By Muhammad Muntazar
The new Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Kabiru Bala, who, according to him, hit the ground sprinting from May, has turned the University upside down by replacing almost all Directors appointed by his predecessor, Professor Ibrahim Garba, with his own men and close confidantes.
While a cross section of members of the University community welcomed the Vice Chancellor’s decision to replace the inherited appointees with his own men and loyalists which they opine that it is a best step in the right direction of running the University in line with his long conceived dreams and style, others saw it either as deliberate effort to rid his administration of loyalists of the former Vice Chancellor, who he perceives, wrongly or rightly, may, if not removed, undermine his administration.
One of Professor Kabiru Bala’s close confidantes and trusted allies who was appointed in the first phase of the replacement exercise is Professor Ahmed Ibrahim Doko who replaced Professor Mk Aliyu as the Institution’s Director of University Advancement.
Born in Doko, Lavun local government area of Niger State, on 14th of September, 1974, Ahmed attended North Primary School Doko, where he was admitted in 1979 and finished in 1985. He later proceeded to Government Secondary Doko in 1986.
After spending one year at GSS Doko, Ahmed was transferred to ABU Demonstration Secondary School in 1988 where he finished in 1991.
Ahmed was later offered admission into the Faculty of Environmental Design of the University where he obtained his B.Sc (Hons) degree in Quantity Surveying and Management, graduating with Second Class Upper in 1998.
In 2001, he proceeded to King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia, where he obtained his M.Sc degree in Construction Engineering and Management in 2003
Ahmed proceeded to Loughborough University, United Kingdom in 2004, where he bagged his Ph.D in Construction Project Management in 2007.
Ahmed Doko rose through the ranks to the position of Professor in 2013, thus becoming the youngest Academic to become a Professor, in the half-a-decade long history of the Premier University, at the age of 39.
Until his recent appointment, Professor Ahmed had held several Academic and Administrative positions in the University, major ones of which include – Head of Department of Quantity Surveying and Managing Director of Ahmadu Bello University Consultancy Services (ABUCONS)
A thorough and hard-working Scholar, Professor Ahmed has published countless articles in several local and International Journals.
He is also a Member of several Professional Associations within and outside Nigeria.
Professor Doko is married with Nine Children.