Ahmadu Bello University

The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is a public research university located in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. It was opened in 1962 as the University of Northern Nigeria. The university has four colleges, three schools, 18 faculties, 110 academic departments, 17 centres, and seven institutes with over 600 professors, about 3000 academic staff and over 7000 non-teaching staff. The university has over 400 postgraduate programmes reflecting its strife to become a postgraduate studies-centred university. The university operates from two campuses in the ancient cosmopolitan city of Zaria, the Samaru Campus where the Senate Building and most of the faculties are located and the Kongo Campus, hosting the faculties of Law and Administration. It has been adjudged to be the largest university in Sub-Saharan Africa, (next to Cairo University) in terms of land occupied, owing to the numerous buildings it has. On 5 February 2025 the Governing Council of Ahmadu Bello University appointed Prof. Adamu Ahmed as the new Vice Chancellor.
As Nigeria approached independence on October 1, 1960, its only degree-awarding institution was at Ibadan. The Ashby Report, published a month before independence, supported regional government proposals to add new universities in each of Nigeria's then three regions, and its capital Lagos.
In May 1960, the Northern Region had upgraded the School of Arabic Studies in Kano to become the Ahmadu Bello College for Arabic and Islamic Studies, and following the Ashby Report, it was decided to create a University of Northern Nigeria at Zaria rather than Kano. The new university was to take over facilities of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Samaru; the Ahmadu Bello College in Kano; the Agricultural Research Institute at Samaru; the Institute of Administration at Zaria, and the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom on the Jos Plateau. Legislation establishing the new university was passed by the Northern Region legislature in 1961.
When the university opened on 4 October 1962, it had four faculties comprising 15 departments, and a total of 426 students.
The challenges were enormous. Over 60 years of British colonial rule, education in the Northern Region had lagged far behind that of the two southern regions. Few students from the North had qualifications for university entrance, and fewer still northerners had qualifications for teaching appointments. Of the original student body, only 147 were from the north.
The university's first vice chancellor was British, as were most professorial appointments. In the first round of faculty appointments the only two Nigerians were mathematician, Iya Abubakar and Adamu Baikie in the faculty of education. Facilities on the main Samaru campus were inadequate, and integration of physically separate, pre-existing institutions was difficult.
Nevertheless, under the vice chancellorship of New Zealander Norman Alexander, academic and administrative staff were recruited, new departments and programmes were created, major building projects were undertaken, and student enrollment grew rapidly. By the end of Alexander's tenure in 1966, there were a thousand students enrolled.
Alexander was succeeded by the university's first native Nigerian vice chancellor, Ishaya Shuaibu Audu. He was a pediatrician; former associate professor at the University of Lagos, and Hausa born in Wusasa, near Zaria.
Ahmadu Bello University was seriously affected by the coups and anti-Igbo riots of 1966 but continued to expand. Student enrollment had been constrained by A-level training at secondary schools so in 1968 the university established its own School of Basic Studies to provide pre-degree training on campus. Students entering the School of Basic Studies could matriculate and complete a bachelor's degree in four years.
Despite opposition to the School of Basic Studies, it provided a stream of candidates for degree courses and the university expanded rapidly. Ten years after being founded there were over 7,000 students, over half in degree programs and 2,333 had graduated. The University of Ibadan had graduated only 615 in its first ten years.
Kongo campus, close to Zaria old city taught public administration and provided in-service training for local government throughout the north of Nigeria. The Faculty of Education taught and also managed teacher training colleges across the northern states. At Kano campus, renamed Abdullahi Bayero College, Hausa, Arabic and Islamic studies courses were taught.
Although founded to be the University of Northern Nigeria, commentators have observed that more than any other of Nigeria's universities, Ahmadu Bello has universally served students from every state of the Nigerian federation.
Professorial staffing to serve the burgeoning student enrollments and course offerings was a potential limitation during this period. In the early 1970s relatively abundant funding made it possible to send some senior academic staff to overseas institutions to complete advanced degrees. A small but increasing number of Nigerians with Ph.D.s or other advanced degrees were returning from abroad but ABU had to compete with other Nigerian universities to recruit them. In the meantime, appointment of expatriate teaching staff was essential and it expanded greatly and diversified in nationalities. Vice chancellor Audu endeavored to balance the goals of Nigerianization and northernization of ABU's professors with the commitment to maintaining all programmes at an international level of academic quality.
