• Chukwumerije To Deliver Convocation Lecture

Former Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, will on Friday, November 9, 2018, in Oghara, Delta State, be inaugurated as Chancellor at the permanent site of the Western Delta University (WDU), campus, Benin-Warri Expressway.
A statement by the university said the inauguration will be one of the high points of WDU’s 10th year anniversary which will end with the combined convocation on Saturday.
Obong Attah, governor of Akwa-Ibom State between 1999 and 2007, a renowned architect, was former National President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects and a member by qualification of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Attah will be inaugurated by Former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Francis F. Tabai, Chairman of the WUD Board of Trustees, comprising Prof Joseph Otubu, Senator Nenadi Usman, Efe Akpofure (SAN), Mrs. Christie Ibori-Ibie, Chief Grace Akpoguma and Emeritus Prof. Andrew Onokerhoraye, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin.
The former Akwa Ibom governor is credited with developing the University of Calabar Master Plan, as well as the University of Port Harcourt Emergency Campus Design, besides consulting for the British Overseas Development Agency’s Team for projects in Malawi, South Africa and parts of the Caribbean. All of these were considered by WDU’s Board of Trustees in appointing him.
Also on Friday, award winning author, Dike Chukwumerije, is will deliver the university’s second convocation lecture.
Chukwumerije’s novel, Urichindere, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) 2013 Prize for Prose Literature.
Vice-Chancellor of WDU, Prof. (Mrs) O. C. Okobiah, said in a statement that the multi-talented Chukwumerije is also a “Spoken Word and Performance Poetry” artist, and his poetry theatre production “Made In Nigeria” has been touring the nation.
The statement signed by the WDU’s Public Relations Officer, Tetsoma Omawumi-Eyinla, quoted Prof Okobiah as saying: “Chukwumerije’s creative mind which has opened up totally new areas in the arts and performance, is the real reason why he merited the high honour of mounting the WDU podium to deliver its second Convocation Lecture.”
Recall that Prof Julius Ihonvbere, who had worked at the top level of the Ford Foundation before becoming Special Adviser (Policy and Programmes Monitoring) in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, delivered the first WDU Convocation Lecture. Ihonvbere also wrote some of Obasanjo’s speeches and was Niger Delta Technical Committee. He was also Head of the Department of Political and Administrative Studies, University of Port Harcourt.
The statement added that Chukwumerije, a motivational speaker, was chosen so that he could direct the graduands’ minds towards facing entrepreneurial challenges successfully”.
According to Okobiah: “The Western Delta University is geared towards preparing students to be independent-minded and to be able to identify opportunities, take advantage of such chances to become self-employed and employers of labour. We prepare them to be fully equipped academically so that they can compete favourably anywhere in the world. We train them also to have large social consciences so that they will be inspired to change the things they find unacceptable. We prepare them to make the world a better place”
The convocation ceremony began on Sunday, November 4, with a thanksgiving service at the Baptist Church, Oghara, where Mrs Christine Ibori-Ibie represented the WDU Visitor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori. The Vice-Chancellor of the WDU, Prof (Mrs) Otete Cecilia Okobia led the top-ranking staff of the institution, including the Registrar, Godwin Ojamaya Egbri, to the ocassion.
Pastor of the Baptist Church, Oghara, thanked God for the vision given to founders of the university, urging the congregants to pray for the university, management, staff and students.
He also prayed “that the presence of God will always be present in the Western Delta University as it provides quality education at an affordable rate… Please, also pray for the Faculty of Law that is just taking off.”