Fresh documentary evidence has challenged former Senator Emmanuel Bwacha’s account of his role in the establishment and location of the Federal University Wukari, FUWUKARI, in Taraba State.
Bwacha, who represented Taraba South Senatorial District between 2011 and 2023, recently claimed in an interview with the podcast platform Spill It that he played a decisive role in taking the idea of establishing the university to the late Governor Danbaba Suntai.
According to Bwacha, Chief Damian D. Dodo, SAN, merely originated the idea, while he personally presented it to Suntai, who subsequently agreed to his proposal to locate the institution in Wukari.
“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,” Bwacha said.
He further claimed that although Suntai had conceived a state university for the state capital, his intervention influenced the decision to locate the federal university in Wukari while the state polytechnic went to the governor’s hometown.
However, records dating back to 2021 and 2022 show that Dodo had been formally recognised for his contribution to the establishment and location of the university years before Bwacha’s recent account emerged.
One of the documents is a February 6, 2022 letter from the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum informing Dodo of his nomination for a Special Award of Excellence.
The letter, signed by the forum’s Chairman, Associate Professor David A. Agbu; Chairman of its Organising Committee, Rev. Fr. Prof. A. I. Bature; and Secretary, Associate Professor Elijah I. Akombo, specifically cited Dodo’s role in the establishment of Federal University Wukari.
The forum said Dodo was being honoured for his role in establishing the university, as well as for providing valuable law books and other academic materials for the development of its Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Law at Taraba State University, Jalingo.
The significance of the letter lies in its timing. It was issued in February 2022, years before the present controversy, suggesting that the recognition of Dodo’s contribution was not prompted by the latest disagreement over who should receive credit for the university.
At the presentation of the award on February 10, 2022, Agbu, in his address, went further by specifically linking Dodo’s influence to the location of the federal university in Wukari.
“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 added that Dodo’s influence had helped the zone secure a federal university, noting the employment, educational, infrastructural and economic opportunities the institution had brought to the people.
The forum also credited Dodo with playing a significant role in the establishment of the university’s Faculty of Law, including the donation of law books and other academic materials to the institution.
Further evidence came from Federal University Wukari itself. In a December 17, 2021 letter, the then Vice Chancellor, Professor J. S. Rabo, informed Dodo that the university’s Governing Council had approved his nomination for an Honorary Doctorate, Honoris Causa, in recognition of his contributions to socio economic development.
A subsequent letter dated January 20, 2022 invited Dodo to the university’s second combined convocation ceremony and to commission projects, including the Faculty of Law Building. The institution subsequently honoured him alongside other prominent Nigerians.
Another significant account came from Professor Abubakar Kundiri, a former Vice Chancellor of the university, who credited Dodo with playing a leading role in the institution’s establishment, including using his contacts and influence and financing trips connected with the project.
Kundiri said Dodo’s contribution had also been attested to by individuals involved in the process, including the late Professor Rasheed and officials associated with the National Universities Commission.
The sequence of the records is particularly significant. In December 2021, the university’s Governing Council approved Dodo for an honorary doctorate. In January 2022, the institution invited him to commission its Faculty of Law building. In February 2022, the Southern Taraba Academics’ Forum honoured him specifically for his influence in locating the federal university in Wukari.
Accounts of the establishment process also indicate that Taraba and Yobe were among the North Eastern states without a federal university at the time, creating the possibility that the institution could have been located in Yobe. Those accounts credit Dodo’s relationship with the late Governor Suntai and the late Kenneth Gbagi, then Minister of State for Education, as part of the efforts that helped secure the institution for Taraba and ultimately Wukari.
The available documents do not, by themselves, establish every individual or institution that contributed to the establishment and siting of the university. They do, however, demonstrate that Dodo’s role had been publicly acknowledged by an academic body and recognised institutionally by Federal University Wukari before Bwacha’s latest account.
That evidence therefore presents a materially different version of the history from Bwacha’s claim that Dodo merely generated the idea while he took it to Governor Suntai for approval. The records instead point to Dodo’s influence, relationships and continued involvement in the development of the university, particularly its Faculty of Law.
Dodo, for his part, has consistently maintained a low profile over the question of who deserves credit, stressing that the establishment of the university and its impact on Taraba are more important than personal recognition. The documentary trail now provides an independent historical record against which competing accounts of the university’s origin and location can be assessed.