Dr Umar Hassan is the current provost of Federal College of Education (FCE) Okene, Kogi state. Hassan, a seasoned researcher, in this interview with OYIBO SALIHU in his office, speaks on his achievements in the last 18 months and his projection for the institution Excerpts.
What are your achievements so far in the last 18 months at FCE Okene?
The journey is far; it is one year and few months, but one of our major achievements is the sustenance of peace in the institution. Without peace there can never be any achievement. So far there is peaceful co-existence among the staff, students and the host community.
Peace is sacrosanct and fundamental to any established system. Maintaining peace in this institution paves the way for the conducive atmosphere students are enjoying, which invariably makes them to face their studies without distraction. We are seeing the positive effect in their academic performances.
As provost of this college, I will continue to ensure that this absolute peace we are enjoying is maintained and protected because there is no alternative to peace.
When I came into the college, I vowed to take this institution to the next level in terms of infrastructural development and the capacity development of staff to bring them in tune with what is obtainable globally as well as making the institution an academic excellence, which of course, is already in place in the college.
It is gratifying to state here that the college is steadily on an expansion drive to place her on the highest pedestal of academic excellence and standard. As a responsive administration, we are committed to providing an enabling environment for scholarly activities in the institution.
In this regard, we have embarked on a holistic measures that are aimed at sustaining peaceful co-existence , enhanced academic standard with robust and highly engaging academic activities as well as aggressive infrastructural development.
As part of the expansion policy of the college, very critical projects are currently being provided. This is expected to upgrade our infrastructural facilities for both academic and physical development of the institution. As we speak, construction work is going on simultaneously at six different project sites within the campus.
These projects include, the construction of twin 200-seater capacity auditorium, the construction of a female hostel, the construction of one-storey building of eight classrooms complex, the construction of one-storey building complex for Early Childhood Care and Primary Education. Others are Adult and Non-Formal Education, the construction of one-storey building for School of Languages, lecturers’ office complex and the construction of administrative building.
We are going to protect and do everything humanly possible to ensure we complete it and commission the structures.
Similarly, there are massive renovation works currently ongoing in the college. This is in addition to the newly constructed Students Integrity Project, consisting of two blocks of six modern conveniences, each with separate borehole facilities to cater for the water needs of the offices and buildings around the location.
We have also installed 45 solar-powered street lights, and we are working toward having delivery of another set of 45 units to be installed for complete illumination of the campus at night. These efforts are expected to serve greatly in the protection of life and property in the college.
Also, two new boreholes have been provided in addition to the existing ones to complement water supply to both the male and female hostels. This is in addition to water supply in the hostels to make the environment conducive for the student
In the area of security, we have worked out a robust security measure that will guarantee and ensure adequate security of life and property in the college. It is on this premise that I enjoin all our students and staff to continue to display high sense of security alertness and report any suspicious movement to the security operatives in the college.
In the last one year we have succeeded in completing the project we inherited from the last administration. I met some TETFUND intervention projects which we completed and that also gave us the ample opportunity to assess new ones.
How can you improve internally generated revenue (IGR) of the institution?
We have looked inwardly to see how we can increase our internally generated revenue to complement whatever fund we get from the federal government. In that direction, we have introduced Okene Educational Venture, which is the organ controlling the IGR status of the college. We have been able to re-strategise it and reposition it for effective service delivery. We are also moving forward to involve people to invest in the venture.
The venture has been registered with CAC and we gave the operators autonomy so that they can venture into many areas where they can bring in many investors. We started only last year but we have started seeing the results.
What is the secret behind the absence of cultism in FCE Okene?
One area in which the college is highly respected for is her zero tolerance for all forms of social vices, including examination malpractice, cultism and violence, indecent dressing, threats and intimidations, and other forms of immoral and criminal behaviours.
To achieve all of these, we adopted a holistic security measures that are intended to nip all forms of criminality in the bud and from time to time, we preached to the students the negative effect of those vices. We also advise them regularly not to breach the peace that we have been enjoying on the campus.
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