Governor Saraki made the appeal on Wednesday when the Vice Chancellor and members of the Governing Council of the University of Abuja paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Government House, Ilorin.

He specially enjoined the Federal Government and the striking University lecturers to go back to the drawing board to address the grey areas in the interest of the innocent students who have suffered untold hardship.

Saraki, who also advocated a critical review of the nation’s University system called for its proper funding to make them meet contemporary global challenges.

He noted with dismay that University system in Nigeria was faced with a lot of challenges that needs to be addressed urgently to salvage University education system from collapse.

He praised authorities of the University of Abuja for giving preference to indigenes of the State origin in its admission policy and staff recruitment and appealed for their upward review to give opportunity to more Kwara indigenes.

The Governor, however, assured the delegation of the readiness of his government to continue to assist the University in addressing some of its developmental needs to ensure full realisation of its aspirations.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation and Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor James Adelabu explained that the Uinversity was established in 1988 to encourage advancement of learning, acquire liberal and higher education and undertake distance and continuous learning, among others.

Prof. Adelabu said the objectives of the University could only be realised with the support of governors in the country to move the nation’s University education forward.

He solicited Dr Saraki’s support to transform the institution and assured of collaboration between the University of Abuja and the newly established Kwara State University to fast track its growth and development.
 

Mas’ud Adebimpe

Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor  

02/08/09