Sequel to the upgrade of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education to a University of Education by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Professor Stella Ngozi Lemchi, the then Provost was appointed the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) to oversee the smooth transition of the institution. Prof. Lemchi, a leader with enormous capacity and pedigree, was in her second year as the Provost of the erstwhile College before the upgrade, and the second female Provost of the College in its sixty-year history, had just overseen the successful celebration of the institution’s Diamond Jubilee Anniversary.
INFRASTRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE INSTITUTION
Professor Stella Lemchi, as a visionary leader, has consistently pursued with enormous vigour the upgrade of the physical infrastructure on campus in a bid to make them befitting of its new status and attain its quest to become a leading University of Education in NIGERIA. She skilfully deployed the Federal Government’s revitalisation fund to renovate some of the decades-old hostels. The dilapidated male hostel (hostel G) and one female hostel (hostel D) received massive upgrades that covered tiling of the hostel floors, changing the doors in over 200 rooms, changing windows, installation of iron protectors and repainting of the entire hostels. The Lemchi administration also completely overhauled the toilet facilities, repurposed the old laundry rooms into kitchens and refitted the electrical works, including the installation of new sockets and light switches in all the rooms. Professor Lemchi speaking on the renovation at the 2023/2024 Matriculation ceremony said a major part of the upgrade was to “… remodel the rooms to allow more natural light to get to the corridors. With better natural lighting, tiling and painting of the aforementioned hostels and rebuilding of the drains and gutters, the ambience in hostels D and G is now upbeat and relaxing.”
Additionally, in line with her vision to ensure that Professors in the new University have befitting office accommodation, she immediately laid the foundation for a proposed Professors’ block at the Shell Camp area of the University. The block which is artfully designed, will have offices with built-in convenience. The siting of the building at Shell Camp was a deliberate gesture to ensure that the second campus is not left out of the ongoing transformation in the institution. Similarly, the Ag. DVC stepped up development across the River Nworie area of the campus. Following sustained encroachment across Nworie from land grabbers and malevolent characters even before the tenure of Professor Lemchi, she had continued to display rare courage, ingenuity and tenacity to halt further encroachment. She had with admirable finesse galvanised and engaged the State Government and her agencies to ensure that not one inch of the University land is lost. Worthy of mention was the unclenching resolve by our dear State Governor, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma (CON) to return the institution’s lands formerly encroached into by private and public agencies. Apart from deploying funds and her energies in completing the building projects sited across Nworie, she also erected a security outpost to protect the installations and infrastructure over there. Other ongoing developments across Nworie include the Faculty of Vocational & Technical Education building and a Female hostel. Furthermore, Prof. Lemchi has activated plans to tackle the erosion and ecological issues on the river bank so that the second bridge will be put in service soon.
BEFITTING UNIVERSITY GATE
As a well-grounded Home Economist, Professor Lemchi identified the need for the new University to have a befitting entrance into the main campus. She rallied some of the contractors working at the University and convinced them to willingly fund a new gate as their gift to the institution. This new infrastructure is 80% completed and will be commissioned soon.
STAFF PROMOTIONS AND WELFARE
True to her promise to make staff welfare a priority and in a bid to mainstream the old staff of the College into the new University, the Ag. DVC has worked assiduously to clear the backlog of staff promotions and conversions. For the first time in the history of the institution over twenty persons were promoted to the rank of Chief Lecturer at the same time whereas over one hundred non-teaching staff, including those who had gained additional qualifications, were also properly placed as appropriate. These promotions were met with much celebration and joy at Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, especially as many of the affected staff had been in one position for several years. Accordingly, she has continued to promote and build a productive 21st-century workforce by ensuring adequate sponsorship of staff training, including sponsorship of Masters and Ph.D programmes.
Additionally, a few months ago Professor Lemchi assiduously engaged with the relevant agencies and secured the payment of over four years of promotion arrears (2018 – 2021) owed staff of the institution before her appointment as Provost
Professor Lemchi has continued to communicate her plans, proposals and engagements with the regulatory agencies to the University community. In line with similar transitions/upgrades from a College to a University, many of the teaching staff were anxious about their fate in the University system. As a sequel, Professor Lemchi has continued to take necessary administrative steps to ensure that the old staff of the erstwhile College are not negatively affected by the new dispensation.
