Engr. Prof. Peter Azikiwe Onwualu, founder of Favtoma Group and President of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja, has been formally inaugurated as Pro-Chancellor and chairman of the 8th Governing Council of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam. The ceremony, held at the Light House in Awka on 11 June 2026, was led by Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo.
The inauguration follows the council’s reconstitution in April, when Soludo first named Onwualu chairman alongside a fresh slate of members. In Awka, the governor framed the assignment in plain terms, telling the new council it had “a lot of heavy lifting to do” and urging members to “work with the greatest level of integrity, conscientiousness and passion.” Soludo pointed to a previously inactive council and integrity concerns in recent academic recruitment as the backdrop to the reform mandate.
A pledge to the top three
Onwualu responded with an unambiguous target. “This will be a different Council,” he said. “We intend to make COOU one of the top three state universities” in Nigeria, while calling for stronger government backing to get there.
The reconstituted council brings considerable institutional weight. Its membership includes Igwe Dr. Chris Oranu Chidume, Prof. J.O. Ogbuagu, Chief Christopher Ndubuisi and AIG (rtd) Chris Ezike, with Vice-Chancellor Prof. Kate Azuka Omenugha and three Deputy Vice-Chancellors among the principal officers.
A familiar playbook
For those who follow Onwualu’s work, the COOU brief reads like a natural extension of the institution-building he has pursued at AUST and, earlier, as Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council. His record runs to more than 200 publications, ten patents, fellowship of a dozen scientific and professional bodies, and honours from over 70 organisations.
The throughline is the same one that animates Favtoma: turning capable institutions into engines of homegrown value. A governing council that demands excellence, accountability and research that reaches beyond the lecture hall is, at its core, the lab-to-marketplace philosophy applied to university governance itself.