President Muhammadu Buhari is to serve as the special guest of honour with the richest African, Alhaji Aliko Dangote serving as the chief launcher at the launch of the Ahmadu Bello University Alumni Association Compendium in Abuja.
The event billed for July 6 at the International Conference Centre will be hosted by His Majesty, the Igwe Ugochukwu Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha and Chancellor of ABU, who will chair the occasion.
The book, a masterpiece on the who is who among the ABU products who have excelled in their different careers and made their marks on the institution and country, will be publicly presented as a means of encouraging hardwork, philanthropy and patriotism in the country.
President of association, Professor Ahmed Tijani Mora who disclosed this Tuesday when he led his team to the corporate headquarters of Blueprint Newspapers Limited, said the university has made its mark as the largest on the African soil.
On his entourage were Ms Kande Daniel, Secretary of the compendium committee, Mahmud Muhammad Danjuma, chairman compendium team and Alexander Manchika Atta, member of the compendium committee.
Giving a brief history of the institution, he said: “ABU which was established in1962 has given birth to so many institutions in the country.
“ABU Zaria is the largest university in Nigeria, West Africa and sub-Sahara Africa. We are all old students of the university. I read Pharmacy and graduated in 1978. I was the deputy national president of the association from 2010-2015, then national president from 2015 to date.
“We have the largest alumni association among all the Nigerian universities. We have 50,000 students and also the heterogeneous nature of Ahmadu Bello is incomparable with any institution of higher learning in Nigeria. There is no local government in the country that is not represented in the institution in terms of admission.
“I said it with all sense of humility. It is the national of all universities in the country and we taught we should produce a compendium to showcase what the university has produced in terms of leadership.”
Professor Mora said the first civilian president of Nigeria to acquire university degree, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was an alumnus of ABU, adding that at present, ABU alumni have eight state governors.
“In fact, in 2015 before the general election we had 11 of them and minister of FCT making it 12. Simple arithmetic shows that 25 per cent of Nigerians were then governed by the alumni of ABU or one out of every four Nigerians.”
Mora also stated that many ministers, chief executives, vice chancellors, security and military personnel and a host of others, making waves all over Nigeria are ABU alumni.
He further stressed that ABU gave birth to Bayero University Kano (BUK); University of Maiduguri (UniMaid); Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto (UDUS), Kaduna State University, Gombe State University and so many universities.
“So we thought there is need to profile the institution in a compendium which shall be launched on July 6 at International Conference Centre, Abuja.
“We have invited His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari to be the Special Guest of honour. And Alhaji Aliko Dangote will serve as the Chief Launcher. Our royal father of the day will be His Majesty Igwe Ugochukwu Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha and Chancellor of ABU, will chair the occasion.”
He said there was no way the compendium team could achieve their aim without the support of the media, that was why they came to solicit the support of Blueprint during and after the event.
In his remark, the Managing Editor of Blueprint, Mr Clem Oluwole said he missed being an ABU student by whiskers.
He assured the team of continuous support and collaboration.
