From Maurice Okafor, Enugu.
The dream and vision of Evangelist Dr. Samuel Maduka Onyishi, the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of PEACE Group, comprising of the popular Peace Mass Transit, fleet of commercial buses, to extend his business empire into the education is speedily yielding result.
Barely two years after he matched his vision with action by acquiring over two kilometer virgin forest at Ekwegbe community, in Igbo Etiti local government area of Enugu state, his dreams are turning into reality, as Maduka Onysihi Private Secondary School has already taken off, as a standard secondary school with best equipment for practical teaching of students and pupils in all science subjects.
Dr Maduka is leaving no stone upturned in his ultimate goal to ensure he builds a world class university that can be reckoned with those in civilized countries,the first of it’s kind in Africa,in Enugu state. The Speed in physical structures are being executed in the vast area of land acquired for the university is gaining momentum on daily basis.
With expectations that the tertiary education sector of the university will follow suit after the secondary schools, the coming of Maduka University ,Ekwegbe Enugu state is gradually changing the narratives of the serene and lonely communities within Ekwegbe, adjoining the popular Opi Nsukka to Enugu road, The economies of scale of the vast developing Maduka Onyishi International University is gradually drawing other investments along the route.
A Quantity Surveyor who coincidentally boarded same Commercial bus to Nsukka with this Reporter,described the citing of Maduka Onyishi University,Ekwegbe, along Opi Nsukka to Enugu road, as the best strategy to enhance and link development from Enugu to Nsukka,stating no other sector or human institution would do that more than a tertiary institution. He said the Housing Estates already established along the Opi to Nsukka road did not achieve the vision of those investors because their must be a a generalized institution that will be center or fulcrum upon other institutions/sectors will enjoy it’s economy of scale to thrive.
His words,’The citing of Maduka University at Ekwegbe eventually will provide the link that will enhance development flow from Enugu to Nsukka based on the fact that the Tertiary institution is a window upon which many other economic sectors thrive. The hospitals, the Markets, Commercial buildings, effective transport system,food sellers, book shops,Super markets, ,among others which will depend of the students and other activities of the university,will ginger a new settlement within Ekwegbe communities and along Opi Nsukka to Enugu road,in just a matter of few years’.
He commended the vision and wisdom of Dr Maduka Onyishi in extending his investment in Education and most importantly citing the institution in a serene and virgin area. He argued that it was the citing of University of Nigeria [UNN] at Nsukka, as the only visible institution at the moment that is turning Nsukka into a township and the relocation of Enugu State University of Science and Technology[ESUT] to Agbani, as the major institution enhancing development of the area. But far more than, the ESUT experience, he opined that the Maduka University Ekwegbe will not only open new settlements within those axis,but will facilitate developmental flow between Nike Enugu and Opi Nsukka, as many new companies will find it easier to access Northern part of the country from there ,instead establishing their base in Enugu metropolis.
