On April 24, 2004, in the auditorium of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), a crowd of students, colleagues, and admirers gathered to listen to a lecture unlike most others. The man at the podium, already seasoned in academia, was presenting his inaugural lecture as a professor of Science Education and Comparative Higher Education. Few in the audience knew then that ten years later, in 2014, he would return to that same stage for another inaugural lecture, this time as a professor of Media and Cultural Communication.
To hold a professorial chair is one of the highest honours in academia. To hold two, across two different disciplines, is almost unheard of. In Nigeria, it is rarer still. Yet Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, born in 1956, has lived this rare reality, earning him nicknames like “double professor” or “dual professor,” the only one of his kind from northern Nigeria.
The Early Years: A Childhood Dream
The seed of academia was planted early. In 1966, a ten-year-old boy visited the home of Malam Sani Zahradeen at Bayero University’s old campus. Captivated by the intellectual aura of the environment and the simple delight of breakfast at the professor’s home, he decided then: the university would be his life’s home.
He pursued this dream relentlessly, studying Science Education (Biology/Physiology) at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In July 1980, he began his career as a Graduate Assistant at BUK. Though he had longed to join the Faculty of Science, he found himself instead in the Faculty of Education. It was not his first choice, but fate had begun to chart a remarkable course.
First Professorship: Science Education
Armed with a DPhil from the University of Sussex (UK) through a Commonwealth Scholarship, and later a Fulbright Senior Scholar residency at the University of California, Berkeley, his academic star rose quickly. He became an Associate Professor in 1994 and, by 1997, a full Professor of Science Education and Comparative Higher Education, just one year shy of his personal target of becoming a professor before 40.
His inaugural lecture came on April 24, 2004, titled “The Place of Education in National Development.” It marked not only his professorial milestone but also his place as the seventh scholar in BUK’s history to deliver such a lecture.
A Shift in Orbit: From Education to Media and Culture
By the late 1990s, Kano was awash with debates over Hausa popular literature, or littattafan soyayya. Religious clerics condemned the novels, while young readers embraced them. Curious, Prof. Adamu immersed himself in the field. He visited printing centres, befriended writers like Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino and Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, and even created Hausa-specific computer fonts to improve word processing of the language’s unique sounds.
This foray into popular culture research soon spilt into the burgeoning Hausa film industry, later dubbed Kannywood and Hausa music. He chaired more than a dozen award ceremonies between 2000 and 2009, launched online forums such as Finafinan Hausa on Yahoo! Groups, and became a reference point for scholars and practitioners of Hausa cultural production globally.
His academic curiosity led him to conferences across Africa, Europe, and the United States, including the 2004 International African Institute seminar in Nairobi, the 8th International Janheinz Jahn Symposium in Mainz, Germany, and guest lectures at institutions such as Columbia University, SOAS (London), and the University of Warsaw, where he taught courses in 2012.
Second Professorship: Media and Cultural Communication
Upon returning from Warsaw in 2012, the then Vice-Chancellor of BUK, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, urged him to submit his publications and activities for review in the Department of Mass Communication. By January 2013, the assessments had come back positive: he was appointed Professor of Media and Cultural Communication, effective October 2012.
This appointment made him Nigeria’s first “double professor”, two separate professorships in two unrelated disciplines, earned through rigorous external assessments. His second inaugural lecture, delivered in 2014, cemented this achievement.
Honours, Memberships, and Legacy
Prof. Adamu holds memberships in both the Nigerian Academy of Education (MNAE) and the Nigerian Academy of Letters (MNAL), a rare academic crossover. His work has bridged education, literature, film, music, and media studies, inspiring generations of scholars and practitioners.
He has served on the Governing Council of the Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON) and is a founding member of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN). Internationally, he is recognised for pioneering research into Hausa popular culture, particularly its intersections with education and media technologies.
He served as Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (2016–2021), introducing reforms in distance learning.
The Rare Distinction of Two Chairs
Globally, dual professorships are rare. In the United States, for instance, Columbia University’s Andrew Gelman is recognised as a professor in both Statistics and Political Science, despite not holding a degree in the latter. In Nigeria, however, the achievement remains singular.
For Prof. Adamu, the journey to double professorship was not a calculated ambition but the by-product of curiosity, passion, and what he jokingly calls “a bit of nuttiness.” From his first appointment in 1980 to his second professorship in 2012, it has been a 32-year odyssey across disciplines, continents, and cultures.
As he looks toward retirement in 2026, the story of his double professorship is more than a personal triumph. It is a testament to intellectual courage, cross-disciplinary vision, and the boundless possibilities of scholarship.
