The recently inaugurated Governing Council of Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU), and its Management concluded its two-day retreat at Umuahia, the state capital, at the weekend, during which the state governor and Visitor, Dr. Alex Otti, tasked them with articulating strategies, policies, and actions that can move the university from its last 37th position ranking among universities in the country and bring it within the top three positions.

Otti issued the task during the second day/concluding session of the retreat, whose theme was “Building the New Abia State University of Our Dream, Through Excellence and Service: The Governing Council Approach.”

He stated that the Governing Council members were carefully selected based on their individual merits and considered capacity to do the needful for ABSU to take its rightful position in the comity of universities in the country.

He said that the 37th position is not a comfortable place for ABSU, positing that it should be No. 2 because it was the second state university set up in Nigeria, adding, “The big challenge now on our hands is to move it from that number 37 to anywhere between Numbers 1 to 3 in university rankings.”

He declared, “Let me therefore urge the participants in this retreat to come up with a clear vision and a strategy to get to anywhere between Numbers 1 to 3, as we should not be anything less than No. 3.”

The Students Union Government (SUG), led by its President, Comrade Ugoani Emmanuel Ugonna, had, while welcoming Governor Otti to the retreat, invited him to visit the university at Uturu and assess what is on the ground to enable him to address their plight.

Accepting the invite, the Governor/Visitor promised to construct new Faculties of Law and Agriculture buildings at Uturu to accommodate these two faculties, slated to return to the Uturu main campus from the Umuahia campus, as recommended by the visitation panel to ABSU.

The governor said that a report had shown that the students’ hostels are not only in total despair but uninhabitable and at different stages of dilapidation, requiring reconstruction, as the students consequently live in unhealthy hostels. Hence, he assured that he would re-fix the hostels for the students.

The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Professor Uche Emeh Uche, announced that Governor Otti’s administration, which inherited a “broken ABSU,” quickly started its reversal reformatory strategies, policies, and actions, including reconstituting the Governing Council, setting up a Visitation Panel, and declaring a general state of emergency on the state’s education sector.

The Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of the Governing Council, Rt. Hon. Dr. Agwu U. Agwu, a former Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, said that ABSU was established in 1981 by the old Imo State Governor, late Dr. Chief Sam Mbakwe, as the second state university to be created by any state government in Nigeria.

The Pro-Chancellor said that ABSU has produced eminent personalities who are making waves all over the world, naming former Senate President of Nigeria, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, as one, stressing that a lot now needs to be done to overcome the university’s numerous challenges.

He said, “We have carefully invited critical stakeholders as participants in this two-day retreat, including the representatives of our host community (Uturu), the University Senate, the Alumni, Staff Union Leaders, and the Students Union Government (SUG) to brainstorm and find solutions to the numerous challenges of the university.”

Governor Otti suggested that ABSU Management should reach out to its numerous successful alumni, among others, for them to render it the needed assistance.

The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Ndukwe Okeudo, in his welcome remark, acknowledged Governor Otti’s uncommon passionate commitment to making Abia truly the number one state in Nigeria.

He said, “His making out time to attend this retreat despite his tight duty schedule speaks of his commitment to transforming education in the state, which sector he has demonstrated by his unprecedented budgetary allocation of 20% to education in 2024 and 2025, free and compulsory basic education, massive recruitment of teachers, and construction, reconstruction, renovation, and retrofitting of schools across the state.”