COAL CITY UNIVERSITY, ENUGU - A LESSON IN PROACTIVENESS.

As a consultant who works with/for corporate organisations and individuals, I will be seriously remiss if I fail to highlight the big and small strides being made in both spaces by hardworking and forward-thinking folks. The Coronavirus pandemic birthed a new paradigm for the way the world could carry on henceforth. It tasked everybody's adaptive abilities, and unleashed an explosion of innovations which came in handy and timely to ease pent-up frustrations. New modes of conducting meetings, interviews, lectures and other hitherto face-to-face events came to the fore with the widespread deployment of real time audiovisual communication technology. 

It is in this regard that one salutes the board, management, staff, and students of Coal City University, Enugu for the trail-blazing plan to hold a virtual matriculation ceremony for its latest batch of undergraduates. Exhibiting wisdom way beyond its four years of age, Coal City University, like a precocious child, will become the second Nigerian university ever to formally induct its intakes in a virtual ceremony. It is already going to be the first university in the south east region of Nigeria to perform such a feat, and before now had shown enlightened dynamism in other spheres of academic and administrative endeavours. CCU was one of the very first institutions of higher learning in Nigeria to migrate its learning curriculum and activities to an already existing online portal at the outbreak of the viral scourge.

Coal City University, Enugu was founded in 2016 with the lofty aspiration of becoming "a world class centre of learning and research that will produce well-rounded, entrepreneurial and globally employable graduates". Its strict emphasis on providing its students with hands-on skills for relevance in a modern world is impressively evidenced by a dedication (from day one) of an entire department to entrepreneurial studies, offering compulsory courses across all departments and faculties! The university's ambition for strategic transformation is realistically hinged on a robust tripod of quality, internationalisation and sustainability.

My personal experience during my consultancy with the university was very remarkable. My engagements with the staff and students covered a spectrum of topics: sales and marketing, business performance enhancement, performance management, and life skills. I saw a university on the cusp of history; one that in a few year's time will become the toast of everyone. An infectious passion for excellence pervades the entire serene environment. The leadership is progressive and cosmopolitan in outlook, urbane in general approach, and has painstakingly orchestrated a clear roadmap that is forged on international alliances and best practices.

Once again, I celebrate with the students and their parents, the management team, and everyone associated with Coal City University, Enugu on this epoch event of a virtual matriculation ceremony.