The Senate of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) has elected Prof Sani Usman Kunya as the acting vice-chancellor of the institution pending the election of a substantive one.
This was announced by the outgoing vice chancellor of the university, Prof Muhammad Abdulazeez during his farewell address on Friday.
“This election received the blessing of the Federal Government. Professor Sani Usman Kunya is currently the deputy vice-chancellor (Academics). While I take my exit today, I wish my incoming successor a fruitful tenure,” he said.
Abdulazeez urged stakeholders to support the acting vice-chancellor as they extended to him during his tenure to build a stronger ATBU.
In his valedictory speech, he also called for drug-tests for students and academic staff across the country to ascertain their mental health conditions to sanitise the system.
He said, “If the students are to be subjected to drug-tests to determine their mental health status, nothing is wrong if the lecturers too are subjected to the same test. That is the only way to check excesses in the university system.”
Abdulazeez expressed confidence that sanity will be brought back to university campuses across the country which would in turn promote academic excellence and sanctity in line with the objective of establishing the university system.
In his acceptance speech, the acting vice chancellor, Prof Kunya assured of better teaching methods in order to meet modern academic standards in world class universities.
He said: “Today is indeed a special day for me as I bow to take the onerous responsibility of acting the position of the vice chancellor of our great university. It is a special day because it marks the beginning of the responsibility you, the Senate, has bestowed on me on behalf of our community.
“Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to the Senate of the university for finding me worthy of this honour and to the Federal Government of Nigeria for the confirmation of your freewill.
“I want to assure you that your valuable confidence in me will not be disappointed. I shall do everything within my capability to build on the legacies of my predecessors in terms of maintaining and improving academic excellence.”
