Former MacArthur Foundation President, Dr. Jonathan Fanton Visits BUK ...Expresses Delight at University's Handling of Grants from the Foundation

Former President of Mac Arthur Foundation, Dr. Jonathan Fanton, has commended the management of Bayero University, Kano for judicious utilization of grants advanced by the Foundation to the institution since the year, 2000.

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Speaking in Kano on Saturday, 18 November, 2023, when he visited the Vice Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas, in his office, Dr. Fanton said he was extremely overwhelmed by the progress recorded in the university, which, he said, was an indication that good investment could strengthen universities.

According to him, “in all the interventions rendered to Nigerian tertiary institutions, BUK's programmes are the best in terms of execution and successes.”

Dr. Jonathan Fanton, who is now the President of American Academy of Arts and Science in Boston in the United States of America, said Bayero University was very much dear to him in view of the way and manner it had been handling interventions from MacArthur.

The former MacArthur boss, who completed his tenure as President of the Foundation in the year 2009, explained that even though he was no longer with the Foundation now, he however had a special interest in all its activities having served as one time President.

Shedding more light as to how Bayero University was selected as a beneficiary of the foundation's intervention, Dr. Fanton said initially the university was not among the selected institutions,however,  after a visit he was impressed with what he saw, hence, a change of policy to also consider BUK.

“We are extremely happy with all the universities  

especially Bayero University, Kano. I am pleased and honoured to be here. Initially, when we were selecting universities for our intervention, BUK was not in the list, but when we visited the university, we were overwhelmed. 

As a result of this, we considered it and now, we are very much pleased to see the outcome of our interventions.”

In a related development, the former MacArthur President has charged on government to consider the importance of agriculture, investment in education and the training of younger generations especially on civic education for sustainable growth and development of democracy in the country.

The former MacArthur president also promised collaboration between his Centre in Boston and Bayero University. 

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Responding, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas acknowledged the various interventions made by MacArthur foundation in Bayero University which had tremendiously assisted in the growth and development of the institution.

The Vice Chancellor equally commended Dr. Jonathan Fanton for his personal interest in Bayero University who, 

he said, was the first to advance a grant for the establishment of Faculty of Agriculture,Centre for 

Information Technology (CIT) and the Center for Dryland Agriculture (CDA).

In particular, he said the seed money granted by the Foundation had impacted positively to the growth of the university, particularly the CDAwhich had been a African Centre of Excellence recognized by the World Bank.

Also speaking,  the Chairman of th. Faculty of Communication MacArthur Grant Implementation Committee, Professor Umaru A. Pate, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Kashere, said as a result of fund advanced to the faculty by the foundation, there had been a major national change of policy on the development of curriculum for media and journalism studies in the country.

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At the moment, the Mass Communication programme has been unbundled to have about 8 different disciplines across all the tertiary institutions in the country,which the National Universities Commission adopted and approved.

Professor Pate, while expressing delight for the support from MacArthur Foundation in particular, commended the Africa Director of the Foundation, Dr. Kole Shettima, whom he described as an articulated and hardworking personality.

Dr. Fanton particularly came to visit the facilities at the Faculty of Communication of the university had also visited Center for Dryland Agriculture and Center for Information Technology (CIT) which all got fundings from the MacArthur Foundation