After being summoned to go on a factchecking mission to ascertain the state of development of Bauchi State University Gadau, our correspondent visited the various campuses of the varsity and spoke to staff, academic, non-academic, students and members of host communities of the institution and came out with this report.
Firstly, our correspondent accosted the Vice Chancellor with some sensitive questions bothering nepotism and favoritism which he was accused of, the following was the Vice Chancellor Auwalu Uba’s counters:
“When I took over the University administration precisely in December 2017, there was no academic culture and the University had no single Professor. The University was relying on Visiting Professors from other institutions. There were few Senior Lecturers.
Most of the administrative responsibilities at the Deaneries and Departmental levels were being carried out by visiting lecturers. This situation has changed now that all the Deans and Heads of Departments are permanent employees of the University. By this, they are being mentored to face future challenges. They are all doing excellently well.
In the case of Deanship of the School of Postgraduate Studies, “We started the postgraduate school from the scratch in 2018. We started with a Dean who was a visiting Professor from Bayero University, Kano.
Two permanent staff were attached to him as Deputies with the aim of mentoring them for a period of two years.
At the expiration of the tenure of the two-year visiting appointment of the Professor, one of the Deputy Deans (Dr. Adam Mohammed Noma) was appointed as substantive Dean. The Deanship position is a Professorial position and where there is no Professor, the law allows the Vice Chancellor to appoint someone below the Professorial rank.
According to Prof. Asabe Sadiya Mohammed, the Director of School of Basic and Remedial Studies, BASUG, “I was asked by the first Dean of the PG school based on the suggestion of the Vice Chancellor to get a supporting hand who could assist him even if he was not on ground (as a visiting Professor). I was then the Dean Faculty of Arts and Education and the visiting Professor was also working in the same Faculty.
I therefore, called on the Deans of the Faculty of Sciences and that of Basic Medical Sciences to each recommend a hard-working staff from their Faculties. It was out of their recommendations that we nominated Dr. Adam Mohammed Noma to assist him, whom was then recommended to the VC and was subsequently appointed as his Deputy and ultimately trained him and at the expiration of his visiting appointment, Dr. Noma was appointed to act as the dean and was afterward confirmed as the substantive dean.
She further added that ” if they were talking about the presence of Associate Professor for the Dean of Postgraduate Studies, I was not on ground then, so I had to get Adam Noma to be mentored or trained by the Visiting Professor from BUK. Hence, Prof. Uba did not flout anyrules guiding the University.
On the issue of appointment of the Chief Security Officer, the VC said that of Dauda Auwal Hadarwa as the Chief Security Officer of the institution, I had to appoint Hadarwa in that capacity because I had ultimate confidence that he would deliver and he is delivering. Moreso, Chief Security Officers are appointed based on confidence that the officer will deliver.
On the issue of appointment of Nasiru Mohammed Zardarwa as Academic Secretary of the institution, the Registrar of the institution, Alh. Aminu Yakubu Gambo clarified that Mr. Nasiru Mohammed was not employed by Prof. Uba, the current VC.
He was employed by the previous Vice Chancellor and has been working in the academic office as academic secretary before the appointment of Prof. Auwalu Uba as Vice Chancellor. Whether he has a third class as a degree or a pass, he has been performing his job very well so there was no need to remove him.
The VC further stated that the institution has a policy of even employment opportunities for all qualified candidates from all the Local Government Areas of the State so that no local government or tribe is discriminated against.
Dr. Shamsudeen Magaji, Dean of the Faculty of Law further highlighted on the allegations levelled against the VC. “In my Faculty, there are 27 teaching staff, and there are no domination of Misau indigenes.
Furthermore, if you take a headcount of all the Deans in the University, none is from Misau Local Government Area which the VC comes from.
“Furthermore, since the appointment of Professor Auwalu Uba as the VC of the Varsity no appointment had been made into the faculty of Law.
Factcheck: the Vice Chancellor did not favor any particular local government area or persons above other.
