By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

Professor John G.Laah of the Department of Geography, Kaduna State University (KASU),has said that the Federal University of Applied Sciences to be located in Southern Kaduna State, would benefit all Nigerians and not only the people of the area where it would be located.

He paid glowing tributes to the Senator representing Southern Kaduna Senatorial District, Senator Sunday Marshall Katung for initiating the Bill for the establishment of the University and expressed hope that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will soon sign the bill into law.

“I’m representing the Forum of Southern Kaduna Professors, the Southern Kaduna Academics and the university staff for good governance,” the University Don said in an interview.

According to him,” we are at the forefront of having a university in the southern part of Kaduna state. Our forum is not the forum of zone three, it is a forum of Southern Kaduna and our division of Southern Kaduna is all Local Governments from Chikun down. We cover 12 Local Governments in Kaduna State and our forum has 186 members. And these 186 members are not foreigners, they are all Professors from Southern Kaduna.”

“In 2018, we had the privilege of pushing for this university and of course, under Senator Danjuma Laah, it was Federal University of Science and Technology Manchok. But the truth is that there was a bill to convert the Federal School of Statiatics to Federal University of Science and Technology. Of course his tenure ended and we didn’t have the bill passed.”

“But when Sunday Marshal came on board, the first thing he did was to approach us from the onset to notify us he was willing to come and challenge whoever and he wanted to present his credentials. He spoke to us, but you know education is the industry that we have in Southern Kaduna and we are also very considerate with the fact that we have young ones that need to be trained in appropriate education and technology. So we told him we were so happy to have him come on board. But our own focus is that anybody that is coming should try as much as possible to ensure that the federal presence is felt in the southern part. And that we needed a university— simply because it is probably within the number and terms of population. Probably in the area within the radius , we don’t have a Federal University.”

“And of course, Marshall picked up the challenge and that was why immediately after he was inaugurated last year, within a month , we had the first reading of Federal University of Applied sciences.And then a lot of misinformation came out. There were deliberate falsehood that why is it that he did not pursue the plan made by his predecessor to have a Federal University of Science and Technology? But I need to tell you that in the present system of Nigeria, once the university is approved by the president, it will be the first and the only Federal University of Applied Sciences. We have Federal University of Science and Technology. We have Federal University of Health Sciences but this will be the first Applied Science university.”

“And I think it was also based on the fact that he did a lot of consultation with stakeholders, with the Southern Kaduna professors, Southern Kaduna academics , traditional rulers, the Southern Kaduna leadership council and previous senators and we agree that this university is not a Southern Kaduna University of Applied Sciences— it is a Federal University of Applied Sciences.”

“Our own idea is just to have the location within Southern part and what are the reasons? We felt that once the university is located in the southern part, it is likely to engineer some development and grant our youths who are largely unemployed,those who promote social vices to really gain productive engagement. So establishment of this university is dear to us as professors and as southern Kaduna Academics.”

“And we interacted very well With ASUU national. ASUU national opposed the Federal University of Science and Technology. But of course this Federal University of Applied Sciences, we have not had a single objection from ASUU. which means that they are more comfortable with the university as well.”

“Now, this university was proposed for Manchok. when we went for public hearing, it was Federal University of Applied Sciences abinitio. And of course you know that the Senator is from Zango’s Kataf Council. And Manchok is in another local government, so we appreciated his desire to have a university in any other place other than his own local government.”

“Of course if you know the argument of the Federal University of Science and technology— the argument was that objection for most people especially form the southern part, was that the senator was taking everything to his local government. But I think this time around, we supported him. I must also say this.. the decision to change the university from Manchok to Kachia is a child of necessity. And our commitment is to reduce the obstacles toward having a Federal University in Southern Kaduna,and to reduce the obstacle, decision to support Kachia came on board..And I must tell you that the Southern Kaduna professors were part of the decision. We were consulted and we acted, we contributed.”

“Now you are aware that we had the Nok University which had already even admitted students, before its closure.. When people people talk about Kachia, it was the decision of the Senators, the stake holders, the Southern Kaduna Professors and Southern Kaduna Academics to say we already have five faculties in Kachia. A way to reduce the obstacle towards having a university is to reduce the cost. And part of the desire of reducing cost is that government will be reluctant to pay several billions to start the structure when already having a structure that is fully on ground. And so we now suggested that it should be University of Applied Sciences Kachia. We will have a campus in Kachia and have there too.”

“The desire was not to throw away Manchok, but to take what we have because the Federal Government has seized Nok University. When people talk about, that the owner of the Nok University, Chief Anthony Hassan has not come out to say he is objecting to the government taking over— he has gone to court so to say on the forfeiture. But he also understands the need.”

“I can tell you for fact that the consultation went all round, including to the owner of Nok University which has now been ceded to the government.So as far as we are concerned, we know if you know the history of Nigeria, Kachia and Wukari are the only two native authorities that are not state capitals. As we all know, Birnin-Gwari at some point was under Kachia Council. So Kachia Council was one of the largest councils in the whole Kaduna state before the separation of Katsina and Kaduna. Kachia gave birth to several local councils.But there is suitability of location in terms of terrain and Kachia already with assembly of military establishments has the necessary security and is more cosmopolitan than Manchok.”

“In other words, Kachia has various categories and groupings than what you have in Manchok . That is not to take Manchok away. We also thought that the Federal School of Statistics should remain as a school of statistics while we have side by side the university. So the former bill was to convert the school of statistics to Federal University. but this bill is to establish a Federal University of Applied Sciences and we supported the bill entirely.”

“For your information, we were there when they had the public hearing in 2018 and I can tell you in that public hearing we were not less than 50. But anybody that attended that public hearing for the university knows that Kaduna state and the entire Nigeria were represented. We have representation for the government, representation from the stakeholders. In 2018, there was even no group from Southern Kaduna that attended the public hearing. But this time around, all the 66 CDAs were represented at that sitting.”

