From: Chatafrik Network Groups <chatafrik@msn.com>
Date: 14 February 2011 20:45
Subject: "WE SHALL TAKE THE CHALLENGE," SAY THREE US-BASED NIGERIAN PROFS NAMED VCs OF NEW FEDERAL VARSITIES
To: Moderator Bolaji <alukome@aol.com>, Chukwuma Agwunobi <agwu22@yahoo.com>, ModeratorsCircle <ModeratorsCircle@yahoogroups.com>, NaijaPolitics Forum <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Omo Oduduwa <Omo-Oduduwa@yahoogroups.com>, Chat AfriK aaForum <chatafrik@yahoogroups.com>, Africa Politics Forum <Africa-Politics@yahoogroups.com>, OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com, ericayoola@aol.co.uk, bdnade@yahoo.com, wharfsnake@yahoo.com, naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com, nigeria360@yahoogroups.com, nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com, talknigeria@yahoogroups.com, alukome@gmail.com, matto1@msn.com, afis <odidere2001@yahoo.com>, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>, Chim Ahanotu <celebrateng@yahoo.com>, Akandeoj@aol.com
"WE SHALL TAKE THE CHALLENGE," SAY THREE US-BASED NIGERIAN PROFS NAMED VCs OF NEW FEDERAL VARSITIES
EMPOWERED NEWSWIRE, NY-FEB 14, 2011----Three US-based Nigerian professors named among the Vice Chancellors of the new 9 federal universities in Nigeria say they are ready to impact the nation's tertiary education scene in a unique way while accepting the challenge to pioneer 3 of the new schools, Empowered Newswire, a US-based Nigerian news agency reports.
There has been great excitement among Nigerians in the Diaspora, especially in the United States from where the 3 senior Nigerian professors in American Universities were named.
The announcement earlier in the week by the federal government named Professor Bolaji Aluko, from the Howard University in Washington DC, one of the prime African-American universities in the US, the VC of the new federal university in Otueke, Professor O. Geoffrey Okogbaa, from the University of Southern Florida, USF, as VC of the new federal university in Wukari, Taraba State and Professor Mohammed K. Farouk of the Florida International University, FIU as VC of the new university in Kashere Gombe.
"Although the assignment is surprising, I am willing to accept the challenge," says Aluko, a professor of Chemical Engineering who had been selected by Nigerians abroad among the top 50 US/Canada-based Nigerians to mark the nation's golden jubilee celebration last year.
Moderator Matto congratulating Moderator Bolaji on MVN of the Year 2004 Award.
Himself an Ekiti man, Aluko had thought the assignment would be to head the federal university in Iyin-Ekiti, but he is nonetheless excited and honored to take the role of the pioneer VC as he has already started talking with the new registrar of the Otueke Federal University. "I called the registrar already to touch base with each other and have some discussions," he revealed.
According to Aluko, he discovered to his delight that both the registrar of the federal university at Otueke, Mr. David Ujode Suwari, and himself attended the same, then, University of Ife about the same time in the early 70s. "We share a common vision of how a lovely university under a pioneering VC was managed," Aluko enthused.
His counterpart, Professor Okogbaa also said "I feel humbled and at the same time honored, and fortunate to have been appointed to this important position, especially for what it portends for Nigeria's growth and development of future leaders and experts in science & technology, business & economics, the health professions, and indeed all areas that ultimately determines the well being of the citizens of a modern state."
Okogbaa who is a professor of Industrial & Management Systems Engineering and now VC of the federal university in Wukari, like Aluko also conceded that the appointment is a challenge. "I am mindful of the fact that this appointment comes with enormous responsibilities," he says.
Professor Farouk, an associate professor of education at FIU, who is the new Vice Chancellor of the federal university in Kashere, Gombe in his own reaction observed that to confront the challenge he is positive that the new vice chancellors " will apply their knowledge, skills, expertise, and experiences toward achieving" the goals set for the new federal schools.
All the 3 Diaspora based professors who are now busy preparing to relocate from their US bases in Washington DC and Florida back to Nigeria see the significance of the federal government and President Goodluck Jonathan's inclusion of US-based Nigerian professors among the new federal VCs.
According to Farouk "President Goodluck Jonathan's appointment of distinguished Professors from the Diaspora as Vice-Chancellors of some of the new federal universities is quite laudable."
He said this "reflects the President's commitment to involve all Nigerians wherever they may be residing, in developing the potential of the country to the fullest in order to achieve national development."
Aluko and Okogbaa also shared the similar sentiments.
In fact Aluko disclosed that it is noteworthy that some of the past pioneering Nigerian Vice Chancellors were also returnees from the Diaspora, where they had gone to school. He cited the example of Prof. Hezekiah Oluwasanmi who was the pioneer VC of the then University of Ife. Oluwasanmi attended both the Morehouse College in Atlanta, where martin the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. graduated and later Harvard University, Boston.
Aluko added that their appointments have been quite resounding among the Nigeria Diaspora saying "I have been overwhelmed by congratulatory messages from among the Diaspora community here and many of them are saying 'if I can move to Nigeria, they can too."
He said the new federal universities will need new faculty and can draw much more from among the Nigerians in the Diaspora.
In his own contributions, Okogbaa disclosed that "I fully intend to work hard to assemble a leadership team that would help create a vision and a plan of where we want to go and how we would get there."
He added that no one person or one group of people can do the task of pioneering the new universities alone. "It would take all of our collective will and desire to make this work," he says.
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