Establishing Federal College In Gwoza Will Curb Insurgency, Banditry, Says Ndume

By Deji Elumoye and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

Former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, has said the establishment of a Federal College of Education in Gwoza, Borno State, will help curb insurgency and banditry in the area.

He made this known Wednesday at a public hearing on a “Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Federal College of Education Gwoza, Borno State and for other matters connected therewith, (establishment, etc Bill 2021.”

The public hearing which was organised by the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, also received input from stakeholders on another Bill titled: “A Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of the Federal College of Education Omuo-Ekiti, Ekiti State and for other matters connected therewith (establishment, etc, Bill, 2021,” sponsored by Senator Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South).

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army while speaking on how safe Gwoza is for such an institution stated that the federal education college will bring sanity to the area as many teachers will upgrade their knowledge.

Ndume said “In this country now, how calm is everywhere, would you now say that because some charlatans and criminals are saying boko is haram and then they established a caliphate in Gwoza…in fact, that is one reason enough to put a College of Education in Gwoza, to tell them that boko is not haram, boko is needed.”

“If the Federal Government decides to do so, it is doable because we have 109 senatorial districts in the whole country and by my estimate, an investment like N1billion per annum can take care of a modest tertiary institution like that and I didn’t just say that offhand.

“Supposing we are to establish one Federal College of Education in each senatorial district and it will cost N1billion to run it every year, that means about N109billion or N110billion allocated to that is doable and I didn’t just say it because of politics or sentiment.

“So, as I said, the etablishment of a sound College of Education to train teachers to teach the children in primary and secondary schools especially, is fundamental because when we have that institution and we give our children and wards sound education, they will grow to be patriotic citizens, educated citizens, citizens that are well disciplined, citizens that are well mentored, that can run this country in the future and it is from there that they can go to university or decide to be on their own because you don’t necessarily need a degree before you start.

According to him “Most of our industrial people are people who just have the basic education, that is primary and secondary education adding that you will hardly hear of a big name among the industrial people who had education up to university level.”

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ahmad Babba Kaita, in his remarks,said “establishing a College of Educational in Gwoza, would assist the insecurity ridden areas in providing teachers to close up the obvious generation inequality gap posed by mishap that has befallen the Northeast in the recent past”.