A prolific writer, publisher of repute, astute manager of resources, astounding role model, administrator par excellence, and university teacher, Professor Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, the incumbent Vice Chancellor of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, remains a leading light, iconic figure and intellectual luminary as long as the Nigerian academia is concerned.

Before assuming office as numero uno and chief executive officer at IAUE, Prof Ndimele had served as external examiner and professorial assessor for a number of high profile universities. The Professor of Comparative Grammar and Communications at the University of Port Harcourt and former Managing Editor of the University of Port Harcourt Press Ltd, was the National President of the Linguistics Association of Nigeria between 2003 and 2008 and currently the National President of the English Language Association of Nigeria.

The penultimate National President of the University of Port Harcourt Alumni Association, who had also served as member, Governing Board of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Rivers State Scholarship Board and Board member, Rivers State Post-Primary Schools Board, was also a prominent member of the defunct Rivers State Economic Advisory Council, member, Shell/Oando and Rivers State Oil/Gas Negotiating Team, Rivers State Peer Review Committee, and also served as a member of the Transition Committee of the present administration in the State. He is currently a member of the Governing Board of RSUT and member of the State Golden Jubilee Committee.

In this exclusive interview, the erudite Professor Ozo-mekuri Ndimele spoke with Kristina Reports’ Special Correspondent, Blessing Aseminaso, and Campus Reporter, Fortune Uzoma, on recent developments in the institution he currently heads, Covid-19 pandemic, and the future of academics. It is an interesting read.

There’s been an uproar within the few weeks of the school’s resumption, regarding a case of sexual assault by a lecturer on a student and the recent gang rape incident. What is the update, so far, on these issues?

They had sex with her in turn. She raised alarm at some point but they overpowered her. Though some persons wanted to break the door but the door was locked from behind. At some point, they finished with her and ran away through the window and she was helpless. Some persons came to rescue her and then she told her story. She knows one of them, and then a day after we were able to arrest the first person; the one she identified instantly, and then took him to police and interviewed him to know what happened. He made his own statement that the girl is his girlfriend. I said your own girlfriend, and you allowed other men to join you! Why did you do that? He said they overpowered him. The other boys came and overpowered him and had their way before him there. He must be a goat to do so….not even in his room but his friend’s room because he doesn’t live on campus, he lives off campus. But he came over to see the girl and then took her to the boys’ hostel. Luckily, we arrested the second person but the third one is still at large. We’ve given all his details; his village and all that…. we’ve sent that to the police…so they are still looking for him. But the matter is going be charged to court. But they want to apprehend the third person this week before they charge them to court. But the school authority has taken a stand on the matter; they have been suspended, and now, they are to face the university’s students committee. The outcome of that meeting would be brought to senate, to look at it. If they are found severely guilty, they’ll go. We can’t spare them at all. But they’ve been suspended and those in the hostel have been expelled from the hostel.

We are sure in the course of managing these embarrassing developments, the management under your leadership has had some take-homes. What measures have been employed to correct the anomaly and possible reoccurrence of such happenings, in order to keep the university’s name on a clean slate?

It will happen again and again.  The occurrence will happen. Can you stop it? But we are doing our best to see that it will never repeat itself so soon. Until Sunday last week, the law allowed students to visit themselves in the hostels; the boys and the girls at least two hours away between four, five to six. That was allowed. But now, no boy can visit a girl in the female hostel and no girl can come to the male hostel. Although it’s a bit on the harsh side but it’s to make sure that they don’t get tempted anymore, because how would that have happened to the girl if she was in her own hostel? So that is one major step we’ve taken to make sure that there are no inter-sex visits in the hostels.

Besides the ban of inter-sex visits on campus, what security measures have been put in place for those in the hostels?

We’ve also gotten the workers to be more on alert. Although they said they were playing some music around the area that was why they didn’t hear her scream. So, we’ve also banned the use of such system in the hostel. You can play music but not too loud, to make sure people are able to hear what is happening around them. If it was an outsider coming into the hostel, one could take decisions on what to do but it’s an insider doing the thing. So nobody came from outside to rape our student. We on campus raped ourselves, so it’s a bit on the difficult side. We can decide to lock the gates and say after 2 O’clock don’t come here! But we can’t say that because it’s not just someone from the village coming in, it is one of us here….those who live around here that did that.