On the issue of financial recklessness levelled against Professor Auwalu Uba and the issue of over N1.2billion generated by the institution as alleged by some groups, Dr. Musa Adamu Wunti explained that it was the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Uba who actually introduced the REMITTA system of payment and that the varsity has only one bank account domiciled at FCMB. The Account is accessible to anybody anytime, he added.
The Bursar of the University, Dr. Musa Kallah Kawu and the Chief Accountant, Ibrahim Abdullahi further confirmed that the University has only one bank account at FCMB. They explained that.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF PROF AUWALU UBA
Director of Physical Planning, Bauchi State University, Arch Aminu M. Umar said under Prof. Uba, the students and the staff of BASUG have been able to access easy means of transportation as the VC has been able to secure the purchase of various buses.
Arch Umar listed the vehicles purchased as follows:
– Two 2017 air-conditioned, brand new Eighteen Seater buses at the cost of N7.5 million each through auction from the Nigeria Customs Service.
– One 2018, air-conditioned, brand new Eighteen Seater bus at the cost of N8.2 million through auction from the Nigeria Customs Service.
– One Toyota Avensis wagoon at the cost of N300,000 through auction from the Nigeria Customs Service. It was allocated to the Dean of Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences for ease of transportation.
– One Toyota Lexus jeep at the cost of N2.5 million through auction from the Nigeria Customs Service. The vehicle is in the pool of the University.
-1 brand new Toyota coaster bus purchased TETFUND through the Special Intervention Fund (SIP) at the cost of N60, 000.00
Still on the area of transportation, Prof. Sadiya also added that before the coming of the current VC, Bauchi State University had to
borrow buses from Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare for use in transporting students and staff round the four main campuses. “Nonetheless, Prof. Uba had turned that around, she added.
Factcheck: Our correspondent can confirm these through the receipts and physical visuals of the vehicles.
Still highlighting on the laudable achievements of Prof Auwalu Uba, according to the Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr.Yahaya Katagum, “We have built and equipped six laboratories with the modern and state of the art equipment for the new Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Also within the period that this Vice Chancellor assumed office, all our offices have been furnished with refrigerators, TV sets, internet facilities and others.
“Before the coming of the current VC, the university was only a fashion institution but with his coming, the nucleus of the school
took shape”, this were the words of Dr. Adam Noma, Dean of School of Postgraduate Studies.
He further explained that, “The School of Postgraduate Studies which he established started with 37 programs across four faculties. Nine of these programmes are PhDs, 10 are MScs and MAs, 10 PGDs and four are professional masters. ‘Therefore, I can say that it is Prof. Uba that birthed and nursed BASUG into relevance, he said.
Our correspondent also visited the four campuses of the institution starting from Yuli Campus, down to Gadau to the Faculty of Agriculture in Jamaare and the Faculty of Law in Misau.
In contrast to certain reports that the varsity lacked facilities and services such as internet, alternative power supply, potable water and access roads, at each campus, it was observed that there were solar panels and solar powered batteries which were meant to generate electricity in case of power outage. Noticeable too, were other sources of alternate power supply such as Lister Generating Sets at each campuses
By and large, there were solar powered boreholes and water tanks reservoirs that could hold thousands of liters of water for staff and
students spread across all the campuses.
One of the staff of the University attested to the fact that before the coming of Prof. Uba, the water supply to all the campuses were epileptic and in most cases, campuses could go on for weeks without water, or make do with buying of water from itinerant water tankers.
Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim Karamba, the former Dean of the Faculty of Science confirmed that before the coming of Prof. Uba as VC, they used to buy water from vendors in jerry cans and bring into the Faculty for flushing their toilets.
“However, we now have boreholes that supplies water to all the campuses, he added.
The Dean of Students Affairs, Dr. Sani Babayo Yana mentioned that the students’ hostels were non-habitable before the coming of Prof. Uba.
The hostels were renovated and interlock tiles installed to make them neat and habitable. An old abandoned cafeteria was also demarcated and converted into female hostel to reduce pressure and encourage girl-child education.
Above all, the Vice Chancellor of Bauchi State University Gadau, may have his faults, but he has done credibly well in transforming the
state University from a glorified Secondary School to a world class Institution of higher learning.
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