The Vice Chancellor, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Prof. Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye, who is a professor of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Forensics, in this interview spoke extensively about the institution’s entrepreneurial development programme that serves as a tool to fight underemployment and unemployment. Dike Onwuamaeze brings the excerpts:
Congratulations for the products exhibition by your students that we just witnessed. How long have you been holding this entrepreneurship exhibition?
This exhibition has been on for the past 10 years. As a matter of fact, today’s ceremony is highly symbolic and significant because it is the 10th anniversary of this product exhibition. The real thought behind this product exhibition is the manifestation of the drills and training that has gone on in the past eight months that have materialised and crystalised into this. Again, it reflects the maturity of the entrepreneurial mindset which we intend to inculcate in them. What we have seen today in 13 different skillsets is a clear testament of an entrepreneurial mindset at work here.
How is this year’s edition different from the previous exhibitions?
Every year reflects growth trajectory and that is because of the availability of knowledge because what we know today is not the same as what we knew yesterday. In the recent past thought were born on the analogue entrepreneurial thinking but today the entrepreneurial thinking is more digtalised and ICT driven. What you have seen today is a reflection of the digital revolution. This year’s product exhibition is truly hi-tech driven. It has been embellished so much with the new digital ball hub for innovation and creativity. This is going with the time because the university moves with the time and does not standstill while the stock market sleeps. The university must grow because it is the same global market that we are all shopping from. So for you to remain globally competitive you must go with the time. That is why this university has the mantra of “smart campus.”
Why are you laying much emphasis on entrepreneurship?
First of all, I am worried when those in the industries tell us that university graduates are not fit for purpose. It worries me so much and I began to wonder what is responsible for that? With a few group of intellectuals, we found out that it is not that our students are not properly groomed but there is disconnect between the demands of the industry and the output from the universities because there is no merger. The Nigeria educational system and the industry portfolios have been working in silos. The industry does not want to merge with the universities and the university, as the Ivory Tower, does not have the time for industry. But all that has changed now. That is why we felt that we must produce students that are feature ready and that is the mantra that I brought, which is the future readiness.
How can a student be future ready?
A student that is future ready is free from three things: unemployment, underemployment and un-employability. And for you to avert these three syndromes you must be entrepreneurially groomed. So, here in this university, the first thing we do is to inspire and stimulate entrepreneurial thinking amongst our students. The second thing we do is to provide the knowledge exchange for the transaction for entrepreneurial thinking among students. And the third one is the actual exhibition of the products of the inspiration and stimulation of entrepreneurial thinking among our students.
Most times the universities are focused on bringing up students that can research and earn their certificates?
Let me tell you what we have done in Igbinedion University. I have been working in the last 10 years on industry/academia integration. And so in the Igbinedion University, what we have done is to imbibe the principles of co-development of programmes with the industry, we co-design the programme with industry, we co-deliver the programme with industry, we co-supervise the program with industry and we co-graduate the program with industry. In my university all our post graduate programmes are supervised by academic and industry supervisors, which is logical. If an industry expert and an academia designed a program together, delivers the programme together, supervise the program together and in some cases fund the program together and graduate the student together, there is no moral basis to say that that the graduate is not fit for the market. That is number one. Let me also tell you what we have done in this university and you need to take this away: this university has a board of industry/academia interface that is headed currently by the director general of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP). We have industry partners and academicians in that board and they met quarterly to review curriculum and industry demands. Today we have a project with Cutix Plc and we are co-designing dedicated programmes for them in our engineering department. And they are providing opportunities for our students and staff both for sabbaticals and internship. This is the partnership that we have established in this university that has mainstreamed industry and academia interface as a way of life in our university program. To answer your question, if you get the industry together to participate with you, to tear down the silos walls and remove the toga of ivory “towerism” then we won’t have this trouble. I can tell you for free that before now I used to advocate that un-employability was worse than unemployment. Yes, you graduate and they tell you that you are not fit for purpose. But do you know the worst syndrome that is now operating in the valley of death is underemployment where a graduate earns N30,000. That one is dehumanising. The one singular way of averting them is through entrepreneurship.
How do you define the concept of complete graduate?
A complete graduate is one that is future ready.
What other areas do you exhibit innovations apart from business?