We’re just returning from the Covid-19 period, how were the administrative functions of the institution carried out during the outbreak of the pandemic and few months of lockdown?

When the lockdown was there it was quite hopeless. We were on lockdown for six whole months. The school was on vacation for six whole months. Students, staff left the campus and at some point, everybody left the campus. But after a lift of the ban for some category of staff on campus, we were working two, three times a week….At some point, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I was coming to work. Three times a week myself, and the rest came two times in a week; Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sometimes Mondays they come too to make sure we atleast keep hope alive. If we abandon here for six months we would have seen a forest growing everywhere. So, we must keep hope alive; cut grasses in the environment and show that we are here, and check the taps if they are on and all that. So, we keep our hope alive by going to work and at some point we reconvened learning. We taught our students online at some point and had an online exam that was later suspended.

No doubt, some measures meant to curtail the spread of the coronavirus have been put in place. How effective have these measures been, so far, in terms of adherence/compliance by staff and students and how does the institution intend to intensify these procedures?

Yeah, the Covid came to us as a surprise. We weren’t prepared for it at all; as a nation and as a school. But along the line we came to realize that this thing had come to stay with us and the best we can do is to see how we can manage ourselves within the period of this pandemic. So, before the school opened we had told a few departments; Chemistry Department, Home Economics Department and Sciences Department, that whatever you can do to help us manufacture some small chemicals to wash our hands; soap to wash our hands, among others, get it done; and that was what happened. We gave some money to some departments here to produce soaps, sanitizers, and the rest we had to procure from outside; buckets, stands for the buckets, etc. We also built a walk through gate; I’m not sure you went through it today because it had issues last night…but you walk through the gate and get sanitized. It has temperature check and all that. We went to do all that, and then it’s compulsory you wear your face mask when you’re in the classroom or the hostel and also wash your hand before entering the hostel. Somewhere in the new hostel; boys hostel which is not yet occupied by any student, we’ve preserved some rooms as holding center; anybody who has shown evidence of some high fever, cough, etc. could be kept there for two or three days before evacuation to the NCDC center. So, we are somehow prepared to manage ourselves within the Covid, and we try to avoid crowd on campus. We try to avoid any activity on campus. No more external lectures where we invite people from outside to come and talk, and then we’ve divided our classrooms into smaller groups, to reduce the crowd. So it’s not easy, but what else can we do? We have to manage ourselves. I have said when the Covid began that the world has seen something that has come to stay for some time; it won’t varnish so soon because the symptoms are like malaria which has been with us for only God knows how long, but this one has come to stay. Only God can wipe it off soon and that’s why they’re talking about vaccine for it. If it is going to come and go, you can’t talk about vaccine. Vaccine means when you get it into your system, it helps you. So, it has come to stay, that is the truth. It was good we reopened the universities and schools to find out how we can within the pandemic still make progress instead leaving things to fate and say we can’t help it. So, yes, we’re working at it.

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Sir, looking at the efficacy of your administration in terms of infrastructural development and business project like that of the commercial fish pond, set up for the purpose of generating funds, added to your receptiveness towards students, and even more, how do you come up with such outstanding results? What’s your secret, Sir?

