The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Eha-Amufu

  • U.S. varsity donates digital library to Enugu college

    U.S. varsity donates digital library to Enugu college

    THE Information and Communication Technology (ICT) University, United States  has donated a digital library to the Federal College of Education (FCE), Eha-Amufu in Enugu State.

    The e-library has over 1.2 million educational materials in various academic fields, including journals of national and international standards.

    Speaking during its inauguration, the varsity’s Board of Trustees President, Prof W. A. Mbarika, said the donation came through a partnership with the ICT University.

    He noted that there was an interaction between the college’s Provost, Prof Benjamin Mbah, who sought the varsity’s assistance for the college’s staff and students to boost their reaserch and learning.

    Mbarika, the founding Editor-in- Chief of African Journal of Information System, said with the advent of ICT, the era of building huge library stocked with books and journals was gone.

    He stressed that the value of a library could not be determined by  the largeness of its building, but rather its capability to provide the knowledge needed for research anfd learning.

    He said: “The world is changing and moving faster. Even if our universities, colleges and other tertiary institutions refuse to move forward, the world will continue to move ahead and ICT is a major driver. Some institutions would prefer to build huge library with many books that could easily collapse into a small computer. These days, e-library is the easiest way to acquire knowledge and every institution should embrace it.”

    He added that the library named after Mbah, was an extension of the relationship between the ICT University and the college. Mbarika observed that the university had established other areas of collaboration with the college, including opportunities on research and grants for academics, as well as diplomas and degrees in computer-related programmes.

    He urged staff and students to make good use of the e-library.

    According to him, no institution has the financial resources to fund research alone without partnering  an agency that would give financial aid.

    Mbarika pointed out that the ICT varsity’s interest was to promote good use of collaborative facilities.

    He said: “Every year, we select, at least, five researchers from all over the world, including Nigeria, to be funded by our agencies. We want FCE in Eha-Amufu and other institutions in Nigeria to be part of the beneficiaries. Already, Covenant University is one those research institutions we are funding.”

    He hailed the ICT Unit of the college, headed by Mr Sam Onyeidu, and Librarian, Dr Ezekiel Omeje, for their efforts toward making the e-library a reality.

    Mbah expressed delight that the e-library was completed and opened  two years after its foundation was laid. He noted that the e-library was opened when the college was concluding collaboration with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) to commence degree programmes.

    Thanking Mbarika for his effort to  the project, Mbah appealed for further assistance for the establishment of the Visual Laboratory, which, he said, would boost the e-library and make ICT programmes in the college complete.

    He urged staff to make the e-library their companion to meet up with the global standard in research, teaching and learning.

    The Registrar, Mrs Ngozi Nnebedum, asked the ICT University to assist the college in delivering ICT-compliant knowledge to students.

    Mbarika was accompanied to the event by a Nigerian, Foluso Ayeni,  an Assistant Professor, and Director of International Linkages and Collaborations at the ICT University.

     

  • ‘Women are born to make impact’

    ‘Women are born to make impact’

    Women workers at the Federal College of Education (FCE) in Eha-Amufu, Enugu State have held an end-of-semester get-together.

    The women gathered under the aegis of Women in Colleges of Education (WICE).

    Its Chairperson, Mrs. Celine Etesike, said the event was part of the recreation initiated by the body to give members opportunities to celebrate and foster unity.

    She noted that WICE had been making impact outside the institution, saying it was time members of the college felt its impact.

    She said: “The maiden WICE’s week of activities is special to us, because we believe charity begins at home. We decided to use this occasion to care for ourselves, love and appreciate and honour ourselves. More so, we are out to celebrate every member of the college community.”

    Mrs. Etesike, who pointed out that WICE should not be seen as a pressure group, said the body had been a partner in progress for the college to actualise its vision and mission.

    She said: “WICE is an association with objectives to provide opportunities for professional development for members, as well as enhance the educational development of our immediate communities and the nation.”

    She disclosed that the body planned to extend its impact and community relationship to members of the college’s host communities by organising seminars in secondary schools and skill acquisition for women in rural areas.

