Na’Allah: A Poet As a Pathfinder

Raheem Akingbolu chronicles some of the achievements of Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah in the past four years as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja

Decades after it was established, the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) struggled unsuccessfully to earn the required respect among the comity of higher institutions in Nigeria, which often led to being dismissed as nothing but a glorified secondary school. To salvage the situation, the Federal Government had in 2019 appointed Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Kwara State University, as UNIABUJA VC as a result of his visionary leadership in KWASU, which shored up the profile of the state University to emerge as one of the highest-rated state Universities in the country within five years of its operation.

Has Na’Allah lived up to expectations? Has he upped the ante for the federal university? Has the status changed from being a glorified secondary school or not? All these questions and others were pushed to various stakeholders of the University by our correspondent, and over 90 per cent of the respondents gave Na’Allah a clean slate of bills. However, a few students, even though they admitted that Na’Allah has done well in infrastructural development, prompt release of results, and establishment of new departments, criticised the Kwara state-born literature professor for what they call “indiscriminate increment of school fees.”

Prince Ezeabata Chibuzor, a 500-level Law student and founder of a creative group called ‘ACW-UA’, said the four years under Na’Allah changed the face of the university. 

“The four years under Professor Na’Allah have inspired me as an individual, and it has inspired thousands of students to bring the best out of them. Though a Law student, I believe in creativity, and Na’Allah has given us a suitable environment for us to thrive. He introduced leadership training, entrepreneurial studies, and innovative programmes to groom young innovators,” stated Chibuzor. 

The student added, “Many people are praising him because of his commitment to change the face of the school in the area of infrastructural development, but to me, his major achievement was in the area of social activities. I was admitted a year before he came, and I knew how we were living in fear in Gwagwalada because of insecurity and poor management. Today, UofA can stand shoulder to shoulder with any University in Africa. This is highly commendable.”

A postgraduate student, Abdulsalam Jamiu, a resident in Gwagwalada for over 30 years, said the best thing that has ever happened to the University was the appointment of Na’Allah.

“I had always thought UNIABUJA was jinxed until Na’Allah came on board. I had every opportunity to attend the University of Abuja when I finished my secondary school at Government Secondary School, Gwagwalada, but I opted for Ahmadu Bello University because UNIABUJA, as at then, was nothing to write home about. To meet up with the surging increase in the number of students being admitted, lecturers had to resort to using various primary schools in Gwagwalada for lectures,” Jamiu explained. “As a result of this, most lectures were always in the evenings or at weekends when the pupils would be at home. Today, what we have is a University and not a mushroom.” 

Jamiu said, “For Allah’s sake, this university was about 30 years old before Na’Allah came on board, and it was operating from a dilapidated secondary school where it started operation. Now we have an aesthetic environment, befitting classrooms, hostels, and accessible roads we can all be proud of.”

Mumuni Alanamu, a staff of the university, and Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the University Vendor, regretted that the COVID-19 lockdown and ASUU strike disrupted Na’Allah’s tenure. Still, they also admitted that his record surpassed all the achievements of the previous five vice-chancellors and the two who operated in acting capacities.

Mumumi said, “To me, the greatest achievement of Na’Allah is in the area of opening up the university. In four years, more hostels have been built, the existing ones have been given a facelift, and more faculties and departments, like Communications Studies, Pharmacy, Nursing, Architecture, Aeronautic Engineering and others, have been established and accredited.” 

Alanamu stressed that the one-term policy of the National Universities Commission prevented students from clamouring for another term for Na’Allah. 

This is also the position of Suleiman, who argued that it’s difficult for anybody to talk about Na’Allah without reference to the university’s position before he assumed the school’s leadership.

“I have been the University vendor for as long as when it was established, and I can tell you that we haven’t gotten it this good under any administrator. If those who graduated between when it was established and 2019, when the current VC came, should visit the school now, they will not believe that UofA has become this good,” Suleiman explained.

In collaboration with Sandia National Laboratory, USA, the Central Laboratory Services unit of the university launched the UNIABUJA Biorisk Management System to ensure the biosecurity, biosafety, and biocontainment of infectious agents and toxins in laboratories. 

Perhaps a little peep into the memory lane is necessary to understand further how the university has fared. 

