31/10/2012 (Leader Newspapers) -  An Interview with the Director, Division of Agricultural Colleges (DAC), Professor Usman Sheikh Abdullahi. By Abdulmumin Balogun.

Sir can you give us a rundown of your profile?

My name is Usman Sheikh Abdullahi; I was born in Kwantagora, Niger State, on the 19th of January 1952.

I went to Madugu primary school in Kwantagora, and then government college Bidda between 1966 and 1970. I came to the School of Basic Studies as the first stream of science students in January 1971 and finished in august 1972.  Then I joined the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1972 and finished in 1977.

I went to Oyo State for National Youth’s Service in 1977. At that time Oyo, Osun and Ogun states were all together as one state and I served at IR and Timor Plantation, a wing of the University of Ife at Moore Plantations in Ibadan. After my NYSC, I joined the Department of Surgery and Medicine in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ahmadu Bello University.

I had a break in 1981 when I went for my postgraduate studies in the University of Edinburgh and came back in 1982. After serving for ten years, I again had a break to join politics in 1992 and that was when the NRC and SDP were floated by the then administration.  So, I served as for up to one year ten months. I then came back to Ahmadu Bello University and resumed my work. Later on, I was appointed the Director of Veterinary Teaching Hospital, after serving in that capacity for years, I was appointed as the Director of Ahmadu Bello University Farm where after serving for six years, I was again appointed in 2010 as the Director of the University’s Division of Agricultural Colleges. 

What was the primary objective of setting up the college?

The Institute, which was established in 1921, was first cited in Maigana in Soba Local Government Area of Kaduna State and its primary objective was to offer training to northern Nigerian farmers on the art and science of modern farming techniques. But when the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) was opened in 1922, the Institute was moved from Maigana to Samaru and was named Samaru College of Agriculture and was made the first training wing of the IAR. So, it was indeed one of the first training colleges in the area of Agriculture in the country.

What Cadre of Agricultural Experts does the College Train?

Ahmadu Bello University was established in 1962, because it was the pride of everyone in Agriculture to excel to the position of Agricultural superintendent, so, the highest you could earn was higher diploma.  So it was the college that people were aiming to come to for this. However,

When the degree programme was started in 1972, the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine had to take over all those responsibilities. Those that preferred to go for do degree in Agriculture applied to ABU but for middle and lower level, manpower people still come  to our College for their diploma and Higher National Diploma.

Do you agree that the quality of education in Nigeria has generally declined?

Well, I am sorry to say people have different views, my view that will help me explain the scenario is that when you look at northern Nigeria, when some of us were trained in primary school, we were given uniform, we were fed in school, we were given all books and writing materials and we had well trained teachers. Even though there were limited primary schools at that time. However the reverse is the case today schools are opened without providing them with all the facilities required for qualify training. So, to answer your question, I can say, ‘yes’.

How do you think the standard could be improved?

Well, it is a community effort that is required. First of all, we must focus on our needs and secondly, we must be able to monitor what we do.  Nobody knows whether the teachers we have in primary schools, secondary schools or even universities are even delivering, there are no means of checks and balances.

There is no school that has enough teachers, there are people that are trained and yet unemployed so even the payment or recruitment for teachers to be able to fill the secondary schools perhaps the state governments may not be able to pay.

So, we have to be focused, we have to look at what we can do, what our resources can achieve for us and we have to concentrate our effort to see where do we have to put emphasis in order to achieve our goals.

I will give you one common example. We have been struggling in this country through ASUU and series of agreements were signed with the federal governments to be able to achieve a world standard in conformity with UNESCO demands but the federal government has been dragging feet over the agreement.

While we have deficiency of University teachers in different disciplines, we have shortage of equipments because science has now become something that is very dynamic and changes are taking place very fast, very rapidly; the world has become a global village that whatever is discovered today, by next tomorrow everybody knows about it in every nook and cranny of the world.

The older institutions did not have teachers and enough equipments but the federal government still went ahead and opened more universities. I see this as attempt to weaken the strength of the older Universities because the few experienced lecturers that we have, have started crossing over to these new Universities.

What would you suggest if the Federal Government asks you to assist it revive the standard of University Education in Nigeria?

Well, as a matter of fact, when you look at the concept of establishing Universities in the world, it differs with what Nigeria is actually doing.

