THE Federal Government has dismissed suggestions of plans to sell or concession federal unity schools across the country, assuring that there was no such agenda.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday, September 16, while addressing journalists on the controversy surrounding the concessioning of King’s College, Lagos, to King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA), which led to protest by parents and teachers of the institution.
The anxiety escalated on Monday, September 14, when members of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) declared an industrial action over the matter, thereby disrupting resumption across unity colleges nationwide, even as schools officially resumed.
Alausa had summoned an emergency meeting with the workers’ union, including the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), following which TUC urged ASCSN to suspend the action, while he urged all staff and students to resume the following day.
However, staff and parents of King’s College blocked the gate, preventing members of KCOBA from accessing the school, a development that degenerated into a fracas; hence the intervention of operatives of the Lagos State Police Command.
“Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, does not have the intention to sell any unity college, and we will not sell any unity college.”
Alausa said government had invited the aggrieved unions for further discussions, subject to the condition that ministry workers returning to their offices and the ministry gates were not blocked, adding that the conditions were necessary to ensure the safety of officials and maintain law and order.
The minister condemned the alleged harassment of staff, destruction of property and blocking of the ministry’s gates, saying: “We will not tolerate that as a government. We’ve given them all the room and scope to do their protest within the ambit of the law.”
Alausa said the proposed arrangement with KCOBA was intended to mobilise additional resources to rehabilitate and modernise King’s College, while retaining government ownership of the institution, a decision he stated was driven by the extensive deterioration of infrastructure at the school and the need to restore its former standard.
The minister explained that he had visited the school unannounced and observed poor conditions in some hostels, bathrooms, classrooms, laboratories and other facilities.
He disclosed that KCOBA had expressed willingness to invest substantially in the institution through a non-profit Foundation and indicated intention to maintain merit-based admission, while ensuring students from across the country continued to have access to the school, adding that the association claimed to have invested over N2billion in supporting infrastructure at the college over the years.
The minister admitted that government was facing a significant funding gap in rehabilitating the 115 federal unity colleges across the country and the accumulated infrastructure deficit could not be addressed immediately through government funding alone.
Alausa explained that the federal government has secured approval to repurpose about $20million from a World Bank-supported programme for the comprehensive rehabilitation of selected unity colleges, while about 20 schools had been selected for the first phase of intervention.
He put the estimated cost of rehabilitating the colleges in the Southwest alone at nearly N100billion; hence government’s decision to explore additional funding options without selling or concessioning the institutions.
