Nasarawa Govt Hands Over Multi-Million Naira Fertilizer Plant To NSUK
By Na’eema Ibrahim Isa
Engineer A. A. Sule-led Government of Nasarawa state has handed over a multi-million naira worth of Fertilizer Plant to Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK).
Speaking at the handing over ceremony of the Plant recently in Lafia, on behalf of the Governor, his deputy, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, said the government’s gesture was part of its commitments to promote Commercial Agriculture in the state.
The governor who urged the university to mobilize all its professionals in the Faculty of Agriculture to properly use the plant to produce sufficient fertilizer for use by the vast majority of people in the state who are mostly Agrarians and who survive on subsistence farming.
He said one of the campaign promises that he made to the people of Nasarawa was to invest in Agriculture and to make lives of farmers meaningful and progressive in such a way that the state will be self sufficient in food production and eventually be the real food basket of the nation.
He also called on the university to engage students, particularly those from the Faculty of Agriculture in the effective training of fertilizer production, during and after their studies.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Suleiman Bala Muhammad, thanked the governor for his support and interest in the development of the university.
“Since your assumption of office, you have demonstrated in so many and unprecedented ways that you are committed to making the university what it should be in terms of academic and research excellence,” the vice chancellor told the governor.
Professor Muhammad however assured the governor that his administration will leave no stone unturned in helping him achieve his dream in whatever area that the university is invited to assist in moving the state forward.
The ASUU activist Vice Chancellor also promised to work hard to put the fertilizer plant in proper use and to make it one of the sources of its revenue generation.
He added that “I hope that the fertilizer plant will one day be a reliable source of generating revenue for both the state and the university which mainly depends on government’s funding.”