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By Ikemefune Nwokolo

The Delta state Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Mouboghare,
Tuesday, commended the Western Delta University, WDU, Oghara, Ethiope
West LGA, Delta state, for its giant strides since it was founded over a decade
ago. Apart from WDU’s having graduated students as at when due without
missing a year since it was founded, he praised WDU for having moved fully
into its permanent sit, unlike many older universities.

He spoke at the commissioning of the university’s ultra-modern students
hostels, which also marked WDU’s final act in its year-long preparation to have
all its main activates in its permanent site. Mouboghare congratulated WDU on
the state of the art facilities in the school saying that all the great universities of
the world take comfortable hostels and classrooms seriously because students
cannot give their best if they are condemned to live and study under squalid
conditions. He added that as the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, the
environment in which they grow up is very germane to their overall
development and development of their sense of decency.

The Education Commissioner, accompanied by his Permanent Secretary, said
that the Governor of Delta state, His Excellency Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa,
will soon establish an Education Trust Fund to uplift the level of education in
the state.

He said that on that note, the state government will give its support to all levels
and aspects of the educational sector to achieve that enviable goal. He said that
Delta state has been noted for its educational achievements, as every community
in the state has always tasked itself to uplift their localities’ educational
facilities. Thus, he poured encomiums on the brains behind the founding of the
Western Delta University in Oghara, as it has no doubt been contributing its
quota to uplift education in Delta state.

The hostels commissioned Tuesday will adequately, and in real comfort,
accommodate over a thousand students. With that commissioning, the majority
of WDU students will now reside within the university’s permanent site, while
only those who decide otherwise, would be attending classes from the town but
that would not be for lack of adequate students’ hostels

Prof. Mouboghare, while commissioning the new students’ hostels and a five-
classroom block at UDU, Oghara, urged the university and the other private
universities in the state to establish Medical Schools without delay, instead of
waiting to establish Teaching Hospitals first. He said that such universities
should use the great hospitals close to them as their own teaching hospitals and
train their medical students in such hospitals. He said that WDU, for instance,
already has a state of the art hospital right there at Oghara.

Prof Mouboghare said that the Delta state government will soon come out with
the details of the Education Trust Fund which will meet the needs of both public
and private tertiary schools in the state to ensure that the standard of the
universities in the state will be second to none in the country. This will
encourage other higher institutions to sprout up in the state, and eventually
make Delta the hub of higher education in Africa and also harvest the attendant
benefits.

Prof Mouboghare drew a sustained applause when he announced that Delta state
is working out an arrangement with some organisations to provide 24-hour
electricity to educational institutions in the state. He said that 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. He added
that it is only when such constant electricity is present in schools that the talk
about computers in schools or e-libraries will truly be meaningful and have the
desired impart.

Also, the WDU Vice-Chancellor, Prof (Mrs) Otete Cecelia Okobia announced
that when WDU resumes next week for the 2019/2020 academic session, and
students return on Sunday, all school activities will now hold at the permanent
site. The WDU Registrar, Mr. Moses Olu Osamede added that this would mark
a new phase in the university’s life as it would make overall coordination and
administration easier than before.