Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, Obi Achebe, others grace ABU 41st Convocation, as Dangote donates N1.2bn students’ hostel to Varsity

dangotee-1.jpeg

L-R: Alhaji Aliko Dangote, ABU Chancellor and Obi of Onisha, Chief Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe and Gov. Nasiru el-Rufai commissioning students’ hostel accommodation donated to ABU by Dangote at ABU phase II, Samaru, Zaria.

Share with love

*Hostel has capacity to accommodate 2,160 students

*As ABU produces 81 First Class, 2,043 Second Class Upper

 

The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe and Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai, graced the 41st convocation of the popular Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, where the billionaire business giant and President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote (GCON), one of honourees, donated a N1.2 billion students’ hostel through his Dangote Foundation to the university.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote discussing with Gov. Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State during the commissioning of N1.2bn students’ hostel accommodation donated to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria by Dangote on Saturday

Dangote was conferred with honourary Doctor of Letters, while Doctor of Science went to a former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, OON.

The two honourary degree recipients were said to have been honoured for their immense contributions to the economic development of Nigeria and humanity in general.

The ABU 41st convocation also witnessed the  conferment of first degrees, postgraduate diplomas, higher degrees and honorary degrees.  There were 15,289 graduands produced as shown at the convocation, a number made up of 10,803 first degrees and 4,486 postgraduate degrees.

The postgraduates comprised 204 PhDs, 12 M.Phil, 3,092 Masters Programmes, 38 Masters in Business Administration (MBA) by Distance Learning and 1,020 Postgraduate Diplomas.

The breakdown of potential first degreee recipients was  given as follows: first class (81), second class upper ( 2,043), second class lower (6,885), third class (1,502), pass degrees (114) and unclassified degrees (178).

Fifteen best graduating students from the 2017/2018 academic session from across all the faculties of the university also received different prizes at the event, where President Muhammadu Buhari, ably represented, was visitor and Special Guest of Honour with Governor el-Rufai being Chief Host while the Emir of Zaria and Sarikin Zazzau was Royal Host.

Dangote donated the students’ hostel worth N1.2 billion to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. The hostel consists of 10 blocks of fully equipped complex with capacity to comfortably house 2,160 students.

The university had no additional hostel accommodation in the last 40 years until the present gesture by the foundation.

Speaking during the inauguration of the project at the ABU Phase II site, Dangote recalled that when he visited the institution as Guest Speaker of 2016 convocation ceremony, the university authority complained of accommodation constraints.

“When I came here as a Guest Speaker in 2016, the Vice-Chancellor told me that they have needs for accommodation, in fact the last accommodation they had was 37 years ago as at then.

“It is not good for us to leave a university like this without accommodation, really our intention was to accommodate the female students not boys, however, I still plead with the Vice-Chancellor to leave it for the female folk.

“Because of the luxury of this place, it is better to give it to the girls, boys can manage anywhere, may be we need to have discussion to see how we help in terms of transporting them to and fro.

“If you bring the boys here, I will really be in trouble with my daughters, you know I have only three daughters, so they will like to have the ladies here,” he said.

Dangote appealed to businessmen and wealthy Nigerians to ensure that “we continue to intervene in most of these universities, government cannot do all these things alone, there are so many other needs.”

He advocated for an increase of one per cent of corporate tax so that companies can pay additional money mainly for infrastructure in the universities.

“We have to make sure that we give back to Nigeria to show our gratitude because without Nigeria I won’t be where I am today, so we must continue to give back to the society.”


Share with love
Top