History of Federal Polytechnic Bauchi
Federal Polytechnic Bauchi started skeletal work in May 1979. However, academic activities actually took off on 22nd November 1979 with an initial student population of 245 registered in eleven departments. Apart from those admitted for the introductory course, all the other students were admitted for the 4-year Nigerian National Diploma (NND) Programme.
The Polytechnic started with initial staff strength of 138 comprising 45 and 93 senior and junior staff respectively.
The first Governing Council of the Polytechnic under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Y.A. Olatunji was appointed in February 1981.
The Polytechnic administrative departments were located in two buildings along Yandoka Road while a part of the Bauchi Teachers College now General Hassan Usman Katsina Unity College was offered by the Bauchi State Government for use of the Polytechnic as students’ hostels, cafeteria, lecture rooms, typing studio, library and medical centre. In 1980, when the Bauchi State Government decided to establish an Advanced Teachers’ College now College of Education, Azare, in Bauchi Metropolis, the Polytechnic vacated the Unity College to its permanent Site. Consequently, some houses were rented along Ran Road in downtown Bauchi and used for academic activities. Some other rented buildings were used as female hostels in Yelwa village while the male hostels were located along Maiduguri Road, near Gubi Dam Road junction.
From the inception of the Polytechnic, the idea of establishing a demonstration farm for the Department of Agricultural Engineering was nurtured. Consequently, a road camp situated at Wailo, about 60 kilometres from Bauchi metropolis used by the Societies General Enterprises Nigeria (SGEN), Company.
The original idea of a demonstration farm at Wailo crystallized into a satellite campus in 1981 when the newly established Department of Agricultural Engineering moved with the Department of Basic Science to that location. The site was christened Wailo campus and a Director, Dr. N.C. Udeh was appointed to manage its affairs.
At the beginning of the 1982/83 session, all the units of the Polytechnic in Bauchi metropolis moved to the permanent campus.
The Polytechnic permanent campus occupies an area of about 750 hectares and is situated at Gwallameji village along Bauchi – Dass Road. It has been planned to be a modern self-contained campus with residential, academic, and recreation facilities. The Polytechnic provides all the necessary facilities required for the smooth running of the institution which includes offices, laboratories and workshops, staff houses, demonstration farm, demonstration hotel, Audio-Visual Centre (AVC), Medical Services, Library Services, Staff School, Sports Complex and Transport System.
With dwindling financial resources and galloping inflation in the country at large, the Polytechnic authorities decided to concentrate all its activities on one location only. Therefore, in 1983, Wailo Campus was closed down and the departments moved to the permanent site.
When the Federal Polytechnic was established in 1979, it started operating in rented buildings along Yandoka and Ran Roads. The present site of the Polytechnic at Gwallameji village, 8km South West of Bauchi Township was acquired in 1980.
Between 1980 and 1981, the main effort of the Polytechnic was toward the provision of infrastructural facilities required for harmonious and rational development. The campus was fenced, 5km of surface dressed roads constructed and about 8km of electricity distribution network were completed with street lighting.
To facilitate academic activities on the site, while development of the main campus continued, “an Emergency Zone” was identified at the South East corner of the site. All construction activities on the later part of 1981 and most of 1982 were restricted to this area. By the end of 1982, the following buildings were completed and occupied:
i) Central Library
ii) Four (4) Administrative Blocks
iii) Four (4) Blocks of 16-room student Hostels
iv) A block of cafeteria
v) Four (4) Blocks of classrooms
vi) Ten (10) units of 3-Bedroom Staff Housing with boys quarters and
vii) Two Blocks of Laboratories.
The following two years (1984-86) were utilized for the development of laboratories and workshops. Three Blocks for Mechanical Engineering Department were completed. It was during this period that most of the equipment for technology-based programmes was received. These workshops were therefore used to store the equipment. A studio for the School of Environmental Studies was completed.
Staff housing improved with the completion of an additional fifteen Type A three-bedroom houses, without boys quarters. Progress in another housing estate culminated in the occupation of ten units of Type B three-bedroom houses, with boys’ quarters. A 2km access road was constructed within the estate. Classroom accommodation improved with the completion of two blocks of classrooms with a capacity of 60 students each. In continuation of the development of academic facilities, equipment for workshops for Mechanical and Civil Engineering Departments were installed between 1985 and 1986. This period also saw the completion and equipping of the Catering and Hotel Management building now Hotel and Tourism Management, Science Technology Laboratory block, Agricultural Engineering laboratories, Food Science Technology workshop and Electrical Engineering block. Staff housing again improved with the completion of 5 units of three bedroom houses in the “emergency zone.”
Source: fptb.edu.ng
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