13th June, 2021
Prof. Aliyu Shugaba said the University of Maiduguri won’t shut down despite the impact of the over decade-long Boko Haram insurgency on the academic activities in the university.
Shugaba, the Vice-Chancellor of the university stated this in an interview with The Punch.
When asked how much effect Boko Haram insurgency has had on the University of Maiduguri, Shugaba said:
Well, the Boko Haram insurgency has affected the university in so many ways and up till now, we have not come out of it. The lingering effects of pockets of attacks around Maiduguri and the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway are something that had a lot of negative effects on the university but we have long resolved that we are not going to shut down or close the university because of insurgency.
The fact that some of our facilities were destroyed by bombings and gunshots was devastating. Sometimes, when the bombs went off, the blasts affected the psychology of our students, making them live in fear. Some of the bombings took place late in the night or early in the morning and this affected the optimal output of the staff and students. But at some point, we made a resolve that we would live with it and continue to discharge our responsibility of teaching, research and community service.
Nevertheless, we have people who still nurse the fear of coming to Maiduguri. The business of the university is not ours alone; there are those (regulators) who come for accreditation and other purposes. At some point, these people, including our external examiners, didn’t want to come. We had to look for a way to handle that aspect. The NUC (National Universities Commission) at a point found it difficult to raise an accreditation team to come here. There were many of our staff members who could not stand it anymore, so they left for other universities. We were affected in many ways.
Has the university lost any student, member of staff or any property to the insurgency?
Of course, yes. Our students have been killed by bombs in different places, an example was the two bomb blasts at the Customs area. We have facilities too that have been devastated; the Agric Engineering laboratory is one example of our facilities destroyed; a building around Works Department that was being used by the security men was also pulled down by the insurgents.