Daily Trust - the online edition

On the 6th and 7th of this month, this paper published an in-depth feature story on the state of facilities for teaching and learning at the only university located in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, the University of Abuja, better known as UniAbuja.

The story painted a most pathetic picture of the acute lack of classrooms, lecture halls and theatres in the university. The state of affairs of the particular issue of space for use to receive lectures is so bad that students are said to practically fight to possess whatever facility is available, including the open convocation ground! The story also gave graphic details of the lack of suitable accommodation for the students to live in. There is also lack of offices for the lecturers, not to talk of rooms for tutorials. As things are, students of UniAbuja can go through a four-year programme without the benefit of getting tutorials from their lecturers.

The picture is also painted of the absence of laboratories and other things that can make the teaching and learning of the sciences worthwhile. Anyone who is concerned about decency, orderliness and compassion and who also has a personal and practical knowledge of the general situation on the campus of UniAbuja will be truly appalled about the state of facilities or rather the lack of them in that university. The irony of the sad story of UniAbuja is that because it is located in Abuja, the political and administrative capital of the country where the political and bureaucratic elite congregate in large numbers, many of the high and mighty in Nigeria want their children and wards to attend UniAbuja.

It is a reflection of the type of elites Nigeria has that in spite of the fact that their charges are in UniAbuja, they have not ensured, even out of enlightened self-interest, that UniAbuja be well taken care of in terms of the money and facilities it needs. But that is hardly the only reason why the leaders of Nigeria in government and academia ought to have given some preferential attention, so to say, to the University of Abuja. The more important one is that UniAbuja is located in the capital of our country.

Diplomats, researchers and all manners of people who have anything to do with an institution of higher learning would naturally want to go to the university in the capital city. As it is today, UniAbuja is a poor advertisement of university education in Nigeria. It gives a very negative image of university education in our country. The university located in the capital city should be a showcase. Its architecture, academic programmes and life on its campus should as much as possible, reflect Nigeria and its culture. Something, therefore, ought to be done massively and urgently too to rescue the University of Abuja.

The National Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Education, the government of President Umar Musa Yar’adua and Nigerians who are concerned about the image of our country and the growth and development of our young ones should wake up to the reality of the challenges facing the University of Abuja. While we advocate that something be done about education generally in Nigeria, the travesty of the university that UniAbuja is today should be quickly corrected.

The story of the University of Abuja is simply the story of a university that has more students than its carrying capacity. For years, the university has promised to move to its permanent site. This has not happened because the funds to do so have not been made available to the authorities of the university. The time has come for all concerned to do something to help UniAbuja in particular and all our schools in general.

	1. 25-04-2008 22:13
	UNIVERSITY IS BITING MORE THAN IT CAN CH The problems of the university would appear to be compounded by the folly of the institution to establish at the same time four costly faculties-Engineering, Veterinary Medicine, Human Medicine and Agriculture. This is despite that none of the existing faculties is fully entrenched on the ground. For instance, each of the faculties of human medicine and veterinary medicine would require a teaching hospital, in addition to high caliber of teaching staff to man them. In the case of Engineering, most faculties of engineering in the country at the moment are facing acute staff shortages especially at the senior level in almost all disciplines of engineering. The provision of well equipped workshops and laboratories is quite daunting. Agriculture with its many departments cannot be put in place within short time. Much more than that, it a fact, faculties of agriculture attract few students due to non-existent job opportunities.  Besides infrastructure, no doubt the university will contend with the problem of recruiting competent academic staff not available in the Nigerian market and the university cannot afford to recruit from abroad. The problem of the university can only be likened to the Hausa 'daukan karan mahaukaciya', reference to a mad woman who kept on adding more cornstalks on her load each time she failed to lift it up.  Indeed, the planning of these faculties is desirable but the haste in establishing them at one go would weigh down the progress of the institution for many years to come.  The call for the intervention of the federal government is timely. If a fraction of what has been expended on the National Assembly buildings had been made available to the university, most aspects of its infrastructural developments would have been solved. In this country however, we do not invest in the future, rather in the immediate present.  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Guest

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	2. 22-04-2008 15:18
	Mallam My dear it should have long been apparent that the lot called North and Northerners are a sorry case. First the thing called merit is simply not in their books rather they almost always condone and cherish mediocrity and subservience, in short they hate and abhor excellence moreso if it comes from the masses. Accordingly what you see as defending North or Muslims is just to maintain their decadent and exploitative ways. So for me I have long jettison the idea called North in anything infact I am always nervous and on my guard when it is mentioned. So to the point Yes Isa Mohammed was a fraud and a failure to himself and the so called North, 'cos I am sure a secondary school student could've provided a better management than he did, but don't entirely blame him, IBB should take the bulk of the blame 'cos he gave it to him to further his lot as is characteristic of him. I assure you if the CVship was given to a Yoruba or a Non-muslim Northerner it would have developed tremendously but of course in our books we don't have the appreciation of the other, more so we condone one of us when he is destroying something as valuable as a school. Indeed the way we're going we'll always be backward while others will continue moving forward so with every passing day the journey gets longer. Guest

Kaskar

	3. 18-04-2008 19:10
	Prof Isa B Mohammed is to blame The mess that we call university of Abuja has its root in the atrocities of its first chancellor Professor Isa Baba Mohammed. When he was appointed to run the affairs of the university rather do his best to the develop the place he spent his terms – 1991 to 1998- amassing wealth, victimising those with dissenting opinions and finally used his closeness to the presidency to kick the best brains out. To lecturers, non-academic staff and even students he became a terror who relentlessly laboured to destroy the institution of learning. Isa Mohammed even brought civil servants, who never had any teaching experience, and people who taught in polytechnics and colleges of education to fill the vacuum created by his sack of highly qualified lecturers. Today many of those he sacked have even become vice chancellors and high court judges.  Isa was not the only problem. Many people stood up to support him in the name of defending the north. Is it not a shame today that the so-called northern university is a glorified secondary school? I think it’s high time northerners stop backing criminals in the name of protecting northern sentiments. If one of your own goes astray you should be bold enough to give him the treatment he deserves. I think the EFCC needs to investigate exactly what happened at UniAbuja, starting from when it was established. Guest

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