‘UNIMAID must look for ways to generate additional income’

Professor Yaqub A. Geidam is a member of the Governing Council of the University of Maiduguri. In this interview he explains measures taken to deal with the challenges facing the university.

The university is currently facing various challenges. How can you resolve these challenges?

One of the most serious of these challenges is the recent huge security challenge brought about by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents. As you are aware, the university is located in the epicentre of the Boko Haram crisis that started since 2009. The vice chancellor adequately briefed council on the precarious security situation on the campus at the inaugural meeting and some of the measures put in place to protect lives and property. Perhaps you may wish to know that the cost of fencing the exposed area of about 27km is very exorbitant. Concerted efforts are being made by the vice chancellor and council to get the Federal Government release funds immediately to erect a parametre fence and procure modern security gadgets that will be very helpful in preventing any criminal from carrying out reprehensible activities.

The other serious challenge faced by the university is gross underfunding. The funding of education in Nigeria generally has been very poor. This affects teaching, learning and research. I would advocate to council to reach out to the private sector, non-governmental organisations and alumni of the university to solicit for support to fund research, staff development, to build infrastructure and equip our libraries with modern tools for accessing materials easily.

The third serious challenge is decay and obsolete infrastructure such as roads, classrooms and laboratories. As you may be aware, the university is some 42 years old. Most of the facilities were meant for a limited number of students. The university today has over 60,000 students and the facilities cannot meet the demands of these students. This problem requires funds also. I would ensure that the management gives priority to infrastructural development in the next four years to meet the challenge of growing student and staff population. Council will examine the university’s strategic plan in due course to see how it can be improved to meet the present reality.

You mentioned paucity of funds as a problem. Are you looking for ways to increase the income of the university?

One of the initiatives that will improve the internal revenue base of the university is to make some of the faculties to be proactive and business minded. For instance, I see no reason why the Faculty of Agriculture cannot venture into large scale agricultural development in the university; which will earn a lot of money. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine can be encouraged to go into fattening of cows, breeding of high breed goats and poultry farming, which will be very lucrative in this part of the country.

The University Consultancy Service can be made to organise these activities even if it means getting loans from banks with low interest rates. We have the trained manpower to effectively and efficiently handle these activities. The faculties can also use them as training outfits for their students. I will not support increase in school fees as the sons and daughters of the poor will be denied university education on account of lack of money, which is morally wrong and another recipe for disaster.

The university can approach state governments in the catchment area and present relevant research proposals to address their needs and concerns and I assure you that they will get funding. One of the roles of universities is to solve societal problems. For instance, if there is a well thought out research proposal on ‘Understanding and Forestalling Boko Haram Insurgency’ from the university, the governors in the North East will find it interesting and necessary to fund it. This will keep our researchers in the university busy and it will attract funds to the university.

How does the university council plan to improve the welfare of staff?

Most of the staff unions, especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have well established welfare schemes for their members. This has undoubtedly guaranteed loyalty of the membership. These welfare schemes include payment of huge sums of money to the families of any member that dies; securing loans to members from banks; provision of laptop computers to members to be paid back in instalments and so on. The management also has some staff welfare incentives aimed at motivating staff, which includes giving out end of year bonus to staff; giving out loans and salary advances.

However, these gestures seem to be affected by lack of funds in recent times.