THE FOUNDATIONS THAT OUTLIVED A TENURE: The Innocent Ujah Legacy and the Making of FUHSO A Special Report on the Pioneering Foundations of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo By Archibong Esuene
Institutions, like great buildings, are often remembered for their visible heights, but their true strength lies in the foundations buried beneath them. The Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo (FUHSO), is today a growing institution whose structures, programmes and expanding academic footprint command attention. Yet, behind the walls, laboratories, lecture theatres and administrative offices lies a story of beginnings—a story in which the name of the pioneer Vice Chancellor, Professor Innocent Ujah, mni, OON, is inseparably woven into the institution's formative years.
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| Professor Innocent Ujah, mni, OON, Vice Chancellor |
From an Unmotorable Road to an Institutional Gateway
In the early days, the major road leading to the Benue South Youth Centre, which subsequently became the take-off campus of FUHSO, was hardly worthy of the name road. It was more an obstacle course than a gateway—an unmotorable stretch that seemed to mock the ambition of establishing a federal University there.
But roads, like institutions, are sometimes built first in the imagination before they appear on the ground.
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| The Vice Chancellor and August visitor to the University |
What had once been a troublesome path gradually became a passageway to a new academic destiny. The road did not merely connect villages and buildings; metaphorically, it connected an idea to its destination.
Turning Existing Structures into a University
Before academic and administrative activities could properly commence, the structures inherited at the take-off campus required extensive renovation, remodelling and equipping to meet the standards expected of a federal University.
Under Ujah's administration, several of these facilities were transformed from ordinary physical structures into functional academic spaces.
Among the renovated, remodelled and equipped facilities were the four lecture theatre halls, the College of Medicine, Community Medicine facilities, the Museum, Anatomy and Anatomical Pathology Laboratory, Human Physiology and Pharmacology Laboratory, Chemistry and Biochemistry Laboratory, Physics and Computer Laboratory, Biology and Microbiology Laboratory, the e-Library and the University's Health Centre.
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| University Microbiology Laboratory |
The transformation was significant. Walls that had once been merely walls became classrooms of ambition; laboratories became workshops for scientific discovery; and lecture theatres became stages upon which the first generation of FUHSO scholars would begin writing their academic stories.
It was, in many ways, an exercise in turning what was available into what was required—a task that demanded more than administration. It required vision.
Building Beyond the Take-Off Campus
But the Ujah administration did not stop at renovating existing structures. It embarked on the construction of new facilities that would give the young University a more recognizable institutional identity.
Among the structures completed under his administration were the University gatehouse and security post, as well as the administrative and Senate buildings. These housed offices for the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration, Registrar, Bursar, Information, Public Relations and Protocol Unit, and the Chief Security Officer.
Another major structure housed the Bursary Department, Students' Affairs, Audit, Legal, Establishment, Examinations and Records units, complete with standard restroom facilities.
The administration also established facilities for the Directorates of Academic Planning and Control, Works and Maintenance, and Information and Communication Technology. Other developments included the Physical Library building, Animal House, stores, Large Lecture Theatre C and additional offices, alongside male and female public conveniences.
For a young University struggling to find its feet, these were not merely buildings. They were the bones around which an institution could grow.
The First Academic Footprints
The introduction of the initial nine academic programmes represented another landmark in the history of the University and later
four more programmes were approved by NUC.
For a health sciences institution, academic programmes are its bloodstream. Without them, buildings are merely concrete monuments. Under Ujah's leadership, the young University began to acquire academic life.
The first accreditation exercise ( Basic Medical Sciences) for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme by NUC was also conducted during his tenure.
This was particularly significant. Accreditation is not a ceremonial handshake; it is an institutional examination. It asks whether a University has the facilities, personnel, curriculum and capacity to train students to acceptable professional standards.
FUHSO, under its pioneer administration, stepped into that examination.
Power, Water and the Things People Often Take for Granted
Behind every successful University are certain necessities that rarely make headlines until they disappear.
Electricity is one of them.
