TY Danjuma commissions varsity library named after his late mother

A former Minister of Defence and a philanthropist, Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma rtd on Wednesday commissioned a multi-million naira Rufkatu Asibi Kuru Danjuma library project at the Kwararafa University Wukari in Taraba, named after his late mother.

Commissioning the project, Danjuma said though his mother did not acquire formal education, her love for education was commendable. “I am sure she will be happy wherever she may be for the naming of this university library after her,” he said.

Danjuma urged Nigerians to support the development of education as government alone cannot provide all the educational need of the citizens, even as he again donated another N20million to the university.

Earlier, Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu told the gathering that the library project began in 2012 when General TY Danjuma donated over N49 million to the university to enable it secure accreditation after three consecutive failed attempts.

Ochefu explained that the library project built at the cost of N34 million has a seating capacity of nearly 300 people and currently the largest public library in Taraba State.

“We have a physical collection of 10,000 books, journals and other publications in the library. The e-library gives us access to 1.5 million publications across globally recognised channels such as Science Direct, EbscoHost and AJOL to mention a few.

“The video library enables our students to watch educational programmes. It’s a mini resource centre and in years to come, its holding will increase and Wukari as a University town will come to regard it as a foremost knowledge repository,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor urged the Nigerian government to establish a special intervention fund for public and private higher education as was done by the CBN for Nollywood, Airlines, Automobile, Textile among others to enable resource-challenged institutions access credit at concessionary rates to help reduce cost of providing service.

He also appealed to the government to repeal the law establishing TetFund to allow private higher institutions access research grants rather than insisting that private institutions pair with public ones to access grants.

In his remarks, Governor Darius Ishaku commended Gen. TY Danjuma for his unflinching support to the state and the nation, by always giving back to the society, urging the people of the state to donate at least one book to the university to boost learning and research.

Pro-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Jerry Gena described university as a knowledge centre and a library as a life centre of any university and commended TY Danjuma for donating a life to the university where both students and lecturers would be consulting for knowledge advancement.