Established on January 1, 1988, as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning programmes, UNIABUJA was the first University in the country to assume such a dual mandate at inception. According to a director in the Federal Ministry of Education, who didn’t want his name in print, the NUC was mandated to structure the university this way to provide opportunities for junior staff and middle cadre administrators in various ministries and agencies to further their educations.

UNIABUJA was established to provide an institution of higher learning within Abuja, the new Federal Capital, whose objectives will be in stride with the ideals that informed the conception of the city, said the official. The matriculation of pioneer students of the university in 1990 marked the beginning of its academic work in its mini campus, Gwagwalada. In the same year, the university was allocated an expanse of land covering over 11,824 hectares along Abuja-Airport Road to develop its main campus. While the development of structures continued on the university’s main campus, it kept running its regular programmes in the mini campus and its distance learning programmes in Area 3 Garki. Unfortunately, for many years, UNIABUJA failed to meet the academic standards expected of a federal university.

At a time, the university had one of the lowest numbers of employed lecturers, with some departments having just three lecturers and many of the courses not properly run, the director revealed, stressing that “many state universities happen to be much better in terms of academic programmes and infrastructure.”

“This background informed the reasoning behind the decision of the Federal Minister of Education, under Prof Ruquayaat Rufai, to intervene. This intervention took the shape of an order that certain courses being offered by the University, including Medicine and Electrical Engineering, be removed from the course list,” the official pointed out. “A few years later, NUC deleted Law. But today, Na’Allah appears to have restored all. It’s now a University of first choice, with qualified and enough lecturers and conducive environment for learning. Kudos to Na’Allah.”

Responding to his contributions, Na’Allah issued a commendation note on June 30, 2023, in an email to the university community that the credit for all he has achieved should be given to students and staff of the university.

The vice-chancellor said, “Today marks my fourth year as UofA Vice-Chancellor, and I thank God Almighty and thank you all for the work you have done in support of your VC over the years. The truth is that whatever we have achieved over these four years is the result of your hard work and perseverance. It is not a result of anything I have done. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and pray to God Almighty to continue to uplift you and the UofA of Nigeria.”

He said his administration had worked tirelessly to challenge and change the status quo, a development he observed came with its inevitable consequences.”

Na’Allah added, “To many of you, we have brought serious inconveniences, and some even sought to resist some changes most vehemently, and yet some cooperated and worked along despite the hardship, with a belief in God’s support to lead us to a new height.”

In a tribute written in his honour by an international professor of history, Toyin Falola, titled ‘Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah: The poet, playwright, and philosopher’, regarded Na’Allah’s contributions as “awesomeness and remarkable excellence,” noting that he served as vice-chancellor twice of two of the biggest tertiary institutions in Nigeria, Kwara State University (2009-2019) and the University of Abuja (2019-present). 

“With a life devoted to scholarship and profound intellectualism, one that awes and wows me whenever we share moments, as recently as in mid-June, it is perhaps expedient to introduce Na’Allah to sections of the public who must have missed knowing him,” stated Falola. “Abdul-Rasheed, as his first name goes, is a man I fondly associate with tenacity, which may explain his relentlessness and astute doggedness in improving the standards of education in his immediate jurisdiction.”

Considering his background as a poet and playwright, many would have expected Na’Allah to be an armchair critic. But on his appointment as vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja, he vowed to tackle the poor infrastructure of the school as well as facilitate the emergence of merit and distinction in elevating the development of education. 

In four years, the Na’Allah-led administration hasn’t only embarked on broadening the academic base by ensuring the accreditation of new courses by NUC. Still, he has left no stone unturned to recruit round pegs in round holes to assist in realising the dream ofmymy building a university of global status befitting Nigeria’s capital. By expressing his earnest determination to pull through the challenge of relocating the school to its permanent site, Na’Allah has resolved the greatest problems confronting the university’s development since its inception.

Two students of the university, Aramide Akanbi and Toyosi Adekoya of the faculties of Law and Education, respectively, called on their colleagues not to abuse the facilities provided by the management.

Akanbi said, “Beyond the university environment, one of the major challenges we have in the country is a poor maintenance culture, and this is why I want to appeal to my co-students to join hands with the authority to maintain the facilities on the ground.”

Adekoya, the president of the National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS), said, “For over 30 years, we clamoured for a standard university; now we have it, the onus now rests on us all to maintain the structures. The purpose of all these structures and programs will be defeated if we fail on our part to watch over them. Leadership is about leadership and followership.”