    Chairman on the occasion Sir Pascal Onah described the event as timely, stressing that women remained a force to be reckoned with in the college as they worked to improve on their professional worth.

    He observed that women were created to make impact in education, politics, banking, industries and other economic activities.

    Onah extolled the group for initiating the event and urged members to include medical outreach in their next event. This, he said, was necessary to prevent women from contracting terminal diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

    WICE honoured some members of the college as fellows, grand patron and patroness. Students were also given the opportunity to join the group’s activities.

    The highpoint was the unveiling of the body’s journal Journal of Women in Teacher Education (JOWITE).

    Those honoured included the Provost, Prof Benjamin Mbah, as grand patron, while the Registrar, Mrs. Celine Nnebedum, is grand patroness.

    Mbah praised members of the body for the honour, pledging college’s support for its subsequent activities. The provost advised the women to live above board in the discharge of their duty and avoid anything that might jeopardise the vision of the college.

  • College council seeks traditional rulers’ support

    College council seeks traditional rulers’ support

    Members of the Governing Council of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State, have visited traditional rulers in the college’s host communities.

    After their inaugural meeting, the council members, led by their chairman, Dr. Lawan Buka Alhaji, met with the royal fathers at the palace of the traditional ruler of Ihe-Enyi Agarama community, Igwe J.S. Odoh.

    The aim of the visit, it was learnt, was to establish a good relationship with members of the host communities.

    The provost, Prof Benjamin Mbah, said it was not the first time members of the college’s council would visit the traditional rulers in the council. He said the move was to improve relationship with the college’s host community.

    Lawan said there was a need for the college to solicit the support and co-operation of the community residents, pointing out that the collaboration would help the council members and the management to discharge their duties efficiently.

    He said: “It is very important that we pay homage to your royal highnesses, because we believe you are the owners of the land where the college is located. After our appointment as members of the Governing Council, we have just held our inaugural meeting. We considered it necessary to meet with you and solicit for your co-operation which, we believe, will assist us in discharging our duties in the college.”

    The council chairman assured the royal fathers that the college would be a partner in driving development of Eha-Amufu community.

    Responding on behalf of the royal fathers, Igwe Sam Ogbodo, said they were elated by the visit, declaring their support for the council. He said communities in Eha-Amufu would always be friendly to visitors and Federal Government institutions, assuring the council members of harmonious relationship with the traditional rulers.

    Ogbodo said: “The Eha-Amufu town is peaceful and we welcome visiting government’s officials and individuals. We are ready and prepared to co-operate with you at all time. We are also ready to partake in the efforts to raise the college beyond its status. We believe there are a lot of things still lacking in the institution and require government attention. We would be grateful if the council members help in building the institution to an enviable level.”

    Other council members in the team included the representative of the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr L.O. Kareem, and representative of the Executive Secretary of NCCE, Mr. Pius Ekireghwo, Dr Vincent Agu, Dr Busuyi Mekusi and Hon. Simon Dogara.

  • A most apt expose on Eha-Amufu roads

    The article published in your renowned newspaper about the plight of my people as a result of the deteriorating state of federal roads at Eha-Amufu  including broken bridges en route Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government of Enugu State to Nkalagu in Ebonyi State, could not have come at a more opportune time.

    For decades on end, we have gone through a most harrowing period, the experience of these sufferings and unfortunate neglect are better imagined and no one will wish his enemies such debasement. The rains are pounding the town and the surrounding villages continuously thus worsening the impassable roads.

    The Mainland Eha-Amufu is permanently cut off from their brothers and sisters who live on the farmlands because of the broken down bridges. Our people are painfully returning to the stone age of either ferrying their goods and human beings on their backs or risk the hazards by swimming across.

    It is disheartening that a people who had done no wrong would be allowed to continually face such punishment. Yearly, millions and billions are being read out during budgets. Is it not surprising, nay amazing, that such a very vital link road to the first major cement factory in the country East of the Niger, has been abandoned and does not qualify as a priority road?

