business0521

24 BUSINESS DAY
Thursday 21 May 2015
GARDEN CITY BUSINESS DIGEST
UST and business education management:
Security key to Nigeria’s economic
development – Greenocean CEO
Maureen Koko emerges top professor at Nigeria’s best state university
IGNATIUS CHUKWU
Only the likes of A.J. Toby,
the erudite professor and
university orator of the
Rivers State University of
Science and Technology,
(RSUST, Nigeria’s foremost e-University),
could find the right phrases to
present the inaugural lecturer of April
29, 2015, in the best state university in
Nigeria.
Toby prepared the minds of the elite
audience that filled the amphitheatre
to the brim to listen to a woman who
was withdrawn from secondary/commercial
school on account of being a
girl-child (to give way for the boys to
see the light); a woman who refused
to accept this bitter fate by resort to an
adult education opening later in life; a
woman who served other academics
thinking hers was over; a woman who
later fought back until she became not
just a professor but a hard-nut that
corrects other professors; an academic
who had was about to be initiated into
the special cult of tested and inaugural
professors of the Nigeria’s 12th overall
best university.
At the UST now, it is very significant
to belong to the rare class of inaugural
professor, those who have presented
a body of scholarly knowledge. An
inaugural lecture is an occasion of
significance in an academic staff member’s
career at any university. Inaugural
lectures also provide newly appointed
professors with the opportunity to inform
colleagues, the campus community
and the general public of their work
to date, including current research and
future plans. In some universities, professors
are usually required to give their
inaugural lecture within 12 months of
their appointment.
Inaugural lectures are a ceremonial
occasion and the UST, it is now something
else. Academic robes are worn by
the inaugural professor and the rest of
the platform party.
It is an honour to be presented and
to present others. And so, Toby read out
an account that stated thus; on Tuesday,
June 1, 1954, at Imo River town in
present day Oyigbo local government
area of Rivers State, Maureen Nmema
Koko was born a fourth surviving child
of her parents. Koko’s career path, he
stated, spans through many years from
little beginnings.
Toby said; “After her primary education,
she spent a little time in a secondary/commercial
school and was later
withdrawn because girls’ education
was not valued at the time”. The young
Nmema (as she was called by many)
was pretty but beneath that beauty was
a hidden desire to disobey tradition
and escape to destiny. Thus, her beauty
attracted a husband and she accepted
what was seen as the only plate for girls,
marriage.
Fate later threw pretty Nmema (now
Koko’s wife) to London at the age of 23
and took revenge by quickly enrolling
at ‘Brixton College for Further Education’,
as an adult learner where she
obtained a few GCE O/level papers.
Pursuing her luck further, she trained
as a professional secretary at Crown
Secretarial College, London (affiliate
of Pitmans College) and obtained a
diploma; opportunities made possible
by her husband.
Back to Nigeria and to Rivers State,
she continued her education while in
the employment of RSUST, and obtained
a Bachelor of Science Degree in
Business Education (Secretarial Option),
2nd Class Upper Division in 1987.
Apparently provoked by what she could
achieve academically, she enrolled
for the Masters Degree in Educational
Management in 1993.
All this while, she eyed the world
of academic staff members and the
pride of lecturers, but bide her time. In
1995, Nmema shocked the university
community by presenting unassailable
evidence that she was capable of holding
her own in classrooms and in the
academic side of university workforce.
After her conversion from the nonacademic
cadre to academics, she
enrolled for a doctorate degree in
Educational Management majoring
in ‘High Education Administration/
Education Laws’, at the University of
Port Harcourt. She graduated in 1998.
While Toby was reeling out all this,
some of those in the back seats who
worked closely with the rare woman
kept shaking and swearing that all was
true. They found in her everything they
ever wished for themselves and so,
cheered on with a frenzy only found
in football fans. Toby went on: “As a
non-academic staff (Confidential Secretary),
Koko rose to rank of assistant
chief executive officer (Secretarial),
before her conversion.”
He said her academic career started
in 1995 as Lecturer Two. “She was
promoted to Lecturer 1 in 1997, Senior
Lecturer in 2000, Reader in Business
Education in 2003, and (wait for it),
a professor in 2006”. According to the
orator, Koko teaches both undergraduate
and postgraduate courses and has
supervised and graduated four Ph.D.,
M.Ed. and 15 PGDE students to date.
