Category: Niger Delta

The University of Port Harcourt, popularly referred to as Unique UNIPORT, in Rivers State in the crude oil and gas-rich Niger Delta region, was established in 1975 and it is celebrating its 40th anniversary, with the 30th convocation adding colour to the programme of activities.

The 40th anniversary started on June 5 with Jumat service, which was followed on June 7 with church services at the Chapel of the Annunciation (Catholic Chaplaincy) and Our Saviour’s Chapel (Interdenominational) on the campus.

The outgoing 7th Vice-Chancellor of UNIPORT, Prof. Joseph Ajienka, an indigene of Okrika in Rivers state, who became the federal university’s helmsman on July 12, 2010, for a five-year tenure, addressed a news conference on June 8 at the institution’s Convocation Arena, which was combined with a colourful carnival.

The incoming 8th vice-chancellor of UNIPORT, Prof. Ndowa Ekoate Sunday Lale, 59, an indigene of Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers state, was formally presented at the carnival. Lale, who would hold office for a single tenure of five years, would assume office on July 12 this year.

Lale emerged as the new vice-chancellor, following favourable consideration of a report by the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board that deliberated on the matter.

The incoming vice-chancellor studied Crop Science in his First Degree at the University of Maiduguri, between 1978 and 1981, obtaining the First Class (Honours) and was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy Degree of the University of New Castle-Upon-Tyne in Agricultural Entomology in the United Kingdom in 1987.

Lale served for over six years as the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, where he introduced many innovative ideas that placed the young faculty on a firm academic and administrative footing.

Ajienka, while speaking on the convocation during the news conference, noted that a total of 18,363 students would receive first degrees, postgraduate diplomas, master’s and doctoral degrees from 55 departments in 16 faculties. Undergraduates’ convocation held on June 12, while postgraduate diplomas and higher degrees were conferred on deserving persons on June 13, the grand finale of the convocation.

The outgoing vice-chancellor also stated at the news conference that he envisaged a situation in which public universities were likely to collapse on account of inadequate funding, while calling for urgent action on the matter.

Ajienka also stated that unless something drastic was done on university funding and quickly too, the hope of attaining the indices of true national development would continue to be a mirage, while suggesting that an education bank should be created to grant loans to indigent students.

He revealed that UNIPORT was facing severe difficulties in having unfettered access to the land acquired by the Federal Government for the establishment of the university in 1975.

The vice-chancellor expressed displeasure that the university was compelled to enter into hard bargaining processes with relevant host communities, for every metre of land earmarked for developmental purposes and being compelled to correspondingly pay for economic trees and cash crops on such lands, before taking possession, while not being successful in some instances, with the people of the host communities becoming increasingly non-cooperative.

Ajienka stressed that the type of institutional relationship with the host communities on land matters was not conducive to the accelerated development of UNIPORT in the short, medium and long terms, while pleading with the government to come to the aid of the university.

The outgoing vice-chancellor noted that the gruesome murder of four students of UNIPORT at Omuokiri-Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, brought the university so much anguish and negative publicity.

As part of activities for UNIPORT at 40, debate, literary competition, drama performance, research fair, tree planting, class day activities, wrestling and vice-chancellor’s dinner with first class honours graduands were observed.

The convocation lecture, with the theme: “From Consumption to a Production-Oriented Economy,” was delivered on June 11 by the immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mazi Samuel Ohuabunwa, at UNIPORT’s Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium.

During the undergraduates’ convocation and award of prizes at the Convocation Arena on June 12, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of UNIPORT, Gesi Asamaowei, an engineer, assured that the incoming vice-chancellor (Lale) would accelerate the tempo of development to a higher level.

He also prayed that Almighty God would grant President Muhammadu Buhari the wisdom, strength and courage to steer the ship of state safely to the desired destination, while congratulating the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, on his election and assumption of duty, wishing him God’s guidance and success in the arduous task of governance.

Buhari, who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, assured that Nigeria would move forward.

For the postgraduate graduands for the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 academic sessions, 2,214 had postgraduate diploma, 2,616 with Master’s, while 441 had doctoral degree, totalling 5,271. The first leg of the convocation took place on June 12 for 13,393 undergraduates.

During the convocation’s grand finale, the third Chancellor of UNIPORT since its 1975 establishment, HRH Muhammad Iliyasu Bashir, the Emir of Gwandu in Kebbi State, was installed.

Honourary doctoral degrees were also conferred on three distinguished Nigerians: Chief Solomon Ogba, a President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) since 2009; Pastor Seinye Lulu-Briggs, the Executive Vice-Chairman of Moni Pulo Petroleum Limited and Ichie Nnaeto Orazulike, the Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Group of Companies.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, a alumnus of UNIPORT, who took all his three degrees from the institution, was also honoured as a distinguished fellow of the university, in honour of his “exemplary leadership” of Nigeria and contributions to his alma mater, being the first to be so honoured, but he was not physically present.

