President Bola Tinubu is ready to consider a request to halt the proposed merging of the Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State with the Nigerian Defence Academy, Abuja.
This followed the closed-door talks between the President and Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum at the State House, Abuja, on Friday.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Zulum said “I have seen the President. We pleaded that the Nigerian Army University should be converted to become a conventional University under the Federal Ministry Education, rather than collapsing it with the Nigeria Defence Academy.
“And I’m happy to inform you that the President has directed me to write to him on this very important matter, so that he will consider the request from the people”.
Zulum stressed that the plan would spell devastating consequences for the region, including expanding its already large out-of-school population.
He argued that while the Borno state Government applauded the implementation of the Oronsaye report, it would ask that the Army University be left out of the merger issue.
According to him, “I saw Mr. President on the issue of Army University Biu, because recently, there was a communication from the presidency that some institutions will be merged according to the oronsoye report.
“The government and people of Borno state have hailed this great initiative. It is a very good one. But however, we have pleaded to Mr. President to reconsider the issue of Army Univeristy merger with the Nigeria Defence Academy.”
Zulum said the institution serves a large population from Southern Borno whose chances of getting a tertiary education is in jeopardy.
His words: “Southern Borno State is a very important region, not only in Borno state, but also in the entire country.
“There are a huge number of children that are willing to study, and they don’t have any federal universities in the zone. Once this army university is merged with NDA, we may encounter a huge number of out-of-school children as a result of absence of university in that part of the state.
“The most important thing is that, the President has listened to me, and he has agreed to review the matter, Inshallah,” he noted.
The Federal Government 12 years after it received the Stephen Oronsaye Report approved the implementation of some of its recommendations to reduce the cost of governance.
Consequently, 29 government agencies are to be merged while eight parastatals will be subsumed into eight other agencies.
Four agencies were marked for relocation to four various ministries while one was earmarked for scrapping.
An implementation committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, was given 12 weeks to effect the recommendations.
Among those institutions to be merged is the Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State, which the will function as a Faculty in the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
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