    In those good old days, I grew up to learn of ‘Trunk A’ roads, which were federal roads, always well maintained and treasured and Obolloafor-Ikem-Eha-Amufu-Nkalagu roads prided as such ‘Trunk A’ roads. Alas! successive federal governments have left my people in the lurch.

    The story making the rounds in the villages at my home town, is that the abandoned road has been finally captured in the 2014 budget but that the money allocated can barely complete the construction of the roads let alone attempt rebuilding the three collapsed most important bridges.

    My appeal is that whichever ministries are responsible – Works and the Finance Ministry too – should release the money on time and that whoever is awarded the job must be competent enough to commence work immediately and of course do a credible work.

    We are all going to be on the watch, monitoring the progress of work when it commences and will cry foul if any shoddy job is contemplated or embarked upon. Haven’t our rights been trampled upon enough?

    James Agbonchikiri

     Eha-Amufu Town

     Enugu State.

  • Works Minister: Rapid response needed on Eha-amufu roads

    Works Minister: Rapid response needed on Eha-amufu roads

    A couple of decades ago, one of the touchstones of Eastern pride bordering the northern part of the country was Eha-Amufu. Revellers and long-fatigued train passengers from distant Iddo Terminus Lagos and Kano heading to Enugu, Umuahia and Port Harcourt,  often heaved a big sigh of relief when they berthat this first Ibo speaking area. All trains the most popular then Express Train and later Diesel Train also the local goods train popularly dubbed ‘Subaba Train, amongst others, must make a major stop over and be recharged with tonnes of water. The  train station popularised this homogenous and large community, which equally boasted of being haven to tens of hundreds of non indigenes living peacefully and doing commerce at Eha-Amufu.

    The good old days of the 60s and 70s also made the town strategic in many respects. During the unfortunate pogrom in the north, when Easterners especially Igbos were slaughtered, it was at Eha-Amufu that the Red Cross and authorities of Eastern Region met with returning fleeing easterners and received some decapitated bodies.

    Scary stories to be left for another day but one cannot obliterate history.When eventually the war and guns boomed, with several months into warning 1967, the Biafran soldiers pulled out from the sectors of  Obollo-Afor and Obollo-Eke, it was to Eha-Amufu, this all important town that served as the rendezvous  as all officers and soldiers retreated to the town. It became a buffer zone. When Eha-Amufu fell to the Federal troops, it was only time for Enugu the capital to be threatened but the Biafran Engineers blew up the corresponding bridges to stop advancement. Ironically, at the end of that gory war in 1970,  Nigerian troops were stationed in the town for years before relocating to Obollo-Afor. It is also the gateway for drivers plying the north through Obollo-Afor heading to the foremost Nigerian Cement Factory at Nkalagu just a stone throw. Then the roads were well tailored and maintained. Heavy duty trucks made daily trips to Nkalagu passing through the town to pick trailer loads of cement. Of late, indeed for over 30 years now, the town has been forsaken, there are no longer any passable roads, gullies and shallow graves are erecting along that busy roads as accidents occur regularly and vehicles fall into pits  and craters that have since taken over what used to be a most easier and connecting road to Nkalagu , Enugu and beyond.

    There average villager believes successive Federal Governments have deliberately left the teeming population of the people of Isu, Agu-Amedeo, Amede, Ihenyi, Umuhu, Eboh and Mgbiji all in Eha-Amufu including users of the road to suffer untold hardship.

    A town that hosts a Federal College of Education with a spiralling student population and lecturers, is now the butt of mockery, forsaken and abandoned. The students and lecturers of this vital institution including commuters and vehicle transporters are the worst hit. They now swim through the ponds and instead of going through Nkalagu road to Enugu which also in very bad shape with major link bridges broken, now do a detour through Ikem to Ugwogo then Enugu, thanks to the road constructed by the Enugu State Government.