Nigerians are on the streets in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Abuja, etc. Why are they on the streets? It’s not about SARS, but about good governance. Everywhere in the country now we have people blocking the roads and streets over bad governance. Anybody who has travelled outside this country that has seen the level of development here and out there, would gather all our leaders inside one small house and set them ablaze. If you do some nobody would blame you! The country has enormous resources; we are blessed, but the leaders are not doing the right thing. What is wealth? It’s just a minimum comfort, not acquisition of wealth for your children’s children unborn and born again. Some are lost and can’t even be accounted for. Some of us don’t know where our money is; they have some packed in holes and pits…you can’t account for them. So, why can’t someone make impact when alive? How many years would you live on earth, and go with a good name instead of riches that they’ll bury you naked with one dress without shoe or wristwatch in your hand! So, that’s the problem. We are not richer than any university around us. We are even the poorest university compared to UNIPORT and UST. When I came on board here I had no official car. It’s on record that I served the school for two years and four months before I bought my official car. I used a car I came with from UNIPORT to drive and work for this university. I said I won’t buy any official car until my students enter their hostels, until they have a classroom to learn, I won’t. For some colleagues of mine the same week you’re made VC they buy you four official cars. For me, it’s only two I’ve bought and I’m not sure I’m going to buy more before I leave, for what? The first one I bought was two years and four months. I would have just borrowed money from the bank to buy a car but I didn’t. Some persons said Prof. do it oh, they might just remove you tomorrow. But I said God brought me here and if He wants me to go before my time is over I don’t mind. But I must buy a car when I’m sure that at least my students can eat or live well in the hostel or have good ways to study. So, make impact first. I am a Vice Chancellor. Every VC has a security vote. When I came the first month they gave me the money, the second month the money. After three months, I said why am I taking this thing. God has not given me anything to worry about. Why am I taking money for security? So I stopped. Since April 2017, I don’t take one Kobo of it but if I do take it, it can feed three persons, buy food every month and cool off…but I’m not taking it. They say Ndimele, is there something wrong with you? If you are a VC and the school has no house for you, the law says you are to be given one hundred and twenty thousand naira every day for three months to look for where you can sleep. Officially, that’s what the law says. But I came from UNIPORT, I lectured in UNIPORT, I had my house in UNIPORT. I was coming from there so why must I charge this university? By the way, that house too is government house in UNIPORT. Why am I to charge the University for staying in a hotel? Some said take the money na it’s your money, but I said take which money? It’s not my money! I have a house. Imagine hundred and twenty thousand naira every day for one month is three million plus, times three months is over about ten million naira. I lost all that, but God knows why. While I was in my official house in G.R.A, I traveled and while I was there, my wife also travelled. My building got burnt. My major bedroom got burnt. I came back and asked my wife to pick up her bag and let’s go. The Bursar of the University said VC check into a hotel and we’ll pay for you, and I said okay. While we were driving to a place I asked my driver to stop by a hotel and ask how much they charge, and they said twenty thousand per night and I said good, let’s go and see the room. We went there, saw the room and I decided we’ll stay there for at most two or three weeks just to sleep. I asked my wife not to eat any food while we were in the hotel. By the way, our kitchen didn’t get burnt. So, we ate our break, lunch and dinner from our house. We only went to the hotel at night to sleep and then return back to our house in the morning because what was burnt was our room and not the kitchen. That was how we stayed. So, if I stayed in a five star hotel, the school would have paid for it but that’s luxury and madness. By the way, if I finish this job as a VC, will I sleep in a five star hotel? So why can’t I live a life I can maintain after school, after this job? I was going to Abuja just one month as VC here, on business class through flight. I said to myself, Ndimele are you well? Business class in Nigeria? It’s a ten minutes trip. As you enter the plane they open everywhere. When the plane flies into the sky, they cover it and serve them snacks and after then, open the curtains again and that’s it. So there’s no much difference. I said Ndimele, you are here doing what in business class? You’re supposed to live as a VC and go back to teach in the classroom; to earn three hundred thousand naira, would you continue like this? Go to where you belong! Since then I withdrew. I stay in a public place in the aeroplane. When I’m going abroad I can reconsider because of inconveniences, but not in Nigeria here. So, all that we are doing is self-denial. If I take what is due me as a VC, we wouldn’t have managed to do what we are doing. It’s self-denial! If something will cost five naira, why must I put eight naira to do it? But the eight naira would come to me as a VC….why can’t I use five naira and use the remaining three naira to do another thing? If you take the remaining three naira as a VC you’ll end up achieving only few things in all projects; not much. But because of the way we are doing things, it’s giving us money to do more things. Within this Covid period we are working on several major projects….the Covid period where people are no longer working again, and that’s it. So, it’s all about good governance, self-denial. That’s how we are achieving what we are achieving because if I take all that is due me, like the brand new vehicles, nothing will remain to help the system.

