By our reporter
It was like a festive atmosphere.
From the large banner spread just outside the busy Hotel de Horizon -located at uptown Wuse 2, Abuja, the nation’s capital-, on which was emblazoned information signalling the UNICAL Graduates Elite Club’s maiden Best of the Best Awards/Symposium and Fund Raising programme, to the electric excitement inside the hotel’s banquet hall, it was a rocking, heady feeling, Saturday.
In response, well-dressed guests from virtually all walks of life trooped in to take up seats on tidily-attired tables decorated with an overflow of non-alcoholic wines, beverages and ‘small chops’ placed to keep palates busy ahead of the main event three-course menus.
In play was a spirited bid by the club, comprising alumni of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), to raise items and funds to undertake the structural needful to lift the suspension of the accreditation quota slammed on the university’s Medical School.
Moved by the relentless ‘old boy’ spirit, the alumni said they would press further on and give a facelift to the university’s Medical School by refurbishing it.
Setting the ball rolling in the throbbing atmosphere, president of UNICAL Graduates Elite Club, Dr Chioma Uzo-Udegbunam, disclosed the club’s commitment to changing the existing narrative on the accreditation matter.
Delving into the background to the event, Dr. Uzo-Udegbunam revealed that the Medical School was suspended even as a lengthy list of things to fix in order to rectify the soul-dampening situation was drawn up, prompting the alumni to take up an aspect of the challenge and save the futures of young medical trainees there as well as the image of their (graduates’) alma mater.
“The Medical School was suspended in the University of Calabar, and a barrage of lists were drawn, and we were asked to meet those needs in the list by Medical School.
“So, the club decided to take one of the issues because there are so many. I can’t really say, maybe 15, 25 or thereabouts items on that list. So, we decided to take the painting of the Medical School hostel.
“There are a lot, but we decided to take out this one. And then from that list, it is not more than two million. So now, we are looking at that.
“But if we can get more than that, because the major aim of this event is for us to see what we can do to make sure that our accreditation quota is lifted. That is what we are trying to do. So, we decided to say, ‘okay, let us go and do it’. They gave us six months to achieve that.
“Also, we are campaigning and championing positivity, you know, to have a new University of Calabar,” she said.
Dr. Uzo-Udegbunam, who is also Director of Administration, Area Council Services Secretariat (ACSS) of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), disclosed that her club is one of several alumni bodies working for the interest of the university.
According to her, there is absolutely no clash of interests or rancour among the bodies, likening their mode of operations to different units in a church.
The president said: “Let me take for instance, let me drive the point home. You have the Catholic Church, and in the Catholic Church, you have the Catholic Men Organisation.
“You have the Catholic Women Organisation. You have the various organisations, state associations, you have the St Joseph Association, there is the Anambra and Enugu Association, you have St Vincent de Paul, you have a Sacred Heart of Mary. All of them belong to where? The Catholic Church.
“So, now, that is what it is. You know, we (in UNICAL) have the alumni (association), which is the government, which is the general body. Once you are a graduate of that university, that means you are part and parcel.
“But we now have departments. We have Medical Sciences, we have the English and Literary Studies, we have the Linguistics. Each and every one of them, they all have their own various groups.
“So, now, for us, we (in the club) now decided to pull from all the departments; you know, even from the main body, the alumni, and then form a club, all right?”
In his keynote address, Dean, Faculty of Education, Catholic-owned Veritas University, Abuja, Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Bakwaph Peter Kanyip, highlighted the imperative of former students of schools and universities to identify with their alma maters by contributing to the institutions’ overall development.
He said: “Participants in this event are to understand the need to be in touch with their alma mater. And the university is in need of the resuscitation of our College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, where it has been under suspension for some time, and they are given six months to resuscitate it.
“And there is a lot of need in terms of students’ hostels, in the teaching hospital, in the transportation system, and the general facilities.
“So, in that case, we are just calling on the graduates and also those who are affiliated with the university in one way or the other, to be able to make some kind of contribution to see that that department or that college is given its full accreditation, so that it can come back and function very well, because we need medical doctors, whether we like it or not.”
In an interview with newsmen later, Prof Kanyip, while responding to a question on the declining reading culture and medical brain drain in the country, Kanyip said: “First, for us to revive education, we need to conscientise and monitor our youth on the use of phones. Most of us, or most of our youth, who are generally known as Gen Z, spend most of their time on phones, either on social media. And everybody wants to be a content creator.
“At the end of the day, the time that they are supposed to give for their studies is no longer there. The exams this year, let’s look at the external exams. JAMB is not wonderful; WAEC is not wonderful. NECO is not wonderful. JUPEB is not wonderful. Probably small IJMB, averagely.
“So, where are we going to and what is the problem? The problem is simple: the culture of reading has gone down.
“Hardly will you have students sitting down for two hours to study. Unlike during our time, when you could sit four, six hours at a go, and read, and assimilate, and be able to be productive. But now, they can’t spend two hours.
“At most, when they are reading, they are tempted to touch their phones. And once you begin to touch, you are distracted. So, that is where the problem is.”
There was a rain of donations of paint buckets and others from guests.
Awards were later given to several dignitaries.
*PHOTO CAPTION:Dr. Uzo-Udegbunam (3rd right); Managing Director, Hotel de Horizon, Mrs. R. Onigbogi (3rd left) preparing to give an award to a recipient.
