Who is Professor Pate? – Idris Mohammed

Professor Umaru Pate, the Kaigamma of Adamawa is the immediate past and pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano.

And currently the Dean School of Postgraduate Bayero University Kano. Before relocating to BUK as a Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, he served as a Professor in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Maiduguri where he rose through the ranks beginning as a Graduate Assistant in 1988 to become an Associate Professor in 2002 and full Professor in 2007.

He headed the Mass Communication Department in the University for a total of seven years.

Pate holds a PhD, Master of Philosophy and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mass Communication obtained in 1997, 1990 and 1987, respectively.

Read Also:Prof. Umar Pate emerges VC Federal University Kashere

Professor Pate was appointed by UNESCO headquarters in Paris as a Director representing Africa on the six persons Board of Directors of the prestigious International Network of UNESCO Professors in Communication (ORBICOM) with headquarters at the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada in November 2017,

He has served the UN system in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Cameroons. He has featured and contributed regularly on national and international media mostly focusing on current affairs.

He was also on some committees of the federal and some state governments at different times.

Read Also:Prof. Pate emerges ACSPN President

Specifically, he was a member of the Federal Government Committee on the formulation of the National Community Radio Committee under Late Prof Alfred Opubor during the Obasanjo administration. Pate is also a foundational member of the National Community Radio Coalition Committee since 1999. Professor Pate is a senior councillor and ranking Kingmaker in the Adamawa Emirate Council where he is the Kaigamma (Chief of Army Staff).

He chairs the Board of Directors of Pulaaku  FM Radio in Yola and serves on several other boards. In his career, he has applied and successfully won grants, at various times, from the Ford Foundation, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, the World Bank, OTI/USAID, UNESCO, Panos Institute of Washington, Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and MacArthur Foundation, among others.

Currently, he is managing a US$ 700,000 (N236 Million) grant he successfully competed and won for his Faculty from the MacArthur Foundation of Chicago last year. He is the only scholar in Nigeria, among many others that competed and won the grant for his Faculty in the country.

Professor Pate has over sixty-six national and international publications consisting of journal articles, book chapters, monographs and books published in different parts of the world.

He is a recipient of numerous academic awards and recognitions from many institutions and organizations.

There is no doubt that the Federal University Kashere is facing many challenges and your call to duty and service at this time is to provide solution and succour to the multifarious problems of the university.

I prayed for God’s guidance, protection and successful tenure for the new Vice-Chancellor as he takes up the responsibilities and challenges of their new office.

Idris Mohammed is with the Department of Mass  Communication Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto