Barring any last minute changes, Nassarawa state University with its main campus in Keffi
town is
set to have its convocation ceremony soon in honor of about
four sets of its graduates.
Confirming this during an exclusive interview with the Oga Mark in his office,
Professor Muhammed .A. Mainoma, the Vice
Chancellor, stated that the school
authorities is currently looking forward to a date in the month of November this year to organize the convocation
ceremony, which he said had already had the approval of the senate
He went further to explain that the university had in the past four years never had convocation ceremonies due to
some circumstances that were now being
rectified.
His words “you
cannot do convocation for students without results
released; now we have had them. Senate
approval has also being secured for the ceremony fixed for the month of November this year.”
The university
don had during the
interview session also
narrated the success
stories associated with the university under his leadership, promising that his
vision for the
institution would be
geared toward
attaining greater heights in all areas
of academic and
research activities which according to him would be a thing to be proud of in the academic
community anywhere.
Ques: Good day sir, it is a pleasure meeting you, we can see the good
work you are doing
here, can you briefly tell us about yourself?
Ans: You are welcome; I am Professor Mainoma, the vice chancellor of Nasarawa state university
Keffi. Before now, I was Deputy Vice Chancellor, administration. I had also at a time served Nassarawa state as commissioner of finance.
I belong to many professional bodies; I am a member of the council of Chartered Institute of Taxation and also a Fellow of that institution.
I am also a certified member of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria and its
second Vice President.
I belong to the International
Association of Accounting educators and research, as well a member of council of this Association at the international level.
Ques: With this achievements in your kitty
you are no less an authority in your chosen field. Now tell us how you have impacted on the university since your assumption of office as Vice Chancellor?
Ans: In the short period I have been in
office in this university, many modest
achievements have been recorded. These include
the building of good
network of roads for the
university which
never existed in the main campus in Keffi.
It was also during my administration that compensation was paid for
places acquired for the construction
of other campuses of the university. Since the establishment of the
university, hostel facilities were not on ground to accommodate students but now we
had three major hostels built by us, all nearing complexion. These are
some of the achievements.
Ques: What are the other notable achievements that can be credited to your administration?
Ans: A lot of
positive developments have also been recorded within the University. For an instance student’s results that have been hanging for over three years was released when we came
in. We made that possible, now students can beat their chest with certainty that they
had gotten their
results for graduation. So we have established
confidence in the minds of students. Happily the staff is also willing to make contributions towards keying into our developmental strides for the university. Now the
rating of the university in the eyes of the people has gone high. It is a thing
of joy because our repositioning efforts since we assumed office had paid off
and still counting. Today our students and staff are proud to say it anywhere that they belong to the Nassarawa state university without any sign
of regret, because
the administration’s reforms are working.
Ques: What is the secret behind the winning streak? From all indications, there is absolute calmness and peace within the university community. As we observe everything appears to be going on smoothly and everybody appears to be
happy. What magic wand are you then using to achieve this feat?
Ans: The students and staff appreciate this fact that we all have contributions to make to move the university forward. We have made it clear to everyone that we are all stakeholders of the university. If you take it from the angle
of the staff, it is a glaring fact that you cannot run a university system
without the contribution of both the academic and non academic staff. We therefore make them to realize how important they are and how they can make the environment conducive for
them to work for the entire harmony of the university. As on the part of the
students we also
ensure that they
participate by making
contributions towards the success of
this administration.
Today, students
of this university on
their own accord carry out monthly sanitation exercise in the whole of the
university, keeping the campuses clean
as part of contribution
to assist the administration. This boils down to saying that everyone has a
contribution to make. This also shows that there is some form of leadership in
place and that is why
everyone is participating happily. That is the secret behind what you are seeing in the university just
to answer your question directly.
Ques: Do you have plans to organizing a convocation ceremony soon with a
view of honoring the back log of your graduates who had since passed out but yet to be officially given send forth.
Ans: The University for about Four years had not organized convocation ceremony for our out gone students.
The reason is that their results were still
being awaited not until recently that they were released. The senate had approved these results. The final year students of this session had also finished their examination and hopefully we are sure their result too would be released.
Senate had therefore fixed November 14th this year as the day of convocation. We are trying to get council and
the government to buy
into that to make the date a reality. what ever it is we should be able to do that kind of ceremony in
November so that we would be able to release the back log of certificates to the students who had hitherto
graduated, but without authentic documents to show for it.
Ques: Do you have the plans to boost your staff strength in the nearest
future?
Ans: That would depend on the demand of the various disciplines in the university. For sure, we
shall recruit more staff when it is necessary, and that is when we would be creating new departments. Shortly, we are going to have in place, the faculty of
medicine. A committee
is working on that. With this and others on the drawing board they would of course be the need to
add to our existing staff.
Ques: How do you
want government to
come in this regard
and assist?
Ans: One is in the area of infrastructural development. We need that expansion. Secondly, our monthly subvention should be increased to enable us pay salaries
in situations we had to add additional
staff to enhance our
operations.
Ques: What are your other dreams for the university?
Ans: To build a
university that would proudly answer its
name universally. A university that would excel in terms of researches, public discourse and discipline.
Ques: In these days of dwindling allocation from
government, how are you surviving to
meet pressing needs?
Ans: We cut waste and manage what
we have prudently.
Ques: What is your relationship with
the students and staff?
Ans: It is very cordial. Since we open this university we have had no problem. They had never been student riots or strike actions by staff. This is because people are willing to share their worries for amicable settlement. I think this sincerity of
purpose has helped us to have good rapport with our students
and staff.
Ques: finally your message to your student and staff
Ans: They should remain dedicated and committed
to the university. I want to appreciate them and appeal that we should see
ourselves as friends working towards one goal; they should not put self beyond
the system but see themselves as beneficiaries of a particular system. And that
until when the system grows that it would actually have greater impact on their
lives. Thank You