I always look back at my alma-Mata, the University of Edinburgh and look at the way they developed their own system and integrate the system and tried to make a name in their own University.  I will give you one example: A Professor of Geography two years ago wanted to take a leave and he just wanted to relax during his leave and he decided that the only way he will be able to spend his holidays was to go to the Department of Marine and Oceanography which has a ship in the high seas.  While he was relaxing in the evening, he did not know the sea very well but he was enjoying the atmosphere, he took his flashlight and flashed it onto the sea and he discovered that the light was captured by certain things, so, when he put off the light there was still reflection coming from the area that he flashed the light. So, as a novice who did not know what the sea was all about, he asked.  What that was? He was told that it was mackerel fish, which will absorb light and then reflect it back and they use that to be able to congregate to be able to move in a school.  So he said he would like to know what that is all about, so they caught a mackerel for him. What he did was to send the fish to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for skin histology and the histologist said it is normal skin of fish, which we already know. So what is it you are looking for? He said there is something. They said ok, send it to the Faculty of Biochemistry; which tried to analyze what it was all about and then found a certain protein that was responsible for capturing the light and reflecting it back, this kind of thing.

So what the University of Edinburgh did was to identify all their alumni that graduated from the university who worked on skin and sent me a special letter, asking if I were interested?

So, these are the kinds of things which Universities do, they hold a legacy which they try to develop and they encourage people to make contributions based on what will make name for that University and they also try to look for funds in order to be able to capture the research associated with certain discoveries to be the first on the line.

Ninety years in the life of an institution is no joke.  What can you say the college has achieved in its ninety years of existence?

During the 1953 constitutional crisis, there was a crisis of constitutional agreement between the north and the south. The south was looking for independence immediately while the north was looking for self government and independence later. During this period, northerners traveling to the south for trading were humiliated, especially those that wore Hausa dress. Which this problem continued unabated, the late premier of the northern region, assembled his aides and sought to know from them which goods the northerners were going to purchase in the south.  When he gathered that they were traveling to buy mainly palm oil, cola nuts, citrus fruits, pineapples, banana and plantain, he then went to the West Indices and Jamaica and brought six seedlings of palm kernel trees, and believe you me, they are the ones now feeding the whole country with (palm oil) and it was out of it that Malaysia got some and are now feeding the world with. This college played supervisory roles in the planting of these seedlings.  They were planted in Mokwa where the seedlings were reproduced and a plantation was made as the primary nucleous for the start of horticulture at Kabba and which was why the Sardauna cited one of our campuses there.

In 1972, during what was called the three ‘Rs’ – Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation, by the then military Head of State, Gowon, established Palm oil Research Institute where the staff were stationed in those plantations to reproduce all the seedlings that were needed from the same stock Sardauna brought from Jamaica.  These seedlings were also planted in former Bendel, now Delta, Rivers and Edo. But unfortunately nobody links the palm oil produced from these states with Sardauna.

We also embarked on staff training and research on coco to compete with Western Nigeria.  We planted Coco in Kabba and in some other places like Kwara and Mimbila with the help of the Sardauna, cola nut was also planted in Edozigi, Niger State.  the Sardauna vision was what also led to the planting of citrus fruits in Benue under our training and this has made the state the highest producers of this variety of fruits in the country.

We had a cattle range in Mokwa which was developed to the fullest capacity and had no equal in Africa south of Sahara. It had abbatoir with very large slaughter capacity with trucks that were refrigerated for transporting meat to different parts of the country using both the rail and aircraft.

What Legacy would you want to leave behind in the College?

The legacy I would like to leave would be the spirit of cooperation hard work and maintenance of equipment.

In the past, our staff had problem with promotion, because they were not teaching and supervising postgraduate students.  But what I have being trying to do and to leave as a legacy is ensure that our staff cooperate with others to do research and publications, so that they will be able to present themselves for promotion to the positions of atleast Reader which requires that you have to have a number of Postgraduate students you are supervising. You also have to teach certain postgraduate courses.

The integration we are doing is something I know if it is left to continue, believe you me, Ahmadu Bello University would be a different place. Now DAC is forging that cooperation. They are not only cooperating within the college but even between colleges people are cooperating to do research.

Now, what I have been trying to do is source for funds to support research so that you can fund certain researches, to help members of the staff of the college to grow. These are what I would want to leave as my legacy.