Bwacha Sparks Fresh Controversy over Federal University Wukari
- Fresh documentary evidence has emerged contradicting former Senator Emmanuel Bwacha's account of how Federal University Wukari was secured for Taraba State
- Records from 2021 and 2022 show Chief Damian Dodo, SAN, received formal recognition from the university and a Southern Taraba academics' group for his role in siting the institution
- Sources say Taraba risked losing the federal university to Yobe State before Dodo's intervention with the then Governor and Minister of State for Education
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The controversy over who deserves credit for the establishment of the Federal University Wukari has taken a fresh turn, with contemporaneous documentary evidence challenging former Senator Emmanuel Bwacha’s claim that he played a leading role in bringing the institution to Wukari.
The records show that Chief Damian D. Dodo, SAN, was formally recognised for his influence in securing the university’s location, honoured by the institution with an honorary doctorate and invited to commission its Faculty of Law building.
Source: Twitter
Informed sources close to Dodo maintain that Taraba could have lost the institution to Yobe without his determined intervention and collaboration with key government officials.
Fresh documentary evidence has cast doubt on claims by Emmanuel Bwacha, who represented Taraba South Senatorial District from 2011 to 2023, that he played a decisive role in bringing the Federal University Wukari (FUWUKARI) to Wukari, Taraba State.
Documents dating from 2021 and 2022 show that Chief Damian D. Dodo, SAN, was formally recognised for his influence in securing the institution for Taraba State and Wukari.
Bwacha’s claim
During an interview with the podcast platform Spill It, which has since circulated on social media, Bwacha downplayed Dodo’s role.
While acknowledging that he and Dodo were responsible for bringing the university to Wukari, he said Dodo’s role ended with suggesting the idea, while he personally presented it to the late Governor Danbaba Suntai, who agreed to his request, as reported by ThisDay.
Bwacha said:
“Outside myself and Damian Dodo, tell me who brought that university to Wukari. Damian generated the idea for me. I sold the idea to the governor then, and he concurred with it.”
According to Bwacha, a former Senate Deputy Minority Leader, while Governor Suntai conceived the state university for the state capital, he advised that the federal university should instead be located in Wukari.
“The federal university was taken to Wukari, while the state polytechnic was taken to his village. This was my counsel,” he said.
THISDAY’s findings
However, documentary evidence available to THISDAY shows that Dodo was publicly and formally recognised for his role in securing the location of Federal University Wukari as far back as 2022, 11 years after the university was established.
One of the key documents is a February 6, 2022 letter from the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum notifying Dodo of his nomination for a Special Award of Excellence.
The letter, signed by the Chairman of the Forum, Associate Professor David A. Agbu; Chairman of the Organising Committee, Rev. Fr. Prof. A. I. Bature; and Secretary of the Forum, Associate Professor Elijah I. Akombo, specifically cited Dodo’s role in the establishment of Federal University Wukari.
The letter stated that Dodo was nominated for the award “for the role you played not only in the establishment of Federal University Wukari, but also for the valuable Law books and related academic materials you provided for the establishment of the Law Faculty in the same Institution, and Taraba State University as well as your selfless services to Southern Taraba and beyond.”
The significance of the document is that the recognition was made at the time, in February 2022, rather than as a response to the current controversy.
The Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum described itself as an association of intellectuals and academicians who are indigenes of Southern Taraba, with hundreds of members comprising professors, PhD holders and other academics teaching in higher institutions in Nigeria and beyond.
Its stated objective, according to the letter, was the promotion of “education, peace, unity and general development in Southern Taraba, Taraba State and Nigeria at large.”
Stronger evidence came from an address delivered by the forum’s National Chairman, Associate Professor David A. Agbu, during the presentation of the Special Award of Excellence to Dodo at the university on February 10, 2022.
In the address, Agbu went beyond acknowledging Dodo’s general contributions to the community and specifically attributed the location of the federal university in Wukari to his influence.
“First and foremost, the Forum wishes to honour our own for his outstanding influence which resulted in the location of a Federal University in our Zone at Wukari,” Agbu said.
He went further:
“But for his special influence, today, our Zone can boast of one of the esteemed Federal Universities in the country.”
According to Agbu, the location of the university had generated employment opportunities, easier access to university education for young people, and infrastructural and economic development in the area.
He said:
“We cannot be exhaustive in enumerating the numerous socio-economic and political opportunities the location of the University in our Zone has brought to bear on the indigenes of the zone.”
The forum therefore argued that those who played critical roles in securing the university deserved recognition for bringing such opportunities to the people.
Dodo’s influence continues
The address also credited Dodo with a role in the establishment of the university’s Faculty of Law.
