Who is Professor Umaru Pate?
By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
Professor Umaru Pate is the Vice- Chancellor of Federal University of kashere, Gombe.
The erudite scholar who holds the prestigious traditional title of “Kaigamma of Adamawa” is a Professor of Media and Society and currently the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Kashere in Gombe State, North East, Nigeria.
He was appointed the VC of the FUK in February, 2021. Before then, he had served as the founding Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano and the immediate past Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies and the Acting Chairman of the Committee of Deans and Directors in the same University from 2019-2021.
Equally, Pate was the immediate past Vice Chairman of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) Advisory Group and a Member of the National Research and Development Standing Committee. Before relocating to BUK as a Professor, he had 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, an Associate Professor in 2002 and full Professor in 2007. He headed the Mass Communication Department in that University for a total of seven years. Pate holds a PhD in Media History (Unimaid. 1997), Master of Philosophy in Communication Studies of the University of Ghana, Legon, 1990 and Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication obtained in 1987 respectively.
This versatile administrator was in November, 2017, was appointed 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 addition, he is affiliated to several national and international organisations as well as the current National President of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria. He is an editorial advisor to twelve communication journals in and out of Nigeria and had variously served as an external examiner to over fifteen Universities in Nigeria and abroad. Some of the Universities are: Unilag, Ibadan, Nsukka, ABU, Covenant, Bowen, Jos, Awka, Enugu State, Leicester (UK), Tehran (Iran) and Makeni (Sierra Leone). He had served on several federal and state governments committees and currently chairs the boards of Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) in West Africa and the Pulaaku FM Radio station in Yola. He has working relationships with Universities of Ohio and Alcorn in the USA and that of Al-Ain in the UAE.
In his career, Professor Umaru Pate, has applied and successfully won funding 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, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British Foreign and Commonwealth office and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. For example, from 2017 to date, his proposals had attracted grants in Millions of Dollars for the Faculty of Communication in Bayero University, Kano from the MacArthur Foundation. Part of the grants were used to establish the Digital BUK FM Radio and Digital BUK Television as well review the national communication and media studies curriculum that unbundled Mass Communication in Nigerian Universities. In 2017, he got a grant from the UK funded NRSP to publish a book on Media, Diversity and Conflict Reporting in Nigeria.
This scholar of repute, no doubt, had attracted funding in the last two years to start an FM Radio station (FUK 89.10) and establish laboratories for the basic medical sciences in preparation for the take-off of a College of Medical Sciences in Federal University, Kashere, Gombe. Earlier, he had secured grants to establish digital FM Radio and DBS Television stations in BUK. Very importantly, too, he chaired the process that reviewed Nigeria’s national curriculum for Communication and Media Studies which was approved and launched by the Federal Government of Nigeria late last year.
Professor Pate is widely travelled and extensively published in books and journals across the globe. For example, in the last four years he had presented papers and participated in high level academic and policy dialogues in Helsinki (Finland), Oslo (Norway), London and Cambridge (UK), Paris (France), Jakarta (Indonesia), Lima (Peru), Mexico City, Montevideo (Uraguay), Zaragoza (Spain), Mumbai (India), Dubai (UAE), Lahore (Pakistan), Accra (Ghana), just to mention a few. Of course, he has been actively involved in Nigeria, too. He had worked as a national and international consultant for different UN Agencies and organisations in Nigeria and other parts of the world that included Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Cameroon. Prof Pate is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors; Fellow, Society for Peace Studies and Practice; Fellow, chartered institute of Business Management, Member, UNESCO Global Network for Communication Professors; Member, Nigerian Academy of Letters and Member, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, among others. He is closely linked to the media industry in Nigeria and abroad through board membership and content contribution.
He is a recipient of numerous academic and other prestigious awards and recognitions from different institutions and bodies that included the BBC World Service in London, University Pancasila in Indonesia, University of Punjab in Pakistan and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies as well as the Nigerian Union of Journalists. He holds the traditional title of Kaigamma, Adamawa (Senior Councillor and Kingmaker in Adamawa Emirate), a title that he inherited from his forefathers. It may interest you to know that the Kaigamma has remained with their house since 1809 when Modibbo Adama established the Fombina or Adamawa Emirate. Pate is currently concluding his biographical book on Prof Jibril Aminu, one time VC of Unimaid, former Education and Petroleum Resources Minsiter, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the USA and two term Senator of Nigeria.
Professor Pate has so far supervised and graduated 23 PhDs and 45 Msc candidates. Many of his students are today Professors and senior officers in media houses in and out of Nigeria. He is happily married to Hajiya Zainab Abubakar and blessed with children.
