Despite many Nigerian universities' claim to being the "biggest and the best university in all of Nigeria, if not Africa," Ahmadu Bello actually IS the largest university in Nigeria, with approximately 35,000 students, a very large main campus, two smaller teaching hospitals campuses, as well as a handful of research institutions nearby.  

Ahmadu Bello is a reasonably well-maintained and very impressive facility.  I've consulted with Ahmadu Bello University twice in the past, so I'm familiar with their staff and ambitions.  

Last year, Ahmadu Bello University was the recipient of a $1,000,000 (yes, that's dollars, not Naira) grant from the outgoing Head of State to develop their computer networking and Internet access.  Since then, they have formed a committee to craft a plan and carry it out.  The head of this committee is Dr. Patrick F. U. Taylor, a Sierra Leonian and electrical engineering professor who taught for years at Kano University before moving to ABU.  He is a very insistent, dynamic, and energetic individual.  

I met Dr. Taylor on arrival and we discussed business clear from  4 -9 PM.  The good professor views me as a valuable outside "change agent" and wanted to brief me on various conundrums he was facing which he hoped I would in a larger meeting the next day. 

Dr. Dikko, Head Librarian and Dr. Patrick Taylor, NUNet Chair

The person whom I did not get a chance to meet with this trip, who portends to be a major player in the networking of ABU is Dr. Dikko, the Chief of the K.I.L., ABU's main library.  Dr. Dikko has already purchased a server and is working to network the library.  He has declared an intention to secure a satellite Internet connection for the library in addition to the one planned for the campus.  Those who know him well expect him to follow through.

Most impressive, though, is the investigative work the committee has done.  Visiting half a dozen universities around Nigeria that had a reputation for doing computers and networking well, Dr. Taylor supplied me with an advanced draft of this report that shed some interesting light on projects around Nigeria.  

The highlights: 

• Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife has deployed a 64K satellite link via a NITEL link in Lagos.  It has proved more reliable than other forms of linkage, although the actual bandwidth is not up to expectations.   OAU has had a three-year relationship with the International Center for Applied Physics in Treiste, Italy, where several OAU staff have been trained.  OAU has a small wireless network spanning the campus (currently 3Mbit but they are planning to expand to 10Mbit) and only a few functioning workstations.  The visiting committee was impressed with how few of the staff and students had access to the system.
  

• The University of Calabar in Calabar was visited because of its advertised use of wireless networking with a 24km reach.  However, the visiting committee found that the equipment had not been installed.  They were told by their Calabar counterparts that fiber optics had been abandoned and wireless adopted because of the fear of vandalism.
  

• Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi has just finished the first phase of their campus network, with fiber optics installed in a few buildings and plans to install computers in every faculty office. 

Several committee members made the point that they really don’t have a lot to go on or other examples from which they can draw conclusions, but they also can't afford to take risks.  So they are proceeding with caution.  

Currently, the plans include a VSAT Internet connection, a fiber optic backbone spanning the main campus, catagory5 copper cabling within buildings with a Ethernet port in every faculty office, and wireless links to the distant campuses.

ABU runs an e-mail system that they have used somewhat successfully for the past several years.  They report about 150 accounts on this e-mail system.  Although it is only currently available to those who are willing to go to the NUNet offices and use one of the two or three workstations there.  

The Computer Centre has a 20-station LAN that is used for training students.  A small local area network is apparently being constructed in the library and the first extension of the campus network is expected to be between NUNet offices and the library. 

The folks at ABU are keenly interested in receiving more training at practically all levels of the digital endeavor.  They asked me to consider mounting my Internetworks course there this next year, especially for their administrators and faculty.  And they pledged to send a dozen people to the potential network training in Jos in February.  As well, they asked if I could host a couple of visitors from ABU at the University of Iowa to demonstrate how these digital technologies are being used in education at Iowa.  

In their plans for campus digitization, the committee has highlighted the training of Information Technologists as a major priority.  They have identified a need to train 12 "Systems Administrators, Operators, and Engineers" and then another 50 staff to manage the various computer labs across campus.

Chief Librarian, Dr. Dikko Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr. George Kwanashie Head of Department for Physics, Dr. Ojo During the impressive "Roof of the Senate Building Tour."
	The view from on high.. With its own reservoir, dam, power plant, and shopping center, ABU-ites like to say their campus is a "City within a city."

ABU has gotten several bids for satellite connectivity, one from Lyman Bros. in Colorado, and two from Nigerian access providers.  The bids of the Nigerian providers were three to four times more expensive than that of Lyman Bros.  

ABU has great reservations about working in a project with NUC because they don’t perceive NUC to be a reliable partner.  They feel since they already have the money in hand and some of the groundwork covered, that they should proceed apace on their own trajectory.  I actually encouraged them to do so, recounting the "bird in the bush" analogy, although I also advised them to watch the NUC's proposal because if it unfolds quickly enough for ABU, it will provide them redundancy and training that they wouldn't receive otherwise on their own.   

For ABU and for their counterparts at UNILAG as well, I stressed the notion of how the current NUC satellite proposal is designed to provide a great deal of autonomy for all the participants, the point being that the NUC project would have them buying the same equipment and working with the same provider as if they had gone it alone, and that they could take over paying the satellite connection fees at any point in time if they wanted to be the stand-alone.  But the NUC proposal added additional layers of redundancy in training.  This assurance seemed very important to them, and I think it's indicative of how important it remains to design this project in such a fashion. 

(Interestingly, early along in the process, the NUC has tried to define itself as a gateway for the satellite project.  I think that I was able to demonstrate to them that the system as it's designed does not need a gateway, nor does NUC have the infrastructure to provide gateway services to the member universities. )