Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its plan to integrate the Nigerian Army University Biu with the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, as recommended by the Oronsaye Report.
Among other proposals, the report proposed merging the new Army varsity with Kaduna’s decades-old NDA.
“We are all aware that Boko Haram’s primary mission is to truncate western education,” Zulum told newsmen in Maiduguri, on Thursday, February 29, observing, “Collapsing the Army University as a Faculty within the NDA is like helping the insurgents to achieve their objectives.”
He said, “I want to appeal to President Tinubu to rescind the decision to merge the Army University, Biu, with the Nigerian Defence Academy.”
Zulum argued, “Borno State has been facing a serious crisis for the last 15 years and as a result of this, many of our children could not have access to education,” pleading, “Therefore, this University is crucial to the people of Borno State and the entire North-East.”
The governor stressed, “I am appealing to Mr. President to look into this issue so that the Army University, Biu, will remain autonomous,” continuing, “If this cannot be possible, we still want to appeal to the President to allow the Federal Ministry of Education to take it over to become a conventional university.”
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Zulum appealed, “If possible, the Federal Government should allow it to function as an Army University, considering the importance of education in this part of the country.”
He admitted, “In all fairness to the Federal Government, this decision to implement the Oronsaye Report is long overdue and timely, especially now that the government is working to reposition the economy and block leakages.”
The governor maintained, “That notwithstanding, we the people of Borno and the Northeast, are appealing to the Federal Government to reconsider the decision to merge the Army University with the NDA.”
He said Borno State now needs education more than ever before and the Army University is vital in achieving that.
After twelve years of receiving the Stephen Oronsaye Report, the Federal Government finally approved the implementation of some of its recommendations on Monday to cut down on the cost of governance.
The report also recommended that the Air Force Institute of Technology become a faculty in the Nigerian Defence Academy.