Sunday Aborisade, Abuja
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm that the fight against insurgency could be a mirage if conscious attempts were not made by government to address the out of school children in Nigeria.
Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last general elections, stated this while addressing the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
He spoke as a stakeholder at a public hearing organised by the committee on the conversion of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola to a conventional, multidisciplinary institution.
Atiku said the conversion of the university would be in national interest.
The former vice president said the people of the North East region have been at the mercy of insurgency.
He noted that the development has led to a drastic reduction in enrolment in tertiary education.
He said, ”A compelling justification for the conversion, is the location of the University.
“Yola is located in the North-East region of the country, a region just emerging from a gruelling insurgency whose central creed is antagonism with conventional education.
“Limiting access to higher education to large number of youths in the region will not only mean submitting to the defeat of the insurgents but worsening the challenges of youth bulge in the area.
”The general state of fear – both imagined and real, that has enveloped the region as a result of the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram and general insecurity on the roads, has extinguished the motivation in parents to send their children to neighbouring conventional universities that should ordinarily absorb the candidates.
”Added to this, is the worsening economic situation in the region, which has been deepened by the insurgency.
“The conversion of the university would create more access to students and lessen the burden on parents and guardians who would ordinarily find it difficult to send students far for academic pursuit.”
Atiku, therefore, urged the Senate panel to approve the conversion of MAUTECH to a full-fledged conventional university in the interest of peace in the North East.
He said, “Distinguished senators, it is in the overall national interest that you favourably consider the conversion of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola to a conventional University.
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“As a conventional university, the university in addition to courses in Science and Technology will have the mandate to run courses in Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, the Arts and Social and Management Sciences, among others.
”This indeed is the surest way to accelerate access, quality, relevance and equity for our people in Adamawa State, the North East and indeed Nigeria.
“It is equally part of the right step toward rebuilding a broken people. We lose nothing and gain everything if we just get this done.”
