A former Commissioner for Finance in Abia state, Dr Phillips Nto has criticized the moves by the House of Representatives to amend the Act setting up Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike by converting it into a conventional University.
Dr Nto in a release pointed out that the action would not only be counterproductive but deepen the marginalisation of Abia State in the siting of federal institutions and even appointments.
He argued that what Abia State needs now is a second federal university as being obtained in surrounding states and not to tinker with the structure of MOUAU as it is currently constituted.
Dr Nto who teaches at MOUAU and is the immediate past Provost of Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, insisted that the bill was ill conceived as it would not add value to both the University and the State generally.
He observed that converting MOUAU to a conventional university would neither attract additional funding from the federal government, nor accelerate development in the state the way a brand new University would do.
” What Abia needs is a brand new conventional University not an upgrade. A new university will attract a new take-off grant and fresh employment. Other states are doing bills to attract a third university. The deputy speaker should also use his good office to attract a new one for Abia State,” Nto opined.
He further lamented that while lawmakers from other states are vigorously canvassing for the setting up of even the third universities in their states, those from Abia are pushing for the conversion of the ony federal University in the state.
The University Don said that it was inconceivable that at a time the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was harping on food security through agriculture, those who claim to love him are impeding the process for the realization of that goal.
” It amounts to misplacement of priority to switch over to conventional University at this period the country and the South-East zone are battling food insecurity. I believe our founding fathers had a cogent reason for making it a university of agriculture, “he declared.
Dr Nto who is also a Fellow of the Agricultural Society of Nigeria, urged both the government and her functionaries to place more emphasis on agriculture as it has a huge potential to generate employment for the youths of the country.
The former commissioner therefore called for adequate funding of MOUAU and scholarships for graduates of agriculture to embark upon agribusiness activities as a means of making the institution more relevant and not a conversion to conventional university
According to him, what agricultural universities in Nigeria needed now was a law for special and adequate funding so as to attract more students to agriculture and not the conversion of existing ones to conventional universities.
Recall, the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu, who hails from Abia, sponsored the Bill seeking to transform the already existing MOUAU into a conventional university The bill passed its second reading last Thursday.
