ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, YENAGOA
… attributes success to teamwork
The tenure of Prof Seth Accra-Jaja as the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke (FUO), Bayelsa State, has ended.
The outgoing VC, however, said the journey was not easy, but attributed his success while he held sway at the institution to teamwork and collaboration with students, lecturers and stakeholders.
Federal University, Otuoke, is one of nine federal universities established by the Federal Government under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2011.
Prof Accra-Jaja, who spoke during his send-off on Thursday at Otuoke, said when he came on board, the student and staff population stood at 2000 apiece.
He said the development was not proper for a university system, but expressed satisfaction that the situation had been reversed and the student population had grown to over 8,000 at present.
He, however, attributed the change and progress achieved by the institution in recent years to the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders in the university.
He said, “The success story and fulfilment of promises under my watch as Vice-Chancellor were made possible by the efforts of students, lecturers and management of the institution.
“The development of any institution thrives where there is an active collaboration between people, capital, systems and structures for the overall transformation of the society.
“Under my stewardship, FUO like every human organisation, is comparable to a living organism, with its assembly of units functioning as a whole.
“We have improved on what we met on ground. For instance, when I came on board, the student population was 2000 same with staff population. We also had problem of two functional facilities with twelve programmes.
“But I want to announce that now our student population has grown up to 8,000 and above. With the same staff strength we have been able to service the student population which is a notable achievement.
“If you have been to this university before now you will observe that in terms of structures we didn’t even have a classroom that we could say was a university classroom. But this is one area that the Federal Government has seriously addressed and today we have well over twelve lecture theatres, one of which can accommodate 1,500, some 500 with the least housing 300 students.”
Accra-Jaja added that his successor would be working from a more befitting edifice, adding that the transformation witnessed by the university is the beginning of better things to come.
He, however, called for continued unity of all stakeholders in the university to actualise the institution’s goals.
The outgoing VC also urged the institution’s lecturers, students and staff to extend same support to his successor, Prof Teddy Charles Adias.
He boasted that the university currently has six faculties: Faculty of Education, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Management Science and Faculty of Science and 29 departments.