Nigeria Content Online

The All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP) has criticised the federal government for planning
to establish nine new universities instead of equipping and improving
the existing institutions.

The national
chairman of the party, Ogbonnaya Onu, who said this in Abuja, also
stated that the country may find it hard to develop if issues relating
to the improvement of the lives of the people are not addressed. The
federal government had recently awarded the contracts for the
construction of new universities in all the nation’s six geo-political
zones.

Mr. Onu, in his
reaction, regretted that none of the nation’s universities is ranked
amongst the top 3000 universities in the world. He also lamented that
out of 1.2 million students that apply for the Joint Admission
Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, only 200,000 get admitted into
the 93 Nigerian universities annually.

“So far, the
federal government has not made any serious efforts to rebuild its
existing universities to even meet the standard of the poor,” Mr. Onu
said.

“The ANPP is
worried and indeed highly disturbed that if the right mix of policies
is not adopted, the sad experience of the past will be repeated. We do
not want a situation where the establishment of these nine new
universities would only end up in the diversion of resources away from
adequately maintaining existing ones,” he further said.

While receiving the
officials of the National Association of Niger Delta Students (NADS)
led by its national president, Lucky Emonefe, yesterday, the ANPP boss
affirmed that Nigeria would get sustainable development only if the
issues of the Niger Delta are finally addressed.

“We cannot talk of
development of Nigeria if we do not address the problems facing the
people of the Niger Delta and built their infrastructure,” he said.

Mr. Onu said that
if the ANPP forms government at the centre, the region would be given
commensurate priority. He advised the students to embrace peace, and
not be allowed to be used in political violence.

Mr. Emonefe, who
later presented the ANPP boss with an award for conducting primaries
devoid of violence, said the opposition party has given a lot of youth
in the Niger Delta the chance to contest on the party’s platform,
adding that many of them won the posts they contested for.