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‘How we saved Bayelsa varsity from extinction’

By Julius Osahon, Yenagoa
02 June 2022   |   4:02 am
Vice Chancellor of Bayelsa-owned Niger Delta University (NDU), Prof Samuel Edoumiekumo, has explained how the series of protests in 2018 by students and staff of the institution over increase in tuition and downsizing of non-academic staff nearly caused its collapse.

Niger Delta University

Vice Chancellor of Bayelsa-owned Niger Delta University (NDU), Prof Samuel Edoumiekumo, has explained how the series of protests in 2018 by students and staff of the institution over increase in tuition and downsizing of non-academic staff nearly caused its collapse.

The institution was gripped by multi-dimensional crisis under the administration of Prof Humphrey Ogoni, as students protested fee hike, while members of the non-academic staff protested against members sack.

The crisis, however, led to the shutdown of the institution; ended the tenure of Ogoni and paved way for the appointment of Edoumiekumo, who was then the Deputy Vice Chancellor.

Edoumiekumo, in his 184-page biography titled ‘Heroism from the margin: The story of Samuel G. Edoumiekumo,’ written by Prof Ben Binebai, recalled that his appointment in 2018 as vice chancellor, sandwiched him in an interplay between external threat and the internal collaborators.

“On assumption of office, I doused the tension trouncing the university and threatening its survival. I was lucky enough to trudge on the magic tree that kept the university running without good funding. If we had collapsed during these crises, the university would have been a shadow of failure,” he said.

Edourmiekumo said: “In May, 2018 when I accepted the challenge of leading the NDU as VC after acting for a year, I promised to restore peace, academic stability and attract infrastructural development to achieve the standard of a highly rated ivory tower.

“Today, the records hold that NDU, a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary and study-concentrated institution, under my watch, is at the glorious dawn of national and international recognition.

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