Alumni of the University of Nigeria had to wait for 58 years before one of their own, Professor Charles Arizechukwu Igwe , was appointed to head the institution as the Vice-Chancellor. Among the 15 Vice-Chancellors the premier university has had, Igwe is the first made-in-UNN product, having obtained his B.Sc, Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the university.

Igwe, a Soil Scientist, broke the jinx on May 23, 2019 when the Governing Council of the university, led by Chief Mike Olorunfemi, announced his appointment following a rigorous screening of about 70 applicants who jostled for the job.

In his inaugural address to the university community on Friday, June 14, 2019 Igwe said he had spent nearly four decades in the services of the university, having joined the institution’s workforce from the lowest rung of administrative ladder.

“I have witnessed some of the finest eras in the history of this citadel of learning; I have also witnessed its difficult times”, the new Vice-Chancellor told members of the university community while outlining his vision for the university in the next five years.

He said the University of Nigeria under him would be technologically driven, academically robust and would promote enterprise and entrepreneurship. His tactics, according to him would be an integrated development model, anchored on the Sustainable Development Goals.

He said his administration would develop a database of the university’s alumni with the aim of harnessing their goodwill and partnerships to improve funding of the university.

“We shall ensure sustained infrastructural development and supply through public-private partnership, attend to ongoing and abandoned projects, and enthrone maintenance culture and environmental cleanliness”, he added

Igwe, from the Faculty of Agriculture, said he would refocus the university on its land-grant mandate to make it a self-sustaining institution that would be a model for survival to other universities in the country.

While appreciating the recent research effort of the university, which led to the generation of electricity using organic waste products, Prof Igwe said his administration would harness the potentials of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Engineering and the Centre for Energy and Research Development to break new grounds in electricity provision

Prof B.I C Ijomah, the first National President of the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, in his goodwill message at the inauguration of the Vice-Chancellor, said Igwe’s emergence was a new dawn for the university and its alumni who had endured years of being ruled by alumni of other universities.

He expressed confidence that the new Vice-Chancellor would restore sanity in the university’s alumni association.

Photo Caption: •Photo shows Registrar of UNN, Dr Chris Igbokwe (left), handing over the staff of authority to the new Vice-Chancellor of the UNN Prof Charles Igwe, June 14, 2019

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