•Says contractors nearly ruined school project

By Nnamdi Ojiego

Chief Samuel Maduka Onyishi is the founder and Chancellor of Maduka University situated in Enugu State which just commenced academic activities. In this interview, Onyishi, who is the CEO of Peace Mass Transit, PMT, and many other businesses across different sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, maritime, and automobiles, speaks on what the new university will be doing differently, its entrepreneurial agenda, security, cultism, funding and sustainability, among other issues affecting education sector in Nigeria. He also narrates how the unfaithfulness of some Nigerian contractors, inflation and the unstable economy nearly ruined the school project. Excerpts: 

Your university formally took off on Thursday, November 23, 2023, which coincided with your 60th birthday. What are your reasons for investing in education? 

 That’s my gift to Nigeria and the world on my 60th birthday. My family and I decided to use what God has given us to give service to humanity. Maduka University is a fulfillment of a covenant I had with God. In 1993, I entered into a covenant with God and I told him that if He blessed me, I was going to use the blessings to serve Him and His people. God has kept to that covenant and blessed me richly. So when I turned 50, I looked at what I’ve achieved and I asked myself how do I fulfill that promise? So I decided to use the money I’ve made to make an impact-making investment, an investment that would change lives and influence people. When I found out that we need better hospitals in Enugu and that we also have a lot of land for investment in agriculture, I thought we needed a university that could trigger investments in these areas. That is, a university that can run specialised programmes in agricultural investment, health investment, and so on. Again, education is something I think I could use to develop young people for God; and show them that people can make money through the right ways. This is one of the things I can give back to God and society. Again, I’m interested in the legacy I’m leaving behind. So, the university is the legacy I want to leave for my people so that by the time I’m gone, they will thank God for what He used me to do for them.

What will Maduka University be doing differently from the other tertiary institutions in Enugu State and across the country?

 Entrepreneurial spirit, that’s what I want everyone in my school to have. I have it, that’s what brought me from being a second-hand clothes dealer to a bus conductor, bus driver, spare parts dealer, bus operator and today, a chancellor of a university. So every graduate of my university is going to be an entrepreneur no matter the course they studied. You are going to be able to stand on your own because, at Maduka University, we teach you to be an employer of labour and not an employee of labour. 

Is there a compulsory course on entrepreneurship for every student of the university?

 Any person who is studying in our school will do courses on entrepreneurship from the first year to the final year. That’s our plan, and that’s going to be our focus because it’s an entrepreneurial university. A lot of people have had opportunities in life that they were not able to convert. People should be able to create wealth and if people are fortunate enough to come into contact with opportunities they should be able to harness and turn the opportunities into wealth. Sometimes, when people make money, they lose it due to a lack of good knowledge of how to manage and grow money. These things can be taught and we have the environment and the right people that can pass that message to the younger generation. 

What state-of-the-art facilities can the school boast of?

 Apart from human resources, we have good laboratories in all our courses because every modern course today including social science courses has a laboratory. We have laboratories in health and medical sciences, engineering, computing, and so forth. Everything has a laboratory so you do theory and also practice. This will balance you up as a graduate. So that is the difference between a university like ours that has an interest in practice and from others. Moreso, we have sporting facilities. Today we are putting up an Olympic standard football pitch and a sports arena. In sports, both handball, volleyball, long tennis, badminton, wrestling, and boxing, everything is going to be Olympic standard because we have the intention of hosting the NUGA game or co-hosting the NUGA game one day even though we are a private university. We think that a student who has not undergone these sporting activities is not complete. So apart from the mental development, they should also have physical development because we want an all-round trained student. 

Your school’s tuition is between N378, 000 and N588, 000 per academic session. Don’t you think the fees are high considering the economic hardships in the country?

 No, I don’t think so. Before you say it’s on the high side, you will have to compare it to what other private universities are taking. When you do, you will find out that ours is among the least. It is the least and it’s for a purpose. 

What’s the purpose?

 The reason is because the university is ours. We’re not running it for any person. So the interest is our interest. And what’s our interest? To give service to God and man. Secondly, it is owned by a foundation, Samuel Maduka Onyishi Foundation. It’s not meant to make profits and then share it with the shareholders, no, it’s service, a gift and our contribution to the world.

What measures did you put in place to secure the campus especially now kidnapping of students has become the order of the day? 

 The issue of security is a general thing in Nigeria, it’s not an isolated case. However, we are lucky that the Enugu State government, both the previous and the present administrations are supporting what we are doing and are providing enough security in and around our school. The Nigerian police and the military are also supporting what we are doing. 

