All thanks be to Allah for sparing us to this time. It has been exactly five (5) years since our appointment during which I have worked with four (4) Hon. Commissioners, two (2) Permanent Secretaries and two (2) sets of Council. Today, we are here to handover to my successor as third Vice-Chancellor who happens to be a former Secretary to the State Government and immediate past Hon. Commissioner for Higher Education Professor Bashir Garba, MFR please join me in welcoming him.
I wish to summarize few of the achievements recorded.
- Infrastructure
The University has been getting interventions from the Sokoto State Government, TETFund and other Development partners.
- The State Government has so far constructed the following:
- Inuwa Abdulkadir University Library
- 60 No. offices for Academic staff
- Landscaping
- Drainages
- Construction of Faculties of Science and Education
When we assumed duty, all the 3 faculties were situated within one block. Now, upon completion of the construction of the Faculties of Science and Education, they have been moved to their permanent location. Similarly, Centre for Entrepreneurship Research and Development has been or are being constructed. Additionally, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Postgraduate School, Centre for the Study of the Sokoto Caliphate
- Furthermore, 3 Multipurpose Halls, Blocks of offices and classes have been constructed.
- University clinic has been expanded.
- 1.5km of access road has been constructed.
- Faculty of Science (Block A), ICT Centre and Twin Lecture Theatre have been renovated.
- 500 KVA Transformer for the Faculty of Education was purchased, installed and put to use.
- 4 generators ( 15KVA for each of the Faculties and Vice-Chancellors office were purchased in 2020).recently, 400KVA generator has been procured under NEEDS Assessment Intervention.
- Staff Matters
- a) Staff Welfare
Conditions of Service were reviewed through the various arms of administration to enhance the performance of staff and to be in line with best practice in most of the universities. Areas affected are:-
- Using 2/2 as minimum for recruitment instead of 2/1:
- Academic staff to rise to position of Lecturer 1 without a PhD which was not so before.
- Non teaching staff to earn points on conferences/workshop attended without their duration reaching 5 days.
- Promotion of academic staff to the positions of Reader (Associate Professor) and Professor without supervision of postgraduate programmes (prior to commencement of Postgraduate programmes).
- b) Promotion
All staff due for promotion were promoted and arrears paid where applicable. We have already sent documents for external assessment for 2 Professors and 3 Readers. So far 7 readers and 3 Professors have been promoted, while one (1) Professor was attracted. For non-teaching staff 4 Deputies Registrar, 2 Deputies Bursar and 2 Deputies Directors have been promoted.
- c) Study fellowship
All staff qualified for study fellowship were given the opportunity subject to availability of fund. This is in addition to more than one hundred and sixty six staff that are currently sponsored to undergo master’s degree: seventy six PhDs and two hundred and ninety five undergraduate programmes. Most of them have completed their studies and resumed to their offices. The sponsorship of staff is under various categories such as Sokoto State Government, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Petroleum Trust Development Fund, and other externally sourced.
- d) Allowances
The State Government has paid all allowances payable to staff based on submission from their respective Unions and endorsed by the University Management and Ministry for Higher Education. The only one pending is that from Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) which came late and is now before the Visitor for consideration.
- e) Conferences/workshops
More than two hundred and eleven (211) staff were sponsored to attend conferences and workshops within and outside Nigeria through funds from the Sokoto State Government and TETFund.
- f) Appointments
Substantive Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Bursar and University Librarian were appointed after advertising for the positions and passing through all necessary procedures.
Vacant positions of 43 staff that died or left the services of the University were filled in 2020. Some of our junior staff (security, cleaners and gardeners) were upgraded from casual staff to permanent staff position.
Based on the directives of the Visitor to offer automatic employment to first class graduates, we have interviewed and approved the appointment of all the qualified candidates.
However, the existing positions of Deputies Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Administration) have not been filled.
Some of the staff recently employed have not accepted our offers for one reason or the other. The breakdown is as follows:
- Department of computer science – 1
- Health Services Department -3 (1 Doctor and 2 Nurses).
Arrangements are being made to see that they are replaced
- Instruments of Administration
The instruments of Administration have been formed and /or revised. They have been duly approved by the appropriate authorities. The instruments are:
- Conditions of Service
- Scheme of Services for junior staff
III. Financial Regulations
- Students Handbook (Revised)
- PG guidelines
- However, the Schedule of Duties is yet to be approved.
- Academic Activities
- Postgraduate School has been established and the National Universities Commission has given approval for the commencement of the programmes. First batch of admission has already been released, while the second batch is being processed.
- New Academic Programmes (undergraduate). The National Universities Commission has approved the commencement of sixteen (16) new undergraduate programmes for the 2021/2022 academic session.
- Accreditation Exercise
In November 2017, the University presented 23 of its programmes for accreditation for the first time, out of which 18 earned full accreditation status and the other 5 that got interim status were reassessed two years later. They also had full accreditation. This means that all the twenty three (23) presented are now fully accredited. The University is expecting another team in November 2022.
- Splitting of Faculties and Departments:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is split in two: Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social and Management Sciences. Similarly, the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies is splitted into the Department of Arabic and Department of Islamic Studies. The new Faculty of Arts is made up of the Departments of Arabic; Islamic Studies; English Language and Linguistics; History; and Nigerian Languages. While Faculty of Social and Management Sciences is made up of the Departments of Political Science; Sociology; Economics; and Geography.
- New Centre of Research and Development
The Centre was established in 2019 at Sokoto State University and is saddled with the responsibility of managing and coordinating academic content interventions of TETFund including:
- Institution-Based Research (IBR).
