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| Chuks Ochonogor |
In Nigeria, hundreds of thousands of citizens who wish to gain admission into the various Universities in the country are disappointed for various reasons. Dr. Ochonogor provided a solution to this problem when in 2005, after many efforts and struggle, was able to establish Novena University Ogume. Properly licenced by the Federal Ministry of Education/National Universities Commission, Abuja.
The campus is situated at Amai (temporary site), only two kilometres away from his hometown of Ogume, Ndokwa West LGA of Delta State. Eleven years on, we are able to fully utilise the ‘temporary site’ because the intended site at Ogume was overtaken by nature and submarged in a lake (uninhabitable).
The earlier days was full of struggles, but we were able to entice student to join our school by offering “double promotion” and accepting expelled student from other institutions. Most student skipped a year. Up until the year 2010, we had this support program of helping student graduate a year faster than their mates in other private universities (we use to call it 'sandwich program' back in the days). Here we are today, from barely 100 students in 2005 to over 7000 students ten years later in 2015.
I admit that at the infancy of the university, we also employed quacks like the controversial Prof. Forli Amusak Frank of Ghana. However, be rest assured that we have changed a few of our policies and give glory to Almighty God for preserving us to this day.