By Joseph Joy and Timothy Nwobodo

The news of the creation of another base department, Environmental Management in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT came to many, especially outsiders, as a surprise, but not to the pioneer Head of Department, Professor Ugoyibo Okwu-Delunzu and her team.

The journey culminating into approval by the National Universities Commission, NUC and the pronouncement by the ESUT Management in October 2023, granting a full autonomy to the Environmental Management to function as a base department, was a result of eight years of painstaking journey of rough and smooth tales.

Formerly operating under Geography and Meteorology department, the quest to get approval for the Environmental Management to be granted a full autonomy began in 2015.

“I went to the PG (Postgraduate) board, to present a result, and the Dean PG School asked me ‘why does Geography and Meteorology present result for Environmental Management, why won’t they be a base department and they’re producing three PhD and four MSc graduates, where is the BSc Programme?

“That was my first time of hearing that question and I told him I needed to go back and ask the founding fathers. When I came back, I got few information from trusted people. We had a Faculty Board meeting, we raised the issue and the then Dean Professor Nwagbara said that there’s a committee that is handling that. This was in 2015/2016,” Professor Ugoyibo Okwu-delunzu, Pioneer HoD of the Environmental Management Department, told ESUT Monitor in an exclusives interview in her office shortly before the university vacated for Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Prior, Environmental Management was producing many students at the PG levels – PGD MSc and PhD coordinated by Geography Department. This disposition, no doubt, was affecting the department because it made the Geography and Meteorology programme silent. There were much work to do in the whole of Environmental Management and the urge on having it as a base department continued to grow.

When another Dean took over at the PG School, few years later, similar question was posed again on why the department didn’t have a BSc programme.

At the time, Professor Okwu-Dalunzu was the HoD of Geography and Meteorology Department, precisely in 2018. Prof Nwagbara was succeeded by Professor Arthur Essagha as Dean of the faculty and he picked Prof Okwu-Delunzu as the Associate Dean. Two years into Professor Osega’s tenure, he left for sabbatical. Professor Okwu-Delunzu became the Dean of the faculty.

In 2018, as Dean, she was Head of the Department for six months. All along, the existing Committee working on the creation of the new department was dilly-dallying and the need for a new, proactive team became incontestable.  

The Three Musketeers

The constitution of a new committee chaired by Prof Ileje marked a turnaround in the quest for the new Environmental Management Department in the faculty. The Secretary of the new committee was Prof Iyi and like three Musketeers – Professor Okwu-Delunzu as the Dean – the three worked unceasingly for the actualization of the aspiration.  

The new committee were mandated to take clue from other schools that were offering BSc in Environmental Management and how they are doing it. Prior, the Curriculum department wrote to the committee directing them to produce updated curriculum for the proposed new department.

The following year, committee produced documents which were sent to the Senate, ESUT.

Senate sitting and the Approval

On December 18, 2019, the report submitted by the Committee on the creation of the new department, Environmental Management, was called up and Prof Okwu-Delunzu in her capacity as the HoD Geography and Meteorology Department and Dean Faculty of Environmental Sciences, was saddled with the responsibility to convince the University Senate, including the Vice Chancellor then in attendance, on why creating the new department should be granted.

“I stood up and made my presentation on why we need the base department – it can give students a very good standing as well as boost the number of students offered admission. We know that as Environmental Management Department, the other seven departments practically contribute to what is happening in the faculty. Therefore, it serves like a mother to all these other departments. When we have the Environmental Management, it gives us a broader view of what we need,” Prof Okwu-Delunzu recounted.

A New Sheriff in ESUT

The appointment and subsequent resumption of Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie as the substantive Vice Chancellor, ESUT in April 2022 has not only reinvigorated the system in the university but he has also been described as “a God-sent.” This is because in less than two years of his Vice Chancellorship, Professor Okolie’s policies and transformation agenda have brought a breath of fresh air in the institution.

After the defence of the proposal at the Senate, the approval for the establishment of Environmental Management Department was speedily granted. Unfortunately, the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020 which destabilized human activities, punctured the fulfilment of the proposal as Resource Varication by the NUC could not be carried out at the time.

“We got the approval in 2019. Shortly after that, COVID-19 came with the challenges and the management said they couldn’t go for resource verification at that time,” Prof Okwu-Delunzu said.

When the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Okolie came, he brought up the issue of expanding the programmes in the University. He observed that the university was lagging behind its peers in terms of numbers of programmes offered. The issue of Environmental Management was brought forward, and the Management led by Prof Okolie did not only approve the invitation of Resource Verification team to the ESUT but also added four other departments in the list.

On October 20^th, 2023 the Environmental Management Department was granted approval for it to function as a fully-fledged department with effect from 2023/2024 academic session after the NUC Resource Verification team certified it.