The hall shook to its foundation with
explosive cheering.
He read on: “Koko has held very
important positions in the University
including: Acting Head of Department,
Business Education (1999-2001, 2006-
2007 and 2014-date), Acting Dean,
Faculty of Technical and Science
Education (2007-2009) and Director,
Academic Planning and Statistics Unit
(2010-date) as well as Coordinator
of the University’s Entrepreneurship
Development Centre.
She is also chairman/member/
coordinator of various committees and
units of the University such as Senate
Research and Publication, Senate Adhoc
Committee on Undergraduate
Indiscipline, Vice Chancellor’s Ad-hoc
committee on Staff Misconduct, Departmental
Examination Officer, Adhoc
committee on Entrepreneurship
Studies, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on
Undergraduate Students Orientation,
FTSE Accreditation Task Force, etc.”
Koko has not been found rare and
useful only in the UST but she renders
Fighting the odds: from school withdrawal to professor: Maureen Koko
community services as; External Assessor
(Professorial)/External Examiner
(postgraduate) for Universities of
Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Uyo
and Niger Delta University as well as
Accreditation Panel Member for the
National Universities Commission and
National Commission for College of
Education (NCCE), Toby stated.
He told the audience that Koko’s
academic prowess could be better
appreciated in the volume of her publications
from her non-academic days
to this time that she was presenting her
107-page inaugural lecturer. “These
include eight books, nine chapters
in edited research books, 50 journal
articles (local and international), 21
conference/workshop/seminar papers;
over a 100 contribution packages!
She is a fellow, Association of
Personal Assistants and Secretaries
(FAPAS), Associate, Institute of
Qualified Private Secretaries (AIQPS),
Licensed Member, Association of
University Administrators (all in Great
Britain); Nigerian Association of Education
Administration and Planning
(NAEAP), National Association of Business
Educators (NABE), Curriculum
Organisation of Nigeria, (CON), etc.
She was recently honoured by her alma
mater, UNIPORT, as a Distinguished
Alumnus for her contributions to humanity
and society.”
It was at this point that Toby began
the descent: “Ladies and Gentlemen,
here is an Amazon, who through doggedness,
determination and hard work,
improved her life working through low
ranks and qualifications as a non-academic
staff and rising to the pinnacle
of academic excellence. She is also a
Consultant in Business Management
and Human Resources Management.”
The orator saw the fire in the crowd
and applied some brakes: “Koko is
happily married to the deacon, Sam
Koko of the ancient town of Ogoloma in
Okrika Local Government Area, Rivers
State, and the marriage is blessed with
five children (Henry, Loretta, Ibinabo,
Piriye and Sharon) and three grand
Children, Soibi, Belema and Mikaila.”
A huge applause followed this because
of the way Africans value children and
offspring.
This woman’s’ life is true to what
she believes in “With God all things
are possible to those who believe”, the
orator noted. No wonder without the
privileges of a full formal secondary
education, today, Nmema has risen to
an enviable position within the university
and the larger society,” he added.
Toby released all the brakes and
the audience pursued his breathtaking
narrative descent: “Who is this roundly
and thoroughly educated woman
that has risen from common typist to
professor? Who is this professor that
has held nearly all possible offices in
a university?
“Yes! Who is this published scholar
who has drawn from and enriched
professional bodies and community
services at several levels? Who is this
Christian wife, a worthy ambassador of
our Lord Jesus Christ that is not only an
international scholar but also a mother,
benefactor and loyalist to the core? In
answer to these questions, I urge all
to behold our 34th Inaugural Lecture:
the grandma professor, Mrs Maureen
Nmema Koko.”
When the woman stepped onto
the podium, and after surviving the
endless applause, she exploded in
what looked like washing dirty line
in public by looking the academic
community in the face to point out
what always went wrong in university
management in most universities, especially
wrong decisions and policy
summersault. Her refrain, ‘what you
do not know may hurt’, seemed to rub
in the pepper. It was made clear that it
was avoiding ‘Koko’s Triangle’ that the
UST has recently excelled to a leading
university. She however concluded by
warning that her points should be seen
as a review to excel.