Wike, an alumnus of UNIPORT, in his address earlier, described the 30th convocation and 40th anniversary as historic, holding shortly after his May 29 this year’s inauguration, stressing that a society that does not value education is a lost society.

Wike, the immediate past Minister of State for Education, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, assured that his administration would witness a boom in education, noting that in the new Rivers state, every child everywhere would be in school.

Some of the orphans were abandoned; some dumped at the gate of the home, others found themselves at the home through the circumstance of death of their mothers at child birth. PRECIOUS DIKEWOHA looks into the world of orphans in the Global Foundation for Orphans

It was an evening appointment with the Global Foundation for Orphanage, an orphanage home located within the serene ambience of Mercy Land Estate, Nkpolu, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. At about 5:20pm when I arrived, the inmates had just returned from a visit to the Port Harcourt zoo.

The visit to the zoo, Mr. Cliff Jarrell, the coordinator of the home, told me, is the preferred place of the inmates.  He said he tried as much as he could to take them there when they had the time because the children derived pleasure from watching the different animals.

The compound was very clean and hygienic; facilities for children’s pleasure and happiness were installed at the one-storey building. The children I saw playing around were properly dressed, well fed and without any look of a disadvantaged life.

Yet, you cannot deny the fact that they live in different world, devoid of the love of their biological parents. Despite the all-round comfort they enjoy, there is no denying they live in a world of loneliness, where circumstance clashed with their destinies.

Like every other orphanage home, Jarrell said most of the children were brought in after the death of their mothers during child birth, especially when there is nobody to care for them.

He said some were dumped at the roadside, pointing out that there is a blind girl between 11-12 years that was dumped at the gate of the home when she was little; they could not trace her parents or relatives, noting that nobody had come forward to claim her.

While noting that the home cannot accept all cases, he said in critical situations as when a baby is dumped at its gate, they cannot turn their back.  “All the children started with us when they were small; there was a blind girl right from the early days of her life she was with us. She was left in our gate at night; we don’t know her parents; she don’t know anybody as her people than us. This is a family, this is just a home, and we are not operating like an institution but like a home that is different from other homes.

I was just reading the other day and I saw a newspaper report on a baby that was abandoned inside a sack bag. In that regard we must help. Most of the children with us came to us through the circumstance of child birth because Nigeria has high maternal mortality there are many children left to suffer because their mothers died during their birth and there was nobody that could support in the early critical stage.  We have helped people with serious challenges, like baby that has no mother to breastfeed. We can keep the baby and assist in different formula and after few months the baby can be sent back to the family. But the babies that are here with us are those who have nobody to take care of them.”

During my visit, I also sighted young men between 20-25 years in the home, first I thought they were there to assist but Jarrel stunned me: “The young men you saw relaxing at the compound are my children; some of them came here at the infant age.”

In the course of my visit, it was clear that there exist a strong bond between Jarrel, a foreigner and his children (the inmates), who described him as the best father. Some said he is a man with high sense of decency and God fearing, who had done a very great job on the psyche of the inmates to trust each other and to see themselves as one family.

I also found that the same bond love exists between Mrs.  Nkiruka Happiness Jarrell, whom I asked to differential the inmate from “her real children”, a request for which I got a friendly rebuke: “There is nothing like real children or my own children in this home”, she said. “The children you see here are all my children; this was why we were able to live as one united family. We try as much as possible to treat them equally; my husband is their father and I am their mother. That is how we have been living for many years and God has been so wonderful.”

Recalling how she got involved in the charity work, Mrs Jarrell said, “For me, I believe deeply in my heart that what I am doing today is what I should do as a Christian.  There was a lady that introduced me to a home at Borokiri, in Port Harcourt.  She asked me if I have ever been to any home, I said no. I told her I had heard people talk about charity, and she said ok, and promised to take me to an orphanage home. She was the person that God led to open my eyes to what I am doing today.

“When I got to the orphanage home at Borikiri I saw the children, and I really felt about their condition and love for helpless children. And deep in my heart I knew this is what God wants me to do as a Christian to take care of these children. For me, I know God will not come down to take care of them, that was what led me and I decided to show love to these children.

“I spoke to my preacher in the church after returning from the home and I asked him why we don’t have orphanage home? And the government has, the Catholic Church also have but we the Church of God members don’t have. My preacher then said there is one of our brothers in Christ that has children, that he takes care of the less privilege and the orphans, that was how I got to meet my husband.

