THE new Governing Council of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria rose from its maiden retreat in Abuja over the weekend, setting fresh goals to the management of the institution as means of consolidating the achievements recorded by the institution, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

Accordingly, the Council came up with a resolution to create a new office of the Deputy Vice- Chancellor in order to drive new vision of optimal resource mobilization and management. Similarly, the Council, in recognition of the experience and capacity of the institution and the need for training of critical manpower for the emerging universities resolved to reposition the university as postgraduate training institution.

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Council, Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi Dewu, who read the outcomes of the retreat to newsmen in Abuja, said the Council stressed the need for urgent steps be taken to enhance management and internal control systems with a view to ensuring more efficiency, transparency and accountability.

Besides, Dewu, an Architect said the Council noted the current efforts of the university to introduce e-learning platforms in its postgraduate programmes and directed the management of the institution to ensure its immediate take-off in the next academic session. It also directed the management of the institution to put together the results of all existing research efforts and henceforth ensure that they are duly registered and patented.

“In an effort to promote efficiency and value for money, Council agreed that the management of all ABU-owned companies should be sourced from outside the university system. When put in place, the management will be given revenue to achieve.

“Council noted the low-level of the university’s internally generated revenue (IGR) and resolved to improve it to 30 percent of the total annual budget requirements over the next four years. In this regard, the university management has been mandated to review its existing strategic plans and align same towards achieving this objective.”

Justifying the creation of the proposed office of the DVC in charge of resources mobilization and management, Dewu said the decision was in sync with the enabling law setting up the institution, noting that it was intended to lessen the burden on the university’s chief executive, the Vice Chancellor.

However, the National Universities Commission (NUC), through its Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie has in recent past accused managements of some universities of creating of unnecessary bureaucracy in their institutions. For instances during a workshop in Abuja, Okojie argued that two DVCs were okay for a university saying creating another office of DVC was a duplication of duties.

But Dewu submitted that, “The Act setting up the university has given us the powers of adding as at when due and when there is need to increase the number. There is o limit to the number of DVCs you can create. Besides, the size of the university and the large number of students we have and the proposed revenue mobilization drive as well as the increase in the number of students, which goes with the increase of the resources to be spent, we are trying to explore the possibility of creating the office of the DVC, who would look into the resource management with a view to reducing the burden on the VC.

“Because the VC’s duties are so enormous, we believe that adding this to it would be counter productive that is why we are looking at the possibility of creating that post so that he can focus more on the academics and other areas of governance, rather managing a resource-based output of the university.”