This Day (Lagos)
Matthew Onah
7 July 2009
interview
Lagos — Can we meet you sir?
I am Prof. Abdullahi Yusuf Ribadu. I was born on September 2, 1960, in Fulfore, Adamawa State . I attended schools in Gurin and Mubi, in Adamawa State and proceeded to Ahmadu Bell University Zaria, Kaduna State, where I studied Veterinary Medicine. In 1984, after the mandatory National youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Ilorin, Kwara State, I picked up appointment with the University of Maiduguri in 1985 as a lecturer and remained there until 2004, when I was appointed as the Vice-Chancelor of the Federal University of Technology, Yola (FUTY). A master in Veterinary reproduction which I bagged between 1986-99. I got the Common Wealth Scholarship for a PhD degree at the University of Liverpool and a Japanese fellowship, for post doctorate in Japan , that was sponsored by the Japan society for the promotion of science. I was the first Nigerian to benefit from that programme. In 2002, I became a full professor of veterinary reproduction at the University of Maiduguri and in 2004, I was made the Vice- Chancellor of Federal University of Technology Yola.
How was FUTY when you took over the mantle of leadership?
When I took over the mantle of leadership in April 2004, I met a lot of challenges, which include the low morale of the staff both academic and non academic. Structures were completely dilapidated, and there was inadequate staff, classrooms and laboratories were in bad shape. Sciences were poorly approached which culminated to the accreditation of only two courses by the National Universities Commission (NUC). Which include Agricultural Technology and Civil Engineering. All other programmes had either interim accreditation or have not being visited at all. Most importantly was the problem of poor staff quality and inadequate funds.
So how were you able to change the picture of the university?
My vision was to make FUTY a world-class standard university of science and technology and best in Africa . We started generating solar energy for our lecture theatres. I wanted a situation whereby the university will be independent of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), but that required a lot of money. In terms of physical structures, the first thing I did was to fence the whole university because there was a problem encroachment by some people and it was a big problem. I also renovated a lot of the structures including the Works Department, which was an eye sore. I also renovated classrooms, the clinic and laboratories.
I constructed the school of Architecture building, the department of micro-biology, and the multi-story senate building that was commissioned recently. It took me three years to complete the senate building, because we have three blocks there. I built the veterinary clinic and the six additional houses for the professional quarters. I also constructed the N10million naira sports complex which was commissioned last year and renovated the post graduate school. I also built three additional brand new hostels and rehabilitated the ones, I met, rehabilitated the road network, and drilled additional seven boreholes to tackle the perennial water crisis on campus. I bought generators for lecture theaters to enable students study and attend their lecture in absence of power supply by the PHCN. A lot of are physical structures were put in place during my five years tenure. Anybody would notice that there were no student's crisis in my 5 years stewardship as vice- chancellor, at the university because I was pro-active in the key areas that was prone to spark up crisis among the student body.
How many programmes are accredited at FUTY now?
Currently we have 40 programmes that have been visited by the National University Commission and out of the 40, 34 have fully being accredited. Only six programmes have interim accreditation, the six programmes are: Chemical engineering, civil engineering, food science, building, industrial design and Information technology. These six programmes will be re-visited after two years, and it is my hope and desire that these six programmes, would get full accreditation this year. However, we just introduced three new programmes, bio-technology, home economics and library and information sciences, these programmes are new, they are not yet mature for accreditation.
What about manpower development?
My administration gave special attention to manpower development. I encouraged both academic and non-academic staffs to go for training. In the last few years most of the staff went for training both inside and outside the country. Lucky enough we have attracted some scholarship sponsorship from the Common Wealth. We are also assisting staff to go outside the country for studies, especially Malaysia , because Malaysia is relatively not too expensive. In order to encourage the academic staff and enhance our standard of education, we reviewed the conditions of service, such that no lecturer can become a senior lecturer without getting his PhD. In The 2006 convocation ceremony, we graduated only four PhDs, but during the last month convocation we graduated over 32 PhD holders. So the new condition of service is actually encouraging staff to go for training. BUT I must tell you, it was not a one man show, I received the cooperation of all the staff. I tried to be transparent in my administration, if the members of staff are not happy in terms of their welfare they cannot give you the support you need. I also ensured that the little funds that come to the university are judiciously used. Not that we are comfortable with the funding, but the little we get, we used it well.
