The Vice chancellor of the Federal university Lokoja(FUL), Professor Olayemi D. Akinwumi has charged the stakeholders in kogi projects to show commitment and take possession of the citadel of learning in their domain to complement the efforts of the government at the centre .
Professor Akinwumi handed out the charge in the campus of the institution yesterday in Lokoja during a courtesy visit by the kogi state Council of Elders (KCE) led by Chief Julius Elukpo
The Vice chancellor said the federal university is currently undergoing serious transformation, stressing that the earlier the people of the state start showing their interest in the affairs of the ivory tower in their state , the better.
“One of the way we show interest is to know what is happening in the university.
“When the federal university were established, for example, the one that was established in Dutse ,the capital of Jigawa state , the governor of that state gave them two billion naira as a life line support.
“We are in the permanent site now ,not a kobo was given to us by the kogi state government, since we packed in .
“No presence of the state government in this permanent site . As we talk to you now , we are having problem of Certificate of Occupation(C of O) for the university’s land . We have been going up and down . We don’t have a C of O of the university’s land to our title. We are stranded”, he said .
Explaining further, he said, if not an assistant from a kogi man, the institution would have lost a secured solar farm from an indigene of the state recently, because of their inability to provide C of O ,as demanded before the establishment of the project on the university land .
He said it was unwise for the people of the state to leave the funding of the growing institution to the federal government alone, without the impact of the state government and other stakeholders being felt in the permanent site of the university.
“We have to build our hostel there. We cannot go there and accommodate our students because of the fears of kidnapping. And the students population are growing at full strength.
“I met the student’s population of about 6,000; that has increased to about 17 ,000 now. We have four Faculties then . We have 10 Faculties now .
“It’s clear that the federal government cannot single handedly fund the university. We have been going out, begging people to assist us to prosecute some of the projects in the university, with tears.
“My problem is that people of the state are not showing interest in the development of the university, as we expected .
“It’s when you show your interest that you can take the possession of the university. That is the point”, he said .
He said another challenge confronting the institution is the constitution of the governing council of the university.
“Federal government will constitute university council, there will be one representative from the domicile state to represent the interest of the state. We don’t have it here. It’s a big challenge to us “, he said .
He therefore enjoined the kogi Council of Elders to be the ambassador of the institution outside and drum out their plight , since they have been reaching out to many people, with the efforts yielding positive result .
On behalf of the kogi Council of Elders , Chief Julius Elukpo commended the present leadership of the federal university over their efforts in seeing academic and infrastructural development in the school.
He said before now, the members were not satisfied with the performance of the management of the Federal University in the State, but with their outcry, a change was effected which has given rise to the present heart sheering picture .
“The Elders Forum craved for the appointment of an Indigene as the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, when “we observed that the University in our domain in Kogi State compared to the universities it was created together at the same time, is lagging behind in all scheme of things . We thanked God,the situation has changed”.
The members of the kogi Council of Elders promised to interact with power that be, including the state government and some individuals to discuss on the key areas of intervention in the university..
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