Kwararafa University, Wukari, Steps Out
(L-R) HRH Aku Uka of Wukari and the Visitor to the university, Ahamadu Oga Alhaji Anawo, the Andoma of Doma and Chancellor of the university and Professor Yakubu Ochefu, the Vice-Chancellor during a recent occasion on the campus
After existing quietly for nearly a decade, the sensitively named Kwararafa University, Wukari is stepping out to be recognised in the space of knowledge production. It is doing this in a double-barrelled manner. On March 17th, 2017, it would join Dr. Shekarau Angyu Masa Ibi Kuvyon II, the Aku Uka of Wukari and the Visitor to the university in celebrating the 40th anniversary of his reign. The celebration will take place at the Convocation Square of the university. It continues the following day at the maiden convocation ceremony of the university during which Professor Yakubu Ochefu, the Vice Chancellor, will deliver his address while former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar will deliver the Convocation Lecture. The climax would appear to be the award of honorary degrees to the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Saad Abubakar 111, Senator Daisy Danjuma and Prof Julius Okojie, former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, (NUC). It is a selection that signposts the multi-culturalist and nationalist ambition of the very young university.
The university’s School of Social and Management Sciences
The list makes the maiden convocation of the university the likely largest gathering of students, academics, politicians and traditional rulers in one place of recent. For while Professor Okojie is likely to land there with his entourage of followers in academia and the policy arena, Senator Danjuma and her husband will flood the place with politicians and business acolytes. Who knows how many other emirs and chiefs the Sultan might arrive with, excluding other chiefs arriving there because he is there. Finally, the Aku Uka’s 40th anniversary will in itself be a summoning for chiefs from all the kingdoms who trace their ancestry to the ancient Kwararafa Empire. It promises to be a spectacle of an occasion.
