The Day UNN went agog for Kalu

The students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) were in high spirits about three weeks ago, precisely on May 12th. And even among the academics in the prestigious citadel of learning, the excitement was palpable.

They were all waiting for the former governor of Abia State and Chairman of the Slok Group, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, who was billed to deliver the Distinguished Lecture of the Faculty of Arts of the institution. The lecture was the second in the series.

So, before the 10:00a.m scheduled time for the commencement of the lecture, students from Abia State had joined their colleagues in the faculty to roll out drums to welcome their august visitor. The air was rapturous when Dr Kalu arrived at the university by 9:30 a.m. The Daily Sun Reports that

upon arrival, Kalu was ushered into the Vice Chancellor’s Chambers, where he was officially received by the principal officers of the university led by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration, Prof Charles Arinzechukwu Igwe. He stood in for the Vice Chancellor, Prof Benjamin Ozumba, who later breezed into the Princess Alexandria Auditorium venue of the lecture.

In the VC’s Chambers were eminent professors, members of the newly constituted Governing Council, deans of faculties, heads of departments and the widow of the late Zik of Africa, Dame Prof Uche Azikiwe, who was the chairman of the Distinguished Lecture.

The academicians did not hide their excitement at having Kalu in their midst. The DVC Administration, Prof Igwe noted: “Kalu is one of us. He behaves like us; we said the lecture will begin by 10:00a.m and he was here by 9:30a.m.”

Prof Igwe described Kalu as a brave politician and Nigerian who has been useful to the country and the Igbo nation.

Responding at the Chambers, Kalu said he was happy to be back at the institution a few years after his last visit. “I’m proud of the UNN because it is a university in our heart,” he noted.

Before leaving the VC’s conference room for the venue of the lecture, Kalu challenged the authorities of the UNN to fabricate machines that could be used to process cassava and palm oil, promising to deploy them for use in his farms, as well as help in their export.

His lead host, Prof Igwe, assured him that the university would rise to the occasion, pointing out that the university had already launched the Roar Nigeria Hub, which is a scientific incubator centre that could help to meet the request of the former Abia governor.

Done with the reception, the principal officers of the university rose to lead Kalu to the Princess Alexandria Auditorium, where an army of students and academicians were seated, waiting for the lecture to kick off.

The sign that the lecture would be rich in content came when the visiting professor of Mass Communication, Dr Ike S. Ndolo, stepped out to read the citation of Dr Kalu.

“Today showcases the second in the Distinguished Lecture series of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Nigeria as we continue to restore the dignity of man. It is a special day: momentous, gratifying, delightful, and of utmost joy to me as I present to you His Excellency, Orji Uzor Kalu.”

Ndolo described Kalu as “the quintessential, ebullient and enterprising business mogul of superlative brilliance, merit and repute; a prodigious, debonair and profound politician, a business developer of tenacity and endurance, of honesty and courage, of singleness of purpose and steadfastness of conduct, of zest and activity,” as the students and members of the academic community raised a loud applause.

Ndolo noted that Kalu has abundant talent, which he has used successfully across various aspects of life, especially in business.

The visiting professor was not alone in the encomium for Kalu. The Dean, Faculty of Arts, Prof Christian Onyeji in his welcome address, described the politician-cum-business mogul as “a world-class entrepreneur, a great leader and former governor. Words cannot fully express our joy and gratitude that you accepted to deliver our second Distinguished Lecture with the title “Culture, Leadership and Higher Education in Nigeria”.

Then it was time for Dr Kalu to mount the rostrum to deliver the Distinguished Lecture. “I consider my being here today a rare privilege,” he began. “This is my second coming in less than three years. It shows the love that exists between students of this great university and myself on one hand and the authorities of this institution and I on the other.”

He told his audience that he had carried out some researches to enrich his presentation.

“I stumbled on the website of Texas A&M University, otherwise known as TAMU. I became attracted to the website and sought to learn more about what they said culture is and its manifestations. By the way, TAMU was founded in 1876 as the state’s first public institution of higher learning. My inquisition into what they say culture is turned out the following:

“Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

“They also gave other meanings to culture which include that ‘Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people,’ and that ‘Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behaviour; that is the totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behaviour through social learning.’

“The university also sees culture as ‘a way of life of a group of people – the behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next…”

Besides what TAMU had developed on culture, he went deeper to dig out what an anthropologist, E.B. Tylor, did in an article published on Wikipedia, which said that culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

He added: “The Cambridge English Dictionary simplifies it and tells us that it is simply ‘the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time’”.

He, therefore, summed up that culture relates to the very essence of man, his true self, his worldviews and his mode of operation as a person.

“This would include his dress sense, his mannerisms, his language, his appreciation of nature and beauty, his love for others, his respect for the human society and its norms, his outward presentation of the beauty that is inside, and above all, his leadership traits.

“All these put together, lead us to a connection which the developers of this topic may have had in mind when they sought to find a nexus between culture and leadership,” he noted.

Quoting an online dictionary, he said that leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this,” pointing out that this definition ties the people directly to culture because the ‘group of people’ to be led exists in a particular time and space and must have all the manifestations and characteristics espoused above as constituting what culture is all about.”

After citing several examples of what leadership is all about, Kalu said he, however, has a personal view of leadership.

“For me, it is what you do with the powers that you have when you are empowered to lead a people towards a desirable outcome. In my days as executive governor of Abia State, I did my best to pull the state from the backwaters of development and placed it on a pedestal where it would no longer be ignored. I moved the people to action without as much as forcing them to do so. I motivated the people to realign themselves to their culture and begin to undo those things that they were doing that brought them and the state poor image and name.”

According to him, his strategy paid off positively as could be seen in the achievements he recorded in the eight years he held sway as governor in Abia.

Above all, he said that he adopted a free education policy by declaring free education from primary to secondary schools across the state.

“We made sure the free education did not stop at their tuition fees and educational materials; we sponsored their First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) and West African Examination Council (WAEC). 

“We also saw the need to give free education to adults who were not privileged to acquire education in their early growth stage. This we did by embarking on a programme called ‘work to learn’.

“This state sponsored programme saw the artisans, traders, market men and women coming to evening classes to learn and increase their stock of knowledge,” he said.

Kalu said his government also gave exclusive attention to education, “not because we had the abundant resources to do so, but because we understood that a stable and democratic society is impossible without widespread acceptance of some common set of values.”

He, therefore, gave a charge: “I call on all leaders, especially those involved in education and formation of the minds of those who will become our successors tomorrow, to lay more emphasis on teaching of cultures and those aspects that would help to restore the dignity of man. If we fail to do that, we would have created opportunity for the erosion of the dignity of man by man himself.”

Kalu and his entourage were subsequently treated to a lunch by the vice chancellor, Prof Ozumba at the VC’s Lodge before they departed.