To ensure a more stable power supply, two standby Mikano generators were procured under Ujah's leadership. Water supply was also addressed through the procurement of a water tanker and the sinking of boreholes, supported by septic facilities.It may sound mundane, but institutional life is often sustained by such seemingly ordinary things. A University can boast of professors and laboratories, but without light and water, even the most brilliant lecture can quickly become an exercise in endurance.
The administration also procured official vehicles for principal officers and management staff, including vehicles that remained in use by subsequent University leadership. For student mobility, a coaster bus and an 18-seater bus were also acquired.
These were practical interventions—less glamorous perhaps than ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but essential to keeping the machinery of a young University moving.
The Teaching Hospital: A Bigger Dream Beyond the Campus
Perhaps one of the most consequential aspects of Professor Ujah's contribution was his role in the emergence of the Federal University of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital, Otukpo (FUHSTHO).
As a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Consultant Gynaecological Surgeon, Ujah understood perhaps more intimately on the importance of clinical training to a university devoted to health sciences.
Through his efforts, the then Governor of Benue State, His Excellency Samuel Ortom donated the General Hospital, Otukpo, to the university for the establishment of the teaching hospital.
That intervention gave FUHSO something more than an academic address. It provided a bridge between the lecture room and the Hospital ward, between theory and practice, between the textbook and the human being whose life may eventually depend upon the knowledge acquired by a medical student.
During his tenure, the Kidney Centre was built and donated to the Teaching Hospital by renowned jurist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Barrister Godwin Obla.
The Multi-User Teaching and Research Laboratory at the University's teaching hospital was almost completed before Ujah's retirement from the University system.
A Permanent Home at Akwete-Akpa
The Otada campus, important as it was, could not adequately accommodate the long-term ambitions of the University.
Consequently, attention shifted towards securing a permanent site at Akwete-Akpa.
Professor Ujah was instrumental in the commencement of fencing the land to avoid encroachment as well as initiating the development of the permanent site. It was a strategic move necessitated by the limitations of the take-off campus.The University, in other words, had begun to outgrow its cradle.
By the time Ujah's tenure came to an end, several structures at the permanent site were already at various stages of completion. The administrative block was approximately 85 percent complete; the College of Medicine, 80 percent; the FUHSO gatehouse, 60 percent; fencing, 50 percent; Physics and Microbiology facilities, 60 percent; and the female hostel, approximately 85 percent complete.
The principal officers' quarters had reached various stages of completion.
The buildings were unfinished, but the dream was already taking shape.
A construction site may look incomplete to the casual observer, but to a visionary, scaffolding is simply another name for tomorrow.
The Bongos Ikwue Connection
Another important intervention associated with Ujah's tenure was the acquisition by way of a gift of the property popularly known as Double KK, originally associated with legendary Nigerian musician Bongos Ikwue.
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| Bongo Ikwue Centre |
The property, now referred to as the G.R.A. Campus of the University subsequently became associated with the College of Medicine of FUHSO.
It was yet another example of the pragmatic approach required in the early years of a young University—creating institutional space from whatever viable opportunities could be secured.
Sometimes, institution- building is not about waiting for perfect circumstances. It is about making imperfect circumstances useful.
Admissions, Matriculation and the Birth of a University Community
A University is not truly born when its first building is completed. It is born when its first students arrive.
Under the administration in which Ujah served as pioneer Vice Chancellor, the first, second, third sets of students were admitted and matriculated, while the fourth set was ready for matriculation before Prof Ujah retired from the university system.
These ceremonies were more than academic rituals. They marked the gradual transformation of FUHSO from an idea on paper into a living academic community.
Students entered through its gates. Lecturers took their places. Administrative officers occupied their offices. Academic programmes began to breathe. The institution, once merely envisioned, became increasingly tangible.
The Human Infrastructure
Perhaps less visible than buildings, roads, laboratories and vehicles was another form of infrastructure—the human infrastructure.
According to the account of developments during the pioneer administration, more than 90 percent of the University's appointment letters for its workforce were approved during Professor Ujah's tenure as Vice Chancellor.
