By EMMA Ibediro
On the 16th of June 2025, the entire people of Okigwe Zone and indeed the entire Imo citizens received with unprecedented joy the news of the Presidential assent to the Bill to establish the Federal University Okigwe to be sited at the old Okigwe National Grammar School Umuna in the present Onuimo Local Government Area.
This epoch making event marks a revival/resurrection of the educational vision of the founding fathers of the old Okigwe Division. Our sincere gratitude goes to the President and Commander in Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Governor of Imo State Senator Hope Uzodinma and Senator Patrick Ndubueze, the Senator representing Okigwe North Senatorial zone who sponsored the bill. Incidentally Senator Patrick Ndubueze is a proud alumnus of the old Okigwe National Grammar School Umuna.
The site of the Federal University Okigwe is very significant in history. It is considered as the centre of the Old Okigwe Division. When the leaders of the Old Okigwe Division nursed the idea of establishing a secondary school that will compete with some early educational institutions in the then Eastern Nigeria like Government College, Umuahia, Government Secondary School Owerri and Holy Ghost College Owerri, it was decided that a site that represents the approximate centre of the Old Okigwe Division be selected. The Old Okigwe Division stretched from Umuchieze, Nneato, Lokpanta, Lokpaukwu, Uturu, Isuikwuato, the present Okigwe. Onuimo, Isiala Mbano, Ehime Mbano, Ihitte Uboma and Obowo Local Government Areas. The scenic and serene virgin forest beside the Imo River at Umuna in the present Onuimo Local Government Area was chosen. This school established in 1956 was built by community funding and the collective efforts of the entire people of old Okigwe Division. The school upon completion was named Okigwe National Grammar School and to reflect this collective participation and efforts, the school hostels were named after prominent Okigwe leaders at the time. House A was named Adam House; House B was named Ugbor House; House C was named Chukwumerije House; House D was named Onyeneho House; House E was named Achara House and House F was named Enyogasi House.
This school from it’s establishment in 1956, remained a centre of academic excellence and has produced many prominent personalities in the old Okigwe Division. It was a rallying point of Okigwe unity and a school of first choice for all the students in Okigwe Division. It was prestigious and a thing of honour to have your child in OKINGS as it was fondly referred to. Parents who live in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Calabar sent their wards home to enrol in OKINGS for excellent academic experience and to imbibe the culture of our people. Even the civil war could not water down the academic and social influence of this great institution. It continued to play this role until the creation of states which balkanized the old Okigwe Division into Imo and Abia States. This situation was further exacerbated by the proliferation of autonomous Communities which part of the conditions precedent for creation was the existence of a secondary school in the proposed community. This factor diminished the status and rising profile of this great citadel of learning as Communities began to pull out their indigenes to the local schools to ensure the survival in order to qualify for autonomous status which was the new wave across Imo and Abia Communities . The population of the School nosedived and the infrastructures dilapidated . Gradually the once prestigious and enviable Okigwe National Grammar School became a ghost of its former self.
However, fate has continued to play a role in this site hosting an important institution of learning. Probably this stems from the calm and appealing nature of the environment. Over the years, successive Governments in the state have continued to tinker with the idea of establishing a great institution on this site. At a time, it was proposed as a campus of the Imo State University as a School of Engineering and Environmental Studies. At another time it was to host a full fledged State University of Engineering for which necessary license has been obtained. During this period the now downgraded Okigwe National Grammar School was moved to another site in Umuna and massive infrastructural improvements commenced in the old site to bring it to the status of a University. The administrative building was renovated, all the classroom blocks which hitherto were bungalows were demolished and in their stead massive storey buildings erected. Engineering laboratories were constructed, the existing land area was expanded and the perimeter fencing of the school including the newly acquired land was carried out. The Umuna community must be commended for its willingness to grant more land to show the readiness to host such proposed great institution. At a time I was privileged to supervise some of the construction as the Commissioner for Local Governments and the only Commissioner from Onuimo Local Government Area at the time. This was an assignment I took very seriously and with a sense of pride as a proud alumnus of Great OKINGS. On one occasion I played host to a technical team from the Imo State University led by Professor Nnamdi Obiaraeri, then Commissioner for Education on an assessment tour of the facilities to ascertain their readiness for the movement of the School of Engineering.
This was not to be as the succeeding Government to Governor Rochas Okorocha abandoned the project. This abandonment proved a monumental disaster as hoodlums and other criminal elements took advantage of this period to embark on a wicked vandalization of the facilities. Roofs of the newly constructed buildings were removed, Newly installed aluminium windows were stolen. Infact all the buildings were stripped bare. Even the pillars were not spared as they were dissected and the iron rods inside them removed. Thus a huge investment of the State was wasted. Special gratitude to His Excellency Senator Hope Uzodinma, Governor of Imo State for donating this site to be used in the Bill proposal which today has been assented to by the President.
Today God has answered the prayers of Okigwe people. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given the seal of approval for the establishment of a Federal University Okigwe in this same appealing, serene and scenic site along the newly dualized Owerri-Okigwe road on the bank of the Great Imo River from which both the Local Government Area and the State derived their names. This followed a bill sponsored by Senator Patrick Ndubueze who incidentally is an alumnus of the great OKINGS. At the public hearing preceeding the passage of the bill, prominent Okigwe zone political and traditional leaders including yours truly trooped out in their numbers in solidarity to the Bill.
Once again, the educational vision of the founding fathers of the old Okigwe Division has been resurrected and their choice of a suitable accessible and central site to the entire Okigwe zone has been validated. When God proposes a thing, it must come to pass in the fullness of time. Our prayers is that this time around, let nothing untoward happen.
This site has been lying fallow for years and has become a breeding ground for criminals terrorising the surrounding communities. The University will create a University town along the bank of Imo River and stimulate development around this dark lonely section of one of the legacy projects of the Hope Uzodimma Government- the newly reconstructed Owerri-Okigwe road. The spirits of our fore fathers who sited a foremost school through community funding and efforts will not allow this venture to fail. To the people of Umuna Community, Onuimo Local Government Area and indeed Okigwe zone, our pathway to sustainable development has just begun.
Barr. Emma Ibediro, a former Executive Chairman of Onuimo LGA, Former Commissioner for Local Government and Rural Development, Former National Organizing Secretary of All Progressives Congress APC , an alumnus of the Great OKINGS writes from Owerri.
