Professor Uche Ikonne’s 100 Days In As Vice Chancellor ABSU: A Convincing Way To Begin -By Comr. Ahamefula Israel

According to an American scholar, distinguished Professor and founding Chairman of “The leadership Institute” California, Professor Warren Bennis: “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”. Having said that, one can say without doubt, that the first 100 days of Professor Uchenna Eleazer Ikonne in office as Vice-Chancellor Abia State University has been fulfilling with activities geared towards developing the institution.

In just 100 days in office, Professor Ikonne has justified the mandate given to him by taking critical steps that will not only develop the institution but improve the living condition of both staff and students of the University in line with his promises.

For the records, Professor Ikonne took over the affairs of Abia State University as the 7th Substantive Vice-Chancellor on the 1st dayof December 2015.

In a blue print titled My Mandate “Our Story must Change” Professor Ikonne briefly but clearly outlined the vision, mission and strategies of his administration. Our Story Must Change encapsulates the direction and goals of his administration as well as the specific steps to be taken for their actualization.

As a way of recognizing the supremacy of God in the affairs of Abia State University and his unwavering believe in God, Prof Ikonne who has always placed God first in everything he does, held a Solemn dedication Service on his first day in office. This was to hand over the university and its affairs to God in prayers and to seek God’s divine direction.

Professor Ikonne has proved to all that he knows all the potholes in ABSU by the caliber of men and women he appointed as Provost, Deans and Heads of Department. By his style of administration, every staff has been given some administrative duty to perform through the several University Committees constituted by Prof Ikonne. Two of such Committees are set up to wage war against exploitation of Students by staff.

His decision to upgrade the use of I.C.T in the Administration is to meet up with the 21st century academic standard as well as to save students the stress they encounter before accessing their results, course registration, compilation of result and other problems faced during clearance.
It is also worthy of note that unauthorized fees which students were forced to pay during clearance and other academic related activities have been abolished. To ensure effective implementation, he gave out his personal phone contact to all student leaders ranging from course representatives to the apex leadership of the students to enable them report directly any cases of molestation, exploitation and extortion by staff.

He has also made punctuality and regularity to work become part staff of ABSU and with regular payment of salaries, staff now look forward to going to work early.

He has also ensured that professor’s start research teams which is one of the driving force he wants to use in moving his administration. This he calls operation show your driver’s license.

In the area of infrastructural development, Professor Ikonne has left no stone unturned as he has continued with the construction and renovations of lecture halls, laboratories, hostels and re-grassing of school field.

Within his first month in office, Professor Ikonne got full accreditation for the Faculty of Law that was not properly accredited in the last accreditation exercise and full accreditation for the Department of Medical Laboratory and Computer Science respectively.

In line with his mandate of increasing the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the institution, he initiated the production of ABSU Bottle water which is used in the university and its environs.
Recently, Prof Ikonne has the good fortune of taking delivery of nine brand new cars donated by the State Governor, Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu to assist Provost and Deans of Faculties perform their duties. This in addition to the Mass transit buses the Governor approved for ABSU students. All these are the advantages of having an academic as Visitor to the University.

Professor Ikonne’s 100 days in office can be best described with the words of a great leader, and former President of American National Urban League, Donald Mc Gannon, who said that: “Leadership is action, not position”.

It is therefore wise to commend the Governor Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu for the choice of Prof Ikonne as the Vice Chancellor of Abia State University and to encourage staff and students to continue with the support they are giving to him. ABSU will surely be better under Prof Uchenna Eleazer Ikonne as Vice Chancellor.

Ahamefula Israel, a former Students’ Union President, Abia State University,Uturu writes from Enugu. e-mail:anyameleisrael@gmail.com.