ATBU, Alumni Reject Senate Move to Convert University to Conventional Institution

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The management of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) has rejected the move by Senator Shehu Buba (Bauchi South) to convert ATBU from a university of technology to a conventional university.

Addressing journalists in Bauchi at the weekend, the Registrar of ATBU, Alhaji Kabiru Garba, expressed concern that the process was being carried out by the senator at the National Assembly without informing the university’s main constitutional organs.

“We just woke up one morning and saw a clip—myself and the Vice Chancellor—showing that the enabling law of ATBU was being reviewed to convert it into a conventional university,” the Registrar stated.

“I want to make it clear that the process of changing the law of the university should start from the university.

“Our position is that the university has not been contacted about the need to review the law. The university operates as a system, and there are organs responsible for reviewing the laws of the university.

“The two most important organs in the university are the Governing Council and the University Senate. The Governing Council is the highest policy-making body, while the Senate is in charge of reviewing and handling all academic activities.

“When you intend to amend the law, these two bodies must agree. After that, we have our supervising agencies—the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC). None of these bodies was contacted.

“The Vice Chancellor, who is the chief administrative and academic officer of the university, was not contacted. I, in my capacity as the custodian of the law of the university who is mandated to interpret and manage the university’s laws, have no knowledge of this process, neither is the Chairman of Council who oversees the university’s activities.

“So we only heard in the news that the bill has gone through first reading, is now at second reading, and has even been forwarded to committee for public hearing. As I speak to you, no organ of the university was contacted for this review. The entire procedure is deeply flawed. There are serious discrepancies, and we will not accept it.”

In a similar vein, the President of the ATBU National Alumni Association, Mohammed Sani Wadata, also rejected the move, saying the alumni are not in support of converting ATBU from a university of technology to a conventional university.

Wadata said the alumni fully support the current management’s stance that ATBU should remain a specialised university of technology.

“As President, I saw it on social media where Senator Shehu Buba was making his presentation at the National Assembly.

“I received numerous calls from my members and had to contact the university to know whether they were aware of the process. I contacted the Chairman of Council and he wasn’t aware. I contacted the Vice Chancellor, he also wasn’t aware.

“If these two leaders responsible for the administration of the university are not aware, then something is definitely wrong with the process.

“You cannot claim you own a house, and then your biological child decides to renovate it without informing you. You just wake up one morning and discover he has removed the roof, windows, and doors without consulting you.”

The ATBU Alumni President noted that the university was established by an Act of the National Assembly in consultation with stakeholders.

“Anything that will tamper with the law must start from the university because once the law was passed, it became the university’s mandate,” he said.

Wadata revealed that the alumni wrote a petition to the National Assembly over the proposed conversion, addressed to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Higher Institutions and TETFund, requesting that the process be stopped, the bill stepped down, and consultations held with stakeholders.

“The bill should be stepped down. If there is any need for such a presentation in the National Assembly, it should start from the university community,” he argued.

“We have 11 conventional universities around ATBU. In the whole North-East, we only have ATBU as a university of technology.

“ATBU Bauchi is a third-generation university established alongside two others, FUT Akure and FUT Owerri, and both remain universities of technology just like ATBU.

“These geopolitical zones have not amended their specialised universities; instead, they have even called for the establishment of more universities of technology, such as the one recently approved for Lagos by the National Assembly.

“The conventional universities around ATBU already offer all the courses conventional universities offer. But ATBU is a specialised university established to drive industrialisation in the North.”