By Chidinma Nwankwo
There is an axiom which says, “slow and steady win the race”. That is the case of University of Jos which has been moving though at a low pace but consistently. Right from the establishment of the University in 1975, there has been commendable progresses till date.
University of Jos, though not one of the first generation Universities in Nigeria like; University of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, etc is currently ranked among the best ten best universities in the country because it has achieved a lot even in the midst of challenges.
First, she has continued to produce manpower for the labour market and a lot of professionals trained in different fields of study are manning organizations and companies in and outside the country. They can be found in different sectors like education, health, security, agriculture, communication, science and technology etc. At least two serving ministers Mr. Labaran Maku (Information) and Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe are alumni of the University. The current Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Hayward Mafuyai is also an alumnus of the university.
The university has over the years continued to record many firsts in various areas. Recently, it became the first among several Universities in Nigeria to have a Students’ Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations {NIPR). The President and Chairman of Council of the institute, Alh. Mohammed Ahmed Abdullahi (FNIPR) led other council members to perform the inauguration of the chapter on the 14th of March 2013. It was another even that places UNIJOS a step ahead of others.
Like her motto, “Discipline and Dedication”, UNIJOS keeps producing students who would stand out anywhere in the society both in character and learning. Campus prostitution and cultism which are big problems in some institutions is not very pronounced in UNIJOS because, the university environment is not conducive for such operations. This is as a result of various measures put in place by the management.
One would therefore, not be far from the truth to say that, University of Jos is not only a place for learning academically, but also a grooming ground where students are packaged appropriately for the outside world so as to impact their world positively.
