Dr K’tso Ngarbu is a household name in the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, NSUK. He is a Medical Geologist by profession, he was a former ASSU Chairman of the University and because of his charisma as a result of his international connections with foreign universities and cooperate organizations both within and outside the country. The management of NSUK found him worthy and appointed him to save as the Director of linkages. In less than one year since he came on board the university is witnessing tremendous and significant developments in the areas of partnerships. In this exclusive interview with our North Central Editor DAVID DARI, he speaks on issues ranging from the University’s readiness to commence two world class academic programmes, first of there kinds in the whole world through his office in the aspects of European Studies and that of Medical Geology, how the management of the University under the leadership of the Vice Chancellor  Professional Suleiman Bala Muhammad appointed him in the said capacity and made his work easier, among other meaningful issues.
Excepts:
It is no longer news that since you came on board to this office you have made some tremendous impact. The general public would like to hear from you, how has it been?
Thank you very much, and you are welcome. It is good for one to have exposure and it is good to test the standard of education of other countries, this for me is because I have the inspiration to drive NSUK towards internationalization. Fortunately for me as well is the fact that I am working under a Vice Chancellor that has made linkages and international co-operation a very strong focus. This is a man that while he was in the university of Abuja as the University’s Director of the center for Asian studies, he spent time visiting the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean Embassies were here strived and even got scholarships for students and staff of the university of Abuja. So, you can imaging the kind of support and enabling environment I have to do my job with ease.
Without collaborations the university no longer becomes universal because the word university is gotten from the word universal meaning the entire group block. So,it is a most to strive to achieve the goal of setting up this directorate called Linkages and International Co-operation. In summary these has been those motivations and then the resources for which I am doing what am doing.
In recent times, one of your efforts is about coming into reality as regards establishing an European Studies in NSUK. Can you shade more light on this?
Very interesting question. When you travel to the big universities of the world you will see institutes for African Studies, but I discovered that back home when you go round our universities nobody is studying Europeans, yet we have the foreign ministry, we involve in diplomacy and we have people studying International Relations, Law and Diplomacy. How do you now relate and work with a people whose backgrounds, cultures and histories and a way of life you do not have knowledge about them ? Another motivation is that most Africans are migrating towards Europe. How do you move towards people you know nothing about?
It becomes difficult to integrate, learn and to get adopted to the European lifestyles. So, based on these gaps I was motivated to conceive the idea of an institution for European Studies. When I was doing that I never knew it would be the first in the entire Africa Universities, until I tried to research and do profiling to look for similar institutes in Africa for possible collaboration and I discovered that this is about to be the first because there’s none elsewhere.
As regards language barriers, what is obtainable in the said aspect?
In the European countries we have tribes such as the Scandavians, the Latvians, the Polish, the French the Germans amongst others,  will be part of the curriculum and the courses that the university will run. They are necessary because they will also blend with such people. You also have to speak like them not just to dress like them, eat like them or talk like them.
I was also made to understand that the NSUK is also planning to establish the department of Medical Geology. How true is it and how prepared is the University?
While it will interest the public to know that NSUK has already constituted the external advisory board in the said regard and also allocated space for temporary take off, the said board has been inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Suleiman Bala Muhammed. The board has had two meetings and it will interest you to know that all what is required for the international institute to kick start has been put in place.
When this idea came I didn’t know it will also be the first in the world until it was conceived and those who are the fathers of Medical Geology in the world were involved then we discovered that we are creating such platform  globally.
So also to our incoming Center for Climate Change Action for United Nations Environment Programme. When we started it we didn’t know it will be the first. It will serve the  54 countries of Africa. As we speak the Center has even commenced our first activities. So, these are three distinctions remarkable ones that NSUK under the management headed by Professor Suleiman Bala Muhammed has achieved and we are grateful to the management for giving us the opportunity to drive all this through the  Linkages International Co-operation Directorate.
All these programmes you have mentioned would required a huge financial commitments. Do you think a State University of this nature would be able to meet up with the aforementioned programmes?
Yes, NSUK can meet up owing to the fact that everything that comes up with novelty will not suffer and anything that has distinction hardly suffers so much because it is always attractive. I have already told you earlier that the institution has put up  structures. Funding will not just start rather funding project goes beyond money, but you transform it into infrastructures and you translate into human capital. Yes, many frontline medical Geologists from across the world are ready for us.
Talking about the European Studies, the European Commission is backing the project and for now it will interest you to know that 4 Embassies led by Poland followed by Hungary and Slovakia were part of those collaborating with us and there’s going to be more and more support from other relevant agencies both within the country and the outside world. Funding is going to come because we are going to look for several opportunities through TETFUND, Ecological Found, US Environment for Agency and many other US Organizations such as USAID and of course prominent Scholars and Fellowships from the entire world. So, we will arrive at good funding.
What are your other blue prints as long as you are in this office before your tenure elapses?
We have already done much before now since we came on board here. We will make sure we score first on standard, research and intellectual for NSUK before the end of my tenure in this office. My goal is to have NSUK collaborating with Universities and Research Institutions from all the continents of the world.
At the moment we have moved to Europe, we are  entering Africa very soon and in no distant time we will move to somewhere. After Africa we will go to South America and then we will go to North American Continent and that is the vision I have for NSUK before my tenure expires.