“My husband is an angel, he is the Christ I am seeing; he is one in millions. I made an art- paint of him where I described him as the best daddy. He is very humble, he is not selfish, to me he is God sent,” she proudly said.

But for Mr. Jarrell, who was apparently taken aback by his wife’s compliment, she deserved more. He noted that without her, the foundation wouldn’t have got to where it was.

“What I will say is that I am humbled and thankful that my wife has the courage to support me especially to enter into this marriage. I have so many different reasons, but I came with a lot of baggages, she had worked with me before the issue of marriage came up, that means  she has seen the Good and bad. Some of the bad were very bad yet she didn’t think about those things but just to rely and trust in God.”

The Global Foundation for Orphanage has 4 inmates, a few of whom have graduated from the university; some are studying in Nigeria universities and a few abroad. Others are in nursery, Primary and Secondary schools. But the couple is unfazed by the financial burden and challenges of running the large family. They told me it is not a burden but a manifestation of the favour of God, who has used them to provide what the home needs on daily basis.

For Jarrell, it is not a burden: “I will not say that I am paying or feeding them, my wife and I and other people that assist the home we are all instruments in God’s hand. We are not doing it for our own benefit, it is the opposite. The money I am spending is not my own money it is God’s money. Today, we had two different churches that came to the home and they came because God directed them to come, what God really wants us to do is to be our brothers keepers. I don’t think there is anybody more honorable that an orphan who has nobody to care for him.”

Jarrell came to Nigeria 1993 as a missionary. He served in an old hospital built before the war and from that point he committed himself to the ministry. He started the home with a child that was handed over to him by the sick mother .

“I ushered myself into a new world. I didn’t come to Nigeria on my own; I didn’t come here without preparation and purpose.  I came to Nigeria on 1st of March 1993, we came as family of four people, at that time, I worked at the mission hospital as a missionary. It is an old hospital built before the war in Onitsha Ngwa in Abia State that was what brought me to Nigeria and I served for five years at the hospital.

“Soon after I came to work at the hospital there was a small baby placed on my arm by her mother who was very sick. If you had come earlier, you would have seen that boy. He is now a Third Year student in Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO).  He was the first baby unannounced and unplanned for. I have some background, some experiences but that wasn’t in my mind what I would be doing in Nigeria because we came to serve in the hospital as a missionary which itself is a great ministry. But this one child in our hand led to another child and it continues in that way and we have many children today.  We took the responsibility of fathering them, those children we would send back to their parent we did so, those who have no parent and somebody to take care of them stayed back.

“I worked at the hospital for five years, so some of the children have stayed throughout with us in these five years. Later we decided to relocate to Port Harcourt and it is a wonderful story that God kept all of us as one family. That was how we started what we are doing today through that boy that was entrusted in my hand and we were managing in two bedrooms flat which was very small to contain us. Because of lack of space, our corridor and dining became a place to sleep but today there are signs of God’s favour.”

Narrating some of the challenges facing the home, Mr Jarrell said the greatest challenge is how to mold the children into responsible adult.  “This task is demanding, there are physical things like school uniforms, shoes, bags, accommodation, these are also challenges that we have to face.  It is more difficult to feed a large number than to feed a small number.

“These are children with different background, though they don’t ask much about where they come from but as they grow older, they have to think more of themselves. You can imagine someone growing up and realized that someone he is calling my father is a white man different from him or her. It is not wrong if the person asks where he or she came from; I have also asked my mother that question.  I think is not uncommon to ask those questions, to me, one of the  reasons we believe in God as human beings is to ask where we come from, where we are going at the end. The most important thing in our relationship with God is to ensure that at the end we would not miss heaven. If we miss heaven, we have missed it all. It was God’s grace that many of these children survived; some would have died at the infant age.

“But today some of them grew up with all the disadvantages. For me, the biggest problem is how to train them to come into loving relationship with the creator, no matter the situation of their lives.”

Some of the adult inmates who spoke to Niger Delta Report were grateful for their ‘father’s’, conceding that he sacrificed to ensure that they had a future.

A set of twins, Obinna and Sunny, who came to the home at an early age, said they didn’t know how they would had turned out but for Jarrell and his wife. “We will remain grateful to God for using this wonderful couple to change our lives. He is a nice man and God fearing, he has done more than a lot to us, he is indeed the best daddy.

Their ‘brother’, Uche who is seeking admission into a Canadian university, said he was hopeful for a helper after being turned down due to lack of fund. “This time around, I am hopeful that God will send a helper to assist me. I have been trying my best to obtain my academic qualification in Canada hopefully by God’s grace I will get there. Last year we made an effort but the visa was denied base on the financial incapability we are still making an effort to convince the embassy to assist.”