So far, what are the challenges faced by the institution? Are there special needs that require government’s urgent attention or that of the Rumuolumeni community? What solutions should be provided?

Funding is critical, very important. No school can survive without funding. Secondly, personnel; employment is critical because no school can function without the requested manpower to drive the programs they have. Not many of us can do the job and do it well. If we have such weak staff here, there should be some funding to retrain them. But if all we do is recycle old notes, textbooks, old articles without new ones, then you’ll achieve nothing. But you have some funding to train staff regularly in workshops, conferences, some retrained again like if one has a Master’s or Ph.D. for them to learn more, because knowledge is critical. But to remain on a particular level of education, there’s nothing you can do because things change. Some of us, the notebooks we used to teach our students ten years ago are expired. They still teach the same things because nothing is happening. They are not going for retraining. Academics requires constant training and retraining, you go through exposure and change your mind about things and so on. Some of us have expired as professors. We are talking about what we learnt about some ten, twenty years ago, in this modern period? It’s not going to work! So, this are the major challenges we have. If we can get funding, we can get our personnel trained and allow us to employ new brains, we’ll be okay.

As a forward looking plan, what is your vision for the university in the coming years and how would you expect the university community including stakeholders to connect to this vision?

I have just one year to go, so I’m way down; descending the hill, but I want to leave some legacy behind. I want to see if I can live one or two persons around the system that can continue to drive this vision I have for the university. My prayer is whoever would come after me, should look at the things that have been done and consolidate. Before I came in here I had a vision; a small book I printed, which I called my vision for the university and that book has been guiding me on what I’m doing, step by step. And the few things that have not been done because of funding, which I hope that my colleague who will come; whoever will take after will see where they can find that document useful and continue to do things properly here. I don’t know whether before I go, the name of the school would have been changed because that has been my major obstacle here. There are courses I cannot bring in here because of the nature of the mandate we have. There are courses that will impact on the environment here that I would have brought in if we had changed the name of the university and to change the mandate of the university, because the truth is that Nigerians are still thinking of achieving new results with same old thinking. It cannot work that way. Our curriculum should be reviewed all over, and think of what we can do. Once when I was in UNIPORT I used to tell my lecturers, why are you angry with the students? When they ask some questions, they’ll say why are you asking these questions? Our own generation of scholars, we are trained to teach in the classroom. In my year one in the university, in 1981, I was taught by two lecturers and after the classes I said to myself I would be a lecturer, and I maintained that. But how many of these children nowadays can go to the first two lectures and say oh I’m going to end up a lecturer in life? They would never and some would even say God forbid. So, these are served children who only think in terms of Naira and Kobo. So, is there any way you can retune this thing you’re giving them into Naira and Kobo? You cannot just prepare him to teach like an English man. I told my teacher, why are you drawing diagrams without fruits? Trees should bear fruits or should be cut down! White men in those days taught us to have white collar jobs, we should teach the students how to have “blue collar jobs”, and not white only. White was only to prepare one to get a civil servant in an office to carry file, teach in the classroom, etc. We need to prepare this children to make money. They need fashion education. My daughter once told me that I’m old school and that she makes money with her phone. We need to teach them how to make money with things in their hand and forget about civil service and all that. We must change our curriculum to think of how to put food on the table. If we train only on how to teach here, anybody can teach. One of my lecturers in UNIPORT once said, Ndimele, you people would have to kill us first before you’ll become lecturers here…and it’s true. And this same man was still teaching in UNIPORT before I became a Professor. It’s not like he’s going to leave in the next five or six years. By the way a department can take at most thirty lecturers among which only three or four will retire in a year or two. So when will new staff come in there without the old ones leaving? Only about two or one and half percent, use what they learn to survive in real life, the rest do other things. How many teachers teach? How many accountants work in the bank? How many lawyers practice? And even engineers, doctors? Many of them just finish their programs, drop their certificates and life goes on. So, why can’t we teach them how to survive after school and not how to speak good English and write notes that won’t make any sense to anybody, can’t put food on the table, and so on. So, we must go beyond the school book to some money book or money training.