By Philip Yatai

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, has reeled out his contributions to the development of University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State University and the legal profession.

Wike outlined the contributions in Port Harcourt on Saturday, during UNIPORT’s 35th Combined Convocation and 50th Anniversary.

He said that UNIPORT availed him the rich and concrete intellectual foundation upon which his socio-economic and political ascendancy have been fittingly predicated.

He added that he was educated both in character and learning at the university and called on all alumni to give back to the university as a mark of gratitude.

“This also explains why I freely give to this institution whenever I have had the opportunity to do so.

“Throughout my duty tours, I have paid back to this great university sacrificially and to the best of my ability.

“I have done so, not out of convenience but as a deliberate pursuit of commitment to gratitude for a university that gave me so much,” he added.

Wike said that as Minister of State, Education, he established the Faculty of Law for UNIPORT and further built a befitting building for the faculty.

He said that he equally built a separate building for the Faculty of Social Science which had been sharing the same building with the Faculty of Humanities.

Speaking on the convocation arena, Wike said that management of the university approached him while he was the governor of Rivers that: “the institution does not have a befitting convocation arena.”

He added that he built the arena to international standard, adding that similar gesture was extended to the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt where he studied law.

He said that in the same tradition of giving back, he built the Post-Graduate Hostel of the university when he was the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

“As Minister of State, Education, I raised N500 million through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, for the development of the university.

“As governor, I completed the construction of infrastructural facilities for Faculties of Environmental and Management Sciences.

“I also completed the Faculty of Law building; built the College of Medical/Mechanical Sciences building, new Senate building, and National Union of Rivers State Students’ building,” he said.

The minister added that he equally built Etche, Emuoha, and Ahoada Campuses, as well as built and furnished facilities of the Basic Clinical and Clinical Sciences building of the university.

Also built were the university’s clinical students’ hostel buildings and Pathology building in the university’s Teaching Hospital.

Wike said that as a lawyer, he equally contributed immensely to the legal profession, first by building the Rivers branch of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).

“I was also the only governor that contributed to the building of the National Secretariat of the NBA and to this end, Rivers was allotted a floor to name after its citizens.

“In Rivers, I introduced a robust judicial welfare scheme by insisting that every judge must own a house upon retirement.

“The houses were built with modern facilities and fully furnished with accompanying Certificates of Occupancy.

“All judges also had brand new Sport Utility Vehicles to ease their mobility, and enhance their comfort and service delivery,” he said.

He added that he also constructed the Body of Benchers building in Abuja and the body named a hall after Rivers.

He said that with the approval of the Director-General of Law School, he built hostels and a grand auditorium for the Law School in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

“We also built a new Law School campus in Port-Harcourt that is far better than the headquarters in Abuja.

“Currently, as Minister of the FCT, I am building an annex for the Body of Benchers and almost completed construction of 10 bungalows for the Nigeria Law School in Bwari, FCT, and almost completed a new Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.

“In addition, we are building 10 residential houses for the Judges of Court of Appeal, 10 for the Federal High Court and 20 for the FCT High Court,” the minister said.

He explained that he took time to enumerate his contributions to the two universities and the legal profession not for self-aggrandisement, but to demonstrate the need to give back to society.

“Those who come after us must be encouraged and inspired by our robust examples to keep this tradition of service and development of our alma mater,” he said.

The minister pointed out that the university has produced prominent leaders in all works of life, asking if they have given back to the university.

According to him, the university must demand this answer from all its alumni, since it provided the foundation upon which all of them soared to prominence. (NAN)

Edited by Muhammad Lawal