The management of the Bayero University Kano (BUK) on Thursday, 23 May, 2024, hosted members of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the new site of the institution.
The parliamentarians’ visit to the university was part of the activities lined up for the Second Extraordinary Session of the Sixth Legislature of the Parliament holding in Kano.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas and other management of the institution received the parliamentarians at the Abubakar Rasheed Senate Building.
During the visit, Professor Abbas commended the parliamentarians for the visit, saying “this is the first time that we will be receiving the entire ECOWAS Parliament.”
Describing Senator Barau as a politician par excellence, he enumerated the several interventions of the lawmaker in the university, adding that he has contributed immensely to the institution’s development.
“He has contributed immensely to the development of BUK. He is a politician par excellence. To my knowledge, he has impacted positively on the lives of the people he is representing. Apart from paying for school fees for students, he has attracted projects to the school,” he said.
He listed the projects to include a four-story building, over 20 kilometres of road, streetlights, and a laboratory, among others.
He called on the parliamentarians to facilitate the collaboration of universities in the subregion to address the developmental challenges facing the member states.
“We need the political intervention to collaborate with other universities in the subregion in the area of research for the development of member states,” he said.
The First Deputy Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament and the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, explained that the second extraordinary session of the ECOWAS Parliament was brought to Kano to get the assembly closer to the masses.
“The parliament of the entire West Africa is now in Kano and now in BUK because of the importance of the institution not only to Kano but the entire country,” he said.
Describing education as the bedrock of society, he said any society without a sound educational system is doomed.
Senator Barau, while commending the university’s management for the transformation in the institution, said the ECOWAS Parliament will support the university in addressing some of the challenges.
The Fourth Deputy Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Billay Tunkara, extolled the virtues of Senator Barau and thanked the university for conferring an honorary doctorate on the Deputy President of the Senate recently.
