The Senate Chief Whip, Olusola Adeyeye, on Thursday said he
would continue to oppose bills that seek to create new universities in Nigeria.
The bill was sponsored by Isaac Alfa, Kogi East senator.
Mr Adeyeye, while commenting on the bill, said the existing
universities are poorly funded.
He vowed to continue to oppose bills seeking creation of
new universities until the present ones are well funded.
“It is no secret that the federal universities across this
country are extremely poorly funded.
“You take the same basket of money, you create more
universities, and you spread the money around into more places and you get even
greater and worse under-funding.
“With every cell in my body, I will continue to oppose
every new university until the existing ones are well-funded. Otherwise, we are
just foisting 419 on our children.
“If there is a need for maritime studies, lets have
universities in maritime areas to create a faculty of maritime studies. But to
keep creating new ones is nothing but foisting 419 and gimmickry on our
children. It is not fair to the young ones.
“Therefore, I pray that all of us will oppose this new
university and any new one until the existing ones are well-funded,” he said.
The Senate Chief Whip, Olusola Adeyeye, on Thursday said he
would continue to oppose bills that seek to create new universities in Nigeria.
Mr Adeyeye said this while contributing to a debate on a
bill seeking the establishment of Maritime University in Lokoja, Kogi State.
The bill was sponsored by Isaac Alfa, Kogi East senator.
Mr Adeyeye, while commenting on the bill, said the existing
universities are poorly funded.
He vowed to continue to oppose bills seeking creation of
new universities until the present ones are well funded.
“It is no secret that the federal universities across this
country are extremely poorly funded.
“You take the same basket of money, you create more
universities, and you spread the money around into more places and you get even
greater and worse under-funding.
“With every cell in my body, I will continue to oppose
every new university until the existing ones are well-funded. Otherwise, we are
just foisting 419 on our children.
“If there is a need for maritime studies, lets have
universities in maritime areas to create a faculty of maritime studies. But to
keep creating new ones is nothing but foisting 419 and gimmickry on our
children. It is not fair to the young ones.
“Therefore, I pray that all of us will oppose this new
university and any new one until the existing ones are well-funded,” he said.
His position was supported by Adamu Aliero, who said the
existing universities only churn out half-baked graduates due to its poor
funding.
In the same vein, the Senate Minority Whip, Abiodun
Olujimi, condemned the bill while. She urged Mr Alfa to withdraw, do work more
on the bill and re-present. But Mr Alfa insisted on pushing the bill through
second reading.
“Just as the last time here (when a motion to declare Kogi
oil producing state was rejected), I was asked to withdraw, I didn’t, four of
the resolutions were accepted.
“This bill is a well thought-out bill. We shouldn’t attach
geo-location to anything we do. Having done so much work on this I decline to
withdraw the bill,” he said.
The bill was eventually rejected after a voice vote.
No comments:
Post a comment