BY WILLIAM ATTAH, GOMBE – The Secretary to the Gombe State Government, Professor Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi, has said that courage, creativity, patience, resilience and skillful statesmanship remain the major requirements needed to succeed in the management of universities in insurgency ravaged region.
Professor Njodi, who was Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri in Northeast Nigeria, spoke at the first public lecture of the Federal University, Kashere (FUK), Gombe State, entitled “University Management in times of insurgency in Nigeria: Experiences of University of Maiduguri, 2014 to 2019.
He noted that for governments in the region and the University of Maiduguri, governance will continue to experience greater challenges that will require courage, creativity, patience, resilience and skillful statesmanship.
Njodi said that his office and official residence were kept open to unions and associations during the period under review as the university manager must carry every individual and group along to contain any misunderstanding and, or distraction in managing the situation.
The Professor of Public Health advocated for a far-reaching paradigm shift from the normal process of selecting and appointing administrators in a security challenged environment like the northeast sub-region of Nigeria.
He said that apart from providing the most needed synergy among all interest groups in the university, the strategy served as one of the most potent and productive surveillance initiative.
According to him; “Like all aspect of human endeavor, the management or any form of administration requires peaceful and rancour free and conducive environment to thrive.
“Throughout human history the challenges faced by public office holders was how to organize operate and manage human beings and resources in communities, states, nation and indeed institutions devoid of conflict,” he said.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, Professor Umaru Pate, said public lectures are normal university traditions that promote knowledge sharing through provisions of robust platform for exposition of ideas.
He said; “Public lectures provides exciting opportunities for the revelations of research findings, intellectually stimulating debates, openness and freedom of self expression.
“It is in this regard we are instituting the public lecture series here to ensure that the culture is rooted and tradition appreciated,” he emphasized.
