Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, we call you here to register our displeasure over the continuous and unwarranted attack on the personality of Professor William Qurix Barnabas, the Vice Chancellor Kaduna State University, as well as Alhaji Abubakar Ladan, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, by Zazzau Emirate Development Association (ZEMDA).
ZEMDA seems to be enemies of peaceful co-existence between the northern and the southern parts of Kaduna State. This is evident in the provocative and incessant petitions they have been doling out for some time now, the latest being the one published in the Daily Trust newspaper of the 24th September, 2013 (page 42) titled “Qurix Mismanagement of KASU: The Need for Immediate Action”.
It is evident and on record and physically visible that the whole world has seen and witnessed the developmental achievements that the Kaduna State University has attained since Professor Qurix was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the university. Some of the notable developments and achievements under Professor Qurix include:
- Rapid physical development on both Campuses
- Take off of 3 professional faculties
- First Convocation held by the university since inception ,which was adjudged successful by NUC
- Massive capacity building for both Academic and non Academic staff within and outside Nigeria
- Attraction of goodwill to the university by both individuals and institution,leading to the citing of projects to the university .
- Establishment of a Post graduate School
- Recognition of KASU as a centre for the training of young Nigerians in entrepreneurship by the National Universities Commission.
And a host of others
His Excellency’s commitment to education is exhibited by the support the government gives the KASU administration. A lot of people from across the length and breadth of Kaduna State have been highly appreciative of the new lease of life that KASU now enjoys under the administration of Professor Qurix. All right thinking people are, therefore, perplexed and indeed, bewildered at the vituperations being churned out by ZEMDA in their deviant, cynical, malicious and distasteful letters and petitions.
- At first, ZEMDA attacked the Vice Chancellor for dismissing a student of the university that hired another person to write his examination for him . ZEMDA wrote to the Vice Chancellor and the Chairman of Council instructing them to withdraw all disciplinary procedures against the offending student, and threatened that there would be no peace in the university if their directive was not carried out.
- ZEMDA accused the Vice-Chancellor of “mismanagement of admission”, when the university decided to apply the guidelines for admission approved by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and theUniversity senate. ZEMDA and their backers do not care whether the University gets approval for its actions by the regulatory bodies in Nigeria or not
- ZEMDA insists that merit should not be used for admission and when at all it must be used it must be based on Local Government,haba! ZEMDA wants admission into all departments and programmes of the university to be shared equally to all Local Government Areas, whether they have the qualified candidates or not. ZEMDA wants candidates with 160 UME score average to be admitted to read medicine from certain LGAs, while candidates with 250 UME scores from the state are denied admission, arguing that the use of merit for admission is “discriminatory”,Forgeting that a University is a centre of Accademic Research and not a place to exhibit parochial ,religious and tribal sentiments as this is counter productive and a set back to quality education.
- ZEMDA tells outright lies about recruitment of staff in Kaduna State University. ZEMDA cooks up figures and fabricates statistics about appointments in the University. ZEMDA sees no reason for the university Council to employ highly qualified academic staff, arguing that they are from the wrong parts of Nigeria. The Vice Chancellor has pleaded with Nigerian Professors lecturing in the USA, Canada, Britain etc to come to KASU, and ZEMDA is attacking the Chairman of Council for recruiting such highly qualified staff. ZEMDA is not concerned whether KASU receives NUC accreditation for its academic programmes or not?
Given the antecedents of ZEMDA, it is obvious that they are out to destabilize the State as a whole, by introducing religion into the affairs of KASU, for their own selfish reasons. We view ZEMDA’s consistent petitions not only an attack on the personality of Prof Qurix and a threat to his life, but also as an effrontery on the entire people of Southern Kaduna, as such if anything happens to the Professor Quirix or any of our illustrious son , we would know where to point our fingers. We advise ZEMDA to desist from further fanning of embers of division between the Northern and Southern parts of Kaduna State
We appreciate the State Governor HE Dr Mukhtar Ramalan Yero for supporting the developmental strides of the university and we urge him to continue in that direction as an encouragement to the University. We also wish to implore him to disregard the unwarranted and malicious tantrums by ZEMDA for the reasons stated above.
And to the Pro- Chancellor of KASU, Alhaji Abubakar Ladan, we also implore him to continue his unbiased and unprejudiced actions as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Kaduna State University.
Finally, we urge Professor Qurix not to be distracted by ZEMDA’s mischief but to continue to be steadfast in discharging his duties without fear or favour. We, the youth of Kaduna, pass an overwhelming Vote of Confidence on Alh Abubakar Ladan and Professor W. B. Qurix as Pro-Chancellor and Vice Chancellor or Kaduna State University respectively.
Thank you very much and God bless you all.
Long Live Kaduna State
Vincent Bodam. Jerry Adams
Chancellor, Gurara Forum Sec Gen, Gurara Forum
Partnering with:
SOKAPU Youth Wing………………………………….
Southern Kaduna Youth Progressive Vanguard ………………………………..
Kaduna Youth Forum ……………………………………..
Kaduna Youth for Peace and Development …………………………………….
Nothern Youth Coalition…………………………….
Southern Kaduna Youth Progressive Vanguard …………………………….
Southern Kaduna Renaissance Forum……………………………………..
Southern Kaduna Enlightenment Forum…………………………………….
Southern Kaduna Watch Dog………………………………………………..
Southern Kaduna Youth Assembly……………………………………………
Southern Kaduna Professionals………………………………………………
Southern Kaduna Initiative Forum…………………………………………….
Kaduna Heritage Group………………………………………………………..
Southern Kaduna Indigenes Progressive Union…………………………….
