UNIMAID is playing a key role to end insurgency in Nigeria – VC

Professor Aliyu Shugaba is the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State. He recently paid a courtesy visit to the Corporate Headquarters of Media Trust Limited in Abuja. In this interview, he speaks on how the university’s senate resolved not to close down the university at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, support for vulnerable children and students, partnership with institutions on research and other areas the university has been assisting in the effort to end insurgency in the region. Excerpts:

What is UNIMAID doing separately from its statutory academic responsibility to contribute to the effort of government in the face of the Boko Haram insurgency?

As a university, our core mandate is teaching, research and community service, but with the kind of situation that has come up over the past 10 to 12 years now, we find ourselves in a situation where we just have to work with the state government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and individuals who care to give helping hands to the humanitarian crisis.

There was a time we were visited by the Norwegian ambassador; that was when we started the Safe School Initiative (SSI). Our radio station is deeply involved in SSI; talking to schools.

Many NGOs came to the university with different strategies, but basically asked, “Can we do something different from what you people have been doing?” NGOs like the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Action Against Hunger (AAH). For AAH, they asked, “What can we do to boost food production and also improve the nutrition of people around here?” and we replied, “Can you engage with our Faculty of Agriculture – Department of Food Science and Technology, as well as Departments of Biochemistry, Human Physiology and the rest of them.” So, we put up a team that worked with them; and they were able to come up with something.

We came up with the idea of a Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, because the greatest problem happening in this country is that students graduate and there are no jobs. If you are a student of the university at 300-level in all the disciplines, for a whole semester, we put you through the learning of skills and we have successfully trained over 50,000 students at the centre.

When other NGOs came and saw that we have a robust centre for entrepreneurship, UNDP brought about 1,600 youths drawn from various communities and we trained them.

For those children on the streets doing nothing, especially orphans, because their parents have been wiped out by the insurgency, there is a private school, Future Prowess, collaborating with us. When I was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC Academics), I visited the school a number of times and we discussed how we could come in to help them. After their specifications, we directed our Faculty of Education to send them teachers on voluntary basis.

Interestingly, this year, Future Prowess said they are preparing their students for SSCE, and that they want us to take them through the rudiments of the core subjects. We have arranged classes for them. That school is purely a school for orphans, and I think the proprietor of the school, Barr Zanna Mustapha, got an award recently. So, we are working with him to ensure we are part of the success story.

Recently, I visited the school with my DVC Academics and the registrar of the university, and we told the proprietor that those who are qualify with credits would be given priority in UNIMAID so that they don’t have the difficulty of securing admission elsewhere.

What has kept the university going amid the crisis?

It is the fact that we are in a profession of academics. A university is supposed to be an institution that looks at problems within a community or environment and addresses it; proffering solutions and bringing about development. But here we are with a group (Boko Haram) that is saying that our own professional activities are purely haram (forbidden). And to us, we are assisting the society.

Our student population now is about 75,000 based on the statistics of the National Universities Commission (NUC) last year. Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, is second, with about 60,000. So, UNIMAID has the highest number of students in the country.

At the peak of the crisis and the university with such population, there was no way out of Maiduguri. All the ways out of Maiduguri: to Yola, to Gamboru-Ngala and to Monguno, were taken over by the insurgents. The only way out was from Maiduguri to Damaturu. And even that road, was not safe. We said we couldn’t afford to release our students just like that. Boko Haram would have taken advantage of our students passing there, capture them and either kill them or make them part of them.

So we said since where we earn our living by discharging our responsibility in what we are assigned to do towards the development of the country was being challenged by a group, we resolved not to close down the school. So with that spirit, we agreed that if the VC is killed, somebody succeeds him, and if that person is killed, another person succeeds him.

Besides, if we agreed to close the university, they would have won. So, we weighed all these things, and we said no, let us just forge on, if they want to kill all of us, let them kill us. But it would be said that we died in active service; doing what we know how to do best.

