Anambra-based proprietor alleges bias, asks NUC to rescind ban on varsity

The Chief promoter of proposed Blacksmith University, Ghami Town, Kaduna State, Chief Jeef Obuorah, has alleged bias in the process of approving the proposed Blacksmith University, Kaduna, which was blacklisted by the National University Commission (NUC) for allegedly operating illegally.

Obuorah, who expressed this in an interview with newsmen in Awka, Anambra State, accused the NUC of hasty decision and claiming that the University was located in Awka, instead of Kaduna.

He stressed that authorities merely acted on faulty grounds and seeming misconception that it had commenced academic programmes.

The Guardian gathered that in 2009, the then Executive Secretary of NUC ordered the closure of the university on the ground that the existence and operations of the university as an approved degree-awarding institution without operational license from NUC were illegal.

Countering NUC’s allegation that the institution had commenced operations, Obuorah contended that the proposed institution was yet to begin any operation anywhere in the country or elsewhere in the world.

Prior to the sanction, the Blacksmith University, which was being promoted by the Netherlands Schools, Obuorah regretted that since 2008, about N10 million has been pumped into provision of critical infrastructure necessary for approval in the university.

He noted that securing approval to run a tertiary institution is a process for which he has registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as well as carried out necessary infrastructural design ahead of the approval.

The founding registrar noted that the institution has about 110 hectares of land mapped out for no fewer than 75 departments under six faculties in the institution. He added that it had met payments for and secured evaluation forms, physical master plan, academic plan, academic brief and university law.

He explained that the institution, though not located in Awka, was named Blacksmith University because of the need to grow local technology.