Umuahia Gets First Private Varsity

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

After 32 years of existence as the capital city of Abia State, Umuahia, has at last got a  private university, as Lux Mundi University prepares to commence academic activities in the 2024/2025 academic session.

The Abia State capital city hosts a campus of the state-owned university, ABSU, and while a number of private universities exist in other parts of the state, none of the private investors sited their institutions in Umuahia.

But the founder of Lux Mundi, Professor Gabriel Okenwa, said that he has brought a private university to Umuahia because he owed it a duty to give back to his land of birth.

Okenwa said: “This land raised me to what I am today. I have to honour this land by siting this university here.” 

He outlined the vision and mission of the university yesterday during the unveiling of the principal officers and management of the institution at the take-off campus, New Ndagbo City, Isiama Afaraukwu Ibeku, Umuahia.

He told the stakeholders, including royal fathers, religious leaders and other stakeholders that gathered for the event that Lux Mundi, which means light of the world, has come to carve a niche for itself.

“This university is going to change the trajectory of academics in our state,” Okenwa said, adding that Lux Mundi was poised to produce graduates with special skills that would make them global brands.

“Lux Mundi is a technologically biased university. We’ll leave no stone unturned to ensure that we do everything professionally,” he assured stakeholders.

Okenwa vowed that Lux Mundi would be affordable to an average parent in terms of fees and other charges.

He said that no student admitted in Lux Mundi would be allowed to drop out because of school fees as “our foreign partners” have set up foundations that would be offering scholarships to students of the institution.

Okenwa defended the proliferation of private universities in Nigeria, contending that in the South-east alone, over 90,000 persons could not gain admission in the existing universities.

Religious leaders and royal fathers that spoke at the event commended the founder of Lux Mundi for his thoughtfulness and patriotic spirit in bringing the university to Umuahia.

The  Catholic Bishop of Umuahia, Most Rev. Michael Ukpong, represented by Rev. Father Henry Maduka, commended Prof. Okenwa for “hearing the voice of God and responding positively.”

He said that the establishment of Lux Mundi showed that the founder “understood the inspiration of what God wants to use him to achieve with this university.”

Highpoint of the event was the display of the provisional license of approval issued by the National University Commission (NUC), authorising Lux Mundi to operate and offer university education in Nigeria.

The clergymen and the royal fathers were also taken to the permanent site of the university where they blessed the land and prayed for the success of the new university in Umuahia.

Lux Mundi, according to Okenwa, has taken off with three faculties, namely, Management Sciences, Law, Arts/Social Sciences while Medical Sciences, Engineering and others would be added in due course.