…As Auchi City University Bill Scales Second reading

By Henry Umoru

THE Senate, Thursday asked Specialized Institutions like Universities of Agriculture, Science and technology to be focused and restrict themselves to providing degrees and other certificates in areas of  their core mandates.

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Speaking yesterday in Abuja during the consideration of a  bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the City University of Technology, Auchi and for other related matters there of, President of the Senate,  Senator Ahmad Lawan said that rather than delve  into general environment in providing degrees in sociology and other discipline other than the sciences, these specialized institutions should meet their mandate for the development of the sciences in the country.

Meanwhile, a bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the City University of Technology, Auchi and for other related matters thereof sponsored by Senator Francis Alimikhena, All Progressives Congress, APC, Edo North, yesterday scaled second reading in the Senate.

Lawan who urged the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TEDFUND  to liase with the relevant agencies of government in her oversight and address the matter, said: “This is one thing the committees on tertiary institution should take up with the federal ministry of education, NUC and other statutory stakeholder that is supposed to be involved with because it is really very important as we prepare for our tomorrow.

“If we must develop as we desire, we must develop the critical manpower that we need and we cannot do without getting into Science and technology.”

Senator Alimikhena  in his lead debate said that  the Bill consists of 24 clauses divided into five, parts, the first part provided for the incorporation, objects of the university, constitution of principal officers and functions of the chancellor, pro-chancellor, council and its finance, general purpose committee, senate, and vice-chancellor.

According to him, the second and third part of the bill are concerned with transfer of property, functions, power to make statutes, proof of statutes and power of visitor to decide meaning of statutes.

He said that while part  four deals with the visitor, removal of certain council members, removal and discipline of academic, administrative and professional staff, removal of examiners and discipline of students, the final part deals on prohibition of discrimination, disposal of land, quorum and procedure of established bodies, appointment of committees, miscellaneous provisions, interpretation as well as short title of the bill.

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In his contribution,  Senate Deputy Senate  Leader, Senator Robert Boroffice who noted that specialized institutions must be structured to carry out it’s mandate, however  cited other climes in Europe which maintained 80 be per cent of it’s graduates to be of the sciences because of its importance to national growth.

He said, “We need to look at the structure of our tertiary institutions. In European  universities, eighty per cent of graduates are in the sciences.

“This is because technology is key tool to national development.”

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