RUNNING DEGREE PROGRAMMES, ONE OF MY MAJOR PRIORITITES -PROF MBAH

He assumed office as the Provost at a time when security was the biggest problem facing the college. Ironically, few days after granting interview to our Correspondent, he was kidnapped and was released last week by the police from his abductors. In this exclusive chat with Daily Sun in his office at Eha-Amufu, he x-rayed his challenges as the helmsman of the college.

Excerpts…
How did you emerge as Provost of the college?
The way it is done and which is what obtains in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria is that, the position is advertised in the newspapers and if people think they are qualified, they apply. So, it was advertised and I was qualified and I applied. And people were short-listed and there was an interview by the Governing Council and after the interview, I was appointed.

Prior to your assumption of office as the Provost of this college, the security situation was alarming to the extent that some alleged cultists invaded the school and killed a female student in March last year. What measures have you put in place to improve the security situation in the college?

Actually when I came in, the students were away and so the security matter you pointed out was still very hot and we have this security arrangement in the institution that were given to the private security guards. So, that was what we had and that is what we still have up till now because you give them for a period of time like a contract.

Well, one of the things that I did was to contact the police and the State Security Service (SSS) and they became aware of what was going on and since then, I have been working with them. I also try to work with the people that we have here; I am in close contact with them. I am a pastor, so in dealing with people I put conscience, truth, association, goodness and all those things together. So, just like I talk to my congregation, I talk to people. I have a way of getting at people because we have a very short time to live and it is how we make our bed that we lay on it. So, I speak to them and their consciences and by so doing, I have improved their acceptance.

Part of the insecurity has to do with the community. I have also talked with the leaders of the community especially the 'Igwes' and there is a lot acceptance. So, I think the way they perceive me, which is the way I also present myself and that is what I am, appears to calm things down. Part of the security problem had to do with paying them. You know, this thing they call hiring people, the government does not make provision for that, so you have to source your money. So, paying them was a problem.

When I also came, we tried to do that. There are other things, I mean some other expenditure that we had to cut so that we may be able to service them and since then, we have tried to do that. They were being owed, so they were not even able to give their best. You know, to owe your security man is a very serious matter, so we dealt with all those. And within three months we got clearance from the security people that we can now start. We went to Abuja and they said we could start. In fact, that was my first job; to get the school started and we did that.

So, with what is on ground now, are you satisfied with the security situation?

We are not satisfied because there are other things to be done; for instance the school is not fenced. It's only this thing you see in the front; so when you have access through so many ways, you are sure of people who come here but you are not sure of people who go out. This school also is populated with a lot of ladies and we try to protect them and that's the kind of things we do here.

Prof, the school is populated by young ladies, who are vulnerable to some of these randy lecturers, what measures have you put in place to ensure that they are protected from being harassed sexually?

A case was reported to me about an outsider who attempted to rape one of my female students and the security men are very smart. I can give them kudos. So, they reported to me and immediately, I asked them to take the suspect to the police. He was taken to the police and after some time, some people asked for settlement. I was furious because I insisted that I was going to use the incident as a test case.

I am well informed by the security people that even the girl's father came from Ebonyi State and was saying that he didn't want any trouble since the man was begging. My eyes were red and I told him that as much as the girl is her daughter, she is also my daughter. I have children and I know what it means for somebody to come and molest my daughters. She is here with me and if I don't protect her, what am I doing here? If I don't treat it this way, the story will go around. If you are talking about lecturers, it is not only going to the police because his job is also at stake. I see such action as a criminal case so, I don't think they will do anything to mess around with their female students; we are very serious about that kind of harassment. But of course you know that this is a tertiary institution and people are free to do certain things.

The ugly stories of female students who use their bodies or money to influence male lecturers to award undeserved marks to them in our tertiary institutions is no longer news, how are you tackling the menace or are you saying that such things doesn't exist here?

I would say that it's not very prominent here. You must know that if people know that you deal strictly with something, they are a little apprehensive reporting certain things to you. You know, this is a teacher training college and I have discovered that they are not as out-going and assertive as many undergraduates, like in the UNN where I studied. They are a bit conservative but if I get such report, I will take it very serious. I have not gotten such report yet. The only one at hand now is this attempted rape on our student by an outsider; it is a criminal matter. In fact, my Personal Assistant is a barrister, so once this kind of a thing comes up, I will call him and if he says, this is criminal, the person is gone. So, I think my position is very helpful.

The FG asked all the federal institutions to look inwards for fund to augment whatever is coming from the government. Is there any way you are internally generating fund in this institution?

You know that this place is a hinterland; not an urban centre. So, there is not much we can do but I tell you, the problem we have here is that over 90 per cent of our staff live outside. They live either in Nsukka or in Enugu and that is because we don't have staff quarters. It is really a problem that touches many things and that is why it is one of my cardinal projects because if I can, like I have in my plan, put down 100 housing units for my staff, all these things that we are talking about will be resolved; commercial things will just blossom. I don't know what Nsukka would have been without the number of staff of UNN living in Nsukka. If you push that up, it will affect many things. We have primary school here, that is the demonstration nursery and primary school but because my staff don't live here, it is not patronized. It's just a few people around and the charge is not much. It would have been different if the staff were here. We have been here for quite a while but the required development that ought to make this a nucleus of this town is still lacking. I think that this question of living outside is a big problem; if we can solve that, we will be up there.

Generally Prof, what are your challenges?
The challenges we have now are many because once you talk to me, I don't miss this issue of staff housing. Right now, we are putting up a marketable proposal, which we can take to banks or any organization that can help us so that over a period of time we will pay back. The other serious challenge we have here is water. The geology of this place is that boreholes don't function and that's why you have these perennial and non-perennial streams. So, our main source of water for now is 'Ebonyi River'; we have pumping machine that help us to draw water from the river but if you know what diesel costs now, you will understand what we are passing through.

We have other challenges like the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which you pointed out; we need to pep it up but because of our location, you find that it is very low. In fact, a few people have told me that they don't want their children to go to any other place because this place is very conducive for reading. Another problem is that we only have one bank in this town, which is even temporarily closed because of the activities of robbers. Apart from that, our funds are still poor because our infrastructural base is still low. We need to come up and we are hoping that within one or two years especially with the help of Education Trust Fund, we will be able to come up to a level that will be good because we want to begin to offer degree courses. We need to do that so that we can have more students for both NCE and degree and that's what I look at as one of my biggest challenges.

You have talked about staff housing, what about hostel accommodation for students? Continued

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