They are providing enough security in and around the campus. The host community is happy with what we are doing and is providing local vigilante services in and around the university. The local government is also interested, everyone likes what we are doing, so, I don’t think we have any problem with security. However, when you bring people together, you have to provide adequate security for them apart from what the government and the security agencies are doing. We also have our own internal security. We are mindful of the situation in the country therefore, security has been adequately taken care of. We also deployed modern security technology like CCTV cameras in and around the campus for maximum security. 

What are some of the challenges you encountered in realising this dream? 

 A lot. The first challenge is the unfaithfulness of some Nigerian contractors. They are very very unfaithful and can’t keep to their promises. They would collect money but would not do the job they are paid for. Unfortunately, in the past three or four years, the economy has not helped. When we started, our budget was at N2000 for a bag of cement. But in six months, the price of everything changed. A bag of cement moved from 2000 to 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000. We even bought up to 5,700. Because of that, the contractors were having a field day. We lost control of our budget because nobody even knew the price of anything in the market. So whatever the contractors tell you is what it is. As a result of that, we ended up spending far more than we budgeted. We lost control of our budgets just six months into the project. We are only lucky that God helped us weather the storm. 

Are you into any partnerships with either local or international organizations?

 University education is global. It’s all about partnerships and collaborations. Right now, we have some foreign and local universities that are indicating interest in working with us. We’re going to work with universities locally and otherwise, depending on their areas of strength. We’re going to partner with some technology universities from Japan and Malaysia to boost our technology. We’re also going to partner with some universities in India to boost our medical sciences and some local universities to boost our human resources, exchange research, and so on. 

Funding is very critical to the sustenance of any institution. Is Maduka University going to be self-funded?

 Yes. As I told you, the university is not supposed to be a business that you start today and it begins to fund itself today. I told you that it’s like a child that you have to nurse. So, you have to nurse the university for some time for it to be able to stand on its feet and take care of itself. But in the first five years, sometimes a little more, up to ten years, you will continue to inject money into it.

And even after 20 years, you’ll still be putting money because a university is always growing, expanding, and demanding. It’s a lifetime investment, even after putting up all the infrastructure and so on, you still need to continue to put in money for research. And school fees from students are hardly enough even when you are fully grown. Moreover, sustenance is not only about funding. The plan to sustain the university also has to do with even members of my family.

By God’s grace, my wife has a PhD today. As I speak with you, of my four children, one has obtained her PhD while the other three are in the process of getting theirs from different universities across the world. All these are going to bring in different perspectives and knowledge from different backgrounds to play in the university even when they are professors wherever they are all over the world, they will still be supporting the university through virtual meetings, lectures, and so on.

And this is in preparation for succession, you know, one day, you are going to hand over to your children and the board will also be there. So, both at the family level, board level, and personal level, we are looking at all the areas to make sure that we are not found wanting. Those who are coming after you must appreciate what you have done for them to be able to keep it afloat.

How are you going to ensure that cultism and other related vices do not rear ugly heads in the university?

 Our university has adequately taken care of that. The issues of cultism and all these vices are products of external influence. They come from outside the school. In our school, every teacher, every lecturer, every student is residential.

It’s a 100% residential university. Once your parents bring you to the school, you remain there until it is time to go on holiday. You don’t leave the school without your parents applying for you to leave the school. Once you are in, you are in. You don’t leave the school without the consent of your parents.

So nobody will come from anywhere to bring cultism to the school and all those external influences that students suffer are not going to be applicable in our school. And because all the workers are going to live inside, nobody goes out to bring in anything to anybody or runs errands for any person. People are going to concentrate and do their job and do it according to the rules and regulations of the school. 

And sex for marks…

 No, no, no. Such things are not to be discussed not to talk about acting on them. It’s a no-go area both for students and the lecturers. You see, all those things are environmental factors. The environment creates room for those things. There’s no room for such a thing because everybody’s living inside. So where are you taking somebody to? Where are you going to meet with somebody to have nocturnal meetings? Such things thrive in darkness. In our school, everything is done in the open, there’s no darkness, no dark spots or dark alleys.

Maduka University is not a place where you go and sell handouts or you want to buy handouts unless you don’t want to study. If you’re not going to study, then, be prepared to pack your bag and go. So our school is not for people who are coming to look for somebody to help or who to help them. No, it’s for people who mean business, who want to study because they’re going to be our ambassadors and must be able to defend the certificate. Our certificates are going to be highly-priced. It is for those who have worked hard, who have passed both in character and in learning.