By Favour Nnabugwu

The Federal Government has deferred the take-off of Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State till September for lack of sufficient funds to provide the needed environment for students of the institution.

Minister of State for Education, Barr. Nyesom Wike who was on inspection of Federal Ministry of Education’s projects in Bayelsa said that the university could not take off till September when the institution would have mounted sufficient pressure on its contractors to put more efforts in grading the university for take off of its pioneer students five months from now.

Wike though expressed government’s appreciation of the efforts and commitment of Bayelsians for raising funds N1billion for the institution though a total of N5.5billion was pledged by the indegenes  but only N1billion has so far been realised from the community.

According to him, “I am very happy for what the community has been able to do so far. This is the first time a community would be so committed to a federal government institution in their domain.

“If we can have the names of those who have made pledges but have not redeemed their pledges of N4.5 billion, we can appeal to them to redeem those pledges because it will help quicken the take off of the university.”

The minister said that the university currently has two faculties- Humanity and Social Science and 12 programmes for now adding that with the structures already on ground, the institution needs to be fenced round for security of the students and also carry out landscaping of the environment.

“I am happy with the buildings on ground so far but I’m worried about the fencing and landscaping that are not in place yet. There is still enormous work to be done hence we cannot approve the university for take-off immediately. We will give them some time to prepare the institution for take-off.”