Among those whose appointments received approval were the current Registrar, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration, Directors of Academic Planning and Control, Physical Planning, Works and Maintenance, and other management and professional staff.
This aspect of institutional development deserves attention because Universities are ultimately built by people.
A building can house a department, but it cannot teach a student. A laboratory can contain equipment, but it cannot conduct research by itself. A Senate chamber can accommodate professors, but it cannot make decisions without them.
The people were therefore part of the foundation.
Leadership as a Relay, Not a Private Estate
There is an irony inherent in University leadership: the Vice Chancellor eventually leaves, but the institution remains.
Leadership is transient. Institutions are meant to be continuous.
Every Vice Chancellor inherits something and leaves something behind. The real measure of leadership, therefore, is not merely what one accomplished while occupying an office, but what one made possible for those who would occupy it afterwards.
By that measure, the story of Professor Innocent Ujah's tenure at FUHSO is difficult to separate from the institution's formative history.
He came at a time when the University was still more of an? aspiration than architecture. He left when its foundations had been strengthened, its academic programmes initiated, its teaching hospital pathway established, its permanent site secured and developed, and its administrative and human structures considerably expanded.
A Legacy Written Beyond the Walls
There is an old tendency in public institutions to remember only the person holding the office at the moment of applause. History, however, has a longer memory than ceremony.
The pioneer does not always enjoy the finished building. The architect of a bridge may retire before the final stone is laid. The farmer who plants the tree may never sit beneath its full shade.
But history knows who planted.
Professor Innocent Ujah's legacy at FUHSO is therefore not simply about the number of buildings completed, roads tarred, vehicles purchased, laboratories equipped or appointments approved. It is about the institutional foundation upon which subsequent administrations could build.
If today's FUHSO is a growing tree, Ujah's administration represents part of the root system beneath it. The roots may not always be visible, but the tree's height would be difficult to explain without them.
And perhaps that is the greatest irony of institutional leadership: the person who begins the journey may not be present when the destination becomes beautiful.
Professor Ujah may have left the office, but the fingerprints of that pioneering period remain embedded in the University's history.
From the once-unmotorable Otada road to the developing permanent site at Akwete-Akpa; from renovated lecture theatres and laboratories to the teaching hospital; from generators and boreholes to buses and official vehicles; from the first academic programmes and MBBS accreditation to the recruitment and constitution of the University's workforce—the early chapters of FUHSO carry the imprint of its pioneer Vice Chancellor.
Conclusion: When Foundations Become History
Institutions are not built in a day, and neither are legacies.
The Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, is still a young institution with a long road to travel (ahead)?. Its story will continue to be written by successive administrations, academics, students, professionals and governments.
But every continuing story has an opening chapter.
Professor Innocent Ujah, mni, OON, occupied the difficult position of writing much of that opening chapter.
He inherited a University in its infancy and helped give it roads, rooms, laboratories, programmes, personnel, transport, utilities, a teaching hospital pathway and, perhaps most importantly, a permanent institutional direction.
The future may add more chapters, more buildings and more achievements. It may even remodel some of the pages written by the pioneers. But it cannot erase the beginning.
For in the history of FUHSO, Professor Innocent Ujah's tenure stands not merely as a period of administration, but as a foundational chapter in the making of an institution.
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| Professor Innocent Ujah |
And if institutions are monuments to collective effort, then the foundations laid during the pioneer years deserve to be remembered—not as the work of one man alone, but as a significant chapter in the collective journey of a University that was still learning how to walk.
The road has since become wider and motorable. The buildings have risen higher. The University has grown beyond its cradle. But somewhere beneath the asphalt, the concrete and the expanding skyline lies the memory of the first footsteps.
Watching the personality of Professor Innocent Ujah very keenly, one realised that respect acquired by position may fill a hall, but love earned by character fills hearts--and never lie.
That is where the Ujah legacy lives. Genuine affection for service needs no script.
Archibong Esuene is an Abuja based journalist and public commentator. esuenearchibong@gmail.com
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