FUTMinna
seeks funding for its research farm
By
Abdulsalam Mahmud
The
management of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMinna) has
solicited the support of the former governor of old Kano state, Col Sani Bello
(rtd), in funding the construction of their university’s research farm.
Vice chancellor
of the school, Professor Abdullahi Bala, explained that the research farm would
help to curtail incessant clashes between herders and farmers in the
country.
Bala stated
this when he led a delegation of the institution’s management team to Kontagora
on a courtesy visit to the former military administrator.
Bello is the
father of the incumbent governor of Niger state, Abubakar Sani Bello.
Speaking at
the conference room of the Sani Bello Foundation office, the VC said their
university’s extant laws also permit the institution to establish a school of medical
sciences.
He however,
disclosed that establishing a school of medical sciences is capital-intensive
because it would require the
construction of a new complex, recruitment of experienced staff in medical
related fields as well as the building of a teaching hospital.
Bala said
FUTMinna had concluded arrangements with the management of the Federal Medical
Centre, in Bida, to use their facilities as teaching hospital for clinical
practice, saying the university already has some support departments on ground
needed to float a medical school.
Bala, while
frowning at the inability of Niger state to fill its allotted admission quota
every year, urged the ex-Kano governor to look into the construction of a
female hostel in FUTMinna for Niger state students to boost enrolment from the state.
He said FUTMinna
was ready to partner with the Foundation in the areas of entrepreneurial and information
technology trainings.
Bello
thanked the VC for the visit, while also informing his guests that his foundation
had commenced the construction of a university in Kontagora to complement
FUTMinna and other universities’ efforts in providing qualitative
education.
e advised
the management of FUTMinna to commence medical programmes so that more students
from the state would be given opportunities to pursue their dreams of becoming
doctors.
Bello,
equally urged the university to look at the possibility of spreading some of
its faculties across the state to bring education closer to the people.
He assured the school management of his decision
to engage one of his companies, Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, to liaise
with the institution to undertake the funding of a project in the institution
as part of its corporate social responsibility, since FUTMinna is located in
one of the catchment states of the hydroelectric firm.