Abdul Rahman can make FULafia 5th best in Africa — Prof. Al-Bishak

The Directorate of Linkages and Advancement (D&LA) of the Federal University of Lafia (FULafia) was established by Professor Shehu Abdul Rahman, the third substantive vice-chancellor of FULafia. The Directorate was established to explore opportunities for possible collaborations with institutions, agencies, industries and individuals, within and outside Nigeria, for training and research and for overall development and advancement of the University. Since its inception, the directorate has been achieving its mandate of attracting viable mutually beneficial linkages and partnerships, leading to a positive internationalisation of the University as a worlds class institution. The directorate is being pioneered by a seasoned academic, the FULafia Orator and a Poet, Professor Malam Al-Bishak, who, in this interview, led FULafia – Bulletin into the inner workings of the directorate.

Question: The Directorate of Linkages and Advancement is a newly established directorate. Sir, please, highlight some functions of the directorate.

Answer: Thank you very much.

The Directorate of Linkages and Advancement of the Federal University of Lafia (FULafia) was established by Professor Shehu Abdul Rahman.

As a directorate, the office served two main purposes of linkage and advancement. The linkages is to explore opportunities for possible collaborations and partnership with institutions, agencies, industries, foundations, fellowship, research grants, scholarship, technical aids and individuals, within and outside Nigeria, for training and research and for overall development and advancement of the University. The Advancement aspect is to promote the image of the University through the production of news letters to project the uniqueness of the achievements, accomplishments, research outputs, innovations being achieved by the staff and students of the University. I want to disclose to you that the first news letter will be published in three major international languages. The languages are – English, French and Arabic languages. This is to promote the University and give it global visibility for it to be able to attract viable mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships that can lead to a positive internationalisation of the University as a world class institution.

Question: Recently, in an action that can largely be attributed to your effort, FULafia adopted its own slogan that says: FULafia a rare gemstone. Please, shed some light on this development.

Answer: Universities now create some mileage through slogan to be identified with their institutions. For example, in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, the will say “ABU naturally ahead”, in University of Ilorin they’ll say: “Better by far”. But here we say: “FULafia a rare gemstone”.

Question: What informed the choice of “FULafia a rare gemstone”?

Answer: You see, of the 41 precious stones found in Nigeria, Nasarawa State has 39 and so the rarest precious stones found in Nigeria are in Nasarawa State. Therefore, we used those gemstones to symbolise the activities and accomplishments of FULafia. Other than that, if you look around you will see signposts with some names edged on them. People give a token amount of six thousand naira only to the directorate to write their names on the signpost so that when they retire from service, died or leave this University, they’ll still be remembered, their children, grandchildren, relations who are in the University, or will visit the University in the future, will see something to remember them that their relation once worked here. Allow me to say that advancement activity is an important aspect of alumni functions. Alumni are our ex-students who we work hand-in-gloves with them to see how we develop some businesses so as to empower and help the University. In some universities abroad, former students fund budget of their institution to the tune of about 40%. So, we are working towards achieving that goal in FULafia. The Advancement Unit will also produce souvenirs like T-shirts, facecaps, keyholders, badges, bags, e.t.c., that will bear the name of the University to sale to staff and students to improve the image and visibility of the University.

Question: Sir, what informed the decision of the University Management to upgrade the former Advancement Unit to a directorate?

Answer: Well you know the directorate before now existed as a unit and was headed by the deputy registrar. Now it was upgraded and merged to become a directorate and headed by a professor. This idea brought by the vice-chancellor was intended to make the department come up with some workable concepts that could lead to the realisation of the University’s mission and vision.

Question: What are some of the challenges you face as a directorate?

Answer: The basic challenges we face now is lack of awareness. A lot of people were not aware of our activities but we are planning to carry out some advocacy visit to facilities, centres, colleges, to propagate our activities. Soon, everyone will get to know about the activities of our directorate.

Question: Sir, how does the directorate work towards realising the vice-chancellor’s dream of making the university fifth in universities’ ranking in Africa?

Answer: I have worked with the vice-chancellor, Professor Shehu Abdul Rahman, for about 15 years now. I work with him when he was a deputy vice-chancellor at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, and then at Federal University Gashua, Yobe State, where he assigned me to write the university anthem. Abdul Rahman, later, appointed me a visiting lecturer in Gashua. Therefore, I know Abdul Rahman well, he means what he says and says what he means, he cares so much about standard and, I’ve no doubt, he’ll drive this institution to excellence. He believes in the division of responsibilities. Once he gives you assignment or challenge, he wants you to succeed and excel. Some of the things that distinguish him from many others include his sense of humility, objectivity, fair mindedness and he appreciate those who work hard. Yes, he appreciates you when you work hard. What motivated me to continue to work with him was that when the Federal Government sacked the 12 vice-chancellors of the then newly established universities with Gashua as one of them, he shocked me by paying me a surprised visit at my house, when I was in the Nasarawa State University Keffi. I asked him: ‘why did you come sir?’ He said to me: “I come to say thank you for working along side me while I was in Gashua. You are one of the two people that made me to succeed while I was in Gashua.” I was completely humbled by his speech and simplicity and I thought that I should say thank you to him for he gave me the chance to be a visiting lecturer in Gashua, not the other way round. That kind of humility and sense of responsibility are so overwhelming. We, at the directorate, therefore, our plans and activities are geared to make the vice-chancellor actualise his mission to drive FULafia to an enviable height.

Thank you!