…Says JAMB under Oloyede has been about innovations
The desire to make the Federal University, Wukari, an institution of global reckoning might not be a wishful thinking after all. This is owing to the fact that an erudite scholar and thoroughbred academic in the person of Abubakar Kundiri, a Professor of Soil Sciences, has held sway as the Vice Chancellor of the relatively young institution.
The soft-spoken university administrator has not only carved a niche for himself in the academic circle but has also written his name in gold at the University through his monumental developmental strides in the recently-established institution.
As part of his achievements, Prof. Kundiri was able to fashion the university into a research centre where innovations and solutions to myriads of national problems are daily being churned out. This is not all, the amiable don also made his mark in the area of infrastructural development as the institutions has since been turned into one huge construction site. This is in addition to the nurturing of a serene academic ambience that has been attracting students from far and near.
There is no doubting the fact that the Federal University, Wukari, is gaining ground in national discourse because of the visionary leadership of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor.
The institution currently boasts of seven key faculties up from the three that the erudite Vice-Chancellor had inherited. These faculties are Agriculture and Life Sciences, Humanities, Management and Social Sciences as well as Pure & Applied Sciences. Under his watch, the Faculties of Education, Engineering and Technology, Law and College of Medical Sciences, were established in addition to a School of Postgraduate Studies. The university currently has 25 academic departments offering 27 undergraduate degree programmes.
Prof. Kundiri, who is currently a member of the JAMB Governing Board, in an interview with JAMBulletin, bares his mind on his stewardship, localisation of appointment of Vice-Chancellors and, the emergence of the institution as the Most Improved in Gender Balance institution in Nigeria in the 2019 NATAP-M Awards sponsored by JAMB. He also spoke on the uncommon transformations, dynamism, fiscal responsibility and discipline among his other landmark achievements.
He said, “I came to the University with the aim of ensuring that it should strive to attain the objectives for which it was established. To do this, there must be strategic planning. This was the reason why the first thing I did as a Vice Chancellor was the development of a strategic plan to support a coordinated approach to attaining our goals. This plan helped us to identify our goals, assign responsibilities and the timeline for achieving them.”
On assumption of duty five years ago, Prof. Kundiri said, “I met an institution with none of its academic programmes in the three faculties of the University, as of then, having full accreditation. However, today, all the 27 programmes of the university have attained full accreditation.”
Continuing, he said, “Infrastructure is key to the University attaining the objective of being first rate in the country. It is for this reason that we have transformed the campus from a small entity featuring buildings inherited from Taraba State Polytechnic to a vast expanse of edifices housing the various Faculties of the institution.”
“There are also lecture theatres and classrooms of varying sizes. We have completed the new Library & Information Centre, ICT Centre; two Computer-Based Testing facilities, a Convocation Square and Professorial Offices. There are also new students’ hostels for males and females. In addition, we have constructed several kilometres of roads linking different parts of the University, water generation and supply systems as well as installation of electricity supply facilities including alternative power systems.”
Continuing, he said, “Accommodation has also been provided for all principal officers of the institution encompassing both academic and non-academic staff at all levels including professional, technical and junior staff.”
“Another key area is the development of human resources which led to the training of academic staff to the doctoral levels as well as capacity development of all cadres academic staff. We have also been being doing well in forging partnerships with relevant agencies and institutions as a strategy to develop the University. This has attracted a lot of support in terms of physical and material development. Furthermore, our community development and outreach activities have helped in reducing tension in the community as well as preparing local students for entry into higher education.”
In a matter of weeks, Prof. Kundiri will be rounding off his tenure at the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State. The irony of the matter is that he was actually appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, and was in the process of assuming office when the President in his wisdom believed that the versatile Professor would be a better fit at the Federal University, Wukari. According to him, a key lesson from all these, is to “Always have an open and objective mindset and be committed. These have helped me throughout my personal and professional careers.”
