The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has donated an Information Communication Technology Centre with 40 computers and an e-library to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi for use by remedial students.
Donating the centre on behalf of the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Senior Procurement Officer, Tukur Buba, said that the gesture was to help the remedial students improve their knowledge of ICT so as to become successful in their academic pursuit.
He charged the students to maintain the facilities in the centre by guarding them against any form of vandalization.
“I enjoin you once again to make good use of it, no vandalization, these days, people regard government properties as nobody’s properties but this time around, I want you to regard these properties as if they were you own personal properties because after you make use of them, your children and grandchildren will come and make use of it maybe even with a better technology,” he stated.
In his response, the ATBU Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammed Abdulazeez, who commended the NPA for coming to their rescue of the institution by donating the ICT centre saying that it will help the students reduce the search for physical books.
According to him, most students fail the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination mainly because of their lack of the knowledge of ICT.
He said these would help the university transition from analog to digital.
Abdulazeez declared that institution targets that not just the students of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University will benefit from it but students outside the University will also come to use the UTME facilities “because we’re trying to make sure that everybody in Nigeria has access to quality education and access to university education.”
In an interview, the Director of Basic and Remedial Studies of ATBU, Professor Hamma Sabo, said that the centre will have a great impact on the students.
“Library is very critical in the development of education. In fact, any academic institution without a library is completely academically irrelevant.
“Library has migrated to an information science where you can communicate, get latest information, latest books do all your information activities.” He said.
