Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu: The Ibn Khaldun of Our Time
By Hassan Auwal Muhammad
INFOMEDIA – Kano has been striving to attract outstanding individuals in various fields, ranging from travel businesses, industrialization, Agriculture, Religious and Western education. Such prominent individuals are the backbone of Kano’s role in the development of its various sectors.
In the past, Religious study was the most important form of Education. Some people had a negative perception of western education, whereby, some people called it ‘Bokoko a Wuta’, meaning education that leads you to hell. over the past several years in Kano State, as well as other parts of Northern Nigeria, that had been the trend.
. As time went on, the state of Western education had begun to gain acceptance by the people of Kano State, where more and more advanced schools had been built in search of western education.
The largest and most prestigious school in Kano State was Abdullah Bayero College that has since been re-named Bayero University, Kano. The school has nurtured many students and scholars who made Kano what it is today.
Every area of knowledge has its specialties, and people will rarely have experience in a variety of fields. For example, it can be difficult for someone who specialized in the area of health to be involved in the area of communications, or for someone who is studying political science to return to health.
However, there are certain categories of people upon whom God has bestowed unique abilities, which made them different from their peers and contemporaries. There are not many such people, and even if you find them, it is mostly in countries that are advanced in terms of their education and economic growths. Their research in different fields often allows them to be unlike other people.
Kano State, as I mentioned earlier, used to be one of the least considered cities in the world as regards the number of people with a high level of Western education. However, after discovering the benefits of it, there are many gifted individuals with an extensive background in research such as Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu.
Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu (born 25th April 1956 in Daneji, Kano city), in his story, as told by all those who had grown up with him, friends and relatives, testified that since childhood, he has been passionate about research different areas of knowledge.
His father, the late KANTOMA of Kano state, Dr. Muhammadu Uba Adamu, was a renowned scholar through whose guidance and inspiration, Prof. Abdallah began his research, which later earned him the respect of being a full-blown researcher in different areas of knowledge.
After graduating from primary and secondary schools, he decided to study medicine but failed to secure admission to the university of his choice, which later forced him to go for a B.Sc. in Education, Biology, and Physiology in 1979 at Ahmadu Bello University.
He did his National Service at a high school in Umoarkrika, Imo State, before he proceeded to Chelsea College, the University of London where he earned a Master of Arts in Science Education in 1983. He earned his doctorate from the University of Sussex in 1988 under the sponsorship of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.
He started teaching as an assistant graduate at Bayero University, Kano in 1980. He re-invested himself in the field of research, which led to him becoming a Professor in Science Education in 1997 and also the youngest Professor in Bayero University at the time.
Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu, presented his Professorial Inaugural Lecture in 2004, entitled ‘Sunset at Dawn, and Darkness at Noon: Reconstructing the Mechanisms of Literacy in Indigenous Communities’ in which he explored the use of Arabic alphabet as Hausa language literary devices in Ajami writings.
He proposed what he called ‘Ajamisation of Knowledge’ as an alternative educational strategy, for millions of Qur’anic school pupils to acquire contemporary education in a literary script they know, rather than the Latin alphabet.
Professor Adamu was a Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar at the Centre for Studies in Higher Education, the University of California, Berkeley from 1991 to 1992. While there, he wrote a monograph, Reform and Adaptation in Nigerian University Curricula, published by The Edwin Mellen Press, New York, in 1994, which explores the transfer of educational influence and structures from the United States to Nigeria, and the substitution of the British educational system in Nigeria in the process.
Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu commissioned lectures at Rutgers State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick (2015); the University of Warsaw, Poland (2012); Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures; Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland (2012); University of Florida (2010), University of Basel, Switzerland (2009); Barnard College, Columbia University, New York (2007); School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London (2006); and Institute of Afrinkanistic, University of Cologne, Germany (2004).
Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu started his study in Media after the emergence of the film industry in Kano State in the 90s. From that time on, his focus shifted from Education to Communication. He earned his second professorship in media and cultural communication in 2012, from the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano.
In addition to his first degree in Science Education from the Faculty of Education. Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu is the first Nigerian to hold a dual professorship in two very different disciplines. He has over 117 publications, most of which were published outside the country.
He had also attended and presented papers in more than 200 conferences and workshops. In fact, he is scheduled for another workshop at the University of Florida in October 2020. He is the only few academics willing to tell the world about the intellectual output through his own independent website at www.auadamu.com.
