First Private University in Gombe

By Muhd El-Bonga Ibraheem On the 6th of April 2022, history was made in the North East, particularly in Gombe State, when the Federal Executive Council (FEC)—in one of its numerous meetings— approved the establishment of Pen Resource University (PRU) in Gombe State. With this development, Pen Resource University becomes the second private university in the north-east, behind American University of Nigeria, located in Adamawa State. All preparations for the smooth takeoff of the school were finalized about a year ago. The founders of the school have already put up state-of-the-art facilities in the realms of 21st-century technology-backed instruction. Amazingly, the team members were comprised of seasoned administrators and young academics who have distinguished themselves across all facets of education. This, therefore, isn’t surprising when the NUC visitation team gave the school a swift but superb pass mark during inspection in order to expedite action. Pen Resource University provides an avenue for the people of Gombe, and the north east in general, to have access to some high-demand courses, especially in fields like Cyber Security, Computer Science, Software Engineering, etc., given that disciplines like artificial intelligence and robotics have gradually become the engine room that is ostensibly driving home innovative development in all ramifications of science and technology. The new school will also run programs in medical sciences. Without any doubt, the new school signals a new dawn in the education sector because it succeeds in placing Gombe as a strong education investment destination in a region with horrible education indices, particularly low school enrollment rates and a staggering number of out-of-school children. Our people and those from the north east would find the school very savory to learn from given its propensity to provide an avenue to interact with world-class tutors—mostly foreign trained—drawn from across the nooks and crannys of Nigeria in order to impart knowledge. The proprietor of the new school, Dr. Sani Jauro, deserves some praise because his passion for education in Gombe remains unrivaled. It is not a new fact that Pen Resource already has a number of schools spanning from nursery to secondary schools in Gombe. Their products have been doing wonders not only in Gombe but the nation at large. Just recently, one of its students emerged the best in a nationwide scientific competition—beating students from Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt, to mention but a few. And in order to continue to harness the talent of our young ones to make them useful members of society, the proprietor decided to establish a university. Going forward, we need more of these kinds of investments in Gombe in order to close the numerous education gaps that currently exist across the north-east in particular.