By Mmaduabuchi Onwumelu
Professor Joseph Ikechebelu, on Monday, 3rd June, 2024, took over from the immediate past Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof. Charles Esimone, FAS, on an acting capacity.
Prof Ikechebelu, before his appointment as the Acting Vice Chancellor of UNIZIK, was the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Administration. He formally assumed office as the overseer of Nnamdi Azikiwe University until a substantive Vice Chancellor is appointed.
In his acceptance speech, Ikechebelu promised to introduce programmes that would motivate students and staff in what he called HPS² (HPS squared), meaning Happy Progressive Staff and Happy Progressive Students.
Under the system, he said, staff members would be happy because they would be motivated because atmosphere would be created for learning.
Ikechebelu promised to digitalize the system to make admission processes easier so that students’ results would be processed in record time.
He promised that when the processes were digitalized, students could apply for admission from foreign countries, get admission and arrive the day school reopened.
He said: ‘We will digitalize Unizik to reduce human interference so that the system can work faster. We will give a lot of incentives.
‘You can stay in London and get admission in Unizik and arrive the day the school resumes,’ he concluded
The Acting VC said that already, staff members were undergoing training to handle the job. When the processes were completed, students would study and graduate in record time and be happy,’ he said.
Ikechebelu also promised to tackle the issue of insecurity in the university to ensure the safety of students and staff members.
On the other hand, Ikechebelu promised to tackle the electric power supply which had issues in recent times.
Dubbed ‘Light up Unizik’, he assured of tackling the lighting issue as an emergency so that every part of the university would get light and get it cheaper.
Ikechebelu also promised that Artificial Intelligence would work in Unizik with his leadership