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In the knowledge of computers, Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu is said to be among the first few people with a vast knowledge of computers at Bayero University, Kano. He was the first person to bring the computer PC 1512 to Kano State in 1988 before the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Mukthar, became the second person to bring it to Kano.
With the introduction of the internet, he was the first person to type Hausa words into a computer with a hooked top showing the change of meaning from one word to another.
He served also as Director of Management Information System (MIS) at Bayero University, Kano. Although Professor Abdallah has never studied Hausa as a course, his deep knowledge of Hausa literature has led many to wonder whether Hausa was his area of specialization.
Prof. Adamu’s vast knowledge of Geography and Public Administrations made him stand out among the rest. In the entertainment industry, Professor Abdallah excelled in the field of Hausa Rap, which led to the formation of a musical concert during the British Council era in Kano State.
The Government of President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu as the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria due to his expertise and research. He assumed office in February 2016 and will leave on 10th February 2020, almost six months from now.
His arrival was imminent, and he saw that the university itself was not considered as the national university but rather a regional university.
His first move was to nationalize it by ensuring that all the six principal officers of the university come from the six geopolitical zones of the country. This is the only university with this administrative structure.
He immediately began a plan to ensure that the Headquarters of the university relocated from Lagos to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, despite the threats and challenges he faced.
Without hesitation, he began expanding the new headquarters of the university in Abuja, and in a short period moved from Lagos to Abuja.
He also stopped the outsourcing of students’ portal and facilitation to third party companies and created Directorates in the university that handled all these functions, saving the government a huge sum of money. Here are a few of the achievements so far made by professor Abdallah Uba Adamu as the vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN):
2-From the very beginning, the first step he made was ensuring the relocation of the university headquarters from Lagos State to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
3-He has built numerous study centers across Nigeria, especially in the northern part of the country. He encouraged politicians to use their constituency projects to build the centers. Due to his persuasion, about 18 were built in Kano, 15 by Distinguished Senator Barau Jibril in his Senatorial District, two by Honourable Aminu Suleiman in Fagge and Kwaciri, and the biggest and most impressive of all, the one by Honourable Mustapha Bala Mai Gidan Ruwa at Dawakin Kudu. This last one is the biggest and most comprehensive in Nigeria. In fact, it is better than many universities, yet it is only a study center. Other places he fought for study centers include Katsina, Jigawa, Delta, Ondo, and the Edo States.
4-Abdallah has worked hard to employ many young people at the university under the Employment Act, and with the permission of the legal organs of the Government, and many young Nigerians have been employed in different capacities at the university, particularly in Computer Science. This was before IPPIS stopped employment.
5-He has improved the school’s internet system so that students can read and research information on various subjects easily. During the Pandemic lockdown, NOUN was the only university conducting an online Pen-on-Paper examination using Artificial Intelligence software that detects cheatings. The students did the examinations at home without going to any Study Center.
6-Professor Abdallah found a Mosque at the National University Headquarters in Abuja already built by the contractors building the University. To show his liberal attitude when the Christian community asked for a place of worship, he allocated lands to Protestant and Catholics for them to build their Churches, but informed them that they have to source the money to build their worship places as it is not Government policy to build workshop places for either Muslims or Christians. Even the Mosque was built privately by a contractor without any Government funding. Thus one of his greatest efforts was to unite the staff of the university by working together without any discrimination based on race, religion, or ethnicity.
7-He has worked tirelessly with other major universities in the world to improve the academic system at the university he leads.
8-Abdallah built Media Centre for the University at its Jabi Headquarters in Abuja.
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Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu is a philanthropist, a man of the masses, easy-going, man of his words because no matter what, he will not lie to you about something he cannot do just to impress you. Above all, he is incorruptible. In the use of language, both Hausa and English, you can say he is an orator.
When he speaks in the Hausa language, you would assume he cannot speak the English language at all, but when he addresses you in the English language, you would think Professor Abdallah is an English man.
He was crowned NZE OKAA OMEE, a traditional title in the Awene Ezema Olo Kingdom of Ezeagu LGAEnugu state. Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu will complete his term as vice-chancellor on 10th February 2021 and return to Bayero University Kano and resume duties on 1st March 2021.
He has one wife and four children and says he is not ready to marry another wife as the one he has, whom he married in 1987 as his first and last wife, is more than four wives. His children are all grown up, except the youngest who is 13 years. One is a married computer programmer, another Barrister who lives outside the country with her family, and the only male is a Businessman.
Hassan Auwalu Muhammad is a student of Journalism at Faculty of Communication, Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano.
