Delta Govt’s Western Delta University declaration

By Tony Eluemunor

Who says that great declarations must be made in large cities or in momentous gatherings?  Hey, remember that the Schengen visa was agreed upon in a small wine-making town in South-Eastern Luxembourg. Okay, I grant that its location; the tripoint where the borders of Germany, France, and Luxembourg meet must have helped in its choice of where to sign the agreement for a pan-European Union common visa.

I know of many declarations made in small villages and university campuses but space will permit me to name just two; the late Gen Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu gave his best speech of the Nigerian civil war in the village of Ahiara in 1969 (the Ahiara Declaration) while “The Iron Curtain” became a phrase when former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemned the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declared, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” in 1946 at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, USA.

On Tuesday 5^th November, the Delta state government made an earth-shaking declaration that should change the very nature of higher education in the state. 

Commissioner for High Education, Prof. Patrick Mouboghare declared at Western Delta University (WDU) Oghara, that an Education Trust Fund will soon be launched to ensure that tertiary education, whether public or private, is adequately funded.  This will make the standard of the state’s universities second to none in the country, and the state will surely harvest the attendant benefits.   

Prof Mouboghare drew a sustained applause while commissioning new student hostels to accommodate thousands of students and some classroom blocks, at WDU, when he announced that Delta state is arranging with some organisations to provide 24-hour electricity to schools. Depending on the individual needs of each institution, and its location, solar power or wind energy may be exploited to generate the electricity an institution would need. There is no doubt that it is only when such constant electricity is present in schools that computers or e-libraries will become meaningful. Students’ behaviour and sensibilities will improve.

With adequate facilities and round the clock electricity, any university would soar. His Excellency, Governor Ifeany Okowa is surely taking Delta state higher and higher.