University Rejects Rumours of Program Cuts and Department Shutdowns

The current management of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi is allegedly planning to cancel some courses and shut down some departments and faculties within the institution. The Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, has denied the claim, calling it a purely irrational and unsupported rumor of the group’s members’ imaginations.

AtBU’s Director of Information and Public Relations, Zailani Bappa, told journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) Press Center that Vice Chancellor Prof. Ibrahim Hassan has no plans to eliminate any faculty or end any courses or programs.

The news release from the Bauchi State Concerned Citizens essentially addresses two topics. Since the VC did not engage in any such behavior, none of the accusations are accurate.

“The Federal Government has decided that all universities should return to the original mandate of their establishment,” stated Dr. Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, who recently called a meeting of all vice chancellors and chairs of the governing councils of federal universities.

Since ATBU was founded as a technology-based university, as you are all aware, additional management education courses were added. Zalani stated, “The Federal Government now wants the status quo maintained.”

It was a direction that needed to be followed, he said, not a decision made by the VC or the Governing Council.

Regarding the lack of financing for the remote learning directorate, he clarified that due to recent developments, funding the Directorate would be a waste because the majority of the courses are management education. For this reason, the Directorate was put on hold.

Because the VC and the Governing Council are powerless to alter the narrative, Zailani Bappa emphasised that knowledge of the situation was necessary.

He urged the concerned citizens of Bauchi State and other interested parties to collaborate and back Shehu Buba Umar, the senator for the Bauchi South Senatorial District in the NASS, in his efforts to have the law that created the ATBU as a technology-based university changed to allow for additional courses.

Nothing can be done to stop the continuous reversion to the status quo ante, he said, unless the university’s law was changed to make it a normal university.

It’s yet unclear how the Federal Government and other pertinent agencies will address the issues brought up.
The future of ATBU, however, is viewed by many in Bauchi as being essential to the socioeconomic and intellectual advancement of the state.