Being the Text of a Brief Remark by Governor Alex C. Otti, OFR, on Thursday, June 20, 2024 during the Submission of the Report of the Full Visitation Panel to Abia State University Uturu
Protocols
1. Let me begin on a note of gratitude to the Chairman and members of the Full Visitation Panel to Abia State University Uturu for the timely completion of their assignment at our State University. When we inaugurated this Panel on February 13 this year, we identified 12 specific areas of very critical interest that we wanted the eminent professors and professionals from connected ecosystems who had been called to serve on the Panel, to focus their attention on. With the snippets of information available to me, I am quite satisfied that so much was committed in terms of efforts and experience to get the job done.
2. I want to specially appreciate the very distinguished Panelists for the immense sacrifices made over the course of this assignment, spending long hours on travels, site visitations, stakeholder engagements, review of documents and other responsibilities relevant to the successful completion of the Panel’s work. You justified my confidence in you through your individual and collective commitments. We are optimistic that the excellent work you have put in over the past 90 days would be ultimately helpful in the administration’s quest to return ABSU to the glory days of old.
3. Education as you know is at the heart of our development agenda. It is not for nothing that we allocated 20% of our entire budgetary outlay for the 2024 fiscal year to the sector. Even then, we do not just want to throw money around in the misconception that money answereth all things.
4. Our approach is methodical as we are keen to understand the main challenges and then evaluate how to prudently deploy resources to achieve the outcomes we seek. We had set up this Full Visitation Panel to undertake a robust study of the systems and structures at ABSU, evaluate how they align with international best practices, and return to us with a comprehensive report that would direct what we do next in terms of investments, and policy formulation — in collaboration with the relevant agencies and partners.
5. What we ultimately seek to achieve is to rebuild ABSU into a citadel of excellence in learning, research and administration. We want to frontally confront and eliminate whatever constitutes a threat to our vision of turning the University into a world class institution; one that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its peers across the world on all the indices that matter in University education.
6. It is my expectation that the recommendations and insights contained in the report put together by the Panel will help us to achieve our goal of robust institutional transformation in the University through the support and cooperation of all the stakeholders.
7. The Chairman of the Panel, Prof Steve Okodudu, has rightly pointed out that the great work done by the Panel can only yield fruits when the recommendations are studied and implemented. I agree completely and wish to assure everyone that we shall be painstaking in looking at the findings of the Panel, and the recommendations thereto with a view to identifying the ones that shall be implemented immediately, and ones that require further considerations because ultimately, our vision is for the short to long term.
8. My promise is that ABSU shall witness a great rebirth under our watch. Staff of the University shall be availed the right support to improve themselves and become better equipped for the very important assignment of shaping the future of our young ones. We shall also make impactful investments, directly, and through partnerships, to improve the learning, and residential environment for students.
9. We shall not be afraid to step on toes because we were elected to make things right, especially in very strategic institutions like ABSU where a combination of political factors and lack of genuine interest by major stakeholders have engendered deterioration for decades. In the new dispensation, things must be different.
10. The era of administrators doubling as contractors and consultants are long gone. As I had consistently told members of my team, one must make a choice between working for the State as a public official and doing business with the Government. No one can is allowed to choose both.
11. The Government is committed to doing its part to revive ABSU but we shall need the support of all stakeholder groups. I want to call on prominent alumni of the institution to get involved in the very important task of rebuilding their alma mater. This is not a time to be aloof because every alumnus is a stakeholder in the University.
12. As I conclude, let me once again thank the chairman and members of the Full Visitation Panel for laying down the marker. By your work and sacrifices over the last 3 months, your names shall forever be etched in the development history of Abia State University. You shall in no distant time begin to hear news of very interesting, and transformative developments in the University because for us, good is never enough — we are either the best, or completely out of it.
13. Thank you for your labour of love, and may God bless you all.
Dr Alex C. Otti, OFR,
20/06/2024
