Reverend Father Peter Obele Abue in August 2023, visited the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio to initiate a strategic institutional collaboration that would upgrade the Thomas McGettrick Institute of Technology in Moniaya, Ogoja-Nigeria.
As Vicar General Administration, Chairman of the Further Studies Commission for the Catholic Diocese of Ogoja and founder of Children of Rural Africa Organization,
Fr. Abue was concerned about the state of education in Ogoja and hoped that this partnership would not only upgrade TMIT, but would also place the Children of Rural Africa Organization at a vantage position to act as a development organ for the diocese. The partnership was made possible by John Stilley a long-term major donor of Children of Rural Africa founded by Fr Abue.
Within the last few years, this partnership has brought a score of benefits into the diocese such as upgrading of the Engineering department, rehabitation of major road networks within the institute as well as key infrastructural development and accreditation of major academic components of the institute.
Also in the area of healthcare, the partnership has enabled key interventions in the medical system of the diocese as well as renovation of rural clinics across the diocese. In this regard, credit must be given to Stephen Rasche of the Franciscan university of Steubenville whose major alliance with the Knights of Columbus USA has enabled most of these strides.
It is hoped that in the near future, a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would be achieved, whereby
Children of Rural Africa Organization (CORAfrica) would work in collaboration with the Catholic diocese of Ogoja to intensify CORAfrica’s fundraising efforts in favour of educational and healthcare programs in the Catholic diocese of Ogoja. It is the vision of CORAfrica that the Franciscan University of Steubenville, a private Catholic university in Ohio, USA and partner institution would in the future mediate the inauguration of a full- fledged University in Ogoja diocese.
