ALEX Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, officially welcomed 3,263 new students into the institution at the 7th matriculation ceremony held on Wednesday, March 13.
The event which wore a carnival-like air had in attendance hundreds of parents, guardians and other guests who all converged at the university’s main campus to felicitate with the matriculating students.
Speaking at the Ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba, who congratulated the students for scaling through the rigorous selection process for admission into the University, declared that “In the 2018/2019 admission exercise, 12,219 made at least 180 in the UTME and we’re invited to our Post-UTME test, but today about 3,263 who have accepted the offer of the admission are matriculating.”
He expressed hope that the new students would imbibe the core values of the institution so that they can excel academically and have a better performance than students admitted in the previous session.
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Said he: “It is painful to note that of the 2,397 students that we admitted in the 2017/18 session, about 297 are currently on probation, and another 164 were asked to withdraw at the end of the session for reasons of poor academic performance.
“We expect this set to be different. To be different, you have to focus on the main purpose of your coming to AE-FUNAI. You are here simply to study. Every other thing is secondary. Work hard and behave well, and you will be successful.”
The Vice-Chancellor charged the matriculants during the oath-taking ceremony to abide by the principles of the university, warning that the Senate of the University will not hesitate to invoke relevant sections of the law against any student caught engaging in acts that are not tandem with the motto of the school -‘Excellence and Integrity.’
Nwajiuba stressed further that for proper guidance in AE-FUNAI, the students ought to be conscious about the sermon of the seven sins mistakenly attributed to Mohandas Gandhi in 1925.
He said: “All of us must be conscious of the seven social sins first uttered in a sermon delivered in Westminster Abbey on March 20, 1925, by an Anglican priest Frederick Lewis Donaldson but commonly mistakenly attributed to Mohandas Gandhi who published the same list in his weekly newspaper Young India on October 22, 1925.
“The seven sins are wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, and politics without principle.”
He also assured parents and guardians that their children and wards have chosen the right place to study, adding that amidst zero tolerance for vices, the varsity posses well-trained staffs and doesn’t entertain the idea of selling handouts to students.
His words: “Our lecturers and other staff are very dedicated to their work and meet very high professional standards. We do not sell handouts to students. Our lecturers are not booksellers. Books are available in the bookshop and students buy textbooks only from the bookshop.”
Anokwuru is a mass communication student of the institution
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