By HARUNA AHMED, Kaduna –
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has joined the rest of Nigerians to celebrate the life and times of Professor Adamu Baikie, as he turns 90 on October 2, noting that the nonagenarian “is pride not only to Northern Nigeria but to the whole country”.
The forum in a statement signed and made available to NATIONAL ACCORD, on Saturday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, added that “the erudite scholar who was appointed a professor at the age of 40 in 1971 is the first northerner to be made a professor of education”.
According to the ACF not only has his (Baikie) brilliance in academics been demonstrated in Nigeria but in the United States where he undertook his undergratuate and postgraduate studies under the auspices of USAID, preparatory to the establishment of ABU by the Northern Regional Government in 1962.
Besides, through dint of hard work after he came from the US in 1964 when he became one of the fpunding academic staff of the university, he was promoted through several academic ranks and by 1971 was appointed a full professor of Education, the first northerner to reach the rank, the statement added.
It also recalled that in 1978, the government of General Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him the Vice-Chanellor of Benin. He held the position untill the Shagari era when he was loaned out to Lesotho in Southern Africa as the Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Lesotho.
Pointing out that from his humble beginig as the son of a junior railway worker in Zaria, Adamu Baikie rose to the zenith of acdamic excellence in Africa.
“On his return to Nigeria, he went into retirement where the Nassarawa State Government pulled him out to establish the Nassarawa state university. He was the founding Vice-Chancellor of that university.
Today, 10 years after he left the university and at the age of 90, he has been brought back to the university as Chairman of Governing Council and Pro Chancellor.
“We at the Arewa Consultative Forum are proud of Professor Adamu Baikie’s achievements particularly in our region where not much premium is placed on academic pursuits.
We urge fellow individual northerners, Local and state governments to copy his exemplary career.
“The Arewa Consultative Forum recommends him and his career to all. Education is the way to go”, the statement emphasized.
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