By Tony Adibe
Like the Biblical tiny mustard seed which, when you sow it, grows miraculously and multiplies in every direction, the Godfrey Okoye University, (GOUNI), Enugu which started in 2009 with 250 students has increased to close to 4,000 students presently.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Rev. Fr. Prof. Christian Anieke, who addressed a press conference at the university premises in Enugu, said the university is “growing with tremendous and incredible speed.”
The Vice Chancellor said that GOUNI “is called the fastest growing university in the southeast zone and one of the fastest in the whole of Nigeria.”
In the ranking of over 200 institutions in Nigeria, he said that the GOUNI was “placed number 16,” while in the ranking of the about 80 private universities in Nigeria, “our university came number 3,” said Prof. Anieke, who added that GOUNI was also rated the best among all private universities in southeast and south-south zones of Nigeria.
He said the ranking was done by ICU; an international standard ranking of universities/institutions based outside Nigeria. He recalled that the Godfrey Okoye University started with two faculties – Faculty of Management and Social Sciences and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Environmental Sciences which has been changed to Faculty of Natural Sciences and Environmental Studies.
In the last few years, he said, the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Law were added, and just recently, the College of Medicine also joined in the list. One of the good things about the GOUNI College of Medicine, Prof. Anieke said, is the establishment of a DNA Learning Centre therein – the first in Africa – which he said, (DNA Learning Centre ) is licensed by Coldspring Harbour Laboratory in the United States of America.
Prof. Anieke said: “Licensing of a DNA learning Centre costs over $300,000 Dollars,” adding: “We are the first in Africa to have the DNA Learning Centre.” He insisted that the DNA learning Centre is going to play a vital role in the training of the medical students.
“It is then a fact that you are not just going to be trained in medicine only; but you are going to be trained in research; you are going to be medical doctors with a sound footing in research, especially in stem-cells and all that kind of things. That is something that is going to make them different from other medical doctors.
“Then again, the main campus of our university is the centre for Godfrey Okoye University European-Business Park Centre of Practical Skills. This European-based establishment action on our main campus will be robbing off on our college of medicine.
“The facilities in the Centre of Practical Skills are facilities that are actually excellent in use in teaching them some practical, especially in physics and all that. “So the presence of the Business Park and the presence of the Centre for Practical Skills – these two big projects that are European-based will also help in influencing the training of our medical students.
“The college is emphasizing this because that is something that is new,” said the Vice Chancellor. Prof. Anieke also spoke about the collaboration between GOUNI’s College of Medicine and two notable hospitals – Annunciation Specialist Hospital, Emene and the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu.
“But today, the Godfrey Okoye University has its own Teaching Hospital located at Trans-Ekulu, Enugu. “That is the former Ntasi Obi. It has been taken over by Godfrey Okoye University as its Teaching Hospital. And we are building, and rebuilding and expanding it,” Prof Anieke said.
He said: “I want to assure you that this Teaching Hospital here is going to be the best in the southeast because of the designs we have and those who are going to be working there”
He said: “We have given indication of where we are going by appointing, on an acting basis, Professor Cajethan Nwadinigwe as the Chief Medical Director. He is acting. He is on sabbatical. We have appointed him to give a solid foundation to the take-off of the Teaching Hospital, while we get personnel from all over the world for this Teaching Hospital.
“Of course, you know that medical training requires a very strong Teaching Hospital, and we are providing it for our students. So, I have no doubt that our College of Medicine is going to change the narrative of teaching medical students in this country because apart from what I said – our collaboration with excellent college of medicines outside Nigeria, apart from also the quality of staff we are also assembling , we are doing incredible things that will make this College of Medicine a lot different from all other ones we have known so far in our country.
Godfrey Okoye University, I have always said, is more than a university. It is a place for empowerment for young ones.”
