Senate building of Ahmadu Bello University
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Type | Public |
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Established | October 4, 1962 |
Chancellor | Igwe Nnayelugo Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe |
Vice-Chancellor | Professor Ibrahim Garba |
Location | Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria |
Campus | Urban |
Nickname | ABU |
Website | www.abu.edu.ng |
Established | 1960s |
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President | Ahmed Tijani Mora |
Location | Zaria, Kaduna, Nigeria |
Colors | Orange and Blue |
Affiliations | Ahmadu Bello University |
Website | Official website |
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is a federal government research university located in Zaria, Kaduna State. ABU was founded on October 4, 1962, as the University of Northern Nigeria.
The university operates two campuses: Samaru (main) and Kongo in Zaria. There is also pre-degree School located in Funtua few kilometres away from main campus owned by the university. The Samaru campus houses the administrative offices, faculties of; sciences, social-sciences, arts and languages, education, environmental design, engineering, medical sciences. agricultural sciences and research facilities. The Kongo campus hosts the faculties of Law and Administration. The Faculty of Administration consists of Accounting, Business Administration, Local Government and Development Studies and Public Administration Departments. Additionally, the university is responsible for a variety of other institutions and programs at other locations.
The university is named after the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first premier of Northern Nigeria.
The university runs a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate programs (and offers associate degrees and vocational and remedial programs). The university has a large medical program with its own A.B.U. Teaching Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Nigeria and Africa.
As Nigeria approached independence on October 1, 1960, it had only a single university: the University of Ibadan, established in 1948. The important Ashby Commission report (submitted a month before independence) recommended adding new universities in each of Nigeria's then-three regions, as well as the capital, Lagos. Even before the Commission report, however, the regional governments had begun planning universities. In May, 1960, the Northern Region had upgraded the School of Arabic Studies in Kano to become the Ahmadu Bello College for Arabic and Islamic Studies. (The college was named after the region's dominant political leader, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello.)
The Ashby Commission report recommendations gave a new impetus and direction, and it was ultimately decided to create a University of Northern Nigeria at Zaria (rather than Kano). The university would take over the facilities of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Samaru just outside Zaria, and would incorporate the Ahmadu Bello College in Kano, the Agricultural Research Institute at Samaru, the Institute of Administration at Zaria, and the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom on the Jos Plateau. The law establishing the new university was passed by the Northern Region legislature in 1961. It was decided to name the university after Ahmadu Bello, and the Kano college then took the name of Abdullahi Bayero, a past Emir of Kano.