- Academic Research Journal (ARJ) and
- National Research Fund (NRF).
- College of Medical Sciences
The proposed college is to start with two (2) programmes viz; MBBS and B.Nsc. Three staff have been interviewed to start the activities of the college. The Sokoto State Government is constructing a Teaching Hospital and College building with a grant from BUA Group of Companies.
- Hosting of Conferences such as Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN), American Chemical Society. Also meeting of professional bodies such as Association of Registrars of Nigerian Universities (ARNU) and Committee of Heads of Internal Audit Department in Nigerian Universities (CHIADINU).
The University has so far hosted sixteen (16) Conferences, Seminars and workshops from 2017 till date
- Journals and Books Publication
To provide an avenue for the dissemination of research outputs, the University runs a number of journals that spread across two faculties. It also encourages publication of books and manuscripts. So far, the University runs a total of seven (7) journals. Five (5) of them domiciled in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, while the two (2) are in the faculty of Sciences. The Faculty of Education has reached advanced stage. Two of the Journal have been submitted to TETFund for sponsorship.
- Library Holdings
From the month of May, 2017 to April, 2022, the library collections have been developed to a very large extent as follows:
– Books (hard copies) 10,663 to 21,769 holdings,
– Journals and Magazines (hard copies) 103 to 2,584 holdings, and
– Newspapers and other periodicals (hard copies) 15,100 to 31,612.
As at May 2017, the Library had 8 professional librarians, 17 non-professionals, and 6 casual staff, who were largely inexperienced on the job. However, as part of human resources development, the library received tremendous support from the University. This enabled the library to embark on deliberate training programme (in-house and outside) in order to develop staff capacity to meet up with the ever changing trends in library service delivery. In this regards, 3 staff obtained Masters degree in Library Science while 1 staff is pursuing a PhD in Library Science at Nnamdi Azikwe University Awka.
- ICT ( bandwidth, Library, CBT and Training)
Training on International Computer Driver License (ICDL) was carried out under 2016-2017 Merged TETFund ICT support Intervention, ninety (90) teaching and fifty (50) non teaching staff were trained. Also, the University has subscribed for one year bandwidth renewal on quarterly basis. A functional Computer Based Training Centre (CBT) with modern facilities has been put in place.
- Linkages and Collaborations
The University through its Development office has signed Memorandum of Understanding with sixteen (16) institutions, mostly in the areas of research and personnel development.
In addition to that the University has linkages with fifteen (15) Agencies. They are:
- Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND)
- National Communication Commission (NCC)
- Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF)
- National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
- United Nation Office in Nigeria (UNON)
- Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN)
- Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)
- Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN)
- Petroleum Training Development Fund (PTDF)
- Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
- King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals(KFUPM), Saudi Arabia
- The Punch Nigeria Limited
- National Universities Commission (NUC)
- Directorate of International Collaborations, Nigeria – Sweden Science Park, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria
- Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Belema Aid Foundation
- Social Amenities
In a quest to provide conducive atmosphere for both staff and students, certain social amenities such as good roads, portable drinking water, recreational facilities for wellness activities, functional electricity, efficacious and sustainable healthcare have been provided and boreholes have sunk.
- Community Services
In order to maintain cordial relationship with our host communities, the University has maintained peaceful co-existence with its host communities.
Since its inception, the University has over the years developed and maintained cordial Community Relations with members of its Host Communities. The Institution has been living in peace and harmony with its neighboring communities.
To that effect, the University came up with certain Corporate Social Responsibility Services (CSR) as payback to Society. Such Community Services include:
(1) Payment of registration fee for students from the University host communities
(2) Procurement and distribution of UTME and matriculation forms for host communities
(3) Scholarship for students with an outstanding performance from the host communities
(4) Support to host community sanitations.
(5) Distributions of customized books and other learning materials to the orphanage home.
(6) Offering free medical services.
(7) Recruitment of staff: the University is giving them preference especially in the area of junior staff recruitment.
(8) In addition to all these undertakings, the University has been identifying with the members of host communities in times of celebrations, such as turbaning and wedding ceremonies. It is similarly commiserating with them during trying moments.
- Security
The University has been enjoying relative peace, despite the security challenges facing the whole country. This is achieved through intelligent gathering, proactive security measures , collaboration with security agencies and other stake holders and above all, fervent prayers by the entire University community. To this, I thank the Department of State Services, Nigerian Police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps
- Transportation
The sources of our transportation are school bus, collaboration with Sokoto State Transport Authority, Danmasanin Wurno and other private operators.
- SSU Ventures
In an effort to get additional source of revenue to the University an SSU Ventures was constituted. So far license was secured from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for the Ventures.
Similarly, NAFDAC has since inspected and approve the bottling and sachet water of the Ventures. Production had since begun in commercial quantity. Arrangements are on the way to commence the operation of the filling station.
Appreciation
My appreciation goes to the Visitor to the University, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal,CFR (Mutawallen Sokoto); His Eminence, Alh. (Dr.) Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, The Sultan of Sokoto; Honourable Commissioner Higher Education; Honourable Commissioner of Finance; Members of National and State Assemblies; University Governing Council; Management; Deans; Directors; Union Leaders; Host communities; Security Agents for keeping our environment safe and members of the press for informing the outside world of our activities.
I wish to whole heartedly express my profound gratitude to all members of staff and students of the university for their support, contribution, patience and cooperation rendered to me during my tenure. I am similarly urging them to extend similar cooperation to the new Vice-Chancellor.
Thank you
Prof. S. M. Dangoggo
5th May, 2022
