Heritage · July 2026
The founding class: 426 students, four faculties, one ambition
On 4 October 1962, the University of Northern Nigeria opened at Samaru. What followed became the largest university in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Network editorial desk
The University did not start from nothing. When it opened its doors it gathered existing institutions into itself — the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology at Samaru, the Institute of Administration at Kongo, research institutes for agriculture and veterinary science. Their graduates are ABU’s elder alumni; their campuses became its own.
Behind it stood the will of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, who believed the North’s future would be built in classrooms — and who became the University’s first Chancellor. Upon his death in 1966, the University took his name.
The opening scale was modest: four faculties, fifteen departments, 426 students. Within a decade there were thousands; within a generation, the University had seeded other universities outright and spread across seven thousand hectares. The monumental tower at Samaru became the emblem it remains — a citadel of learning on the savannah.
The founding class organised the first alumni association within years of graduating. This Network is the continuation of what they started.