Nigeria
Ahmadu Bello University
Ahmadu Bello University
Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria
The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is a public research university located in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. It was opened in 1962 as the University of Northern Nigeria.
The university has four colleges, three schools, 18 faculties, 110 academic departments, 17 centres, and seven institutes, with over 600 professors, about 3000 academic staff and over 7000 non-teaching staff. The university has over 400 postgraduate programmes reflecting its strife to become a postgraduate studies-centred university.
The university operates from two campuses in the ancient cosmopolitan city of Zaria, the Samaru Campus, where the Senate Building and most of the faculties are located and the Kongo Campus, hosting the faculties of Law and Administration. It has been adjudged to be the largest university in Sub-Saharan Africa (next to Cairo University) in terms of land occupied, owing to the numerous buildings it has.
On 5 February 2025 the Governing Council of Ahmadu Bello University appointed Prof. Adamu Ahmed as the new vice chancellor.
Samaru is where admission of new students takes place.
As Nigeria approached independence on 1 October 1960, its only degree-awarding institution was in Ibadan. The Ashby Report, published a month before independence, supported regional government proposals to add new universities in each of Nigeria's then three regions, and its capital Lagos.
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, and following the Ashby Report, it was decided to create a University of Northern Nigeria at Zaria rather than Kano. The new university was to take over facilities of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Samaru; 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. Legislation establishing the new university was passed by the Northern Region legislature in 1961.
When the university opened on 4 October 1962, it had four faculties comprising 15 departments, and a total of 426 students.
The challenges were enormous. Over 60 years of British colonial rule, education in the Northern Region had lagged far behind that of the two southern regions. Few students from the North had qualifications for university entrance, and fewer still northerners had qualifications for teaching appointments. Of the original student body, only 147 were from the north.
The university's first vice chancellor was British, as were most professorial appointments. In the first round of faculty appointments the only two Nigerians were mathematician Iya Abubakar and educationist Adamu Baikie. Facilities on the main Samaru campus were inadequate, and integration of physically separate, pre-existing institutions was difficult.
Nevertheless, under the vice chancellorship of New Zealander Norman Alexander, academic and administrative staff were recruited, new departments and programmes were created, major building projects were undertaken, and student enrollment grew rapidly. By the end of Alexander's tenure in 1966, there were a thousand students enrolled.
Alexander was succeeded by the university's first native Nigerian vice chancellor, Ishaya Shuaibu Audu. He was a pediatrician; former associate professor at the University of Lagos, and Hausa born in Wusasa, near Zaria.
Ahmadu Bello University was seriously affected by the coups and anti-Igbo riots of 1966 but continued to expand. Student enrollment had been constrained by A-level training at secondary schools so in 1968, the university established its own School of Basic Studies to provide pre-degree training on campus. Students entering the School of Basic Studies could matriculate and complete a bachelor's degree in four years.
Ahmadu Bello University has a chancellor as its ceremonial head, while the vice-chancellor is chief executive and academic officer. The vice-chancellor is usually appointed for a five-year, non-renewable term.
The list of the university's faculty and their respective courses follows.
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Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) serves university students and academic staff from the main campus and satellites. As of 2006, its collections include over 1.2 million books; 66,000 periodicals, and other learning materials.
The library was established in 1955 comprising a single small room, which was later converted to a staff club. In 1963, a replacement building was constructed for $39,000. It was named for the then state governor.
The ABU Zaria Cultural Carnival is a Yearly important annual celebration of cultural diversity, heritage and identity within Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The carnival brings together students, cultural associations, staff, traditional title holders and members of the wider university community to showcase Nigeria’s rich ethnic and cultural traditions through colourful processions, traditional attire, music, dance, horse parades, exhibitions and pageantry. Here is the link to images category https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:ABU_Zaria_Cultural_Carnival_2026
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria was ranked 6th best among the federal public universities in Nigeria, as of February 2024.
Any student seeking admission into the school degree program of the school must have at least five credits in mathematics, English studies and any other relevant subjects in WAEC/NECO/SSCE. The applicant must also have a score of at least 180 in Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam.
The Ahmadu Bello University is notable for producing prominent people and Nigerian leaders, including many former and current state governors and ministers. Amongst the alumni are:
Yonov Frederick Agah, Nigerian diplomat and former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization.
The Ahmadu Bello University Alumni Association is an alumni organization for former students of the Ahmadu Bello University. It is often represented by the national president of the association in the governing council of the university. This is necessary for the association to have direct input into the university's policies.
The national body of the association currently has 17 National Executive Committee (NEC) members who manage the affairs of the association in alignment with the provisions of the association constitution.
The incumbent national president of the alumni association is Ahmed Tijani Mora, a renowned pharmacist and former registrar and chief executive officer of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.
The alumni association was founded in the early 1960s by the graduating class which included architect Chief Fola Alade, Chief Lai Balogun and Professor Ayodele Awojobi. Today, the alumni association has branches across the federation with a national office at the university campus itself. Since the inception of the association, the governing council of Ahmadu Bello University has maintained a strong working relationship with the association to develop the university. Initially, the association was under the supervision of the deputy vice-chancellor of the university. Today it is directly under the office of the vice-chancellor and supervised by the vice-chancellor.
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Улс: Nigeria