Much Ado about FUT Yola’s change of name
This institution metamorphosed from a small university with only two schools (Science and Technology, Education and Management) with a population of 214 students in 1981,to its present status of a university with six schools and the School of Post Graduate Studies, with a population of over 18,000 students. Though the die has since been cast […]
This institution metamorphosed from a small university with only two schools (Science and Technology, Education and Management) with a population of 214 students in 1981,to its present status of a university with six schools and the School of Post Graduate Studies, with a population of over 18,000 students.
Though the die has since been cast with the official government pronouncement recently, of change of the name to Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, already, there are mixed feelings as the decision drew the ire of some groups, as well as staff and students who tagged it primordial.
The critics of the name change accused President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, Minister of Education, Ruqqayatu Ahmed Rufa’I, Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, as well as the paramount monarch of Adamawa Emirate, Lamido Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Musdafa of employing “political interest ” to put the name-change down without due recourse to procedures. However, the allegations were denied by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Bashir Haruna Usman, , saying the president decided to immortalise the late scholar by naming the institution after him, “for his eminent contributions as an outstanding leader who created a centralised state system in the Benue and Faro Valley out of a multitude of non-centralised polities in the 19th century.’
The Vice Chancellor recalls that with the colonial conquest of Fombina in 1901 by the British and establishing the colonial boundaries, the Fombina was named Adamawa Province in 1924 in memory of Modibbo Adama. Though the name Adamawa had gone out of official circulation for some time, it remained the name by which the area was known to outsiders, as the state creation exercise of 1991 restored the name christening the new state carved out of old Gongola state as Adamawa state.
Indeed, if any group was more worried by the sudden change of the name of the school, it was some members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who this reporter was told, first got an inkling of the change during one of the senate meetings in June when a notice of it came from the council to the university senate.
A source said that the Vice Chancellor(VC) of the university, Bashir Haruna Usman, informed the senate that “a request for the name of the institution to be named after Modibbo Adama has been sent to President Goodluck Jonathan for executive approval.” This spurred reactions from some senate members.
The worried academic staff, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), convened a press conference in Yola to condemn the sudden change of the name as according to them “without recourse to due process.”
The spokesperson of the group, Daniel Dahiru, said their opposition to the name change was because the process smacked of non-compliance with due process and it lacked consensus.
Mr Dahiru further noted that since the institution was an autonomous body, it would be wrong for the presidency to single-handedly approve a new name for it.
“Congress condemns unanimously, a change in the university’s name without regard to due process and Congress resolves to challenge the process,” he stated.
He was emphatic that, “the change would only lead to increasing the institution’s overhead costs that may run into many millions of naira, as it grapples with changing documentations and other administrative process.”
As the name change of the university goes ahead, some students who were said to have been lured also reacted. Through their spokesman, David Garba. “We foresee an upheaval as the student body may protest,’’ he once said.
According to him, “a mass of complaints suggest it was a name change no student really wants. Even though it is only a name change which the management wants us to believe has nothing behind it and that the school stands to benefit from it.”
He further alleges that the VC was “covertly supportive of the name change.”
The Indigenes reaction
While some people believed that it was appropriate that the federal government should name an institution of repute after such a great scholar, outstanding leader and erudite educationist, some minority groups openly oppose to the change alleging foul-play in the whole scheme.
While fielding questions from newsmen on the matter a former governor of the defunct Gongola state, Wilberforce Juta, who was among the elders of the state minority groups leading the protest expressed his opposition on grounds that there were other Christians leaders yet to be immortalized in the state,’’ as Christians and Muslims were almost in equal composition in the state. Mr Jonathan also faces charges of exhibiting insensitivity to the struggle of northern minorities,’’ he said.
Mr Juta who is the chairman of the Adamawa Elders Forum, said the late monarch, Moddibo Adama, was honoured enough by the naming of the state after him.
“There are also late Christian leaders in the state sleeping in their graves without being immortalised who contributed greatly to the development of the state. As such, this move is unacceptable,” Juta threatened.
The genesis of the change
Though the name change was considered to be the private wish of the Lamido, Barkindo Musdafa, the Vice Chancellor of the University reveaed to newsmen that the idea of the name change was tabled before the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, during the launch of the education road map which the vice president, representing President Jonathan, performed. He further said that the monarch, sold the idea and he conveyed the request of the Lamido to the president.
Similarly, Governor Nyako, who also backed the idea, according to the VC, further conveyed a formal request to Abuja in line with discussions on the subject.
Sunday Trust gathered that there were no replies immediately from the presidency until when the president visited Yola on his campaign tour. The Lamido then reportedly used the occasion of the president’s visit to remind him on his request to change the name of FUTY to Modibbo Adama University of Technology.
The emirate did not mention the request in the written speech read by the Lamido where he made a list of some demands.
A palace source denied that, “nowhere in the Lamido’s speech in his written address during the courtesy visit of the president to the royal father was there anything to allude to the request.”
For now, only time shall tell what will happen as already, President Goodluck Jonathan has given approval for the Federal University of Technology (FUTY), Yola, to be named Modibbo Adama University of Technology,Yola, in honour of the founder of the Adamawa emirate with effect from 1st October,2011.
Addressing newsmen last Thursday, the VC, Professor Bashir Haruna Usman, said the president decided to immortalize the late scholar by naming the institution after him.
The Vice Chancellor however, added that despite the change of name, all former documents and correspondences bearing the Federal University of Technology, Yola, remained valid.
Moddibo Adama who was born in 1779 at Wuro –Chekke, was an outstanding leader, who created a centralised state system in the Benue and Faro valley out of a multitude of non-centralised polities in the 19th century.