From Olukayode Idowu, Maiduguri
The Federal Government will soon establish a College of Education in Borno State, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has said.
The Minister gave this promise on Monday, while addressing the Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, who had paid him a “thank you” visit in Abuja, for the approval for the establishment of a federal polytechnic in the state, 45 years after its creation.
Adamu said that in addition to the federal polytechnic, Borno would soon have a federal college of education like presently available across most of the 36 states of the country.
Zulum, who was accompanied to the Minister’s office by the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, who is the lawmaker representing Monguno, Matte, and Nganzai Federal Constituency of Borno State, Barrister Mohammed Monguno, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Professor Isa Marte, and some commissioners.
The governor eulogized President Buhari for approving the new Polytechnic and was full of gratitude to the minister of education for recommending the approval and for his compassion towards Borno.
Zulum, determined to get extra higher institutions for his state, had launched an aggressive lobbying of the federal government towards the establishment of both a federal polytechnic and a federal college of education.
He had hinged his argument on the basis of fairness and made reference to the havoc inflicted by Boko Haram on education across the state, especially Northern Borno where the federal polytechnic will now be sited, a place that has been rated as the most educationally backward in Borno State and in the country.
Until the latest approval by President Buhari, Borno had for 45 years, since its creation in 1976, remained one of the few states which neither had a federal polytechnic nor a federal college of education.
The Ramat Polytechnic in Maiduguri is owned and funded by the state government while several efforts and appeals by successive administrations in Borno, for the federal government to take over the Ramat Polytechnic have not been successful.
Similarly, existing colleges of education in Maiduguri and Biu are owned by the state government even as appeals for establishment of a federal college of education in Borno, also did not gain support.
University of Maiduguri have remained the only federal tertiary institution sited in Borno until perhaps recently when a university by the Army was established.