hajia

WHICH KATSINA UNIVERSITY?

You may not believe it, but there are two Universities in Katsina now. The first is the one floated and owned by Sani Lugard with money collected from the people of the state and beyond. The other is floated by Governor Umaru Musa Yaradua on behalf of the state government and people of Katsina. This duplication often brings confusion in any discussion that involves the two institutions. To avoid this we shall use KTL University to refer to the one floated by Sani Lugard and KT University to refer to the one owned by the State Government. The existence of these two Universities in an educationally backward state like Katsina does not make sense at all. But by now we all know how it came about.

Initially the state wanted to take over KTL University but Sani Lugard would not hear of it. In fact he went to court, a move which infuriated the State Governor and made him to vow to float KT University. Well he went about it with dispatch: documentation for licensing submitted to NUC, site quickly chosen, billions allocated for initial buildings, faculties to start with selected, council appointed and VC picked. Now it would appear that all these have scared some people and they want a truce with the governor.

New information reaching me indicates that KTL backers including Sani Lugard are sending out feelers for settlement and that settlement may be in the offing regarding the merger of KTL and KT Universities. Remember initially they went to court to stop the state government from taking over the University. And by gong to court these people had thought the governor would come running after them for possible settlement. They were dead wrong. Now they are boxed in a corner as the governor continues pouring billions for the new state University. They can never hope to run their University successfully and now are bereft of any options for state assistance. They are frantically making moves to reconcile with the state government so as to facilitate the take-over of their University ie KTL. .

Well if these moves work out it will be some good news for the people of Katsina. But if they don’t then we shall happily stick to KT University and the governor. And watch with trepidation as KTL University crumbles and dies.

# posted by hajia @ 1:03 pm