VC laments Ndigbo apathy to education
By Our Correspondent
Published: Thursday, 19 Mar 2009
The Vice-Chancellor, Renaissance University, Enugu, Prof. Emeka Okpara, has said that the low investment in education by Ndigbo would continue to impact negatively on the development of the South-East
He noted that the Igbo might not get out of poverty if the people continued to neglect education and scholarship.

Okpara, a professor of Industrial/Organisational Psychology and Strategic Management, said this during an interview in Enugu on Wednesday.

He stated that the number of private universities in the zone was so low that Ogun State alone with 11 private universities had more than the whole of the South-East region.

He, therefore, advised the people to invest more in education instead of building petrol stations and hotels, which he said could end in the land. The professor noted that the people would be impoverished without education.

He said that the tragedy that befell the education sector in the country was caused by the political declaration that education was free, insisting that the cost of educating a child could not be too much.

The vice chancellor enjoined parents to enroll their wards in the university which he said has the necessary infrastructure and resources to mould her students, adding that the tuition fees had been moderated to encourage both the rich and the indigent.


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Ogun has more private universities than the south east put together simply because of it's proximity to lagos.Universities are built in ogun because there's not enough land in lagos anymore.

It is Unfortunate that the southeast does not have enough private universities. And Unfortunately, because of marginalization by the federal governement and lack of proper funding of the states in the southeast, they do not have a lot of federal presence in terms of Universities. That is the reason why Igbo kids are seen in almost all the Major Univeristies outside the southeast in Huge Numbers(University of Abujah, Uni of Lagos, Uni Jos, University of Ibadan, ABU etc) and Around the world( Havard, Oxford, Yale, DUKE, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell etc). I guess private individuals should step up in this area a little more but the government should also allocate more federal universities in the southeast to come to par with other Regions. Luckily, this has not affected the education of igbos as they are still the most educated both in Nigeria and those in Diaspora. Blame can go around but the Igbos should take more responsibility when it comes to private Universities in The Region.

; Out of all the Universities located in the South East only two are owned by people other than the State, Federal governments or Churches. The Schools are Gregory Ibe University at Uturu, Abia State and Renaissance University, Ugbawka in Enugu State. There are billionaires here but they would rather build hotels and filing stations than invest their money into Education. Not that the region lacks the people with the right ideas but the money is controlled by those who lack this vision. It is a sad commentary on a region with enormous potential for progressive development.