The Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) has been reopened three months after a protest that led to the death of two students. The reopening came with a shocker – the suspension for six months of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Shamsudeen Amali, and other principal officers. KAMALUDDEEN ABUBAKAR (200-Level Geography) reports.
CAN a Vice-Chancellor (VC) be suspended? Yes, he can and we don’t have to look far to see where that has happened. It happened at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) which reopened last week after a three-month closure.
The closure followed the February 25 violence in which two students died.
Amali and others were suspended by the Visitor and Governor of Nasarawa State, Umaru Almakura. Their suspension was part of the recommendations of a panel set up to probe what led to the closure of the school.
Prof Aminu Salihu Mukail has been appointed the Acting Vice-Chancellor. He is a former VC of the Kaduna State University.
Students were asked to pay N1,000 reparation fee before last Friday, failure which defaulters would pay N5,000.
The university was billed to re-open last month after the committee submitted its report. Its Registrar, Talhatu Mamman, in a statement, directed students to resume on April 28, but the government issued a statement, suspending activities on the campus indefinitely.
Penultimate Sunday, Mamman issued another statement, urging the students to resume. The following Monday, students and staff returned for academic activities. SchoolGist.com gathered that lectures started immediately after resumption.
Our correspondent saw freshers moving round the premises to sign their clearance forms, which would authorize them to pay their school fees. According to the academic calendar obtained by SchoolGist, the first semester is expected to end in August.
Our correspondent visited the Faculty of Natural and Applied Science where lectures were held. In one of the lecture halls, a lecturer, Dr. Mahmud Abubakar, was teaching 300-Level Geography students.
Students, who spoke to SchoolGist.com, were excited over the resumption but bemoaned the non-provision of alternative source of water supply for the campus and its off-campus hostels.
The students blocked Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga highway to protest the shortage of water on the campus and its host community. Soldiers from Shittu Alao Barracks moved to the scene to disperse the protesters but in the ensuing melee, two students – Emmanuel Buba, 300-Level Physics and Aminu Usman, 400-Level Geography – were hit by bullets. Their killers are yet to be identified, though the army denied that its troops were responsible for the students’ death.
After the incident, members of the Joint Committee on Education, Water Resource and Security from the Nasarawa State House of Assembly visited the institution in company of the Special Adviser on Youth and Students’ Affair to President Goodluck Jonathan, Comrade Jude Imagwe.
Imagwe presented a N20 million cheque on behalf of the president to help solve the problem of water in and around the campus. But months after, the water crisis persists.
Mary Chukwu, 200-Level Geography, urged the leadership of the institution and government to wake up to their responsibilities. “I am happy we are back in school. I am also happy for some repairs and maintenance work being carried out on some buildings in the school. But honestly, the issue that led to the bloody protest is far from being solved. Up till now, there is no water supply within the campus. The new VC must to focus on this problem and solve it once and for all.”
Zaharadeen Yakubu, 400-Level Psychology, enjoined his colleague to put behind them the memory of the bloody riot, urging them to take their studies seriously. He said: “It is sad that we lost two of our students in the course of the February 25 protest. I lost a course mate to the cold hand of death during the break. But life goes on. We need to face our academic work squarely.”
A 300-Level student, who did not want his name in print, called on the new VC not to toe the path of his predecessor, urging the governor to speed up the construction work on the road that leads to the university.
He said: “Frankly speaking, there is only a little improvement in the school. The water problem has not been resolved despite the Federal Government’s cash donation to sink boreholes. No single borehole has been inaugurated. The construction, which started long ago, is yet to be completed. I welcome the new VC but I want to bring to his notice that, aside the water shortage, students also face challenges such as low staff strength, inadequate lecture rooms and accommodation problem.”
A trader on the campus, who deals in second-hand ladies’ shoes and bags, said business was gradually coming up after the resumption. “Nna, market don dey move o. No be like before when we no dey see any customer from morning go reach evening.”
