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| Professor Angba, Rector of ITM |
This is a friendly Chat with the New Rector of Institute of Technology and Management Ugep (ITM), Prof. Austine Angba.
My first reaction to the above quote was, haba Prof.!! Are you saying Ugep, or Cross River State is a Desert? He then smiled, allowing the Prof. humble senses to keep him from anger. He then asked, “Do we have Electricity, Water, and Oxygen, Gravitational force, Houses, Food and all man’s needs on the Moon?”
I said No! Then He went on, “If all these things are not on the Moon, yet man with just a Space Ship can survive there, then take it too that the Institute of Technology and Management Ugep (ITM), is designed not for normal environments but for environments that the facilities within can create a functional and sustainable change.”
“So assuming its now in the Desert, all needed are Men with Courage, Integrity, Will, Desire, Ability, Character, Creative, with wild imaginations, knowledge, Believe and Faith, to be on board and effectively use the facilities within the Space Ship to create an enabling environment and build a new world, an Industrial Idea center where Men and Women create jobs by day instead of seeking; an institution where admission becomes employment, Fees paid with creative ideas instead of money.”
Finally, he said, “Nothing can best describe what I have seen as facilities in ITM than a Space Ship in the Desert.”
The big question then is, why do Nigerians do well overseas and when home become lazy? No society is free from the imperfections of man, corruption is in America more than Nigeria. If you don’t know then find out why an economy needs Bailout Funds? America since the Depression of 1930s have been surviving on Bailout Funds. In recent times, the Bushes, Clinton and Obama’s administrations are all surviving on Bailout Funds.
Today, Nigeria is on that line too. What then is the different? Can it be attitude? Because every American believes in American Dreams, in favorable season and unfavorable season. In fact, it is like an Oath taken on delivery. The rich believe and invest in America, whenever the economy get harder, the government create magic money in the name of bailouts and push into the hands of these rich people to keep the business world going while the taxpayer keep paying in bits.
In Nigeria we run away with the money, steal infrastructural installations and make public properties our personal properties, to be untouchable, we create a hustle society. The game becomes, “see and take or another will take and call you fool.”
Prof. Angba, Governor Ayade and the great people of Ugep worldwide and Cross Riverians at large, will keep your dreams alive. You have the Governor as a Professor and the Deputy, a Professor. The world of Professors makes the crew on board the Space Ship. Failure is therefore, a theory propounded by the man with no Ideas, because to real men failure is a stepping stone showing you are closer to success.
