A lecturer and Head of Public Administration Department at Bayero University Kano (BUK), Dr Sa’idu Ahmad Dukawa, has said that alumni associations could help address frequent strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigerian universities.
He said they could achieve so using their respective alumni forums to provide the required facilities public universities need, thereby reducing the burden on government alone.
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The university don was speaking at a reunion and awards ceremony organised by BUK Political Science Class of 1999 in Kano on Sunday.
Dr Duklawa said, “If students can go back and look at the condition of their universities by way of assisting their respective departments as well as their old lecturers as well, a lot could be achieved.
“And by the time you also collaborate with other sets of alumni groups, you will have a wider impact. It will also lessen the conflict between ASUU and the Federal Government because you will address so many problems at a time,” he said.
Similarly, the another university don and Head of Political Science department at the university, Professor Mahmud Lawan, said the alumni forums could help the capacity and infrastructure of their alma maters.
“If you go to ABU Zaria for instance, the whole Department of Political Science and International Studies was built by a former student. The universities are in dire need of these assistance. Forget about the fact that TETFund is ther, but it is not enough, they don’t get enough funding to be run,” Professor Lawan added.
On his part the acting Chairperson of the alumni group, and lecturer at Kano state University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil in Kano state, Dr Murtala Muhammad, said the forum has also appreciated some late lecturers in the department with posthumous awards to their families, as well as merit awards to some of their serving lecturers.
The Chairperson said, “We have also created a number of prizes for best students in some selected courses in the department as our little way of supporting them, as well as remember some of our lecturers.
“Some of these prizes include Ibrahim Mu’azzam prize in Political Thought, Prof. Bawa Hassan Gusau proze for Comparative Politics, Mu’azu M. Yusuf prize for Political Ideas, Prof. Kamilu Sani Fage prize for African International Relations, and Professor Attahiru Jega proze for best student in Political Economy,” Dr Muhammad added.
