-modern ICT Centre, while work is in progress on a cluster of Hostel buildings that will accommodate over 1,000 Students on completion, in a couple of months from now, plus a foundation stone laid for a high-rising building meant also for accommodation of over 2,000 students.
  • On academic excellence – which is the be-all and the end-all of our intents and purposes, the young University has begun to make serious waves among its counterparts and have even out-shone them in some cases.
We have a high caliber of Academic Staff (the team that had received your applause at the beginning of this Speech) who were able to attract without much ado, a 100% accreditation of all the Courses available in the University, from the National Universities Commission. Our graduates, initially envisioned to be globally competitive products, have begun to do us proud in line with our dream, by garnering Awards at both State and national levels. For want of space and time let me present just the following few cases:
  1. Mr. Nze U. Nze – made first class in the Mass Communication Department and won the ‘Best Writer’ Award from Anambra State in 2012.
  2. Miss Cynthia Ovia – won a Scholarship Award for her post graduate studies at Cambridge University, at the completion of an exceptionally excellent National Youth Service at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abuja.
  3. Mr. Nnanna Ukaude (a disabled) – won an Ebonyi State Award, for being the most punctual to work at the State’s Government House where he rendered his one year Youth Service, even while on wheel chair. He has been given automatic employment in the State Government Office.
To prove the University’s good name in the eyes of the society, many parents and guardians now want their children and wards, to study with us, so our students’ population is growing in leaps. This academic year alone, 1,520 students registered and matriculated, bringing the total population of our students in 7 years, to 4, 050 (Four Thousand and Fifty).
One other major recent development which I, on a serious note, count as an accomplishment, is the finding at last, of a Vice Chancellor with an outstanding capacity, a Vice Chancellor the entire University has begun to build confidence in, a bridge builder who has come not to be served, but to serve, a leader with a focus and direction, a highly knowledgeable, resourceful, circumspective, perspicacious and foresighted academic guru, in the person of Professor Boniface Iwuchukwu.
I am aware that, all this while, our inability (as fate would have it) to find a suitably qualified candidate for this very important office (in spite of our diligent search), has irked members of the University Community who have hungered for the right leadership, our friends and well-wishers who show genuine concern about our progress, as well as those on the other side of the divide, who call themselves our foes, who only laugh and scorn at us when we meet with obstacles. While in search for the ideal, this office has had to witness change of guards at very short intervals, and our critics must have had their field day pointing at the obvious danger of instability, which usually attends such frequent changes in leadership. But ironically, our honest intention has been to actually forestall instability – the series of internal and external crises among stakeholders which arise from unsound leadership.
What has happened in this regard (appointments of VCs) just reminds me of the story of the tribal wisdom of the Lakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, that “wisdom tells us that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount”. But in ‘modern’ business, higher education and government, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including the following:
  1. Buy a stronger whip
  2. Threaten the horse with termination
  3. Appoint a committee to study the horse
  4. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses
  5. Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse
  6. Harness several dead horses to increase speed
  7. Declare that the dead horse carries lower overhead and therefore contributes more to the bottom line than other horses.
  8. Or, if all else fails, promote the dead horse to President
Fortunately in Tansian University, God has been so kind to us in virtually all our dealings with the wisdom of recognizing a sickly horse, even before it actually dies, and dismounting as quickly as possible.
We have been taking a cursory look at our journey of progress so far, and much as we cannot want to become judges/adjuters in our own case (“Nemo iudex in-causa-sua”), I think we can simply take the position of the proverbial agama lizard, who, falling from the tall iroko tree, nodded his head a number of times, saying, that he would praise himself for the feat, if no one else did. If you doubt this saying, please, ask our forefathers from whom the story was sourced, from time immemorial.
If actually in your assessment of us – my team and me – you find good reasons why we should indeed nod our heads, feeling accomplished, it is because we have worked with a common and united spirit scoring in the same goal mouth, true to what Harry S. Truman said, that, “It is amazing what you can accomplish, if you do not care who gets the credit.”
OUR PRESENT CHALLENGES
In spite of how far well we think we have run this race of nurturing a private University, aiming at the best, this ambition of being counted among the foremost private Universities of the 21st century, is being hindered by inadequacy of resources to fund our requisite infrastructure needs, as follows:
  1. Though we have the Staff Offices ready now, we need more Faculty buildings, in order to facilitate mounting of more and more academic programmes and engagement of more Lecturers, especially Professors to man these Faculties. Foremost of the buildings needed is the Signature House, i.e. Senate Chamber.
