Nyerhovwo Oghnetejiri
IN a bid to cultivate and sustain cordial working relationship with host communities of Ugbomro, Itiregbi of Uvwie Kingdom as well as other stakeholders, management of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE) has organized a one day lecture on fostering closer relationship between universities and host communities with a call on communities to appreciate the unique opportunity of being host to a specialized university such as FUPRE and should jealously protect it.
Delivering the lecture titled, “Fostering Closer Relations Between Universities and Local Communities”, Prof. Anslem Emevbo Biakolo, Dean, School of Media and Communications, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos said since the presence of the university leads to improvement of social amenities such as water, good roads, improved supply of electricity among others, it behoves the communities of Ugbomro, Itiregbi, Okwokoko and Agbarho to regard the institution as their own as well as be partners in the overall development and growth of the university.
According to Prof. Biakolo, “the communities must appreciate the unique opportunity and value offered by having such a specialized university sited in its environment. The Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun is only one of six or seven such institutions in the world. This is something of great pride and the communities must treat it as a special blessing and something to be truly proud of. For this reason, they must ensure that they take close to heart the issues of safety and security of people, facilities and buildings.”
The erudite Professor then advised the university authority to set up a platform where both parties can frequently meet to interact to review relations as well as iron out thorny issues, adding, “at the routine level, it should be a normal part of the university to invite leaders of the local communities to some of the events in the university’s annual calendar. Such events include matriculation, graduation, sports activities, visits of special guests, public lecture such as this one. In fact, you could create a special day in the school calendar to be called Community Relations Day. Such a day makes sense for a university like the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), which seems in its history to be plagued by recurrent problems and crisis of various kinds, in fact from inception.”
In his speech, Prof. Olatunde Damisa, Deputy Vice Chancellor said that the lecture has broadened the scope of all stakeholders on the relationship between universities and local community, he solicited the cooperation and understanding of host communities to sustain good working relationship, adding, “universities does not have money to give to communities rather they have knowledge to share with them in form of community service.”
Also speaking, Rev. Fr. Oghenejode Abaka, Chief Liaison Officer (C.L.O) of the institution expressed appreciation to the management of the University for throwing its weight behind the lecture just as he expressed appreciation to Prof. Biakolo, the guest lecturer for raising salient points to be reflected upon by all stakeholders with a view to achieving a sustainable cordial relationship between the University and host communities.
According to Rev, Fr. Abaka, “I am using this medium to appeal to communities to be constructive in their dialogue with the University to achieve a positive and sustainable relationship. No doubt, we have all learnt from this lecture, this will go a long way to re-energize our relationship. I am also appealing for time to enable all to plan ahead with a view to actualize our goal of having in place cordial working relationship between us.”
