Nigeria long overdue for education varsities, says Kolo

Vice Chancellor, University of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State, Professor Ibrahim Adamu Kolo, has commended the Federal Government for establishing four new universities of education in the country, stressing that the country was long overdue for such specialised institutions.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Minna, Niger State recently, Kolo who is the immediate past vice chancellor of the Niger State-owned Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University (IBBU) Lapai, said that the establishment of these institutions will boost the quality of teacher education in the country. Kolo who is the Chairman of Forum of Vice Chancellors of the Federal Universities of Education in Nigeria, appealed to the Federal Government to disregard calls for the reversal of the decision to establish the varsities.

Instead, “The government should uphold this fantastic policy and even build on it for the overall development of teachers education in the country.”

He disclosed that plans to establish these institutions have been on the drawing board in the last 15 years or thereabouts, alongside plans to upgrade the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and the Kaduna Polytechnic to full-fledged universities. According to him, “What the former President Goodluck Jonathan did was to implement a policy that has been in the pipeline for years.

In fact, the need for the establishment of universities of education in the country was part of the programmes of the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, when he was Education Minister.

Since then, every successive education minister like Professor Obi Ezekwezili and Professor Ruqqayatu Rufai, have made efforts to implement it. “What the immediate past education minister, Mr. Ibrahim Shekarau did was just to dust the file and forward it to the Federal Executive Council for approval. So, it is ignorance for anybody to think that the establishment of these universities was the sole decision of Mr. Jonathan and his administration.

However, “I think there is the need to correct this misconception that Jonathan established these universities without following due process.” Professor Kolo who has since resumed at his new appointment insisted that the four newly established Universities of education are better equipped to carry out their new functions than the 12 federal universities established by the Federal Government barely three years ago.

He stressed that the existing infrastructural facilities on ground will enhance the smooth take-off of the education varsities. On the argument that the schools were not backed by appropriate legislation that would give legal backing to their new status, Kolo claimed that since all the institutions were offering degree programmes as affiliates of some universities, new legislations were unnecessary.

“Some of these institutions are already running affiliated degree programmes and even the National Universities Commission (NUC) had gone ahead to accredit those ones that are running affiliated programmes.

“What the government did was just to elevate all the existing governing councils, all principal officers are being retained and the provosts are also retained and made deputy vice chancellors of these Universities.”

He pointed out that contrary to suggestions that vice chancellors should have been appointed from within by the various governing boards of the institutions before the upgrade, he noted that the boards, as constituted had no mandate to appoint vice chancellor. However, they may be so empowered to appoint vice chancellors after the expiration of the tenure of the pioneer vice chancellors.