AL-QALAM UNIVERSITY KATSINA THE ONLY PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN THE NORTH-WEST ADMITS 1,400 STUDENTS: AN OPEN LETTER TO NORTHERN ELITE
AL-QALAM UNIVERSITY KATSINA THE ONLY PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN THE NORTH-WEST ADMITS 1,400 STUDENTS: AN OPEN LETTER TO NORTHERN ELITE
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
23rd March, 2017
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
To begin with,It is with the greatest of respect that I write this letter to you all. I strongly believe that this is against the "vision" of the great Sir Ahmadu Bello and the essential Alhaji Isa Kaita,the first minister of Education of the defunct Northern Region. Were Sir Ahmadu Bello alive he would have felt betrayed. Our elite must have a rethink on this serious issue. Let's reverse the trend. As everyone knows North West Geo- Political Zone has 7 States; namely, Kaduna,Kano,Katsina,Kebbi,Sokoto,Zamfara,and Jigawa States. Out of these 7 States we have only one(1) private University. Even the public Universities what state are they?Al–Qalam University Katsina, Katsina State, at the weekend matriculated no fewer than 1400 students in its 12 matriculation ceremony for 2016/2017 academic session.
OUT OF THE 68 PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA ONLY 15 ARE IN THE NORTH:WHERE ARE THE NORTHERN RICH MEN?
In my view, this calls for soul searching. It calls for reflection. It is totally unacceptable. No one has cheated on us on this, but ourselves. Undoubtedly "Education" is a Vehicles for "Social Mobility " which has the power of turning the child of a poor man to the number one citizen of his country.
Get me correctly, l am not calling for Charity Private Universities. Private Universities are run professionally with quality and on profit basis in many parts of the world. let's do just that. Harvard University,Washington University ,Yale University, Stanford University,Princeton University, and University of Pennsylvania are all private universities. A lot of Universities in the Southern part of Nigeria are owned by religious organizations. Let's have Jama'atu Nasaral Islam University, Jibwis(Izala) University,Tijjaniyya and Kadiriyya (Darika) Universities which will definitely assist the organizations in generating funds for their activities.
It seems like the Northern rich men prefer sending their children schools abroad than establishing private Universities in the North. It will do them good if they retrace their steps and start establishing private Universities here at home. The religion, culture and values of their children will be well protected at home for obvious reasons. It will create jobs to people and save the nation a lot foreign reserves. Establishing private Universities is a business not charity. The investors will likely make a lot of money from it.The Northern rich men must be reminded that, investment in education should and must not be left to the government alone . I am not calling for establishing private Universities for charity. It is being run as a business as such let's do it that way.
Permit me to speak some home truth. Majority of our rich people are not interested in investment whether in schools or industries or manufacturing and or media etc., except of course, few of them. A lot of them prefer investing abroad or remain as consumers. If we must not continue to be a laughing stock we must change.
May God bless Nigeria!