Borno Leaders Reject Planned Army Varsity Merger with NDA

•Say it’s counterproductive

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Borno Concern Citizens (BCC), has expressed its displeasure to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly, over federal government’s plan to merge the Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB) with the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Kaduna.

The Borno elders said doing so would be counter productive.

The BCC has consequently written President Tinubu and the National Assembly leadership through the committee set up by the federal government to implement the Oronsaye report.

The committee was supposed to lead the merger of federal government agencies.

The panel has commenced its work, but the Borno Concern Citizens insisted that mixing up the civilian population from the Nigerian Army University Biu with the NDA would be counterproductive.

The appeal letter  was signed by the Dan Masanin Biu, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, for the Borno State Concerned Citizens.

The elders said they were bringing up the issue now in order not to obfuscate the whole process.

The letter appealed to the Committee to reconsider the proposed merger of the Nigerian Defence Academy and the Nigerian Army University Biu and allow each to play its distinctive role in the overall interest of the nation.

The  NDA was established on January 5, 1964, through the merging of the Royal Military Forces Training College (RMFTC), which is the training Institution for the Army; and the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC), which was responsible for training officers for the Nigerian Army, Navy and the Air Force.

NAUB on the other hand, was established in 2018, with a special mandate as a hub for innovation and technological development for the Nigerian Defence sector and the nation, in order to meet the rapid development in the dynamics of modern warfare and other ancillary matters, which came years after the Oronsaye report.

Part of the Borno elders letter read: “Further aware that in establishing NAUB, due process and rule of law were strictly adhered to and approvals were sought from the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting of 11th April 2018.

“The development later culminated in an Act of National Assembly accented to by the President on the 1 April, 2021. Subsequently the Act was published on 7th April, 2021 in a gazette No.110 Vol.108 Nigerian Army University, Biu (Establishment) Act 2020.

“Also notes that the vision of the University as conceptualised is to become a solutions centre in technology, research and development for the promotion of self-reliance, creativity and innovation in addressing the educational challenges of the Nigeria Army, Military as well as the nation.”