An Open Letter To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, On Shutting Down Of Department Of Chemical Engineering At The University Of Nigeria, Nsukka, Since 55 Years After The Nigerian Civil War.
Sunday (Afor) 26-10-2025.
Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR,
Long before you became the President of Nigeria in 2023, your credentials as a Nationalist have been in the front burner.
Records have it that you were one of the Nigerian citizens who did not mind the risk inherent in fighting the Nigerian Military against her obvious dictatorial tendencies. By so doing, you simply pitched yourself against Injustice.
Your Excellency, Equity Global Reporters Ltd wishes to draw your attention to an ugly unprogressive reminder of the Nigerian Civil War. When wars come to an end, every effort is made to throw vestiges of such divisive incidents into the abyss of oblivion.
The University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN, was the first indigenous University to be initiated and built courtesy of indigenous Nigerian leadership. While University of Ibadan started as a College of University of London in February 1948 through University of London’s ‘Special Relationship Scheme’ and became autonomous only in 1962, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka was founded by the Eastern Nigerian Regional Government in 1955 under the Premiership of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, and subsequently commenced academic activities in 1960 as the first indigenous autonomous University in Nigeria.
Unlike the curriculum of education under British Colonial Government which did not emphasize courses that would impact immediately meaningfully on the economy of the colonies, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, placed premium on Agricultural Courses, Engineering, including the Department of Chemical Engineering, Education, Arts, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Medicine.
Every progressive society pays adequate attention to functional education. Any form of education that leaves the future of its acquisitor to the whims and caprice of employers is adjudged incapable of building a viable economic society.
According to a renowned African Statesman, Dr Julius Nyerere, the Great Mwalimu of Tanzania, education must have elements of pragmatism. That is to say that education must be capable of translating to productive economy which should be to the advantage of both the acquisitor and the society at large.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, unlike University of Ibadan that had a British orientation, was founded on the American Pragmatic Philosophy of Education. The University, modeled after Michigan State University of United States of America, was essentially programmed to produce graduates that would impact substantially on the economy of Eastern Region in such sectors as road infrastructure, housing, agriculture and manufacturing.
It was an unfortunate trajectory that war broke out in Nigeria, leading to the Eastern Region under Lt-Col Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu declaring a Republic of Biafra, from 1967-1970, following a Military Coup on 15th January, 1966, a reprisal counter coup on 28th July, 1966, pogrom in 1966 against the Igbo in other parts of Nigeria, and failure of the Peace Accord between Nigeria’s Military Head of State, Lt-Col Yakubu Gowon, and Military Governor of Eastern Region, Lt-Col Ojukwu in January 1967.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which was renamed University of Biafra, was unavoidably caught up in the circumstances of the genocidal war. Graduates and Students of the University were circumstantially compelled to enlist in the Biafran Army to defend and protect the people against a horribly devastating ethnic cleansing.
In the face of total blockade all through the war, the Biafran Government had to maximally apply the common proverb and personification, ” Necessity Is The Mother of Invention”.
The Research and Production Agency of Biafra was a pool of Engineers and Scientists who were able to manufacture all manner of Arms, Ammunition, Rockets, Armoured Cars, Broadcasting equipment, and put together Modular Refineries to refine available crude oil into fuel and kerosene.
No doubt, Graduates and Students of the Department of Chemical Engineering were prominent in sustaining the defence of ‘Biafrans’ against genocide.
For a society that is really desirous to develop and advance its Science and Technology, those Engineers and Scientists that were able to accomplish such uncommon feats during those uncommon times, should have been given accolades and greater opportunities to put the country on a very high pedestal of scientific and technological advancement.
To the contrary, the Federal Government of Nigeria, out of punitive vindictiveness shut down the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka immediately after the Civil War in 1970. According to reports, the Department was short down because of the unavoidable roles Graduates and Students of the Department played during the said war.
Let it be recalled that in 1997, a famous Electrical Engineer from Akokwa in Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State, late Engineer Ezekiel Izuogu, using 90% of locally-sourced materials, manufactured the first indigenous prototype car in Africa which he named Z-600. The Government of late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, reportedly set up a committee to determine the road worthiness of the car and had promised to assist him with about N230m after the committee had found the car road worthy but, ironically, apart from Engr Izuogu receiving no dime from the Government, armed security men, after he had reportedly reluctantly accepted an offer by South Africa to open up a Plant there to produce the car, were reported to have nocturnally invaded his workshop sometime in 2000 and carted away all equipment and drawings he had used in developing the Z-600 prototype car which was almost at the stage of mass production.
No country that loves herself takes pride in suppressing ingenuity. Every section of Nigeria has what God has blessed it with. There has never been any doubt that the Igbo are known for their ingenuity, assiduity and enterprise. If Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, are encouraged to bring to fruition their various talents and dexterity, Nigeria could overtake Japan and the Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan before the next 50 years.
Therefore, it is unprogressive and holistically inimical for the Nigerian Government to have shut down the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for 55 years running just because Graduates and Students of the Department had used their knowledge to help in manufacturing improvised equipment for the defence of a People that were subjected to a genocidal confrontation.
Equity Global Reporters Ltd most respectfully calls on President Tinubu to review and discard the Shutting Down of the Department of Chemical Engineering of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. That order is anachronistic, retrogressive, unduly primitive, obnoxious to the pursuit of professionalism, and antithetical to justice, national harmony, peace and development.
Indeed, it has continuously served as a very injurious scar on the psyche of the Igbo and a debilitating reminder of injustice advertently perpetuated on the Igbo for 55 years.
The time to bring this very sad and awful episode in Nigeria’s history to an end is no other time than now that a seasoned democrat in the person of Distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is Nigeria’s President.
Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP
Okwubunka of Asa and Okeamadi Gburugburu.
Publisher,
Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