Talking about managing human resources, he said, “It is necessary to note that in leading people and working to maximise their capacities, adequate attention must be placed on identifying strengths as well as supporting the transformation of weaknesses to strengths. There is are also the challenge of those that may not, no matter how you try, share your approaches to making progress. In situations like this, you have to ensure that their approaches do not disrupt the objectives that are being sought for the wider good.”
Commenting on his journey to greatness, he said, “When I assumed office, the Federal University, Wukari, had experienced stunted growth compared to the other federal universities that were established at the same time. I did not dwell much on the situation but sought to reverse the challenges that were responsible for the problem. In every organisation, human resources is key to success. For an academic environment, this is even more so because our key objective is the development of human capital and generating information to support the growth of society.”
“Attention was, therefore, paid to addressing the challenges that led to grumblings among the staff which, in the long run, affected their productivity. One of the issues dealt with is that of ensuring that all staff of the institution are properly placed in relation to their capacities. To do this, we had to develop, using the expertise of diverse professionals within Nigeria, the necessary documents to serve as a guide to placement of staff, both academic and non-academic. Using this document, we set about properly placing all staff in their merited positions. This, of course, entailed that many had their levels reviewed upwards while others had theirs reviewed downwards.”
“Coupled with this was the timely assessment of all staff so that they were promoted as and when due. What all these did was to bring about increased productivity and when you have productive staff, it supports the growth of the institution.”
On the localisation of appointment of Vice-Chancellors, Prof. Kundiri said, “The commitment to university autonomy is meant to grow the universities in Nigeria. It enables each institution to search and identify the best hand to provide leadership in line with its requirements. This is opposed to the old system whereby a number of considerations outside the university system were allowed to interfere with the processes. I would say that the principles of autonomy in the university system is still a work in progress. As such, each university, through its Governing Council, should continue to strive to bring about the best for their respective institutions.
Commenting on his reaction to the news that his institution had won in one of the five categories of the 2019 NATAP-M Awards, he said, “I naturally felt good and proud for us all in the institution. It is not only a recognition of our commitment to excellence but also the drive to enhance equitable access to higher education. Equity or gender balance is essential to the development objectives of Nigeria. Be it the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or other global commitments to development, gender balance is key. Our university is working to put this at the front burner because it will help in ensuring that every section of the citizenry has the opportunity to contribute to national development.”
Prof. Kundiri commended JAMB for the thoughtfulness and ingenuity of the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, and his Management team for instituting the award aimed at engendering healthy competition, promoting excellence and hard work in the tertiary education sector. He said, “JAMB, under the current leadership, has been about innovations. Be it in terms of technology integration, fiscal responsibility and value for money, c r e a ti n g j o b s f o r t h e t e e m i n g unemployed or swelling the coffers of government, it has been about dynamism. The NATAP- M Awards fits in with what the Board has been known for in the past few years. It provides opportunit y for achievers to be recognised and, of course, serves as encouragement for others to work harder towards meeting the objectives set for them. The Award is meant to recognise achievement and not about sharing revenue.”
When asked his opinion regarding the idea of the National Universities Commission (NUC) taking up the responsibilities of budgeting and other such responsibilities rather than individual institutions going to the National Assembly to defend their budgets, Prof. Kundiri said, “Dynamism of human society means continuous changes so as to try to achieve set objectives. I’m sure the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission and the National Assembly are always interacting on the best approaches to ensuring that our universities are adequately supported to h e l p m e e t N i g e r i a ’s n a t i o n a l developmental goals. The universities, I’ m sure, would always be ready to make inputs at whatever fora to highlight challenges confronting the education sector and the best way forward.”
He concluded that his experiences in the past few years have been interesting and rewarding as he had been able to utilise the opportunities provided to contribute his quota to the fostering of key institutions that will help in realising Nigeria’s developmental aspirations.
(Culled from JAMBulletin)
Leave a Reply