Na’Allah’s Drive for Completion of CBN Project in UniAbuja
By Mukhtar Musa Atta
For eight years, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dawdled on the completion of six big physical projects it started at the University of Abuja. The projects, School of Postgraduate Studies Complex, Information and Communication Centre, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Clinical Students Hostel, and Postgraduate Hostel were launched in 2015 as part of the bank’s interventions for the development of tertiary education in Nigeria. But after years of wearisome dragging, occasioned by bureaucratic bottleneck, two of the projects, Postgraduate School Hostel and Faculty of Engineering were handed over to the University last week on campus.
The Vice- Chancellor, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah’s joy knew no bounds as he wrote in an email to the University community, “It (the handover of the completed projects) sure calls for celebration, I want to congratulate us all for this exceptional opportunity.”
But the road to the hand over has not been one paved with ease. The projects which were planned to be completed in January 2018, had stalled just two years after the first set of blocks were laid, and work on them did not resume until 2020, following series of letters to the bank’s authority, visits and interventions championed by Vice-Chancellor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah. In one of the letters sometime in 2020, the vice-chancellor expressed great dissatisfaction with the delay in the completion of the projects, warning that such a procrastination had grave implications for the development of the University. This delay, the CBN would later explain, was occasioned by “marshy site conditions which necessitated the redesign of some of the structures, exchange rate instability, and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The management of the apex bank, however, did give an assurance to “aggressively work to achieve completion of the entire projects on 25th January 2021.” To give teeth to the assurance, the CBN set up a team that would closely monitor the project, substitute imported component of the works with local alternatives and ensure that the contractors increase their work force. Perhaps taking a cue from the bank, the University management had also set up a five-man Implementation Committee to monitor the progress of the projects. The committee, chaired by the dean, Students’ Affairs, Dr Abubakar Umar Kari, and comprised staff of the bursary, works and services, and Department of Physical Development of the University, swung into action nudging the CBN to deliver on its promise.
Then came the deadline of 25th January 2021, and the projects did not make significant progress. “The bottleneck around getting these projects completed is incredibly unimaginable,” a staff who felt a pang of frustration had told me. But the University management did not rest on its oars, as it began a fresh routine of mounting pressure on the bank to deliver on its promise.
The stalling of the projects for almost a decade has had its grave implications for the University whose vice chancellor has been working round the clock to lift from its modest state to a world class status, helping to speed up development of physical infrastructures including construction and furnishing of Academic Staff Office Complex for Faculty of Agriculture, construction of Male Hostel, construction of Fence Wall phase II, asphalting of road to Staff Quarters, construction and furnishing of Academic Conference Centre, and resetting the academic profile of the University.
Said Kari, “Over these years, our medical students have suffered a lot because they could not be well accommodated, they have been attacked at some point by hoodlums, and our admission quota for medicine was pegged for a long time between 50 and 75 students per intake because of lack of space. Also, the efforts by the vice-chancellor to open up the Faculty of Engineering to accommodate new programmes such as aeronautical engineering, railway engineering etc, were s slowed down by the delay in the completion of the projects. But now things are changing fast.”
Last week, Thursday, at the ceremony to handover the projects to the University, the deputy vice-chancellor, administration, Professor Philip Afaha, who received the CBN team, worried that an institution such as the University of Abuja, which is the only public university in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had to suffer this long to have the projects completed.
The two new state-of-the-arts buildings, which are large enough to accommodate hundreds of students, will be the envy of many, he said, adding that the vice-chancellor had promised to “ensure new maintenance regulations to keep and sustain the excellent facilities in them.”
The question on the lips of the staff and students who were gleefully gathered at the handover ceremony and praising the Vice-Chancellor for “his commitment, perseverance and doggedness towards making this day a reality” was: when would the CBN hand over to the University the rest of the three buildings, namely ICT Centre, Faculty of Science building (new), and Postgraduate School complex?
As far as the CBN team led by the head of Project Planning and Implementation Division, Arc Amina Oni, was concerned, the projects would be completed and handed over before the end of the year. “That will be a great win for us,” Kari said, but he pointed out that if the assurances of the bank were anything to go by, the University would need to keep its fingers crossed.
The completion and hand over of the projects would contribute to changing the face of the University, said the Director of Department of Physical Planning, Mr Ezekiel Ripiye. “One of the advantages of the project completion is that we are going to have more spaces for our staff and students. Another is that it will help to beautify our campus,” he explained.
The management of the institution led by Vice -Chancellor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, will be keeping tabs on the CBN’s level of commitment to deliver on this promise in the next couple of months. These are projects Na’Allah would very much love to see completed and handed over as part of his achievements before he leaves office in July next year. Then he would have cause to smile that like some of the abandoned projects he met on campus, and many he initiated, he will be leaving with the sense of fulfillment that he has given a new lease of life to the University of Abuja during his tenure as vice-chancellor.
Mukhtar Musa Atta writes from the Federal Housing Lugbe, Abuja