By 1975, this balance was strained. The teaching faculty remained more than half expatriate overall; at senior levels still more so. The development of Nigerian staffing (and especially of northern-origin teaching staff) was perceived as too slow. In 1975, ABU turned toward a much heavier emphasis on internal staff development as it adopted the Graduate Assistantship programme. Under this programme, the best graduates from the departments' undergraduate programmes are recruited to join the department as staff-in-training and undertake advanced training as they gain on-the-job experience. Within a few years, a significant proportion of ABU senior staff were products of the internal training programme. From 1975, the proportion of expatriate teaching staff diminished rapidly.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the university was hit with sharply reduced funding as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank imposed their Structural Adjustment Programme on the country. The value of the Nigeria's currency plummeted in relation to others and staff salaries reduced in real terms. Funding for premises, library acquisitions, and other resources was curtailed. Competition for students, staff and funding with other national institutions in what had been a rapidly expanding university system increased.
During a peaceful May 1986 university rally against implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme, security forces killed 20 demonstrators and bystanders. Over the years, ABU has been affected by national political instability. The very fact of ABU's strikingly "national character" (in drawing students and staff from an unusually broad range of Nigeria's regional, ethnic and religious communities) might be the reason the institution is inclined to internal instability. Hence, ABU has been among Nigeria's universities that have suffered most from closures.
Yet ABU continues to occupy a particularly important place among Nigerian universities. As it approaches its half-century anniversary, ABU can claim to be the largest and the most extensive of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. It covers a land area of 7,000 hectares (27 sq mi) and encompasses 18 academic faculties, a postgraduate school and 100 academic departments. It has seven institutes, six specialized centers, a Division of Agricultural Colleges, demonstration secondary and primary schools, as well as extension and consultancy services which provide services to the wider society. The total student enrollment in the university's degree and sub-degree programme is about 35,000, drawn from every state of Nigeria, Africa, and the rest of world. There are about 1,400 academic and research staff and 5,000 support staff.
The university has nurtured two new institutions: Bayero University Kano and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University of Technology, Bauchi. Some 30 tertiary institutions made up of colleges of education, polytechnics and schools of basic or preliminary studies are affiliated to it.
Despite the numerous achievements of this reputable institution, there are some challenges that the Institution faces. These challenges vary from one section to another. For instance, in terms of infrastructure, the school does not have enough classrooms for the students from some sections. Based on that, clashes occur on venues especially in the morning when most classes hold. Again, even for sections that have classrooms, those classes tend to be unfit for the number of the students. Another challenge that has not yet been checked relating to infrastructure is that of hostels or Hall of residence as it's widely known. The hostels available for students are not capable of accommodating all the students interested in residing within the campus. As a result of that, many new students are stranded on the campus especially at the beginning of the session, and others that are lucky get squatting spaces with friends and family that have already gotten hostels.
Ahmadu Bello University has a chancellor as its ceremonial head, while the vice-chancellor is chief executive and academic officer. The vice-chancellor is usually appointed for a five-year, non-renewable term.
Faculties and courses offered by the university are
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Kashim Ibrahim Library K.I.L., serves university students and academic staff from the main campus and satellites. As of 2006, its collections include over 1.2 million books; 66,000 periodicals, and other learning materials.
The library was established in 1955 comprising a single small room, later converted to a staff club. In 1963, a replacement building was constructed for $39,000 named for the then state governor.
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is ranked 6th best among the federal public universities in Nigeria, as of February 2024.
Any student seeking admission into the school degree program of the school must have at least five credits in mathematics, English studies and any other relevant subjects in WAEC/NECO/SSCE. The applicant must also have a score of at least 180 in Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam.
The Ahmadu Bello University is notable for producing prominent people and Nigerian leaders, including many former and current state governors and ministers. Amongst the alumni are:
Ahmadu Bello University Alumni Association is an alumni organization for former students of the Ahmadu Bello University. The alumni association is often represented by the national president of the association in the governing council of the university. This is necessary for the association to make a direct input into the university's policies.
The national body of the association currently has 17 National Executive Committee (NEC) members who manage the affairs of the association in alignment with the provisions of the association constitution. The incumbent national president of the alumni association is Ahmed Tijani Mora, a renowned pharmacist and former registrar and chief executive officer of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.
The alumni association was founded in the early 1960s by the graduating class which included architect Chief Fola Alade, Chief Lai Balogun and Professor Ayodele Awojobi. Today, the alumni association has branches across the federation with a national office at the university campus itself. Since the inception of the association, the governing council of Ahmadu Bello University has maintained a strong working relationship with the association to develop the university. Initially, the association was under the supervision of the deputy vice-chancellor of the university. Today it is directly under the office of the vice-chancellor and supervised by the vice-chancellor.