By Abubakar Imam
All things being equal, history, royalty and the future are bound to be juxtaposed on Saturday, May 11, 2024, as the newly-licensed Muhammad Kamalud-deen University (MKU), Ilorin, holds its first matriculation ceremony. The event is scheduled to take place at the institution’s premises beginning at 10:00a.m.
Aside the history-making pioneer students of the University that would take the oath of matriculation, the event would also be highlighted with the official investiture of His Royal Highness, the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman, Kwara State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, as the Chancellor of the University. The Emir, who is also the Life Patron of the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria and many other similar organisations within and beyond his unique emirate, would probably be the first Nigerian that would simultaneously serve as Chancellor of two universities.
With his impending investiture, the venerable monarch would also add being the Chancellor of four different universities to his intimidating profile as a statesman. No other Nigerian, to the best of my knowledge, has been so privileged and honoured.
Besides the Bayero University, Kano, which inaugurated the renowned jurist as its Chancellor earlier in the year, the Emir had previously held the same prestigious position at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, and the Federal University of Agriculture, Markudi, Benue State.
Similarly, the Talba of Ilorin and a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Shuaibu Oba AbdulRaheem, OFR, NPOM, would also be formally inaugurated as the first Pro-Chancellor of the new private University.
The former Executive Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), who has become the “Bagandozi” of Higher Education in Kwara State, would be adding another stimulating record to his exciting public service career. He would be the first Kwaran, if the information at my disposal is correct, who would serve as Pro-Chancellor of two universities operating in the same state. He held the same position at the formative years of the Kwara State University, Malete.
This distinguished scholar and celebrated administrator has also, over the past four decades, held similar position in nearly all the institutions of higher learning in Kwara State.This undoubtedly makes him highly experienced in the management of higher education.
Just as I noticed in one of my previous interventions, which celebrated his appointment as the Chairman of the Committee on the Establishment and Implementation of the Proposed Kwara State University of Education, it is becoming clearer that this outstanding patriot is created to facilitate qualitative education for the youth, particularly those of Kwara State. His over five decades distinguished career, which crisscrossed all the different strata of the nation’s educational system, points to that.
The commitment of Prof. AbdulRaheem to the realisation and growth of MKU is not only wholesome and patriotic but also very convincing. As one of the reporters who covered the press conference the tireless septuagenarian addressed prelude to the inauguration of the University last year, Prof. AbdulRaheem won my heart when he declared unequivocally that he would not associate himself with any University that he would not want his children to attend.
What other assurance do parents and guardians as well as students and future enrollees of the University need than the voluntary declaration of a man who has seen it all? It is indeed an assurance of quality assurance obtainable at the University!
Parents and guardians should also be encouraged by the assurance of the youthful and hardworking Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Rasheed Gbenga Jimoh, that the institution is out to dominate “the business of university education” at least in this part of the country through qualitative academic and exciting moral training. He authoritatively stated this at the same press briefing.
The former Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin joyfully disclosed that students of the ivory tower, who would be drawn from different parts of Nigeria, would be inculcated with the life and times of the man after whom the University is named, Shaykh Muhammad Kamalud-deen Hebeebulahi Musa Al-Adabiy, MFR, OFR, ORSA, FISN, who lived between 1905 and 2005. He added that the nation and humanity needed more individuals that would live as the sage did.
Prof. Jimoh explained that students of the University would, therefore, be exposed to the remarkable saintly dispositions of the late avatar whose one century of existence on the surface of the earth was not only action-packed but also full of positive and qualitative achievements that outlived him.
Shaykh Kamalud-deen, who was the initiator of the University and who the students are to study in addition to their professional training, was a man who epitomised simplicity, piety, perseverance, peaceful coexistence, erudition, eloquence, sacrifice, generousity and service to the community. He was also a man who not only embraced modernity but also someone who deliberately refused to make anyone or group his enemy despite several enabling temptations.
I strongly believe that our society would be much better and the future of this great nation more assured if our youth imbibed and exhibit the exemplary humility, the exciting chastity, the enduring perseverance, the wonderful industry and other glittering virtues, which made the late sage truly great in life and much greater in death.
One is also encouraged that the nation’s most sought-after University, the University of Ilorin, is offering MKU every support needed to survive infancy. The Better By Far University, which recognised and rewarded the numerous contributions of the man after whom the University was renamed with an honourary doctorate degree in 1998, is doing all it can towards nurturing MKU to maturity.
Understandably, some of the staff of the MKU and similar institutions within and around Ilorin are thinking of withdrawing their children and wards from other universities to start again at MKU for them to benefit maximally from the alluring life-changing opportunities available at the new private University. Who does not want good thing?
May I therefore congratulate the proprietors, management, staff, students, and friends as well as other stakeholders of the new faith-based University on the occasion of the maiden matriculation of the potentially great citadel of learning. I implore every reader of this piece, particularly indigenes and residents of Ilorin, to attend the event and support the University in every way possible for “the love of our people”.
Imam is Chief Scribe of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
