I Wonder How C’River Varsity Will Run Without Fees -Lawmaker

Hon. Peter Odey is a Member representing Ogoja state constituency and the Leader of the Cross River State House of Assembly. He sponsored the bill for the change of the status of the state owned University from Cross River State University of Technology, CRUTECH to University of Cross River State, UNICROSS. He said his motivation was to ensure that the institution gets to a position of competing with other universities in the country and to see that the institution expands both in infrastructural and academically. He spoke with CHIEMEKA ADINDU.

Excerpts:

What are the implications of changing the nomenclature of Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH to University of Cross River, UNICROSS?
Yes, absolutely, I really get concerned when people look at it just as a change of name; no it’s not. It’s rebranding the institution. The university of technology as it was, they are limited with the number of courses they can do and mostly it has to do with technology. But if you make it a conventional university like it is now, they will still do technology courses and as well do other courses. Like I said before, law, medicine, pharmacy, sociology, political sciences; all of those courses can now be done alongside technology courses. But if you don’t change the university, with the new entry of the NUC, other courses they do like Mass communication, they will lose accreditation. So the best thing to do under the circumstance is to change it to a conventional university and that is what we have done.

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How do you feel now that your aim has been achieved?
First I am thankful to God almighty that this has been done and I’m also grateful to His Excellency, Senator Professor Ben Ayade for assenting to the bill. This bill has been trending for some time now and for obvious reasons, it wasn’t assented and eventually when we put up the argument as to why it was necessary and the importance to the state, the bill was finally assented to.

So what is the major implication of this change?
It’s going to lead to expansion. It’s going to lead to more courses in the University. With that, they’re going to improve on the funding that comes from TetFund. They’re going to improve on the courses; they’re going to employ more people. In fact, it’s going to cause some improvements.

There are reports of delay in the payment of staff salaries and infrastructural decay, and that the state government has not erected any building in the institution. Will this change touch these areas of concern by staff of the University?
Well, the aim of this bill is not to join issues with lecturers, but I know it is not true that it is only TetFund that has erected buildings there. There was a school existing there before TetFund started existing. Like in Ogoja where I am from, it was the state school that was converted into a college and there were buildings there. Yes, renovations have been done, yes TetFund has assisted; I sit at the state house of assembly and I know the appropriation we make to the university and you may not know and a lot of people out there may not know what percentage of local funding to the university; that is not from TetFund. Now if you check the amount students pay for school fees in that institution for one semester, it’s a lot of money. Now if they’ve not been paid their salaries, the institution generates a lot of money and it’s from there they pay their salaries. If there is a delay of salaries it’s because of those technical issues that they do have of which, with my interaction with the VC the last time I was at the institution, it’s been resolved. I understand they owed a backlog of two months which I believe will be paid very soon but, that is not my concern. My concern is to see that infrastructures are better; my concern is to see that they bring out graduates that will stand the test of time. My concern is to see that the institution gets better, that it’s been put on the map as one of the best institutions in Nigeria. That is why I am passionate about this and I did my research. So, I believe and I believe strongly that going forward, with more courses… There’s also this argument about His Excellency saying that school is free for Cross Riverians and all of that. I don’t know how that will work but, I don’t want to join issues there. But if it’s something the state can handle for people to go to school without paying fees, I mean, in the university all over the world; I have schooled in this country and abroad, there’s no where I have schooled that you don’t pay something like school fees and these funds are being used to develop the school. Even if it’s to develop the library, to develop facilities, to encourage research and things like that, something is being paid. Even when I had a scholarship, the scholarship was not 100 per cent; it was 50 per cent. But if the state government, of course the governor is a magician he has done things of which some of us are seriously amazed at, but I don’t see how the university runs without fees. And that is being honest.

So you are saying that you sponsored the bill because you are not satisfied with the current state of the university.
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, it is a result of that, the state of the University and also considering that as a university of technology in quote, it cannot expand beyond those technology based courses. It’s not only in Cross River State that this has been done. There used to be something called RUST, Rivers State University of Science and Technology; it’s no longer RUST, it’s now Rivers State University because of expansion. It was done in Enugu state. So I believe we’re going in the right direction. I believe we’re doing the right thing. So it is based on that that we have come up with this.

Where do you see the institution in the coming years?
Like I said, we see improvement, we see expansion, and we see it competing with the league of universities in the country. I give you an example: I graduated from the University of Calabar. When I left the University of Calabar, they were not doing engineering, they were not doing pharmacy and they were not even doing Mass Communication. They are doing it now, they are expanding. So why do we limit the state owned university if the federal university is expanding? It doesn’t make any sense. So we need to put them where there will be competition, so I see them being better than what they are today. A lot of people may not understand it now but I believe, someday, sometime, somewhere, somebody will remember that somebody had a foresight.

CRUTECH is not the only state owned institution. We have the Institute of Management and Technology, Ugep, College of Health Technology, Calabar. Why did you decide to focus on one? What is the fate of these other institutions?
No, no, no my focus is not on CRUTECH alone. Don’t also forget that I sponsored a bill for a polytechnic to be situated in the state at a place in Ogoja because there is a need for a polytechnic so let’s cater for those who cannot go to the university; not everybody can go to the university. So we had a polytechnic which has then metamorphosed into a university so there’s need to cater for those who can’t go to the university. For instance, in Kaduna state if you do your research you’ll find out that they have about 24 federal institutions in a state. Kaduna is not bigger than Cross River State.

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Is this change of status with immediate effect?
Whenever a ill is signed into law it’s with immediate effect so, the name has changed, that one is sealed. We’re still talking about the various facilities to be put in place. And if you talk about Health Tech and all of that, if you go there you’ll find out that there’s a remarkable improvement. For instance, the school of nursing, they just got accreditation.

The federal government has just approved a federal Polytechnic to be situated at Ugep. What’s your reaction to this?
That’s a good thing; I congratulate those that were involved in the process. If these things were not important, trust me, people at the national level wouldn’t have been bothered. Apart from the educational aspect of it, employment, the funding that comes with it. The infrastructure, it brings development.

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How will you rate the performances of the current Vice Chancellor of UNICROSS?
Well, I will be biased because he’s my personal friend. I will allow you to go and take that from somewhere else because he’s someone I’ve known for a very long time, so if I want to give any assessment about him I’ll give assessment as somebody who is my brother, somebody who’s my friend and you know that that assessment will be excellent. Let us give him, he has the school to run, let us assess him afterwards.

What specific areas would you want him to focus on?
Absolutely! Merit; let him change the face of the institution. Improve security, get rid of those people that come into the University to cause problems. Improve the standard of which I know he is capable of doing.