I will look at two areas. They are our ICT hub and our centres for excellence. Starting with the centres for excellence, we have the Buratai Centre for Security Affairs. This particular centre has the representatives of all the security outfits and forces in Nigeria on its board. And this particular centre is on contemporary security affairs on both local and international. It covers gunrunning, cybercrime, racketeering, international diplomacy on crime and every year they have annual colloquium on contemporary issues and we are planning one for this year on trans-border crime. We also have a Centre for Climate Change and SDG. That is the centre that is now driving our soiless farming technique and circular economy. It is highly innovative and contemporary. Today we are talking about zero waste. We have plastic bailer machine that reduces plastics to bail. And we have a mandate to remove in the next one month 70,000 tonnes of plastics from Okada environment in collaboration with Eko Capital, Coca-Cola Foundation and the Edo State Waste Management. We have the Centre of Entrepreneurship that is for purely skill acquisition. We have the Centre for Leadership and Governance (CLG). And because of the CLG we have directed all our students to learn government and leadership. We have the Centre for Presidential Studies (CPS). These are areas we are hell bent on innovations. The post graduate school is not left out because it is the one driving industry/academia interface. We have just started partnership with the SMEDAN and by 15th or 16th of this month the university will be visiting them in Abuja. We would like to have a national conference for SMEs on grant assessment. It is sad to hear at the end of every year that bankers declare that they are returning funds that cannot be disbursed to SMEs. That is what we are taking to the SMEDAN when we get there on Thursday. What we have also done is to infuse this entrepreneurial thinking in all our programs.This university has an executive business school that we are restarting again by September. We have four associate business schools that have entered into partnership agreement with us. There are so many of our executives that have been longing for post graduate education if not for anything at least for the knowledge sake. The ICT place is a marvel on its own. This university runs on an ST One Band weight that is enough to run a village. Beyond that we have affiliated our ICT to the IT Academies the owners of the IT Wall. We are affiliated to CISCO Academy. We have Microsoft and Amazon web services. During the COVID, Cisco gave us the Webex. Every 100 level student of this university has a GS program on IT appreciation. It is professional certificate from Cisco an academic credit unit from the university. Our students here are instructors for Cisco because they have passed the course and can train other people. This is the level we have gone with IT in this place. And because we know that we must protect our bandwidth our system in this university has a fire wall so that it cannot be used for unauthorised purposes. We have two sets of 250 computer ready system platforms for computer based examinations. That is why in this university all 100 and 200 levels students have mandatory Computer Based Test (CBT) as their continuous assessment. So, our educational program is highly tailored.
What are your university’s strong points that stand it out from others?
The Igbinedion University is very strong in law, medicine, pharmacy and engineering. They are our four flagships. We are the first private university to produce medical doctors in Nigeria. The president of World Medical Association was here to deliver a lecture and he acknowledged the fact that our students outside this country are excellent in very rare fields in medicine both in practice and in academics. In law, we do not always make first class on a regular basis and best graduating students in some of the programmes in the law school but we have SANs on a regular basis from our university, including our dean. Our latest jewel is the Dora Akunyili College of Pharmacy. It is flagship on its own that has now migrated into Pharm D from the Bachelor of Pharmacy. We are among the few universities that are currently running Pharm D and we are phasing out Bachelor of Pharmacy. Igbinedion University started Pharm D this year. We have a drug production plant for antiseptics to produce hydrogen peroxides and methylated spirits here. During the period of COVID-19 our engineering department provided us with automated COVID protective cubicles that could spray ‘sanitisers’ and take one’s temperature. They even produce the manual version that id foot driven when there is no electricity. And the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacy produced all our sanitisers. We also produced a Handbook on COVID for Parents.
What new programs do you have now?
The university has migrated from 29 departments to 34 departments, which is the largest in any private university. We have migrated from 19 to 24 post graduate programs. I don’t know how many private universities that have 24 postgraduate programs. That is the dynamic touch of this university. Our thought is driven by the time. It becomes very relavant that digitalisation will rule the world as we stand. So the new programs that we have introduced were digitally based programs to afford our students the latitude for IT profiling, namely B.Sc Engineering Mechatronics, B.Sc in Cybersecurity, B.Sc in Software Engineering, B.SC in Environmental Engineering, B.Sc in Pharmacology. Then in postgraduate degrees from PGD up to Ph.D covering Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Sociology. We have introduced 11 new programs. And the beauty of all these programs is that they are all fully accredited by the NUC and all professional bodies that we are affiliated with. When we sit down and talk about qualitative education, I look at qualitative education from the standpoint of regulation and the teaching and learning scenario. Our educational delivery status now is one that suits entrepreneurial thinking because it meets the demands of the time.
Tell us the compelling reasons why students should pick Igbinedion University as their first choice?
The choice of a university can be based on four platforms. The first one is qualitative educational degree programs; the second is our research development; the third one is on our digital facilities and the fourth one, which is also a driver, is the internationalisation. This university thrives on high class internationalisation and has succeeded in maintaining international partners. Any university that does not have global outlook will not attract quality students. This university participates in several international programme. One of them is IVC that is the International Virtual Consortium, We are bonafide member of Global Educational Partnership, comprising of 40 universities all over the world. Because of this partnership our students before COVID have travelled to over 10 countries. The last place they went to was Japan before the outbreak of COVID-19. They have gone to Netherland, UK, China, North Carolina in the United States through that programme. This global partnership is where we train and expose our students and international partners to the same course on global understanding. With our UK partners we have introduced summer classes. Before COVID we had a partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University for our engineering students to come over for Three D Animation studies. Internationalisation is what we need for students mobility. And once they know that it is available in this university they will come. We also have our African base in this internationalisation. The African link is there. These are the reasons we said to the public to come to the Igbinedion University.
