Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi has denied the claim that the current administration of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, intends to eliminate some of the institution’s departments and faculties and discontinue some of its courses, calling it a purely irrational and unsupported rumor of the group’s members’ imaginations.
Speaking to journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) Press Center, Zailani Bappa, ATBU’s Director of Information and Public Relations, said that Vice Chancellor Prof. Ibrahim Hassan has no plans to eliminate any faculty or end any courses or programs.
“The wording of the press conference by the Bauchi State Concerned Citizens essentially addresses two topics. Since the VC didn’t do anything of such nature, none of the accusations are accurate.
“All vice chancellors and chairs of the governing councils of federal universities were recently called by Education Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa, who informed them that the federal government had decided that all universities should return to the original purpose for which they were established.”
As you are all aware, ATBU was founded as a technology-based university, and as a result, additional management education programs were added. The Federal Government now wants everything to stay the same,” Zalani stated.
He said that it was a direction that needed to be followed rather than a choice made by the VC or the Governing Council.
Regarding the topic of not supporting the remote learning directorate, he clarified that it was put on hold because, given the recent developments, funding the Directorate would be a waste, especially because the majority of the courses are management education.
Therefore, Zailani Bappa urged comprehension of the situation, emphasizing that the VC and the Governing Council were powerless to alter the narrative.
He urged the Bauchi State Concerned Citizens and other interested parties to band together and assist Shehu Buba Umar, the senator for the Bauchi South Senatorial District in the NASS, in making sure that the legislation establishing the ATBU as a technology-based university is changed to allow for additional courses.
He asserts that “nothing can be done to stop the ongoing reverting to status quo ante unless the University law was amended to make it a conventional university.”
How the Federal Government and other pertinent agencies will address the issues brought up is still unknown.
However, a lot of people in Bauchi believe that ATBU’s future is essential to the socioeconomic and intellectual advancement of the state.