“But let me say, this is not a Southern Kaduna University of Applied Sciences, it is a Federal University of Applied Sciences. So admission policy of the university will follow every other Federal University. i.e, everybody in Nigeria stand a chance of being admitted. Ours is just to increase the number of Federal Universities.As it is now and as a former Vice Chancellor, I can tell you that we require 800 universities to meet the academic requirements of our young people, given the growing population.”

“Remember that In 2050, Nigeria will be the 3rd most populated country in the world and going by that, it means we need to begin to increase the number. As it is now, I’m a lecturer in KASU and I’m the chairman of Industry Relations, and I can tell you we don’t take up to 27 percent of the students that are qualified for various courses in KASU. And if you project to all other universities in Nigeria, it is the same story.”

“So what it means is that so many students who graduates and who passed JAMB can’t get admission. So if you plot a correlation between instability, banditry, with lack of enrollment, you will see a direct relationship. That relationship is what we are also trying to avoid.”

“But Southern kaduna has come under the search light because of crises, killings and whatever and we feel that one of the ways to engage the youth is to give them an industry that they can relate with. And that is education. So if people remain in school and have the opportunity of going to university, that will be a good thing.”

“And so all of us professors, without any reservations support having a Federal University in Southern Kaduna. And we whole heartedly support the idea of having the university in Kachia.”

“Let me say this, when final forfeiture was announced we had a meeting as professors and we said maybe it’s better for us to put machinery in motion so that this university that is already well equipped with 5 faculties, more than what you get in state universities— that let us begin to see how we can talk to authorities so that this university we are angling for should even start in that place so that it will reduce the cost. So the meeting took place and within 2 weeks , we had a call that we should come for interaction and when we went, government was already thinking that the university should be started in Kachia.”

“I know we may be asked what should be the name of the school and I told them- because they wanted to have Nok in the name… and I said we can’t have Federal university of Applied Sciences Nok, unless the University is in Nok village.So the best thing you could do is to have the Federal university of Applied Sciences Kachia. Or Federal University of Applied Sciences Manchok, then you can have Nok Campus Kachia. But you cannot name a university like that after someone.It is always good and the profile of the university is higher and more recognized when it had that ‘Federal Government’ attached to it.When it becomes well known and the university is making wave, then you can now change ….and it will be inconsequential.”

“Remember that most universities are even against changing names to that of individuals. We saw it in University of Lagos where they changed it to Mooshood Abiola and till date , they have refused and gave reasons for that. Another thing is, we had a situation where ginger failed and we lost about 10 billion Naira of revenue because of collapse of ginger. We feel that when you have a university in Kachia being the epicenter of ginger, then you can now engineer researches that can end up eliminating the so called ginger diseases and enhance the economy.”

“Our submission from day one is that you can have university in Kujama, you can have university in Lere, Saminaka as long as the university is within territory we considered as Southern Kaduna.And we are not saying the university belongs to us. No. it is a Federal University. We are just interested in the location because the location has significant importance to us. Because the advantage of having an industry in your area is that we know the kind of development that can come up. These are just the issues we considered and it’s just like when the federal capital was decided upon, Kafanchan was the most central and when the geographers decided in 1975, they say in longitude and latitude, Kafanchan was the most central place. But what was the reason Kafanchan didn’t make it? It didn’t make it because it has the highest concentration of indigenous communities and villages and then river Matsirga to the north and the river Sarki to the south made the place not conducive for expansion. So geographers decided that the capital should go to 130 km southwest and that’s how the capital was moved to Abuja. And in Abuja, there were only 10000 people in Abuja compared to Kafanchan area that had close to 100,000. So you could resettle 10,000 people easier than resettling 100,000 and then that was just the reason.”

“Now we also want people to understand that the Federal University of Applied Sciences Kachia is not about Sunday Marshall. Somebody must be used as a vessel to get somewhere. It could have been Dan Amos, it could have been Amos Magaji or whatever, but Sunday Marshall made it an important project and that is not the only project that has public hearing. We have public hearing on the Federal Medical Centre Kachia. This is the second reading. So it’s not about Sunday Marshall and we don’t see this university as giving Sunday Marshal an edge come 2027. And this is just to disabuse the mind of politicians … And we have also said it that any politician can take a development to his village as long as the village is not relocated. It is a settlement.”

“So we are supporting wholeheartedly the Federal University of Applied sciences Kachia. We have no objection in any way. We proposed Federal University of Applied Sciences Manchok before, but now we are trying to reduce the obstacles and reducing the obstacles, we will now look at the opportunity cost of having the university in both sides and there infrastructure is ready.
If you move to Nok university now, you can just enter class and start lectures. Everything is in place. So what do we want? To benefit from federal government converting it to prisons? We stand by the Senator in what he has done.”

“We said it before that Senator Marshall is not one you meet every time and pick discussion with. You won’t go to a beer parlor and see him there, but we know that he is committed to the development of his area.And the way he went about this, we see him as a complete politician, because we believe in lobbying. And you see if you must get development in your place , you must know when to get something done.
We like his desire, commitment and strategy. In his strategy, nobody is an enemy and once we want something from you we approach you.That has been his interaction.”

“We have seen his interaction with the Governor. We have met the governor several times and he has told us his commitment. The Governor has told us about his commitment to this university and is willing to contribute. We as the Professors have met the Governor when he was a Senator and we beg him to support the course.in case you don’t know, he himself had submitted a bill to have a Federal University in zone 2 when he was a Senator.It was when we approached him and begged him to support the university in Southern Kaduna, that was when he withdrew the bill for a university in zone 2.”