Participants in the Mubi Emirate Council and the Adamawa North senatorial district have protested what they have called “the brazen attempt” by a senior official in the Federal Ministry of Education to thwart and overturn the president’s approval for the location of a Federal University of Agriculture in Mubi.
The stakeholders in the Adamawa North senatorial district indicated that a letter dated April 18, 2023, signed by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, the president’s then chief of staff, contained the presidential consent and direction for the institution to be located in Mubi.
They added that the letter was quite explicit and unambiguous in designating the locations of not only the Federal University of Agriculture, Mubi, but also three other colleges and three new Federal Colleges of Education.
The six local governments that make up the Adamawa North senatorial district—Dr. Umar Duhu (Madagali), Hajiya Bilkisu Talatu Ahmed (Michika), Mr. John Papka Kaigamma (Mubi North), Hon. Ahmad Sajoh (Mubi South), and Hon. Daniel Maksha (Maiha)—signed a statement containing these points.
They claim that the officer in charge’s inadequate, weak, and unconvincing justification that there is already a polytechnic in Mubi is even more concerning.
“The top official arbitrarily moved the university to Hong as though a polytechnic and a university were the same Institutions, in flagrant defiance of established regulations.
“As a result, he gave the order to move the institution to Hong. That a senior federal official of that status could unilaterally override a presidential directive in a democracy strikes us as both hilarious and regrettable.
“There are Federal Polytechnics and Federal Universities in Bauchi and Damaturu, thus this justification is baseless and inappropriate. A university, a college of education, a government girls college, and an air force institute are among Yola’s four federally funded educational institutions.
“In addition, Yola continues to be home to half of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi. There are universities, aviation colleges, federal colleges of education, and institutes of transport technology in places like Zaria. A university and a Federal Polytechnic are two of the recently founded institutions in Daura.
“A federal government institution, a Federal Medical Center, has just been created in the area where the transfer is envisaged. A training institute is also a tertiary medical facility.
Therefore, if a Federal Institution is present in a location only on that basis, they are also ineligible for the institution. But even so, that is not a good enough excuse, the statement concluded.
The stakeholders also recalled that a university was to be located in Mubi under the late President Shehu Shagari’s administration, adding that, much as it is now, certain people came up with the flimsy justification that Mubi was not a state capital.
