ABUJA, Nigeria — The Federal Government has ruled out the sale or concession of any Federal Unity College, saying the proposed management arrangement involving King’s College, Lagos, will neither increase school fees nor lead to job losses for teachers.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing journalists on the controversy surrounding the proposed arrangement with the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA).
Alausa said the government had no plan to extend the arrangement to other Unity Colleges, stressing that the Federal Government remained responsible for the institutions.
“No. We’re not extending it. Government still has its responsibility,” he said.
The minister was also unequivocal that the government would not sell any of the colleges.
“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 institutions,” he said.
He explained that the proposed arrangement with KCOBA was aimed at mobilising additional resources to rehabilitate and modernise King’s College while retaining government ownership.
According to him, the initiative became necessary because of the extensive deterioration of infrastructure at the institution and the need to restore its historical standards.
Alausa said he had made an unannounced visit to the school and observed poor conditions in some hostels, bathrooms, classrooms, laboratories and other facilities.
He added that the college had also experienced a prolonged electricity outage during his visit, prompting him to contact the relevant electricity distribution company, after which power was restored to the Senior Secondary School section.
The minister also expressed concern over the use of part of the school premises as a paid car park, saying unrestricted access by members of the public posed security risks to students. He said he had directed that the arrangement be cancelled.
On the proposed KCOBA arrangement, Alausa said the association had indicated its willingness to invest substantially in the institution through a non-profit foundation.
He said the association had also undertaken to maintain merit-based admission while ensuring students from different parts of the country continued to have access to the school.
According to him, KCOBA had claimed to have invested more than N2 billion in infrastructure support at King’s College over the years.
The minister said the Federal Government faced a huge funding gap in rehabilitating the country’s 115 Federal Unity Colleges, noting that the accumulated infrastructure deficit could not be addressed immediately through government funding alone.
“President Bola Tinubu is investing in infrastructure, including the sub-sector, but there’s so much, significant infrastructure gap that has happened for 40 years and we don’t have the funds,” he said.
Alausa estimated that even N2 trillion would not be sufficient to address the infrastructure needs of all the Unity Colleges.
He said the Federal Government had secured approval to repurpose about $20 million from a World Bank-supported programme for the comprehensive rehabilitation of selected Unity Colleges.
About 20 schools, he said, had been selected for the intervention, although the funding would cover schools across the country.
The minister added that the estimated cost of rehabilitating Unity Colleges in the South-West alone was nearly N100 billion, underscoring the need to explore additional funding sources without transferring ownership of the institutions.
Alausa also assured parents and other stakeholders that the King’s College arrangement would not result in an increase in school fees.
He said the agreement contained stringent Key Performance Indicators designed to protect the interests of the government and students.
The minister disclosed that the Ministry of Education had established an implementation and monitoring team to conduct unannounced inspections of the school and ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement.
He said the government remained open to dialogue with unions and would consider legitimate concerns that could improve the arrangement.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, separately assured that no teacher would lose his or her job as a result of the proposed King’s College arrangement.
Ahmad said affected teachers had been given the option to indicate where they wanted to be redeployed in line with the Public Service Rules.
“There is no fee increase in this arrangement. It is part of the MoU we signed,” she said.
She said the government was implementing teacher-capacity-building programmes as part of efforts to improve the quality of learning in Unity Colleges and other schools.
According to her, a committee had been established to review the Memorandum of Understanding and address concerns raised by stakeholders, while union representatives would also be included in a separate committee to monitor its implementation.
Ahmad said the government’s objective was to restore the quality and excellence historically associated with the Unity Colleges, adding that the decline in standards had occurred over several decades and would require sustained investment in infrastructure and teacher development.
She said the government was also exploring various public-private partnership models for rehabilitating Unity Colleges, citing the Kano model as one of the options under consideration.
Meanwhile, Alausa said the government had engaged the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and other unions over issues surrounding the schools.
He said the government reached a six-point agreement with the TUC leadership, after which a communiqué was issued calling on workers to return to work.
However, he said another faction of the unions had continued with protests despite the engagement with the TUC.
Alausa said the government had invited the faction for further discussions, subject to the condition that ministry workers return to their offices and the ministry gates remain unblocked.
He said the conditions were necessary to ensure the safety of officials and maintain law and order, while condemning alleged harassment of staff, destruction of property and obstruction of the ministry gates.
“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.
The minister said the Federal Government would continue to engage the unions while pursuing measures to address the infrastructure and management challenges confronting the Unity Colleges.
He reiterated that the administration remained committed to improving the quality and reputation of the institutions while retaining government ownership.
