6th March, 2018
The Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awwal Ibrahim, has called for proper funding of education to arrest the deplorable state of the sector in the country.
A statement issued by Mrs Lydia Legbo, spokesman of the Federal University of Technology Minna, said the emir made the call when the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Abdullahi Bala, paid him a courtesy visit at his palace.
The monarch noted that the deplorable standard of education in the country should be of utmost concern to government and all stakeholders in the country.
He said that even though education remains the bedrock of development in any nation, it has not received the desired attention in the country, thereby, churning out half-baked youths who have become a nuisance to the society.
Ibrahim assured the vice chancellor of the full support of Suleja Emirate Council to make the university one of the best in the country.
The emir advised it to get involved in efforts to sanitise the society and requested the university to organize a dialogue in Suleja to address the problem of examination malpractice and other social vices in the community.
He also urged the institution to fast-track the take-off of its Suleja Study Centre, to offer more opportunities to students especially from the emirate.
Earlier, the vice-chancellor said the visit was to seek for prayers, advice and royal blessings in the task of piloting the institution.
Bala said the university remains grateful to the emir for his support since its establishment in 1983.
He pledged to do more to the university’s host communities in the area of community service.
The vice-chancellor said the Suleja Study Centre would soon become operational, adding that it would run Pre-degree, IJMB, Diploma and Certificate programmes.
Bala, however, said that the delay in the take-off of the centre was due to the absence of an administrative block and hostel accommodation for students.
He, therefore, called on philanthropists and private individuals in the area to build students hostels while university completes the construction of the administrative block.