When Professor Chigozie Cyril Asiabaka was named the substantive Vice
Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, it was
naturally received with mixed feelings. There were those who rightly or
wrongly, did not believe in Asiabaka’s ability to move the institution
to greater heights.
On June 20, 2011, Professor Asiabaka presented his inaugural address
to the university community at the 17th General Assembly. He carefully
captioned his 28-page address “The Quest For Excellence”.
His principal vision was “to reposition FUTO to be a top-ranked first
class institution of excellence in technological knowledge production
and dissemination, through teaching, research and service to humankind”.
He enunciated short term activities that would be realized in his
first six months in office. Professor Asiabaka said he would, as a
matter of urgency, commence the beautification of the entire campus,
start negotiation for massive infrastructural development, including
guest houses, mini-stadium, staff quarters, principal officers’ houses,
lecture theatres, workshops and students’ hostels.
The forward looking FUTO Vice Chancellor also planned to harness the
Otamiri River for electricity, recreation, agriculture, water supply.
A major challenge to Asiabaka’s administration was the poor
infrastructure of the University. While successive administrations have
endeavoured to improve the level of infrastructure, the growing
population within the University community exposes the urgent need to
expand facilities.
Within one year in office, Prof Asiabaka commenced the beautification
and landscaping of the University campus, construction of a new
building complex for the School of Engineering and Engineering
Technology, SEET, which accommodates six departments in the School.
FUTO environment has equally changed with the construction of
Engineering and Nuclear Science building, as well as the establishment
of a Centre for Excellence in Advanced Material and Manufacturing
Technology, under the auspices of the National Agency of Science and
Technology Infrastructure, NASENI.
The University is now a proud owner of a National Information
Technology Development Centre and Public Procurement Research Centre
building, funded through endowment support. Other successes recorded by
Asiabaka include installation of solar street lights throughout the
campus and installation of a 24 channel DVR closed circuit television
facility on campus.
A new Senate Building has been designed to cater for the
institution’s expansion and consolidation of administrative and
management functions. The same is also true of a Research and Technology
Park project, the completion of the Chevron ICT building, establishment
of a contemporary Centre for Research and International Development.
Delivering the state of the University address at the 19th General
Assembly on July 24, 2012, Asiabaka told an elated university community
that a Centre for Nuclear Energy Study and Training, CNEST, construction
of the Dental Technology Building,, construction of Optical/Optometry
Building have been realized.
Other buildings that stand to Asiabaka’s credit are the School of
Environmental Technology Phase B, School of Environmental Technology,
SOET and School of Management Technology Building Complex.
Construction work has since commenced on the Centre for Research and
Technical Assistance for Youth Development, as well as the construction
of FUTO Entrepreneurship Centre. The list appear endless but he is
worried that the host communities are badly encroaching on the
University land and very fast too.
“ We are aware of the fact that the University has been unable to
fully access its full scope of land due to avoidable encroachment by
persons in the host communities. Our development projects are therefore
being clustered around the limited space so far available to FUTO”,
Professor Asiabaka said.
He further lamented that these limitations undermine the development
of this University on many fronts and place serious constraints on the
administration’s capacity to engage in the type of orderly development
that will mutually benefit FUTO and the host communities, based on the
provisions in the institution’s master plan.
source: VANGUARD
