By Waziri Isa Adam
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajuddeen, has given indication that the lower chamber of the National Assembly may propose a bill to look into the persistent calls on the National Assembly by mostly private universities to see the possibility of making Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) capture them in some of their intervention projects.
The Speaker who spoke recently through his representative, Hon Ahmed Saba, at the 12th/15th combined convocation ceremony of University of Mkar, Mkar, in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State admitted that many of the private universities and allied institutions in the country are playing brilliantly exceptional roles in the educational development of Nigeria that government needs to support them to continue the commendable work they are doing.
“I want to assure you that the 10th Assembly especially the lower chamber, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajuddeen, who is an academic per excellence, is education friendly and we have made it clear right from the day we were inaugurated that we are going to pay attention to all the sectors that are vital, especially education, in national development”, Hon Saba Stated.
He reiterated that, “It is because of our commitment to education that all the bottlenecks or caveats that were initially introduced in the federal government’s students loan scheme were dismantled by the House of Representatives to make the loan accessible to all legitimate and deserving students in the country without undergoing the initial unnecessary hurdles introduced along with it”.
Th speaker who pledged to support the university of Mkar in any particular area of its critical needs, as part of his contribution to education and his encouragement for the exemplary contributions the university is given in educational development, commended the contributions of his colleague Hon. Achado, to the university, a gesture that earned him its prestigious honorary doctorate degree.