    The Eha-Amufu ageless Eke Market which often attracted traders from all over the eastern states and beyond, now hardly gets any patronage. The cash crops, tubers of yams, cassava, palm oil and the abundance of grass cutter animals which made the town the cynosure of all eyes, all are stockpiled without any external market for them. Of course once  the place is inaccessible, it is only saying the obvious that no one would risk getting stuck in the mud. So the agrarian people suffer, no produce can be evacuated from the farmlands, and those that manage to get their produce, cannot find market for them.

    Several stories have been bandied around about contract awards, for decades but the roads deteriorate daily as no single work is at the site.

    So what has really gone wrong? The people are no longer interested in being told

    the Eha-Amufu road project is either captured in the budget or not. Their patience is running out. It could not be blamed on the stars of the rural peasants who inhabit the town. One will wonder if any official of the Federal Ministry of Works had ever gone through that road and why has the Minister of Works not taken proactive action at least to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

    .For this strategic town which once produced an erudite scholar Professor Brown Enyi, who had to be lured to return from Papau Guinea to strengthen the academic staff of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and has also produced notable academics- Professor

    Hilary Edeoga,  the present Vice Chancellor Federal University of Agriculture Umudike, and Professor Benjamin Mba Provost of Federal College of Education Eha-Amufu to name but a few amongst other sons and daughters of the town who are widely celebrated in different gamut of human endeavours, the least expected of appreciating their contributions to nation building, would be to reconstruct this crucial link road immediately.

    Since time is of essence considering that the people have been virtually cut off  and lives made misery and brought to a standstill, perhaps the most agonising is the inability of the natives to connect and reach their brethren leaving across the Umuhu villages and those living on the farmlands close to Nkalagu in Ebonyi State, because of the Orchin Bridge which had since collapsed  over five years ago, there will be the urgent need to take drastic action by government.

    Infant mortalities and expectant mothers are the worst hit during emergencies, they cannot be evacuated. Why this gargantuan sorrow for a people who pay their taxes regularly and are law abiding. Is it a crime to be rural based?

    In order to get cracking immediately, it is germane to consider the following urgently.

    Take One: The Presidency should approach the solution through a major Special Task Force.

    Construction equipment and workers should be drafted immediately under a Special Presidency Aggressive Execution and Arrangement to commence work even if it is palliative.

    Take Two :The two Governors of Enugu and Ebonyi State, need to get Abuja and the Ministry of Works to check this nuisance.

    Take Three Whoever has been awarded the contract, must be compelled to begin work without

    delay. If the contractor is incompetent, in its place, let another take.

    Take Four : All Public Officers elected and appointed of Isi-Uzo origin, both state and national levels   should get cracking and swing into action. Unfortunately for the nation, nothing really works, until concerted efforts and pressure are brought to bear on those whose duties should have ordinarily done their bit without coercion.

    Take Five: This is the most craziest of all. Aged mothers and women of the 75, 80 and 90 bracket

    are prepared to bare topless and go on that road and refuse to leave until the Federal Ministry of Works and its allied agencies do something drastically and immediately.

    It will be an abomination for such elderly peeved mothers to show the entire world and go viral on the social network their flattened  and flabby breasts after all they have nothing to lose and hide.

    After all the late Ghanaian sage Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah was fond of reciting ‘That one had nothing to loose, than his or her chains. These mothers would have nothing to shy away from but their chains of a cancerous Eha-Amufu road.

    We pray it does not get to that, or even make the women go full blast nudity, that would be a curse on the land, whose consequences cannot be quantified . There is indeed  a palpable anger of the people, frustration and vexation . One can feel it in the air and smell the combustion as thick and clouded like cutting through an ice with a knife.

    Take Six : This is a critical period leading to an election year of February 2015 . It will not be out of place to urge those whose job it is to get the road repaired at least to put smiles on the faces of these beleaguered people whose strength is in their population, which is staggering and indeed the highest in Isi Uzo Local Government of Enugu State.

    Lets hope reason will prevail and the FederalGovernment will rise now to the occasion  and repair once and for all this very important Federal road and build the corresponding bridges.

    Lets  restore the beauty of a once popular town Eha-Amufu whose epic and resounding place in Nigeria history, cannot be wished away.