Professor Ibrahim Yahaya Yaro addressing journalists
By Sule Aliyu Bauchi
Barely 24 hours after the management of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University dismissed the legislation process by the National Assembly to convert the institution from a specialized University of Technology into a conventional university, a group of academicians strongly opposed the rejection.
Addressing newsmen in Bauchi, the Chairman of Bauchi South Academic Forum, Professor Yahaya Ibrahim Yero, expressed surprised with the attitude of those who have reservation on the conventionalization of ATBU.
Professor Yahaya Yero challenged them to show to the world, what the university invented in its 37 years of existence as a science and technology institution which is of benefit to humanity.
According to him, although it is a conventional university, three academic staff of Bayero University Kano were recently recognized among top world scientists for the year 2025.
He challenged the ATBU management to show to the world, any grand secured by its science and technology lecturers from any international organization in the world.
Yaro however said, recently a Professor of Mass Communication from Bayero University Kano was able to secure a grand of 250 billion Naira from Mac-Arthur Foundation, despite the fact that the university was not science and technology based.
Also speaking, Professor Muhammed Rabiu Sani, observed that conventionalizing the ATBU will have a lot of advantages for the institution, students and Bauchi state at large.
Professor Rabiu Sani commended Senator Shehu Buba Umar for initiating the process of conventionalizing the university and urged him not to relent his effort in that direction.
He noted that Bauchi should use the opportunity at hand to upgrade the university to a conventional institution, saying that in the next 2- to 30 years, the process may not be easy.
In his contribution, Dr Musa Mudi Jahun, assured that as a group, they will continue to back the National Assembly until this effort is achieved.
Dr Mudi Jahun observed that federal universities similar to ATBU in Adamawa and Benue states who were conventionalized, are now witnessing development in their enrolment, income and academic performances
ATBU Alumni while addressing journalists on the issue said that the Varsity is not aware of any legislation to repeal the establishing law and amend it to convert the Institution to a conventional university.
The Institution distanced itself from the ongoing process at the Senate of Nigeria to change the law establishing the University from technology-based to a conventional institution.
The Vice Chancellor of the varsity who spoke through the Registrar, Alh. Kabir Garba Aminu, while briefing journalists in Bauchi said that the management also heard about the development in the news without being consulted before the initiation of the bill.
“Myself and the VC just woke up one morning to see a clip that our enabling law is going to be reviewed to convert the University from specialised to conventional institution, it came to us as a shock and surprise.
“We are making clear that the process to change the law of establishing the Institution should start from the University. There are procedures if there are needs for the law to be amended.
“Our is that the University has not been contacted, there has not been a time where anybody contacted the School that there would be a review of the law. Universities operate as a system with organs responsible for the review of the law,” he said.
He explained that, “In the University system, we have organs of administration, the Senate of the University and the Governing Council. These two organs have not been consulted by anyone about the move to alter the establishment laws of the University.”
The Registrar said that, “You may wish to know that, as of this moment that we are talking, there has not been any official communication to the University Management and the Community. I, as the Registrar, who is the custodian of the laws and regulations of the University, have not been contacted by anyone for any input, The Vice-Chancellor, who is the chief administrative and academic officer of the University, was not consulted, neither was the Chairman of Council nor the Senate.”
He added that, “The University did not receive any information to that effect from the Federal Ministry of Education or the National Universities Commission (NUC). Everything is done on social media.”
The Registrar, however, said that the University has made its position known; it is not aware of the process and therefore has no argument other than that it does not support the development and will ensure that the opposition to it stands.
Asked if Senator Shehu Umar Buba, sponsoring the bill, contacted the University about it, he answered that there was no contact, stressing that, “As an institution created by law, we are to be contacted before anything can be done to the law. We will not look for him; he should rather look for us, which he has not done.”
The Registrar then said that he has submitted a position paper to the various organs and , “We will attend the public hearings any time, anywhere, to stress our position.”
The National President of the University’s Alumni, Muhammad Sani Wada, expressed disappointment in the process, saying that Alumni rejected the ongoing amendment, saying that the University remains the only Institution specialising in Technology in the whole of North East.
“ATBU was established with FUTA and FUTO and they are doing very well to bridge the technology gap in the industry.
“We have seen our state and federal governments sponsoring students on foreign scholarships to study specialised courses but we are in the process of collapsing our own few specialised universities. We urged our distinguished Senator to channel more of his constituency projects to the Institution, instead of making an effort to convert it to conventional varsity,” he said.
Wada said ALUMNI, supported the University Management against the move to change the establishment law of the University from technology-based to conventional.
He declared that the position of the Alumni is that the process was uncalled for, as it will set the University back considering the various feats it has achieved since it was established as a technology-based University.
According to him, “If you check very well, we have not fewer than eleven conventional universities surrounding ATBU. What then do we need to convert it to another conventional university for?”
The National President of the Alumni said that, “Instead of wasting energy and resources on changing the law, Senator Shehu Umar Buba should put energy into supporting the University to do better. He can establish an endowment, build more lecture theatres, buy vehicles, and other development programmes; his name will be written in gold.”
ATBU which was established in 1980 as Federal University of Technology, Bauchi and was renamed after the Prime Minister of Nigeria Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University.
The Senator representing Bauchi South, Shehu Buba had sponsored the bill and had passed second reading which was referred to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund for further legislative work.
The Senate had on October 21st, 2025 passed the second reading of a bill seeking to amend the University Act to remove “Technology” from the institution’s name and convert it into a conventional university.
The amendment bill, titled Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (Amendment) Bill 2025 (SB 910), aims to broaden the university’s mandate beyond science and technology, allowing it to introduce courses in law, social sciences, and other non-technical disciplines
