MOUAU: Professor Ursula Ngozi Akanwa and the Weight of Earned Leadership

I have known Professor Ursula Ngozi Akanwa for a long time. Our engagements began over a decade ago through structured professional work and public service. I currently produce her radio programme, Refreshing Moment, which airs every Saturday at 6.30 pm on Flo FM. I also served with her on the Abia State Health Group on Family Planning, where she was a member of the Advocacy Core Group and I served on the Media Group. Those engagements offered direct insight into her approach to collaboration, public responsibility, and values driven leadership.

It is from this vantage point of sustained professional engagement that her assumption of office as Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike on March 2 is best understood. It is not a sudden elevation, nor a symbolic appointment, but the continuation of a long and deliberate journey.

Professor Akanwa’s leadership has consistently been marked by restraint, preparation, and clarity. In policy conversations, she was methodical and evidence driven, attentive to human realities while remaining firm on institutional objectives. On radio, her delivery is calm, reflective, and disciplined, never performative. These are not traits designed for applause, but they are qualities that endure in leadership.

Her public service extends beyond platforms where I engaged with her directly. She served as a member of the Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Recovery of Government Properties and Funds, chaired by Hon. Justice Florence Ifeoma Duruoha Igwe (rtd) and inaugurated by Governor Alex Otti on June 27, 2023. The panel was mandated to investigate land allocations, contracts, and the misuse of public property between May 2015 and May 2023, with a view to identifying and recommending the recovery of assets and funds belonging to the state. Her inclusion on that panel reflected the trust placed in her integrity and sense of public accountability, and I can personally attest to her dedication to the assignment and her commitment to due process.

Her academic journey mirrors the same discipline. Rising through the ranks to become a Professor of Educational Measurement and Evaluation, and later serving as Deputy Vice Chancellor before this appointment, she represents continuity and institutional memory. She understands systems because she has worked within them. She understands people because she has served among them.

At a time when Nigeria’s public institutions face growing criticism over the relevance of their curricula and the urgent need to align with global developments, particularly in light of the impact of artificial intelligence, Professor Akanwa arrives differently. She is shaped by a journey that began in secondary school classrooms, continued through lecturing at Abia State University, and matured across committees, policy platforms, and public institutions. She arrives having served quietly, consistently, and competently, with a clear understanding that teaching methodologies are constantly evolving, and of the central role and necessity of technology in modern education.

Her appointment as the first female Vice Chancellor of my alma mater is historically significant, but what gives it legitimacy is that gender is not the argument for her leadership. Competence is. Experience is. Trust is. It is a win not only for students, who now have a leader with a nurturing sense of responsibility at the helm, but also for lecturers and staff, who have in her an accessible and empathetic colleague.

There is also her life beyond titles. Professor Akanwa is a pastor, a role she carries without spectacle. She is an educationist both in training and in practice, evidenced by the success of her six children across various spheres. Married to Elder Dr Michael O. Akanwa, they now enjoy the blessing of many grandchildren. That grounding in family, faith, and service subtly but unmistakably informs her leadership style.

I am certain Nda Ursula arrives prepared for the weight of the office she now holds. Yet leadership, especially in institutions of this scale, thrives best when all hands are on deck. Ideas and suggestions are not to be left in a wooden box, unheard or unused, but welcomed as part of a shared commitment to progress. She arrives not with grand promises, but with a clear desire to strengthen Michael Okpara University of Agriculture and a call to harness research from higher institutions as a driver of national development.