However, we have suffered; our staff have been killed. A bomb blast within the campus at a point killed one of our professors. Our students have been killed in bomb blasts; whether in the town or sometimes close to the university. But that has not deterred us from doing our job.

At a point, the Minister of Education came to the university with the mindset that he was going to close it down, but when he saw the resolve, the spirit, in not just the academic staff, but even in the students, he said no he could not close the university. He asked us what we wanted and how he could support us in such a situation. We submitted our request in writing, and God being so kind, we have received so many supports and interventions since then.

Does the school still maintain diversity after many years of the insurgency?

I want to say with every sense of pride that UNIMAID is the most cosmopolitan university you can think of in this country. There is not a single local government area in the country that does not have a student represented. What affects the representation is the issue of catchment area. Apart from students coming on merit, students with parents teaching in the university or students from Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS), we try as much as possible to draw our students from across the country. When I tell you that we are like MTN – we are everywhere – it is because of our admission policy that draws people from all over the country.

However, during the 2013/2014 session, that was when the Boko Haram crisis was at its peak and the situation became so bad, we did not have anybody applying through the UTME from anywhere except from Borno State, and perhaps Yobe and Adamawa states. So we did not get the required quota of students from UTME.

What is your effort in improving academic culture/quality in your students? 

I don’t know whether the Boko Haram insurgency is a blessing in a way, because it helped us to get more attention from government and NGOs willing to support our academic programmes to improve on our delivery.

The insurgency also made us to come up with relevant degree programmes in biotechnology, nutrition and dietetics, and a Centre for the Study of Violent Extremism, and a Language Centre, because we believe they are important in managing post-insurgency situation.

Are there research alumni of the university supporting the effort to end the insurgency?

Let me draw us some five years back when the insurgency was at its peak. When the air force were having difficulty with their Alpha Jets taking off and landing, we were invited as a university to discuss with the Chief of Air Staff (CAS). We told him we have people who can look at some of their ground facilities and aircraft problems. He grabbed the opportunity and we sent them some of our staff. They first deployed them to their base in Kaduna, then Makurdi. And studying the Alpha Jets, we discovered that the problem is usually with the takeoff and landing gear and the anti-skid braking system. So, we put our men from engineering to work on the problems. We developed a diagnosis bench to test the Alpa Jet, with that we were able to address the problems of the Alpha Jet and it reduced the number of crashing of the aircraft.

Thereafter, we submitted that technology to the Nigerian Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), and before we knew it, it was registered as a patent.

Again, collaborating with the air force, we tried to look at other problems such as the ground machines that would enable aircraft to take off and land safely, and they invited us to Lagos to look at their facilities; we did. But at that time, we said it would no longer be free; we started charging them. In fact, for the Lagos operation, we charged them about N12m and they paid. Prior to that, they brought Pakistani engineers and paid them in dollars, but no progress was made. But when we brought our indigenous engineers, they paid them paltry sums but realised they have people they can use at home. At a point, they wanted to snatch our staff from us and we told the CAS that our students are learning from them and so we can’t release them. So, we have retained our engineers, but we work closely with the air force.

The same thing with the army. The theatre commander of the insurgency called and asked whether we could develop a helmet for his soldiers that can withstand bullets within a certain range. We started working and went far with them.

Not only that, now that the insurgents are surrendering, we were invited by the governor to a stakeholders’ summit and he asked, “What do we do with these people who are now surrendering in en masse?” We gave our opinion like the other stakeholders. However, we are constantly in touch with the state government over this issue because the number one target in Borno State is the university because it teaches book at the highest level.

Other products we have developed by way of research are in the Department of Food Science and Technology and Biochemistry. They are producing very cheap weaning diet for children who are in IDP camps. We are working with the state government to see if they can put in the funds for mass production. This will go a long way in addressing the problem of malnutrition in the IDP camps.