• Ritman VC lists qualities of First Class student, as varsity holds second matriculation
From Joe Effiong, Uyo
Ruggedness, tenacity and moral soundness were the qualities reeled out as requirements for academic and other successes in life to students of Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom during the second matriculation ceremony of the university.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Celestine Ntuen, who listed out these success’ desiderata also added discipline and development of workable study habits as other attributes of successful students.
He said students who hope to make First Class come to school with clear synergistic goals, attend all lectures, do all assignments and have a functioning schedule with planned daily activities and room for leisure. He advised students to see problems as challenges and to convert challenges to opportunities. The VC also noted that the ideal student dresses decently, upholds moral, ethical standards and is polite to all, thus receiving blessings from those they had helped or shown respect.
Mr. Samuel Inyang, the CEO of Seyang Limited, a civil engineering company and Aqwacoo Enterprises, a major cocoa farm and processing factory, delivered the matriculation lecture. He described Ritman University as unique by growing from 31 students in its first year to about 200 students in its second year.
Inyang who described Akwa Ibom State as the right place for the entrepreneurship-focused university with its fast-growing modern infrastructure and economy and an appropriate location for incubating businessmen and women of tomorrow, congratulated the university on “a well thought-out educational and business model”.
First and second year students of the varsity who had excelled in academics were inducted into the Vice Chancellor’s Honours Roll, as well as honours rolls of their respective faculties.
Students were matriculated into the departments of History/International Studies, English/ Literary Studies, Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics, Accounting/Finance, Administration, Management, Economics, Political Science, and Sociology.
Ritman students celebrated the matriculation week with a talent hunt night on 15th June, 2017 after a football match against Obong University, another private university in the state. The tension-soaked but friendly encounter ended goalless.
During the matriculation, the Visitor and proprietor of Ritman University, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, pledged N50, 000 capital for any student who comes up with a workable business model while the President of Greensboro College, North Carolina – one of Ritman’s partner universities in the USA – represented by Prof. Victor Archibong, commended the Vice Chancellor for sacrificing his work in America to build a world-class university in Nigeria.
The University is the second private university in Akwa Ibom State and the 58th in Nigeria. Since its inception in 2015, it has conducted several intellectual engagements such as public lectures and expertise training within and outside Nigeria. The Federal Government Amnesty Office after inspecting the quality of facilities and staff as well as quality of education in this institution, selected it to be one of the private universities to train repentant militants as an alternative to schooling abroad.