  2. A lot are still yet unaccomplished in the area of Infrastructural developments: provision of Road networks within the campus, as reflected in the Master Plan, Electricity, Water resources, Solar energy – which is to be mainly relied upon, in view of the epileptic electricity supply in the country, etc.
  3. Construction of more Students Hostels is also a major challenge staring us in the face. At the moment, due to lack of accommodation at the permanent site, students are being transported from the temporary site to the permanent site.
  4. As soon as fund is available we have to provide structures and facilities, as well as the manpower for the Tansian University Primary and Secondary Schools, because this would offer a lot of relief to the Staff of the University, most of whom would like the arrangement of coming to work with their children and possibly going home together, for security reasons.
  5. With enough funds also, we need to fence round the University Premises, to establish ownership and above all, ward off external invasions and secure life and property much better. A fence round a University is a common tradition, famed for its potential to help give such University a noble identity.
Sufficient fund is needed to help us stand up to numerous other newer challenges brought about by globalization and advances in technology and the resultant changes in pedagogy, research and development. Thus a centre for Research and Development of international standard is also needed to be in place. And whatever status or reputation Tansian University attains in future, will be determined to a great extent, by how we deal with these challenges of today.
At a forum like this therefore, we take advantage of the presence of representatives of government, distinguished guests, captains of industries in the private Sector, our teaming friends from all over, and special lovers of education to renew our appeals (like Oliver Twist) for support, to enable us continue the laudable tasks we have begun, to empower our youths by providing adequate global infrastructure and facilities needed in the University.
Because our cause is such a noble one – to complement government Universities/tertiary Institutions to broaden the opportunities for the increasingly intimidating population of our youths seeking admissions into tertiary education, with the available vacancies in government schools grossly inadequate, we have come out without shame, to solicit your support in various capacities you can afford, to enable us complete the journey to our clearly set out destination. As Horace Mann put it, you will, “be ashamed to die, until you have won victory for humanity.” Since conceiving this dream and assembling a team to actualize it, we have not rested on our oars, until this arrival at a point of no return; of forward ever and backward never. Manoj Arora had pictured this right, saying that “coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle and awesome in the end … because in the end, it shows you a whole new world. Make an attempt.” We are, accordingly, at the chaotic middle of the road, and the better option is never to go back but to go forward and finish the journey.
OUR PROSPECTS
It is my strong belief that by our journey so far, we have “crossed the seven hills and seven deserts”, as our people used to say, and we are already surely heading towards the Canaanite land of our dreams of finally providing Tansian University with all the necessities it requires to be at the fore-front of teaching and learning, knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination, human capital developments and community and global service, in line with my specific dream of “a dynamic institution of higher learning, equipped with the factor of relevance to the needs of its environment, both locally and internationally.”
At the moment, there are some serious signs of support from Banks, individuals and various groups, since our making serious appearance at our permanent site - indicating interest in investing in our affairs; in helping us to provide infrastructure – which never happened while we remained in the take-off site – because, all along, no one had taken us seriously.
However, these Banks, individuals and groups, still require and look out for local backings from our government, especially the Anambra State government, on whose soil the University is situated. What gives us a great joy is that the State Government’s interest in us is at this same moment, rising quite steadily, having seen our persistent efforts.
Only recently the immediate Past Executive Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, came to our rescue with a Hundred Million Naira (N100, 000, 000) and two (2) Vehicles. And as an Igbo adage goes, “okuko kpara n’aka nri, kpaa n’aka ekpe, wee si na nke di n’iru ka”. Thus much more of similar support and assistance are expected from the present Government of his Excellency, Chief Dr. Willie Obiano, whose presence here today, we are privileged to enjoy.
With government thus very much around us now, we look forward strongly to more and more financial institutions, groups and individuals approaching us for various forms of support, assistances and collaborations. Our people are accustomed to say in Igbo, “Nwata kwochaa aka ya, osoro ndi okenye rie nri”. Tansian University has come of age to “dine with the elders”. This we have achieved through dint of hard work; of floating an idea and following it up by trying our hands on every available chance, because, “you cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind” so says Gordon B. Hinkley.
As always we look back with pride on our past, are mindful of our present and confident in our future.
Thank you so much for the attention given to me.
Very Rev. Msgr. Prof. J. B. Akam (FCON, UN Peace Ambassador)
Founder/Chancellor/Chairman Board of Trustees
Tansian University, Oba/ Umunya.
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