On Friday, 4th October 2024, my Alma Mater, my means of livelihood, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, was 62. However, there is no better time to pay this tribute than this week of April 28th, 2025, as the university leadership is transitioning from the 13th Vice-Chancellor to the 14th. As we fondly call it, the great ABU has transformed from a regional citadel of learning to the most cosmopolitan, diverse, and nationalist breeding ground for the intelligentsia. Thanks to its founding fathers, who had a clear vision of how knowledge could conquer the world without firing a shot. Their vision made them realize that achieving educational excellence requires merit, hard work, and dedication. There should be no room for nepotism, racism, tribalism, and religious inclination. This vision became the central pillar on which ABU was built. Sixty-two years later, this academic octopus has lived up to its founding fathers’ vision and expectations.
Given its significant contributions since its establishment, ABU is undoubtedly an icon of nation-building. The University, with two campuses occupying over 7,000 hectares, has become the largest in the nation, the West African Sub-region, and the most influential and diverse country. Current records indicate that all 774 LGAs in the country have sons and daughters as students or staff, studying and living at ABU Zaria, including citizens from other countries. This diversity makes ABU unique and highly admirable among tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
As a diehard ABUSITE, whenever I am appointed to examine students from other universities externally, I also mentally assess the performance of ABU students. The result is always incomparable, as ABU students are academically far ahead of their peers. The same applies when I assess other academics for the rank of professorship; some may not be recommended for promotion if I were to use the ABU Standard, which enhances the university’s esteemed reputation. ABU Zaria is simply in a class of high repute.
Since secondary school in the 1980s, I’ve been an unwavering supporter of the great ABU. My first baptism into the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) community was in 1981, when I was in fourth grade at the then-Government Secondary School in Funtua, Katsina. The admiration was almost infinite, as we couldn’t compare ABU to any other university. Then, students in forms four and five (final year) at GSS Funtua and its contemporaries were divided into three categories: those wishing and working hard to gain admission into ABU through its famous gateway, the School of Basic Studies (SBS); those wishing to gain admission through the College of Advance Studies (CAS); and those wishing to go to other institutions. The first category constituted the top 5% of the class, followed by the second category, representing the top 20%, while the third category was the others. Without being told, every student knew their category. I was in the first category and dreamed of gaining admission into SBS. With gratitude to the Almighty, that dream came to pass when I was admitted into SBS in June 1982. From then on, ABU has offered me so much: three out of my four degrees and countless certificates. I got sensitized and received some grounding in the leftist ideology of Drs Yusuf Bala Usman of blessed memory and Patrick Wilmot. Despite being an engineering student, I was always looking forward to the fire-spitting public lectures of the duo. My student life at ABU was the most exciting experience with unquantifiable richness. My case is a typical example of thousands of cases for Nigerians and non-Nigerians across the globe. This is because ABU has a high level of human capital and was instrumental in the creation and foundation staffing of several second-generation universities. Among the university’s Alumni are a former president and two vice presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the former SGF, with over 100 serving and former governors and deputies across the states. ABU has produced several vice chancellors for other universities, high-ranking officials in the three arms of government, captains of industry, and successful entrepreneurs and individuals in all spheres of human endeavors. Thousands of medical doctors, engineers, pure and social scientists, and many other professionals have graduated from ABU and are working globally. ABU’s contribution to the nation’s development is enormous and unparalleled by any other university in Nigeria and West Africa.
ABU Zaria has recorded uncountable successes in different human and national development areas. Time and space may not allow an X-ray of all the breakthroughs recorded by this giant university. However, a few major feats achieved in recent years need to be mentioned. In 2019, three ABU students outperformed other competitors in the Huawei ICT competition to emerge as winners of the African regional competition. Then they competed against other students from different continents/regions and took the third position at a global level. Two years ago, ABU signed an MoU with Huawei Technologies to establish the Academic Support Center for managing the Huawei Academic Programs in Nigeria. In the 2020 JAMB rating of Nigerian universities, ABU won three important awards: the “Institution with the Highest number of International Students in 2020 Admission”, the 2020 Institution of the first choice for candidates to tertiary institutions in Nigeria, and the most National Institution in 2020. The three awards designate ABU as the most diverse and nationalist learning center. This is because ABU uses merit in admission and recruitment; if you are the best, you don’t need long legs to enter ABU as a student or worker. Yes, ABU is the most cosmopolitan and diverse in admissions and staffing. Last year, the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) of 2024 ranked ABU third best in Nigeria, 21st in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and an impressive 1176th globally. ABU Zaria could have done better.
Prof Adamu Ahmed is taking over as the new Vice-Chancellor. The stakes are high, and the expectations are numerous. The challenges are daunting – unsustainable electricity bills, gross underfunding, poor income generation, etc.- but Prof Ahmed enjoys tremendous goodwill from both within and outside the university. The Alumni under Alhaji Adamu Kontogora, another diehard ABUSITE, serve as a dynamic tool for galvanizing resources for the university. The new VC must inject life into dysfunctional university business units and effectively utilize over one thousand hectares of agricultural land for commercial production. The Afe Babalola University’s agricultural commercial model should be replicated on the vast ABU land to feed the ABU community and the surrounding towns. The tasks of maintaining ABU’s giant position are not for the new leadership alone; all former students, friends, workers, and patriots should support and contribute to the development of ABU Zaria. ABU’s contributions to nation-building through quality education are immeasurable. The time for citizens to lend a hand is now; we must all awaken to support our Alma Mater, the mother and grandmother of other universities—the heartbeat of the Nigerian university system.
For emphasis, I am repeating what I wrote earlier, “Adamu needs to work hard to place ABU Zaria on an exemplary trajectory of being the most cosmopolitan breeding ground for nationalists and intellectuals, as envisaged by its founding fathers”. May the Almighty guide him to success, amen.
