Federal Cooperative College Oji River Providing Alternative Tertiary Academic Excellence- Negbe

By Praise Chinecherem

The Dean of Student Affairs of the Federal Cooperative College Oji River Enugu State, Mr. Monday Negbe, says the college is a credible and veritable alternative for Nigerians seeking admissions into tertiary institutions in the country.

Negbe who emphasized that the college has gone through stages of metamorphosis in infrastructural developments, said the Federal Cooperative College Oji River was no longer a school without basic facilities for learning, training and development but currently an institution with the right atmosphere for academic excellence and capacity building.

Speaking with our reporter in his office, Negbe recalled with hindsight how the college was at inception. He said some of the pioneer staff almost gave up their appointments because the college lacked the semblance of a tertiary institution.

He however informed that the coming of Dr. Owan Obodoagu Tonica as Provost of the institution, changed the narratives of the college; hence the transformational leadership of the Provost catapulted the Federal Cooperative College Oji River into an institution with comparative advantage over others in the country.

Negbe further recalled that at inception, there were no access roads into the college campus but when Dr. Owan Obodoagu Tonica became the Provost, he constructed the first access road into the college campus. He said it was the very first project he undertook as Provost and delivered it in record time.

He stated that thereafter the Provost embarked on the building of lecture halls, the ICT Centre Project with over 200 laptop computers which the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board ( JAMB) now uses for her Computer Based Test Examinations (CBT).

He also said that the Provost moved on to construct a magnificent administrative block now known as the White House where principal officers of the college have their offices. The Dean said the Provost embarked on the construction of more classroom blocks, hostel blocks as well as invited the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for accreditation of all the academic programmes in the college.

The Dean of Student Affairs also disclosed that the administration of Dr. Owan Obodoagu Tonica built another two administrative blocks near the White House to provide more office spaces for the growing population of staff of the Federal Cooperative College Oji River even as he pointed out too that the Provost constructed more internal roads within the college premises for ease of navigations in the campus.

Renovation of the College Auditorium was another capital intensive project the Provost embarked upon. The Dean of Student Affairs who stated that formerly the college auditorium had issues of leakages, corrugated floors and cracks on the walls, maintained that the college auditorium has been renovated and transformed into a state of the art monumental edifice with air-conditioning facilities.

According to the Dean, Dr. Owan Obodoagu Tonica is a God-sent to Federal Cooperative College Oji River Enugu State. That since he became the Provost, there has not been any crisis of misunderstanding amongst his management team especially the robust partnership and collaborations with the College Internal Auditor Mr. Daniel Okeze, whom he said was equally instrumental to the infrastructural developments in the college.

Negbe who stated that from all indications, the student population of the Federal Cooperative College Oji River will further increase with the 2023/2024 academic session as her Business Administration and Computer Science Departments are in very high demand, said graduates of the college are worthy ambassadors in the corporate world.

He said the likes of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has continued to demand for products of the Federal Cooperative College Oji River because of their performance standard in the organisation during industrial trainings.That graduates of the college are also employees of Access Bank PLC, to mention just a few.

He however urged Nigerians and other nationalities to pursue their educational careers at the Federal Cooperative College Oji River, saying that everything in the college is done in accordance with academic timetable and there is nothing like strike or industrial action as the school is one of the best and most conducive places one can acquire tertiary education without tears.