Now that the Federal Government has named the states that will host the federal universities to be established in the six geo-political zones the concern of pressure groups now is where they would be sited within the states.
Education Minister Prof Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i announced the states at a briefing in Abuja on Monday. They are: Nasarawa (Northcentral zone), Ebonyi (Southeast), Ekiti (Southwest), Taraba (Northeast), Jigawa (Northwest) and Bayelsa (Southsouth).
The location of the new university coming to Ekiti has already been determined by the Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who announced that it would be sited in Ikole-Ekiti, the headquarters of Ikole Local Government Area.
Hosting the Minister of State for Education, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, on Monday, Fayemi said the decision to site the university in Ikole-Ekiti was informed by the need to give the people of the northern part of the state an opportunity to enjoy dividends of democracy.
While on an inspection visit to the site with the minister, the people of the town praised Fayemi for not toeing the path of former governors who influenced the siting of similar projects in their hometowns.
The new university will make use of the site of the Agricultural Development Project in Ikole. This satisfies the need for balance in the location of tertiary institutions in the state.
Fayemi said the university would focus on Agriculture Engineering, Biotechnology and Mining, which he believes would benefit Ekiti as an agrarian state.
“As at last Thursday when I saw the President, he confirmed to me that we will have one in Ekiti. The one for Ekiti will focus on Agricultural Engineering, Biotechnology and Mining,” he said.
However, in Bayelsa, from where President Goodluck Jonathan hails, the situation is not so straight forward. Some indigenes are of the opinion that the university should be sited in an area of the state where there is no federal presence, but feelers are that it may be sited around the President’s country home in the East Senatorial district, where there is heavy federal presence.
Ogbia, Mr. President’s town, is where oil was first struck in commercial quantity. The East senatorial District is also where a petroleum refinery is being proposed. Besides, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plant is there.
Not all Bayelsa indigenes are comfortable with this proposition. The Bayelsa Conciliators Forum, a group led by Chief Thompson Okorotie, argued that both Bayelsa Central and East Senatorial districts have received enormous federal presence, and demanded that “the federal university be taken to Bayelsa West Senatorial District”.
Among the projects already in the Central Senatorial District, the forum added, included the International Cargo Airport, Nigerian Law School, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Agency.
“The Bayelsa West Senatorial District has not a single federal project,” the forum added.
In Ebonyi State, some academics are not happy that Governor Martin Elechi is proposing that the Federal Government take over the Ebonyi State University (EBSU), rather than establish a new institution.
Ebonyi State University has four campuses — the permanent site, the Ishieke campus, the College of Agriculture campus (CAS) and the Presco campus.
With the structures in the four campuses, the federal government would have little or nothing to put on ground as the administration of Dr. Sam Egwu and that of Elechi had put in everything on ground to make the university one of the best in the region. The Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital was, before the industrial crisis that rocked the institution, the best teaching hospital in the zone.
However, senior lecturers and other workers are strongly opposed to the proposition, which they see as a confirmation of the governor’s pronouncement that the state is not yet ripe for a university. The governor has argued that the number of faculties and staff strength in the university was ridiculous and needed to be re-structured.
Anxiety has gripped most members of the staff of the institution as they perceive a major shake-up and mass sack should the federal government take over the institution.
A senior lecturer in the institution, pleaded for anonymity said:”We are not against the federal government establishing a federal university in the state. We desperately need it and most of the ceded it to us but what we are against is the proposed plan by the state government to hand over our pride and hope to the federal government. With the proposed take over of the institution, we stand to lose a lot including the opportunity of having our people at the helm of affairs.
“If the federal government takes over the institution, the catchment area would now be Southeast zone, most of us who our relations and friends depend on for their admission would now have no other choice than to compete with students from other geo-political zones. We stand to lose a lot but we are going to resist the plan by Governor Elechi to hand over the institution to the federal government.”
But EBSU students do not mind the Federal Government taking over. Some of them who were seen in groups discussing the proposed take over celebrated and applauded the decision of the state government. They believe it would bring to an end the recurrent face-off between ASUU and state government, which has set them back.
A commissioner who pleaded anonymity said the governor would do his best to hand over the institution.
“Governor Elechi would not relent in the effort to ensure that the federal government takes over the institution. The state needs federal government presence, it will give our people ample opportunity to get the best of education, it will create jobs for our people and Mr. President is interested in this project, so we are throwing our support behind him”, he said.
States without federal universities are: Kogi, Gombe, Yobe, Zamfara Kastina and Kebbi. Prior to the minister’s announcement on Monday, there was serious lobbying and even protests, especially in Kogi and Nasarawa which fought for the slot in the Northcentral zone.
The two states were said to have sent delegations to lobby the selection committee which was headed by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Julius Okogie.
While a serving minister was said to have led the Nasarawa team, an influential former minister was reportedly at the fore-front of Kogi’s push for federal presence in the state.
A highly-placed source told The Nation in confidence that the argument of Kogi group was that it was the only state of the states in the old provinces of the North without a federal university.
“Kogi State is insisting on the Northcentral slot because of all the old provinces in the North, it is the only area without a federal university. The old Benue-Plateau Province from where Nasarawa was carved out has two federal universities in Jos and Makurdi. But Kabba Province has no federal higher institution than a College of Agriculture campus of the Ahmadu Bello University,” the source said.
Nasarawa on the other hand argued that Kogi was already well catered for. When the Nasarawa Progressive Youth Initiative stormed the headquarters of the NUC on Monday, its President, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed, called on the Federal Government to use its federal character principle and establish the federal university slotted for the Northcentral in Nasarawa.
“When you look at our dear state Nasarawa, we lack federal establishment. If you look at our brothers in Kogi state, they have gone far because of federal establishments. There is no single state in the entire north that has federal establishment like Kogi state. Of the six states in the northcentral, four states have federal universities except Nasarawa and Kogi. And if you compare Nasarawa and Kogi in terms of federal establishment, you will find out that Ajaokuta steel company in Kogi state is a state of its own.
“Recently, the federal government approved the establishment of a refinery in Kogi state. In as much as we welcome the idea, our brothers from Kogi state should also see the need of the Nasarawa people to have a federal institution. Kogi state people are our brothers and we feel they should see the need to help us to grow like them.”
Announcing the beneficiary states, Prof Rufa’i said the institutions were being established to increase access to university education. She explained that, despite up to 1.3 million applying for admission yearly, only 16 per cent (about 205,170 candidates) can be accommodated.
learnt that when Elechi visited the Aso Rock Villa last month, he urged President Jonathan to take over EBSU and thereby ease the burden of funding the institution which has a wage bill of N150 to N160 million monthly. Should the lecturers who are on strike for improved remunerations get their demands, it would drive up the bill to about N350 million.
Source: The Nation
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