David Ojei lights a candle at UNN
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
By Bennett C. Nwanguma
“It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
Not too long ago, a certain photograph showing students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) queuing for water in one of the hostels of the university emerged and went viral on social media.
While the photograph was circulating, many stakeholders, mostly alumni and friends of the university, who were touched or alarmed by the photograph, reached out to the management and staff of the university to express their displeasure or concern at the state of affairs at the university.
A good number of such alumni also reached out to me and wondered, “What happened to our Dear UNN?” My blunt response each time was: “Nigeria happened to our Dear UNN.” Yes, UNN is not insulated from the perennial problems of underfunding, misplaced priorities and corruption currently bedeviling virtually all public institutions in the country.
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As a first-generation university, which once served as a war theatre, the situation at UNN has been made worse by aging infrastructure and years of negligence. In addition, UNN’s residential structure, the multi-campus layout and a rapid rise in the population of students make it much more challenging to provide and maintain municipal facilities and services across the campuses.
Typically, most stakeholders and interested parties stopped at circulating the photo or merely expressing their displeasure at the state of affairs at Nigeria’s first indigenous university. However, a certain alumnus stood out. He did something remarkably different. He sent an emissary to inform the university management of his desire to make a donation of two boreholes, which would be reticulated to the hostels so students do not have to queue for water anymore. In other words, this alumnus didn’t stop at cursing the darkness, he went a step further to light a candle.
That alumnus is David Chukwuma Ojei, the CEO of Prince Ebeano Supermarket, which he jointly owns with his uncle and mentor, Mr. Sunday Egede. The borehole, which comes with a 50,000-litre storage capacity, an automatic double engine booster pump and 30 taps, was funded as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of Prince Ebeano Supermarket. Thus, credit and appreciation are due to both Messers Ojei and Egede, who are widely known for their unusual spirit of silent philanthropy.
David Ojei, who hails from Agbor in Delta State, studied accountancy at the Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria and graduated with a second class (upper) honours degree in 1995. Left to Mr. Ojei, this should have been an anonymous gift to his alma mater, but how does one keep silent in this situation? Who knows who else could be moved by this gesture to also light a candle here at UNN? One of the boreholes has now been completed, and has been rightly dedicated to serve three female hostels namely, Mary Slessor, Ahmadu Bello and Eyo Ita hostels. Thus, each hostel will get 10 taps.
By this unusual show of benevolence, Mr. Ojei and his partner, Mr. Egede, have simply lived up to the Chinese proverb, which is more recently credited to a former First Lady of USA, Eleanor Roosevelt,: “It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness”. Mother Teresa of Calcutta also used this proverb to advocate for taking small positive actions as part of her campaigns to make the world a better place.
It would be great, therefore, if all stakeholders who have the wherewithal and who are genuinely concerned by the state of facilities at UNN and other public institutions, especially schools and hospitals, could go a step further to make an attempt to drive away the darkness by simply lighting a candle – Just like these two noble men did.
- Professor Bennett Nwanguma is the Chairman of the Municipal Services Monitoring Committee at UNN.