The problem of student unrest on campus?
To be sincere, FUTY students are the most peaceful students in the country. It is on record that throughout my five years here, this school was never a day closed down for 24 hours because of student crisis. That is not to say that there were no problems, but we tried to tackle the problem at its baby stage, we didn't allow it to mature, when you allow a problem to get matured, you will certainly have problem trying to address it, so we here don't give any problem a chance to grow, because we are aware of the dangers ahead if you allowing it to grow. Lack of proper communication between university authorities and student is dangerous because student can be misinformed and if you don't act fast it will certainly create chaos. If you are open with student on issues that concern them you will not have problem with them. My email address is all over the school so that student can send their complaints directly to me and also advise me on some issues affecting them. I was pro-active. I could also relate very well with them. I refused to be shielded from them by officialdom.
After being a VC for five years, what do you think are the major problems confronting higher institutions in the country?
The major problem I think is the challenge of funding. The amount of money required is really much. There is an urgent need to diversify our sources of funding high institutions, if we want to meet the demands of the country. You know undergraduate training in Nigeria is free, there is no tuition fee, only a meager amount of money is paid for some services the institution offer the students. So if we want to meet the world's standard, in terms of quality staff and learning environment, there is need to vote a lot of money in order to rehabilitate the high institutions in the country and enhance their capacities.
There is also the challenge of poor quality students coming into the system because we recruit from secondary schools, where the quality has greatly declined so it become a problem, trying to ensure that something meaningful comes out of such students.
There is also a challenge of quality lecturers, because it is expensive to train staff abroad, you find out that some of the lecturers have no business in visiting any campus of high institution of learning. But The Education Trust Fund intervention has given each university N30 Million for the training of her staff yearly and its yielding good result. If the programme is sustained in the next 3-4 years there will be a great change in terms of quality lecturers. Examination malpractices and cultism and few other problems that deserves special attention.
The post-UME test, which universities recently introduced, was it as a result of JAMB's failure?
A lot has been said about this Post UME, it has to do with the quality of the students. You find students with very high JAMB scores, 200, 250, 280, but after giving them admission, you discover that their JAMB scores are not commensurate with their performance in the university. So the universities began to question the quality of the students and the quality of the examination itself. The Post-UME has helped in checkmating students that are not teachable. So it is a welcomed development. JAMB has also improved greatly in its conduct of her examinations. Vice-Chancellors, commissioners, ministers, permanent secretaries are now involved in monitoring of the examination and this has reduced the cases of examination malpractices reported in the past.
Are private universities responsible for the near collapse of public universities?
We have 24 private universities now, 34 state universities and 27 public universities, but still students are out there that we can not gain admission into universities. Because even the private universities are being controlled by the current admission capacity stipulated by the NUC. So you can see some of them can only admit only 500 students. So there is no competition, in fact we need more universities in the country. But in my opinion it is not the issue of having 2,000 universities, but that the infrastructures at the existing universities should be expanded to accommodate more students. It will cost government less to expand the existing infrastructures than to build new universities.
Where are you heading to now?
I am entitled to one year sabbatical leave, and I have already got a visiting professorship position at the national university commission in Abuja . After that I can decide on what to do. But my position at the University of Maiduguri, from where, I came to FUTY is still available.
Any regrets been the VC of FUTY?
I don't have any regrets, been the VC of the university. However, it has been a very challenging but no regrets. The job gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of people for whom am happy to have met in my life.
I want to be remembered as someone who came, saw and made some modest contribution and someone who believe in quality, anything that is worth doing is worth doing well. So I will not compromise my standard and quality. That has been my watch word and that has helped me in life.
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