Abdalla Uba Adamu () (born 25 April 1956) is a Nigerian academic, educator, publisher, filmmaker, ethnomusicologist, and media scholar. He hold double professorships in Science Education (1997) and Media and Cultural Communication (2012).
He taught media and science education courses in many Nigerian universities and around the world, including serving as a European Union Visiting Professor at University of Warsaw, Poland, in 2012, visiting professor, Rutgers University, New Jersey, and visiting professor, University of Florida in 2010. He was Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley, 1991-1992.
In his contribution to the development of Hausa language in modern era, he developed 'hooked’ Hausa language character font sets (ɓ Ɓ ɗ Ɗ ƙ Ƙ), which were not present at the advent of the word processors in Nigeria in the 1990s. He named them 'rabi'at' and 'abdalla'.
Early life and education
Adamu was born in Daneji, Kano city, Kano State, on April 25, 1956. He received his undergraduate B.Sc. (Education) degree in Education, Biology and Physiology in 1979 at Ahmadu Bello University. He did his National Youth Service at a high school in Umoarkrika, Imo State, teaching Biology and Agricultural Science.
He was employed as the first Graduate Assistant in Science Education in Bayero University Kano in July 1980. After a year, he was sponsored by the Kano State Government to study for M.A. Science Education at Chelsea College, University of London from 1982 to 1983. At Chelsea College, he was tutored by direct students of Karl Popper and subsequently became influenced by Popper's theories on the Philosophy of Science. On return to Bayero University, he re-oriented his Science Education classes towards Popper's theories, in particular falsification and conjectures and refutations. He subsequently developed both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on History and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Science and Technology Education where he domiciled at the time. He served as Head of Department of Education (1995-1998, 1999-2001), Head of Department of Science and Technology Education (2010-2013). Additionally, he served as Director, Management Information Systems (MIS) in Bayero University Kano from 1999 to 2004.
In October 1985 he became the first Kano State indigene to be awarded the British Commonwealth Scholarship which enabled him to proceed to Sussex University where he studied for his D.Phil. in Science Education with focus on Human Resource Development under the tutelage of Keith Lewin. Titled Science, schooling and manpower production in Nigeria: a study of Kano state science secondary schools, 1977-1987, his research explored the role of Science Education policies in national development. He returned to Bayero University in 1988 and continued to raise up in academic ranks.
Career
In 1991, Adamu was appointed Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar and given a place at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley. During the year he was at Berkeley, was mentored by Sheldon Rothblatt, the Director of the Center at the time, and Martin Trow, who both encouraged his residency and intention to write about the transnational nature of Nigerian Higher Education by incorporating him into the History of the University cluster. During the Berkeley Residency he wrote a monograph, Reform and Adaptation in Nigerian University Curricula, published by Edwin Mellen Press, New York, in 1994. The monograph explores the transfer of educational influence and structures from the United States to Nigeria, and the substitution of British educational system in Nigeria in the process. He was also Resident at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Resident Fellows program at the Bellagio Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, October to November 1993. During the Rockefeller Residency, he developed a monograph on the introduction of the American-style course unit system into the academic structure of Bayero University and the challenges such process faced. Thus, his main focus in Education were comparative higher education, curriculum and indigenous science education and science policy development.