By Alhaji Dauda
The unimaginable story of a Nigerian trader who came to Sierra Leone 26 years ago from the small village of Enugu in Nigeria to trade in spare parts and general merchandise, has ended up bagging a PhD Degree from the best university in Sierra Leone that was one-time labelled as the Athens of West Africa.
Dr. Ernest Udeh was among six students conferred with Degree of Doctor of Philosophy on 6th April, 2022, at the Amphitheatre, Fourah Bay College.
Narrating his adventurous journey, he said when he came to Sierra Leone, he had a cousin, Chief Pascal Arinze who was very well established at the time. He went on to explain that when he finished secondary school, he was given a visa to advance his education in South Korea but that he was a bit sceptical about the moving far from home.
He then chose to stay in a place not far from home, as he was advised by his cousin Chief Pascal Arinze to come to Sierra Leone as it will be much better, instead of going to a place where he had no family.
Dr. Ernest Udeh added that he arrived in Sierra Leone during the onset of the 1995-96 military coup. He went on to state that from scratch, he quickly got into trading auto spare parts, electricals and electronics; dealing with general merchandise. He emphasized that he did not own a shop at the time and so, he used to walk for miles hawking in the streets of Freetown moving from Goderich Street to Kissy Road to Calaba Town and beyond, meeting with business partners.
He further said that those obstacles did not stop him from achieving his goals, as his biggest motivation was to enrol in the best university in Sierra Leone.
According to him, he was hell-bent on improving and furthering his education. Despite hawking in the streets of Freetown, his determination was to raise funds so that he could pay his college fees. He went on to say that his business began to blossom despite the problems, difficulties and hardships that the civil war brought.
In 2003/04 he applied at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) to study for a Diploma in Business Administration.
By 2008, he had secured his Diploma certificate with distinction and bagged his first degree with a BSc in Business Administration (first class) and he was the only student at the time to graduate with a first-class degree in the entire IPAM, at a time when degrees were very hard to come by.
Against that backdrop, his lecturers at the time advised him to join the system and become a lecturer. He was recommended by some senior lecturers to enrol as a Research Teaching Assistant (RTA) and during his time there, he continued with his Master in Business Administration (MBA) in 2009 and finished in 2011 at IPAM-USL.
After bagging his MBA, he was made Lecturer 2 in 2011 and went on to pursue another Master degree (MSc in Economics) at Njala University. And, because of his commitment and distinguished service delivery, he was made Lecturer 1 in 2016.
Earlier in 2013, he was appointed to serve as Coordinator at the Extramural Studies and Outreach. It was under his administration that the Bo, Kono, Makeni and Kenema IPAM campuses were established. Due to his imprints at the Extramural Department, he was appointed Head of Department for Business Administration in 2018 and served till 2021.
In 2015, he enrolled for his Doctor of Philosophy in Finance (Management and Administration) program at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, despite the fact that his journey was filled with obstacles and challenges.
Dr. Ernest Udeh’s life journey taught him that one should never give up on ambition, no matter how difficult the challenges might be and that everything is worth doing as long as it is to achieve a goal.
He acknowledged that he chose his topic carefully because he had interest in financial services and activities, especially as it relates to rural dwellers.
As he grew up from his village, he noted that he knew what it meant to be a rural dweller and that the most difficult challenge is access to finance.
In addition to his academic triumphs, he served as Secretary General for the Igbo Community in Sierra Leone, and later became Chairman and served in this capacity for five years.
In his efforts to deliver service and support to the Nigerian community in Sierra Leone, he was elected President for the Nigerian Community in Sierra Leone and served in this capacity from 2013-2020.
Under his astute leadership, a lot of transformation was done, tightening the brotherhood between Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