“Secondly, and closely related to the above, the Forum wishes to honour our renowned Jurist not only for contributing to influence the location of a Federal University in the Zone, but also for his enormous contributions in the establishment of Law Faculty in the University,” Agbu stated.
He added that Dodo “was very instrumental in the establishment of the Law Faculty” and had donated “very valuable Law books and other related academic materials” to the Faculty of Law at the university and the Faculty of Law, Taraba State University, Jalingo.
This account is further supported by official correspondence from Federal University Wukari itself.
In a letter dated December 17, 2021, the university’s Vice-Chancellor at the time, Professor J. S. Rabo, informed Dodo that the Governing Council of the institution, at its 22nd meeting held on December 16, 2021, had considered and approved his nomination for an Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa).
The university stated that the award was “in recognition of your tremendous contributions in your chosen career to socio-economic development of Nigeria and the world at large.”
The letter invited Dodo to receive the honorary doctorate at the university’s second combined convocation ceremony scheduled for February 12, 2022.
A subsequent letter dated January 20, 2022, also from the Vice-Chancellor, invited Dodo to the university’s convocation and to commission projects at the institution.
Significantly, the letter specifically listed the Faculty of Law Building among the projects Dodo was invited to commission.
The letter also stated that three persons would receive honorary doctorate degrees during the convocation: Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mua’zu, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and Dodo.
Note the Sequence
The sequence of events is significant.
In December 2021, the university’s Governing Council approved an honorary doctorate for Dodo.
In January 2022, it invited him to commission its Faculty of Law building.
In February 2022, the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum also presented him with a Special Award of Excellence, expressly citing his influence in the location of the federal university in Wukari.
Well-informed account
Accounts from sources familiar with how the university came to Taraba also differ materially from Bwacha’s version.
According to the sources, Taraba and Yobe were the only two states in the North-east without a federal university at the time, meaning the institution could have been located in Yobe instead.
“Yobe and Taraba were the two states in the North East at the time without a Federal University, and so the University could even have gone to Yobe but for his very close friend, the late Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, who was Minister of Education-State, and Governor Danbaba Suntai, who collaborated with him in getting the University to Taraba and to Wukari,” they said.
That account identifies three key elements of the process: neither Taraba nor Yobe had a federal university at the time; Taraba risked losing the institution to Yobe; and Dodo worked with the late Governor Suntai and the late Kenneth Gbagi, who was Minister of State for Education.
What we know
The available evidence does not establish that Bwacha played no role whatsoever in the process. It also does not conclusively resolve the contributions of every politician, government official or other stakeholder involved in the establishment and siting of the university.
What it does establish, however, is that Dodo’s role was documented long before Bwacha’s latest statement.
A formal letter from the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum had already credited him with a role in the establishment of Federal University Wukari, while its chairman publicly stated at the award ceremony that Dodo’s “special influence” resulted in the location of the university in Wukari.
The records from Federal University Wukari provide an additional institutional dimension, with the university itself recognising Dodo through an honorary doctorate and inviting him to commission its Faculty of Law building.
The question, therefore, is not simply whether Bwacha participated in the process. The available records show that Dodo’s contribution was formally recognised by an association of academics in Southern Taraba and by the university itself.
Bwacha’s account places him at the centre of the political process, saying Dodo only generated the idea and he sold it to Governor Suntai.
The contemporaneous accounts, however, place particular emphasis on Dodo’s influence, his collaboration with the Governor and the then Minister of State for Education, and his contribution to the university after its establishment.
For the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum, the contribution was significant enough to warrant a Special Award of Excellence. Its formal notification stated that Dodo was being recognised not only for his role in the establishment of the Federal University Wukari but also for providing academic materials for its Law Faculty.
Thus, while Bwacha has publicly presented his version of the history of Federal University Wukari, the documentary trail shows that Dodo’s role in securing the institution for Wukari had already been formally acknowledged by an association of academics in Southern Taraba and recognised by the university itself.
The available records may not settle every aspect of the historical dispute, but they establish that Dodo’s contribution to the establishment and development of Federal University Wukari was publicly documented and recognised years before the latest social media controversy.
In all of these, Mr Dodo has maintained characteristic silence, having made it clear as far back as 2011 that it does not matter to him who claims credit for what God used him to do for Taraba State.
What matters, and what is important, he has maintained, is the fact of the establishment of the university, how it has enormously and positively impacted Taraba State and its people, and how it will continue to do so.
Wukari University releases school fees schedule
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the Federal University Wukari (FUWUKARI) is a Federal government institution located in Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria. It was established in 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The school has six faculties comprising 25 departments and has been ranked among the best schools in Nigeria. This guide has everything you need to know about Federal University Wukari school fees for all courses for freshers and returning students.
Source: Legit.ng
