Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh announced last week that the process of taking over the Federal Universities of Agriculture [FUAs] by his ministry has been completed. He said this at a meeting with members of governing councils of Federal Universities of Agriculture in Abuja on Tuesday last week, August 8. The affected universities which were established in 1982 are Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State; Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State.
The federal government had in February this year approved the transfer of these FUAs from the Federal Ministry of Education to that of Agriculture, a measure which government said was for “effective supervision of the institutions.” Speaking last week, Ogbeh said “every undergraduate in the universities should own a viable farmland in the institutions from 200 Level of study till graduation.” The minister also said the federal government has no intention of cancelling non-agriculture courses or expelling students who are not studying agriculture-based courses in the FUAs. He further called on the universities to promote seed development and research activities to boost their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
In response, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike Lawal Zayyana assured the minister that the council would strive to promote the government’s agriculture agenda. However, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta Aboki Zhawa underscored the need to amend the Act establishing the universities. His observation was the first step that government should have taken before transferring the FUAs to FMARD, assuming this take over is necessary. The provisions of the Act establishing these universities must be amended in order to enable them to accommodate some of the changes to be introduced in their academic programmes. For example, the minister has already directed the FUAs to establish colleges of nutrition. He said the revival or establishment of the colleges is necessary to improve the health status of citizens and also reduce ailments in the country.
While some of the health challenges Nigerian citizens suffer could be linked to diet or lifestyle, such is not a factor that can justify the transfer of FUAs to the Agriculture Ministry. It would be a faulty argument to rationalize that the concerns on nutrition, food processing, storage and packaging raised by the minister were as a result of the institutions being supervised by the Federal Ministry of Education. Their placement under the Education Ministry’s supervision all these years could not have hampered the development of the country’s agricultural sector or the realization of the institutions’ mandate.
If, for instance, FUAs were found to have departed from their core mandates by offering non-agriculture courses such as accounting, their transfer to FMARD isn’t the best solution. The National Universities Commission [NUC] alone has the power and mechanism to deal with such issues. Besides, FMARD is not the only Ministry that is technically linked to some specialized universities. If the transfer of the FUAs to FMARD is allowed to stand, it would not be surprising to soon hear some ministries including the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology calling for the transfer of all Federal Universities of Technology [FUTs] to its supervision.
Nothing stops FMARD from strategically supporting the FUAs in terms of funding or research initiatives even when they are under the control of the Education ministry. After takeover too, FMARD would still have little to do in terms of monitoring and evaluation because that is the statutory duty of NUC. What our public universities need most is proper funding and effective policy implementation, not inter-ministerial takeover. For harmonization purposes and ease of coordination, we call for the suspension of further action on the transfer of the three FUAs to FMARD. The status-quo should be maintained on this matter to halt frequent flip-flop in government policies.
Source: Daily Trust
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