As an experienced University adminstrator over the years, the terrain of University of Abuja was not quite different, having achieved so much as an academician and Education manager in the ivory tower .
For close to a decade before his exit, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah as pioneer Vice Chancellor, Kwara state University Molete, KWASU , was serving out his two term in office, before the national call to become the chief adminstrator and appointment as Vice- Chancellor of three decades institution, The University of Abuja that was moving without motion sitting on the nation’s capital city of Abuja in July, 2019.
Four years down the line, not minding the protracted and prolonged ASUU strike among many other distractions, that had eaten into more than one year into his tenure, he was able to achieve greatly in all areas through massive deployment of wealth of experience garnered over the years.
The basic knowledge of research and development, academic advancement, physical infrastructural development, students reorientation, staff welfare and improved capacity building, through training and retraining had been achieved within the confines of his four years in office.
It was no longer business as usual were UniAbuja students cannot be identified or numbers of students not known, as the new administration under the present leadership brought to a halt through enumeration and identification of students and staffs of the University.
Over the years , staffs and students carried identify cards and verifiable by a crack team to authenticate their status, as the institution can now boast of the numbers of it’s students both in regular and part time ones.
Na’Allah had instituted a legacy of academic excellence, devoid of students , lecturers manipulation ,while admission process process hitherto engulfed with a price tag, had become history, with the introduction of automated system and process.
Academic discipline, cultism and other social vices prevalent in the institution is now a thing of the past , as series of workshops, talkshops , awareness and symposium along with collaborations with relevant agencies to sensitize students had reverted the system to normalcy.
The security of lives and properties of staffs and the institution was further rejigged with both domesticated arrangements, through the deployment of vigilantes, collaborations with security agencies and recently the location of Army headquarters through gradual movements of it’s departments, directly opposite the university was another pointer.
Under Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, more departments and faculties had relocated to the permanent site with robust transport system to move students from the old site in Gwagwalada to the new site along Airport road, due to paucity of accommodation for staffs and students.
The land reclamation policy of the present administration became a lasting legacy, as expansion of departments and faculties on its facilities had extended towards the last edge of the University land in Sauka over 500 hectares away, and gradually moving towards Gwagwalada town in the other axis through perimeter fencing.
Many centres had emerged while the existing ones was rejigged with a view to meeting the current realities both in infrastructure and provision of adequate staffs to man the centres, this had made the institution centre for promotion of all activities of government agencies, parastatals and departments programs.
The Centre for Enterprenuerial Development will provide opportunity to all graduates of the institution to develop flare of enterprenuership, and may be encouraged to register their own companies before the end of their various programs in the school ,hence encouraging self reliance outside academic acquisition.
The University had reconstructed it’s series of academic centres with a view to providing needed prerequisites for students and lecturers academic engagements.
With the serene academic environment, academic excellence, research breakthrough, many of the institution’s lecturers had secured both local and foreign grants, to develop further areas in their specialisation both from the private and the public sector.
Aside giving basic identity lacking by the over three decades institution, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah had embarked on wholistic structural redesign, internal roads construction and rehabilitation and attracted federal government agencies into providing the needed facilities for the school.
For the renown author and publisher, the management of the University of Abuja in the last four years had brought to bear more development, students enrollment, staff reorientation due to its uninterrupted academic activities and excellence brought to bear on the institution by Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, a renowned scholar of high repute.
With the remarkable achievements and impact on the progress of the institution, no doubt, the current management had built a legacy of continuous progress and development of the ivory tower.
It is crystal clear that with the success story, he will also consolidate on the gains recorded in the last four years, in the remaining one year on the mantle of leadership of the University of Abuja.
Yusuf , is A Public Affairs Analyst, Writes from Abuja on [email protected].
