The Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Patricia Manko Lar, says her five-month tenure has restored peace, entrenched good governance, upheld academic integrity, and spurred massive infrastructural development in the institution.
Speaking to the media in Abuja, the Nigerian leader’s appointee said she inherited a university divided along lines of opinion, religion, ethnicity, politics, and intolerance to student and staff agitation — factors she said hampered the institution’s growth.
“I met a very toxic environment saturated with groupings, an unmotivated workforce discontented with the system. I was inundated with over 300 petitions on promotions and workers’ welfare,” she said.
She said she visited the university’s 17 faculties within her first month to engage with staff and student leaders and identify pressing challenges. She discovered anomalies in appointments, delayed promotions — some overdue for six years — decayed infrastructure, and a system that suppressed student activism.
To tackle the issues, Professor Lar said she appointed three senior professors as advisers on academics, administration, and research, and replaced several heads of departments and directorates.
“The pragmatic effort ensured that academic and non-academic members of staff, who had been denied promotion for years, were assessed and promoted. No fewer than 40 Professors and Associate Professors whose promotions were delayed over the years were elevated,” she said.
On student leadership, she said she facilitated peaceful union elections, reactivated the Student Affairs Directorate, and held town hall meetings to address student welfare.
“Prior to my appointment, the different unions in the university — ASUU, SSANU, NASU — were enmeshed in crisis. Through dialogue and diplomacy, I reconciled the aggrieved factions, and the university currently enjoys peaceful working relationships,” she said.
She said these efforts have improved staff and student commitment, enhanced lecture attendance, and ensured hitch-free examinations.
On infrastructure, the Acting VC said repair works on classrooms, lecture halls, hostels, toilets, and boreholes are ongoing — some with support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
She added that TETFund funding had also been secured to equip biomedical and engineering laboratories, while partnerships have been signed with corporate bodies for hostel construction, research centres, agricultural facilities, and entrepreneurship hubs.
“As a scientist, I am making frantic efforts to increase the global ranking of the university through cutting-edge research,” she said.
She said the university commissioned several projects, including the Minister of Communications’ fibre-to-hostels initiative and the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) plant project, which attracted donations of CNG buses and tricycles.
“We also built car parks and directed that campus shuttle services with university vehicles should be free. We are developing a mobile transport app to support an easy and organised campus shuttle,” she said.
She said partnerships with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and private tech firms led to the launch of the “Smart Campus Abuja” initiative, providing high-speed Wi-Fi on campus. Students were also empowered through entrepreneurship activities at the SIWES Centre and Centres of Excellence hub.
She said the university also initiated periodic engagement with neighbouring communities to foster mutual understanding, especially since some students reside in settlements around the university’s land.
On expansion plans, Professor Lar said the university intends to venture into commercial agriculture, tourism, stadium construction, and a staff estate development.
“We have over 11,000 hectares of land, with mountain ranges. We are signing MOUs for agricultural ventures and tourism development. We have already initiated discussions with the association of dairy producers,” she said.
She said efficient use of the federal government-built 3-megawatt hybrid solar plant had cut energy costs on campus, providing stable daytime power and reducing diesel consumption from three tankers monthly to one in two or three months.
She added that the university is set to expand its distance learning capacity to reach up to 20,000 online students, aiming to reclaim its leadership in Nigeria’s distance education sector.
On academic development, she said the university is working towards accrediting over 30 new programmes, with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria recently increasing its admission quota from 75 to 200.
She said the institution is also aligning with modern technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, while inviting philanthropists to invest in its future.
Professor Lar expressed optimism that with the newly appointed board by President Tinubu and the elected council members, the university will experience stronger governance, academic growth, research advancement, and global partnerships.
PIAK