As the world, especially the society of the pen fraternity celebrate an erudite scholar of communication, Professor Umaru Pate as he marks his 59th birthday, it is necessary to painstakingly revisit the icon’s footprints in some entities where he had served.
Professor Pate who is currently at the helms of affairs at the Federal University of Kashare (FUK) in Gombe State is a coach and point of reference for well-doing journalists in the northern part of the country. As the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano, Professor Pate had headed the Mass Communication department before he made effort to make it a faculty.
READ: WikkiTimes Invites Applications for Umaru Pate Accountability Reporting Fellowship
FROM AN A GRADUATE ASSISTANT TO PROFESSOR
Professor Pate after his pre-tertiary education, proceeded to College of Preliminary Studies, Yola, for an IJMB program that earned him for direct entry into the University of Maiduguri to read Mass Communication in 1984. Four years after, Professor Pate graduated as the best student and was retained by the department for his one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Subsequently, the institution appointed him as a Graduate Assistant from where he would proceed to University of Ghana, Legon, on fellowship for a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) Degree in Communication Studies. After completing the programme in 1990, Professor Pate resumed lecturing in the department. By the age of 33, the erudite scholar had bagged his PhD at the University of Maiduguri.
In 2002 Professor Pate became an Associate Professor and attained full professorship in 2007. Pate is a Professor of Media and Society.
HIS FOOTPRINTS IN UNIMAID AND BUK
During his stay at the University of Maiduguri, Professor Pate headed Mass Communication department for seven years. According to findings, the erudite gave a facelift to the department to stand its contemporaries. Further, he moved to Bayero University Kano (BUK).
Until his appointment as the Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Kashere, Professor was in BUK where he revamped and elevated the department of Mass Communication. He was the brain behind transforming the department into a faculty and he would serve as its pioneer dean.
During his tenure as the dean of the faculty, Professor engineered the establishment of a modern radio and television stations at the faculty with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. In addition, professor Pate held the position of Dean, Postgraduate Studies at BUK.
OTHER TRACK RECORDS
At different times during his pre-degree and degree study period, he had worked as a part time reporter, newscaster/reader and presenter at the FRCN Kaduna and NTA Yola. Professor Pate was appointed by UNESCO headquarters in Paris 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 November, 2017.
He has served the UN system in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Cameroons. Pate has featured and contributed regularly on national and international media mostly focussing on current affairs. He was also on some committees of the federal and some state governments at different times. Professor Pate is a senior councillor and ranking Kingmaker in the Adamawa Emirate Council where he is the Kaigamma (Chief of Army Staff).
He chairs the Board of Directors of Pulaaku FM Radio in Yola and serves on several other boards. Professor Pate has over sixty six national and international publications comprising of journal articles, book chapters, monographs and books published in different parts of the world. He is a recipient of numerous academic awards and recognitions from many institutions and organizations.
