Prof Ibrahim Adamu Kolo, the Vice-Chancellor reputed to have laid the foundation for the modernisation of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) in Lapai, Niger State, has died, throwing the institution into mourning. The “people’s VC,” died on Saturday in Abuja. MAHMUD ABDULSALAM reports.
The death of the immediate past Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Prof Ibrahim Adamu Kolo has thrown the institution into mourning. Kolo died on Saturday, after a brief illness.
He was 62.
CAMPUSLIFE gathered that he died at a private hospital in Abuja. Staff and students flocked his family home in Minna, the Niger State capital, to pay their last respects to the VC, who they described as “the man who modernised the university campus”.
His successor, Prof Muhammad Nasir Maiturare, in a statement, described his death as a colossal loss to the school, the state and academia.
The statement signed by the Registrar, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi, reads: “On behalf of the entire members of the school, I regret to announce the death of my immediate predecessor, Prof Ibrahim Kolo, a scholar of international standing. He was a university administrator with uncommon vision, leadership sagacity and charisma. He was a don par excellence and a distinguished researcher with an intimidating scholarly credential.
“The late Prof Kolo will not only be remembered for his sterling contributions to the growth of IBBU, but also for his exemplary, purposeful and trailblasing leadership style, which made our university to stand out in the comity of state-owned higher institutions.
“It would be a profligate attempt trying to catalogue the streams of outstanding achievements recorded during his stewardship as the VC. As such, we beseech Almighty Allah to welcome and grant his noble soul eternal rest.”
At the Fidau (special funeral prayers) held at the late Kolo’s residence on Monday, Prof Maiturare, reiterated his promise to consolidate on his predecessor’s “profound legacies of purposeful leadership and infrastructural development”.
In glowing tributes, some members of the university community described the late Kolo, a professor of Guidance and Counselling, as the man who brought IBBU out of obscurity.
Despite the popularity of former military leader Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, for whom the school is named, only few people knew IBBU beyond the perimeter of Niger State, while many thought it is a private university established by the general.
“This was the situation on ground when Prof Kolo came on board as the VC,” Aliyu Vulegbo, a 2013 Mass Communication graduate, told CAMPUSLIFE.
He said: “The school was grappling with multifarious developmental challenges. But when the late Prof Kolo came on board, the IBBU’s story changed for good in his five-year stint as VC.
“Prof Kolo introduced policies that accelerated the popularity and the growth of the school in academics and infrastructure. But, his greatest legacy would be the relocation of the university from Kobo campus to its permanent site and he got the National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation for 19 out 21 programmes offered by the school at inception.
“Prof Kolo had a dream to turn IBBU into a world-class citadel of learning. During his administration, he leveraged Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) interventions and grants to re-organise the school’s architecture and improve staff’s skills. He bequeathed a post-graduate school to the institution and initiated linkage programmes with a number of international universities, notable of which is IBBU’s partnership with the University of Arkansas.”
Mrs Fatima Katcha, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, hailed Prof Kolo’s infrastructural drive for the full NUC approval of all the academic programmes offered by the school.
Before Prof Kolo assumed the mantle, Mrs Katcha said, there were no befitting offices for lecturers. Most lecturers, according to her, used some classrooms as their offices; science lecturers converted laboratories to their offices.
She said: “Nobody will dispute Prof Kolo’s scorecard as VC. He was amazingly brilliant and exceptional. His first concern, when he stepped in, was the non-accreditation status of our academic programmes and state of infrastructure in the school. Upon his assumption in 2010, he awarded contracts for the comprehensive furnishing of lecturers’ offices and several faculty buildings. He also renovated some dilapidated lecture halls and departmental laboratories, which prepared the ground for full accreditation.
“Prof Kolo went on to establish more faculties and introduced new courses, including Geology, Food Science and Technology, Science Education, History and International Studies, among others. There are many good things to say about the late Prof Kolo. In short, he was a man of the people, based on his leadership style. He was committed to enhancing staff welfare and regularly sent lecturers on capacity-building workshops.”
In his drive for infrastructural renewal, the late Kolo supported the school subvention and TETFund grants with an endowment fund. The endowment fund chaired by former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, was charged with attracting financial and project donations to the school.
Under the endowment, the school struck deals with some universities within the country and abroad. The endowment brought about the establishment of IBBUL-NIMASA Institute of Maritime Studies.
Shehu Yaman, a security guard at the School of Preliminary and Remedial Studies (SPRS) in Agaie Local Government Area, observed that the programme was only a little better than a secondary school until the late Kolo’s intervention.
Yaman said: “Prof Kolo was the kind of boss who cared for everyone. Whenever he came to SPRS, he never failed to ask about the welfare of all staff, including security guards and students. IBBU’s story of development will be incomplete without making reference to his compassionate leadership.”
The Deputy Registrar for Corporate Affairs, Alhaji Baba Akote, in a tribute, described the late Prof Kolo as “a dedicated, visionary, straightforward, and excellent administrator”.
Akote recalled that the late Kolo initiated periodic staff promotion during his tenure, and also established a farm and business corporations to shore up the school’s internally-generated revenue.
Akote said: “Prof Kolo was the man who connected the school campus to the national grid. He initiated reticulation of the university water system. The two campuses of the school were beautifully maintained during his administration. Our e-library, adjudged as the 12th best in the country, was established by Prof Kolo. The post-graduate school couldn’t have been a reality without Prof Kolo’s efforts to establish it, despite challenges.”
Prof Kolo’s unfinished dream, Akote said, was his inability to complete the construction of the school’s Senate building.
He said: “Prof Kolo was hopeful that the Senate building would be completed at record time during the foundation-laying ceremony, years back. But he couldn’t achieve this dream because of funds. Other unfinished aspirations of the late former VC are his inability to fully establish faculties of Medicine, Engineering and Law. He could not see this dream materialise because of poor funding. In all, Prof Kolo did his best to modernise the school and bring it on the path of development to reflect the vision for which the school was set up.”
An alumnus, Mr Isaac Omidiji, who is now a reporter with Power FM in Bida, eulogised the late former VC for establishing the school radio station, Click FM, which, he said, gave him the opportunity to hone his broadcast skill.
The late Kolo had two Master’s degrees in Special Education from Bayero University, Kano (BUK) and Guidance and Counselling from the University of Jos (UNIJOS).
He earned a doctoral degree in Gifted Education from BUK in 1994. He joined BUK as lecturer II in 1990 and became a professor in 2003.
He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Georgia in the United States. He authored six books and co-authored four others. The late professor had over 60 papers published in peer-reviewed local and international journals.
The late Kolo hailed from Mokwa, Niger State. He was VC between 2010 and 2015.
