ASUU, Na’Allah and Uncomfortable Truths

Na allahna allahnallASUU, Na’Allah and Uncomfortable Truths

By Dr. Nasidi Bawa

The tenure of Abdulrasheed Na’Allah as Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja came to an end on June 30th, 2024, and the jury has since been out on its performance: by every objective assessment, his was a glorious outing; a spectacular stint in office – easily the best in the chequereed history of the university.

But this is an obvious and simple fact so difficult to swallow by some elements within the rank of the university’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as well as some primordial and vested interests who have labored unsuccessfully to change or colour the narrative, having earlier on woefully failed to distract and derail the professor of comparative literature.

In 2019 ASUU UniAbuja (in cahoots with some national officers of the union) did everything possible to stop Na’Allah from emerging (including authoring a petition full of lies and half-truths to the University Council, while a top national official of the union directly and desperately called to influence some individual members of the Selection Committee) all to no avail. Then, from the day Na’Allah took over to the very last they fought him (opposing every move and decision he made or intended to make, issuing all manner of obscurantist resolutions against him; and two months ago, when they exhausted all the arsenals in their armory, they instigated a strike action based on the most specious of reasons).

Interestingly, their opposition and endless provocation only motivated him to perform better. It’s a classic case of adversity spurring one on and bringing about the best in a leader. The unvarnished truth is Na’Allah transformed UniAbuja to a model, world-class, university.

He put up more infrastructure in the university than all his predecessors combined: every faculty now boasts of one or more office complexes, classrooms and a large lecture theatre; he constructed access roads and improved existing ones; street lights were erected throughout the nooks and corners of the main campus; while all the hostels in both the Mini and Main Campuses were comprehensively renovated. Abandoned hostels for Medical and postgraduate students were completed, even as he attracted funding for new hostels for international students. He facilitated and consummated a robust public private partnership arrangement that will see hostels of about 12,000 bed spaces completed by early next year. He attracted a N5 billion high impact intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) which has been committed to building a befitting senate building, an international conference centre and several intra-campus roads (all in advanced stages of completion). From the World Bank he attracted a N3 billion solar light project (soon to be commissioned by President Tinubu), the largest on any West African university campus (capable of producing 3 megawatts of electricity). With internally generated revenue, he built an academic conference centre, indoor sports hall, 15 housing units for staff, a staff club and a students social centre (nearing completion). He also set up a Microfinance Bank, which has already commenced operation.

Na’Allah created and saw to a successful take-off of four new faculties (Pharmacy, Communications and Media, Environmental Sciences, and Nursing and Allied Health Sciences), as well as 26 new departments, including Aeronautical Engineering, Railway Engineering (in collaboration with the Chinese), Geology and Mining, and Tourism and Hotel Management. He created various academic centers, including those of Artificial Intelligence, Innovation in Teaching and Research, Students Research (which has offered millions of Naira as grants to outstanding student researchers), Centre of Sponsored Projects (which has annually harvested an average of N1 billion worth of foreign and local research grants by academic staff), and the CBT Centre (which now ensures that all General Studies examinations are conducted paperless). The icing on the cake is the N1 billion TETFund-sponsored Abuja Leadership Centre, modeled after the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (the ALC has already attracted the crème de la crème in Abuja and beyond as its students – top bureaucrats, senior military officers, captains of industry, etc).

Remarkably, the Centre for Students Mentoring and Employment that Na’Allah created runs a scheme under which about 500 students workers (selected strictly based on outstanding academic achievement) are posted to various units of the university and paid monthly. Interestingly too, and in keeping with the cutting edge challenges of today’s world, all undergraduate regular students are now required to learn a foreign language and to register a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

What is really significant here is not so much that Professor Na’Allah as Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja posted a stellar, unmatched tenure, but that he accomplished it in spite of deliberate, relentless and coordinated attempts to derail or even stop him. This shows that with focus, determination and hard work, a leader can perform no matter the type, might and machinations of detractors. It also shows, very sadly, that sometimes groups such as ASUU can get it all wrong, and can be hijacked by elements who do not mean well, and can be deployed to harm the very system they purport to promote and protect.

Dr. Nasidi Bawa writes from the Faculty of Law, University of Abuja.