By Amaechi Agbo

Two years administration of the Vice-Chancellor, ESUT, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Nnabugwu Okolie has been described as “tremendous and rewarding”.

The university Registrar, Chief Ambrose Ugwu who stayed this in a chat said the oast two years in ESUT under the VC have witness recorded achievements both at infrastructure and humanitarian levels.

“As someone who has been in the system for several years, I think this two years anniversary of our VC has been something that is very tremendous and rewarding; because of a lot of things that he has put in place. It is unusual to see staff going to rest for a week or two but he came around and saw that at times all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. For the past one week or thereabout every staff of the university has been in vacation except those in essential duties.

“The Pharmaceutical Faculty is the highest pharmacy building in Nigeria, the same thing with the Department of Nursing, very soon MedLab will equally come there because the modules will contain all these department.

“Do we talk about Regularisation and Confirmation of Appointments? Before the arrival of the VC, we have not been following the work list of Regularisation and Confirmation of Appointments.

“Another thing we have to thank him for, is the issue of staff registering with their professional bodies. So many people don’t know that they belong to professional bodies but now, everybody is now having a professional certificate.

“He is not somebody that is interested in where you are coming from his interest is can you deliver and he will give you time and opportunity to try your luck and equally assist you.

ESUT is very happy and bless even though he brought Disruptive Innovations. Why I said so is that you know formerly staff in ESUT have been retiring in the same month 30th of September, but when he came, he said no. ‘We are not born the same day and it is not done I’m a civil service; you will retire on your date of birth or assumption of duty. It has brought sanity within the system.

“He also handled the issue of Election unlike before one phone call will just disturb whatever will are doing but now phone calls are restricted and no manipulation from anywhere we had a seamless Students Union Election.
Moreover, unlike before, 10 o’clock you won’t see staff in the offices but now before 7: 30 am to 9 o’clock, all the offices are open and it’s not longer an issue of when it is 3 o’clock you see people standing at the NCC building looking for vehicles they now stay till 4 o’clock.

“Talk of the increase in quota in Medicine, we met it at 50 but now it has been increased to 240, the same with Nursing, we met it at 50 but now it has increased to 100; Medlab we met it at 30 but now it has increased to 180, what we are planning is to increase Nursing to 200 and law. In the aspect of collaboration, we have them.

“His two years in office has been a great moment for everyone and we pray God to continue to sustain him. I didn’t talk about regular payment of salary because within the management level, we don’t regard it as achievement because it is the cardinal principle of the VC that a labourer deserves his wages. As we say in Igbo, onye rụọ, orie. (He who works, eats)”

Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie was appointed ESUT Vice-Chancellor on April 4, 2022 by the Enugu State Government.