SECURITY ON CAMPUS
In recognition of the need to ensure adequate, effective and protective policing of the campus for the maintenance of peace and order, the Acting DVC (Administration) after a proper review of the security situation in the University deployed the appropriate mechanism to rejig the security architecture by promoting best practices in the recruitment process for the Chief Security Officer as well as the Peace on Campus and Man O’War operators, ensuring that they complement the operations of the University-wide security personnel led by the Chief Security Officer. Other steps Prof Lemchi took to improve security on campus include prompt payment of salaries and allowances of everyone involved in the security chain, prompt and adequate provision of necessary security gadgets and related materials and prompt handling and investigation of all security breaches and ensuring that appropriate sanctions apply. The aforementioned steps have restored confidence and improved the motivation of the student operatives and drastically reduced security breaches on campus.
STUDENT MATTERS AND WELFARE
In furtherance of her strong belief that students are the central focus in any educational institution, Prof. Stella Lemchi has displayed a high level of intolerance to harassment of students by teaching and non-teaching staff. She has granted students unrestricted access to her office to report all cases of abuse directly to her.
For the first time in nearly a decade, three batches of students were mobilised for NYSC in one calendar year (2023). This year the first batch has proceeded to camp with preparations for the next batches at advanced stages. Similarly, Professor Lemchi has established a task force to ensure the timely issuance of Statements of Results and Certificates as appropriate. The task force is striving to clear the backlog of pending Statements and Certificates going back many years. In the same vein, Professor Lemchi ordered the streamlining of the clearance process, ending duplication of charges and exploitation.
IMPROVEMENT OF IGR
In view of the continuing decline in funding of institutions from the federal government, the Ag. DVC (Admin.) has continued to tenaciously and resourcefully galvanise policies that would substantially improve the internally generated revenue of the University to ensure maintenance of operations as well as the sustenance of services to the University community, particularly students. To that effect, conscious and proactive steps were taken to enhance the capacity of the students’ payment portal for efficient processing of payments. Additionally, aside from promoting a culture of accountability and prudence, all University business ventures have been positioned and energised for improved performance. The water factory was recently rehabilitated and rebranded and is already functioning better and more profitably. A bakery, under construction to serve the University community is almost completed, with all the machinery and equipment for production procured, among other efforts
ENGAGEMENTS WITH NUC
Professor Lemchi’s robust engagements with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Federal Ministry of Education have continued to yield the required results, including the recent visit to the University by a 37-man team from NUC for resource verification of proposed programmes. Early feelers which include the rare commendation given to the Ag. DVC by the NUC team indicates that the exercise was a huge success. It is pertinent to note that at the various exit meetings, the panellists continuously singled out Professor Stella Lemchi for commendation considering the tremendous infrastructural transformation, upgrade of facilities and equipment, good organisational structure, enviable leadership skills, robust human relations, and willingness to take feedback, noting that her actions and disposition were a gift to the nascent University.
It is therefore expected that in the next academic session, the Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri will admit its first set of freshmen as a University. The Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor hinted this at the 2023/2024 Matriculation ceremony when she said “For over forty years, our institution had collaborated with the UNN to admit and produce Bachelor of Education graduates but with our upgrade to a University of Education, this batch of freshmen becomes the last matriculants in affiliation with the UNN.”
Indeed the story of Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri cannot be complete without the massive support of His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, the Governor of Imo State. Whether it is in ending the encroachment on University lands, or working to recapture Alvan retirees in the Imo pension roster, or using his vast political network to ensure that the University becomes a functioning reality and in good time too, His Excellency has always responded to the University leadership when called upon to assist. With the support of the Governor and Ndi Imo behind her, the Acting DVC is also on board with the Management, staff and students, who have all joined forces with her to realise the dream of concluding all that is required to achieve the full status of a University of Education.
Professor Lemchi is a symbol of excellence. As a brilliant student, she studied with a Federal Government Scholarship at the Federal Government College, Okigwe (1981-1986), she was also awarded the Arthur Nzeribe Scholarship for Undergraduates of Imo State and the Council for Development of Economics and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Award for Thesis Writing for Post-Graduate Studies (1993 – 1994). A high-value academic and consummate Home Economist and educator, Professor Lemchi has published over 75 remarkable articles in reputable journals, books and book chapters. Her research interests are in textiles and clothing, entrepreneurship/promotion of skills acquisition, curriculum development, and Home Economics Education policies. She is currently the Africa Region Vice President of the International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE).
Professor Stella Ngozi Lemchi is a rare star, an Amazon, an astute administrator and a blessing to the Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri. Faced with the challenge of a generation, she has set forth at dawn leading the premier College of Education at this auspicious moment into the bright new future it deserves. Certainly, it is not yet Uhuru, but as long as the Falcon can hear the Falconer everything will hold together.