Dennis Osadebay University was a glorified secondary school – VC

Vice-Chancellor of Dennis Osadebay University, Anwai Asaba, Professor Ben Oghojafor, has lauded Delta State Government for it’s effort in developing the nascent University, describing it as “a glorified secondary school” at inception.

Prof. Oghojafor disclosed that the University was established by an Act of Parliament in February 2021, stating this in an exclusive interview with Delta Revealed team at his office in Asaba.

According to him, “I never wanted to come when I was approached for the job. But, I later had an affirmation from God and I came. Getting here, I had no office, no accomodation.

“When we came in here, it was like a ghost town, all of you can testify to that, the records are there to show. There was no befitting building here before, there was no place for the VC to stay and I asked myself how else will I go?

“I stayed in the campus and was disappointed because it was like a glorified secondary school. With all those behind my mind, I asked God to give me the strength otherwise I go back to Lagos, but I was brought here because of my pedigree and the records I had.

“They gave us 35 programmes to run and the programmes cannot sustain the existence of this University because they are the least demanded programmes from applicants.

“So I asked myself from the experience all over the places in the world, what is my vision for the University? The slogan I was given was not in consonance with reality, so I sat down because my areas of specialization is strategic and general management.

“So I defined what the University should be, ‘I want to empower the future generations, our mission is to provide tradition of excellence in teaching, research, innovation, entrepreneurial skills and competent endeavours towards meeting societal needs.

“Our vision is to be a leading transformational University for the empowerment of all stakeholders leveraging on technology.

“So, I increased the programmes from 35 to 46 since I had the advantage of being an accreditor to NUC for decades, so I leveraged on that to go and meet them.

“I told them that the programmes will not sustain the existence of the University because we don’t get allocation from government.”

The Vice-Chancellor said the University eventually commenced with 46 programmes, “the first year we were able to admit about 500 and the charges the students were paying were used to run the University. Nothing more, nothing less. How can that justify the existence of a University?

“I said the Governor meant well, it was not out of paucity of funds but surplus that he created three Universities at the same time. He felt the needs of Deltans that total number of candidates that applied for JAMB in each year it doesn’t take much number, the rest becomes political thugs, criminals, yahoo yahoo.

“Those are the things that encouraged us to say go ahead. Keep fighting until you get where you are going to and we did that to the glory of God, they came for accreditation last year, we got some full, some interim and I have approached NUC again to give us more programmes to enable us exist.”

Prof. Oghojafor further remarked that Dennis Osadebay University was unique because of the tradition and new courses introduced, “As far as I know, DOU is the only University in Delta State that is offering Optometry. NUC approved for us and we entered into negotiation with Asaba Specialist Hospital to use their Laboratory for the practicals.

“Also, of the four Universities in the State the programmes added of which we are in 200 level now is Insurance which is not offered in any Delta State Universities. Actuarial Science is not also offered in any Delta State Universities.

“Here at Dennis Osadebay University, every Agricultural student is duty bound to have a farm, when we discussed security of a nation, food security is very strong, if you are not food secured, you are nowhere. 

“I went to NDDC in Port Harcourt to beg them to give us a project and to the glory of God they promised a project of N1 Billion and by the grace of God we have designed and presented to them the design for the University Library and I have also appealed to them to give us some solar lights to light up the University.” 

Oghojafor commended Governor Oborevwori for steps taken to secure the University from land encroachment, adding that get the right staffing for lecturers was a huge challenge. 

“The staffing I mentioned to you is difficult, so I am using a hybrid method. Sabbatical leave people, short leave people and do online. I have invited some people that came from Lagos, talked to people, the students; go back and face your work. 

“These are various dynamic processes one is going through. By and large, I give God the glory that the University is standing.”

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