I refused to take up arms and chose to read instead

By JECKONIA OTIENO

At the age of 20, Bro Dr Joseph Udeaja was in a dilemma; he had to decide whether to join the Nigerian civil war and kill his friends and brother because their political views clashed with his, or he could stay put and just watch the war unfold. He joined a different army, and began a journey that saw him rise to head a tertiary institution in Kenya.

Udeaja, born in Nigeria’s eastern town of Nnobi, decided to join a religious order — the army of God — to serve humanity rather than decimate it. The path he took led him to become an educationist, and he now heads Marist International University College (MIUC). The college in Nairobi’s Karen area is a constituent of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA).

“My parents were peasant farmers who could not afford to take me to school. So I became a trader, characteristic of a true Ibo,” Udeaja narrates.

When the war broke out in 1967, his friends joined the war but he could not, because he could not come to terms with killing anybody just because they held a different view from his.

It was during this period of conflict that Udeaja got the inspiration to become a religious brother in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1969, he got a job as a catechist in his local parish, and one year later, he joined the Marist Brothers of the Schools.  In 1971, he started his secondary school education, aged 24.

On finishing his secondary school education in 1974, Udeaja enrolled in religious formation for another four years, and made his first profession as a religious brother in 1977, at the age of 30. Life was just beginning.

SHORT BREAK

In 1978, Udeaja taught at the juniorate (seminary) where he had enrolled for his secondary school studies. Then, in 1979, he went to university and graduated with a degree in physics in 1983. He was posted back to the same juniorate as the dean of studies and deputy director.

“I completed my masters in 1990 and got a job at the Abia State University as a lecturer of physics. I then pursued my doctorate in physics, completing it in 1996.”

The call to education took a short break in 1998, when Udeaja was appointed superior of the Nigerian Province of the Marist Brothers. He held this post until 2005, when he was moved to Kenya to head Marist International Centre, a religious educational centre.

From just 83 students in 2005, the college now has about 900 scholars. This growth is mainly attributed to the fact that the college opened its doors to lay students, who are not in any religious order.

In 2006, with the permission of the sponsors of the college, the college changed its name to Marist International College before admitting its first lay students. It also introduced a number of courses; initially it offered only Bachelor of Religious Studies with Education, but then it introduced programmes with a business orientation, education and social work.

Udeaja, however, laments that  the education system focuses on the cream of the society. This is why he was behind the inception of bridging and university access courses at MIUC, for those who could not join university due to low grades.

“Grades are not the ultimate mark of excellence in life; each young person deserves a chance to grow academically.”

Under his watch, Marist has increased resources with a vision to making education accessible to all. He has 17 Marist brothers working with him at the college.

 “We also have a number of lay men and women who share our vision of offering holistic Christian education so that our students learn to be self-reliant,” says Udeaja.

SELF-DEFEATING

The college has applied for a charter to become a fully-fledged university.

As part of Udeaja’s vision of making education available to all, MIUC has not increased the fees it charges students since 2008 in spite of a rise in inflation and the cost of living. Under his watch, the university college has also launched the MIUC Bursary Fund for students who cannot afford the fees. The bursary caters for students on a semester-to-semester basis, based on level of need.

Despite all this, among the major challenges Udeaja faces as head of this institution is the inability of some students to clear their fee balances, which makes it difficult for  the college to finance itself.

But he does not believe this warrants the students being sent away from class, saying, “It would be self-defeating and would kill our mission to be a place to build dreams.”

Udeaja’s advice to young people is that they should never lose hope, citing his starting secondary education at the age of 24, yet he now has a doctorate.

“Education is not meant to fill you the way water fills an empty bucket, but to make you self-reliant,” he says.