News Investigators/ The Federal Government says it has no plan to sell any of the Federal Unity Colleges, describing such reports as misinformation.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this on Wednesday while addressing newsmen in Abuja, amid the ongoing dispute over the proposed management arrangement for King’s College, Lagos.
Prof. Alausa said the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, retained its position that none of the Unity Colleges would be sold.
“Let me be unequivocal, Federal Government is not selling any Unity College.
“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.
“That is the government position, and go and write it down and hold on to that, we are not selling the government’s institutions,” he said.
The minister said the government had engaged with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and other unions on the issues surrounding the schools.
According to him, the government has reached a six-point agreement with the TUC leadership, after which a communiqué was issued calling on workers to return to work.
He, however, alleged that another faction of the unions had continued with protests in spite the engagement with the TUC.
Alausa said the government had invited the faction for a meeting, subject to the condition that ministry workers should return to their offices and the ministry gates should not be blocked.
He said the conditions were necessary to ensure the safety of officials and maintain law and order.
The minister condemned alleged harassment of staff, destruction of property and blocking of ministry gates, saying peaceful demonstrations were permitted within the law.
“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,” he said.
On King’s College, Alausa said the institution was originally established to train future leaders and had produced prominent Nigerians.
He said the proposed arrangement involving the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) was intended to address infrastructure and management challenges, rather than transfer ownership of the institution.
Alausa said the Federal Government was facing a significant infrastructure deficit across the Unity Colleges, noting that available resources were insufficient to meet all the schools’ needs simultaneously.
He urged journalists to visit the schools and independently assess their condition.
The minister said government would continue to engage the unions on the matter, stressing that the objective was to improve the standard of the schools.
He also said President Bola Tinubu’s administration had invested substantially in infrastructure but acknowledged that the needs across the education sector remained extensive.
He said other sectors, including health, security and general infrastructure, were also competing for government resources.
The minister reiterated that the government would continue to seek solutions to the challenges confronting the Unity Colleges without selling the institutions.
NAN
