Since the assumption of office as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okalie’s prompt payment of staff salaries at the end of every month has become a tradition.

Usually, salaries were paid on the last day of the month or when there are “network hitches” it would be paid on the first day of the new month, unfailingly. 

However, November payment of the salary was a different case. The month’s salaries didn’t come on the last day of the month neither did it come on the first day of the new month of December.

Not unexpectedly, the staff were apprehensive. Their apprehension was justified considering that it was the last salary to be paid before Christmas and New Year celebrations, perhaps. The expectation lingered, some staff members were agitated. Questions were asked particularly from unofficial sources and rumours were spreading. But the management knew what they were doing.

From first to the seventh day of December, staff members continued to watch their phones SMS message portals for an alert that never came.

The on Friday, the 8^th of December, “it rained in ESUT” was how one staff described it when he checked his phone and saw his salary alert.

But, what went wrong, why was the payment of the November salary delayed?

ESUT Monitor Newspaper sort answers to these and we were able to get them.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with our team of correspondents in his office, the Registrar, ESUT, Mr Ambrose Ugwu explained why the November salary payment took a different dimension from the existing norm. He blamed the lecturers for the delay stressing that their failure or refusal to comply with the implementation of the new Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) caused the delay.

According to him, he said that many lecturers failed to comply with the new directive adding that in order to punish them for their recalcitrance, the management had to either deduct or withhold the salaries of the affected workers.

“You’re aware that we now have local contents in the NUC curriculum, we have a CCMAS. We have 70% NUC (National Universities Commission) and then we have 30% local contents. The Vice Chancellor made it very necessary to ensure that all the Departments key into it.

“So many staff salaries were deducted, many were refused being paid this month (November) because they did not include CCMAS in their scheme, and we are prepared. The local content is very important, because it will help us such that the moment the students are graduating, they are finding something feasible to do. It’s not the issue of teaching us about XYZ theories, when you leave school do you see XYZ? That is what this CCMAS is all about; local contents, what are those things that are peculiar to your people, introduce it into your curriculum, so that as people are graduating, they’re already finding something to do. Looking at it and seeing it work, that is the essence of that,” he noted.

The Federal Government had insisted that the effective date for the commencement of the implementation of the newly developed Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) for the Nigerian University System (NUS) remained September, 2023.

The 70% of the total content of the CCMAS provided under the watch of NUC and the 30% of the other contents ceded to the individual University Senates to depict the uniqueness of their various universities, was a welcomed novel idea which would impact positively on Nigerian Universities.

The curriculum is aimed at producing highly skilled and fit-for-purpose graduates in tandem with contemporary realities.

It represents the dynamic foundations upon which an educational system is built, shaping the intellectual and personal growth of generations of graduates from the citadel of learning.

The CCMAS is endowed with unique features tailored to meet the evolving demands of the rapidly changing world focusing on interdisciplinary learning, soft and critical skills development, entrepreneurship and value creation. The new skills and opportunities that would arise following the full deployment of the CCMAS shall reposition Nigerian Universities to thrive in the dynamic and interconnected globalised world of the 21st Century.

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In an extraordinary twist of fate at the 19th Convocation Press Briefing hosted by the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) on November 9, 2023, the Vice Chancellor Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie injected a dose of humour and reality, jesting that even if the convocation didn’t yield much, a helicopter would steal the show on the university field.

Swiftly advancing to November 18, 2023, the Convocation day, the unexpected unfolded as a helicopter descended into the school football field at 10:17am turning ESUT’s campus into a mesmerizing spectacle reminiscent of fireworks in the university sky. Students, Passersby, guests and members of the university community came out in their numbers to behold the “strange” scene.

Adding to the intrigue, the helicopter not only brought exhilaration but also carried one of the distinguished Honourary Award recipients, Mr Osagie Okunbor, the Group Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN).

Mr. Osagie was bestowed with an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration (DBA Honaris Causa) Degree from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT

The academic institution, renowned for its commitment to excellence, established a new standard by seamlessly blending surprise and prestige, shaping a convocation that will linger in the memories of attendees for years to come. The convergence of a helicopter landing and the conferment of an Honourary Degrees to deserving Nigerians added an unforeseen twist to ESUT’s 19th Convocation, elevating it to a truly historic and unforgettable event.

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