A gubernatorial aspirant and former Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof Uche Ikonne, has outlined education, agriculture, and human capital development as the three plans for the state if elected governor.
Addressing a select group of Nigerian editors and media heads, Prof Ikonne defended his time as the vice-chancellor of the state university, saying he paid salaries of the university personnel and lecturers regularly until Covid-19 halted the institution’s activities.
This follows claims that he relegated payment of salaries and other welfare packages while he held sway at the state university.
The 66-year-old Ikonne also declared “Age does not define the qualities of a man… I am functional”, insisting that his tenure at the university was a record yet to be broken.
He said: “If I could perform miracles at the Abia Polytechnic and ABSU, I will perform even better as governor of this state.”
At ABSU, Ikonne claimed he assumed office with the motto “Our Story Must Change” and established a vision statement that shaped his administration.
Ikonne reminded critics of how he was still appointed vice-chancellor of ABSU despite the disapproval of lecturers from Abiapoly.
“It was based on my performance at Abiapoly that some ABSU lecturers led by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics came to the polytechnic and asked me to express interest in becoming vice-chancellor of the university, and I was later appointed the VC of ABSU in 2015 and concluded my tenure in 2020.”
According to Ikonne, ABSU, which was rated 93 in the Nigerian university rating in 2015, is now the country’s second-best state institution, and by the time he ended his tenure in 2020, ABSU was rated 27th.
He said he introduced some new courses, built new faculty complexes, increased avenues for ABSU’s internal revenue generation (IGR), facilitated research funding through TETFUND, and ensured the N3 billion intervention fund from TETFUND was put to good use, as well as convinced the ABSU alumni association to invest in the university.
“With the N3bn intervention fund, we established the faculty of Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Aba and the Faculty of Law at Umudike, Umuahia and also build complexes for engineering and public health faculties and a medical centre for the university, an engineering workshop, an ICT building, including the main entrance gate and a walkway of the university.”
Ikonne recounted that, in addition to paying monthly payments at the university, he had the state government intercede to pay off nine months’ salary arrears at the Abiapoly.
“The institution owed over N2 billion in loans and was paying monthly interest of nearly N42 million, but the N2 billion loan arrears were cleared thanks to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s generosity.”
In addition, he claimed he improved the polytechnic’s main entrance, devised a system for paying salaries regularly, tarred the road from the gate to the campus, built a new main gate with the help of SLOT Systems Ltd., and hired staff and non-teaching staff to do the majority of the work, such as welding, building construction, and sculpturing, as direct labour.
He said he encouraged resourcefulness at the school and through the creation of steel sculptures that were sold to the general public. “We have outstanding people in that school and I would often spur them to do the majority of the projects there to save money.”
Ikonne stated that he will operate Abia’s schools through a public-private partnership, while also constructing a model school in each of the three senatorial zones.
In agriculture, Ikonne stated that he would transform the state’s ancient farming system into a contemporary one, transforming agriculture into a company based on the state’s comparative advantage and modernising farmhouses into model-products housing.
