The governing councils for universities of agriculture in Nigeria have been charged to advance the cause of agricultural transformation and modernisation in Nigeria, and become more innovating to boost food production as they are now being returned to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture as part of agricultural reforms the government hopes will help revive the sector.
Nigeria’s three universities of agriculture are – Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta; University of Agriculture, Makurdi, and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.
Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said in a statement provided to BusinessDay, that “the three federal universities of agriculture were established to advance the cause of agricultural transformation and modernisation in Nigeria for the development of core competencies in agricultural education, research and training, amongst others.”
“It is, therefore, expected that the admission policy of these universities will largely be reflective of this overarching goal. Our submission is that, in the long run, the universities will be better served if they focus on their core areas of business rather than on the subsidiaries,” Ogbeh said.
While receiving members of the governing councils of federal universities of agriculture in Abuja recently, the minister assured lecturers and students engaged in non-agricultural studies in the three universities of agriculture that their careers will not be jeopardised.
The minister expressed the consciousness of government on the “fears and anxieties of teachers and the students already enrolled for these subsidiary programmes.” Accordingly, he said, “we will not be cancelling them immediately. The task before you is to phase them out gradually.”
He pointed out, however, that, “as institutions of agricultural education and research, you can earn huge revenues from agricultural research, seed and seedling development, extension work, soil mapping and even production of food on campus.”
Going forward, the minister said, the universities should give greater priority to courses with agriculture-related content.
“We do not forbid the teaching of electives like some accounting, business administration and so on, but only as subsidiaries. The main courses must be agriculture, agronomy, botany, animal husbandry, forestry, fishery, plant entomology, breeding, cattle breed improvement, agric engineering, veterinary medicine,” he insisted.
According to Ogbeh, “the return of the three universities of agriculture to the ministry is a rational, just and timely action, necessitated by the new economic realities we are in, to ensure that our institutions are better focused and more efficiently and economically managed.”
It was also disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has already set in motion a machinery to remodel the three universities under its joint care with a view to transforming them into centres of excellence of global reckoning. In this connection, it aims to ensure that the institutional structures already enshrined in the Federal Universities of Agriculture Act cap F22 CFN 2010 for their effective management are put in place without delay.
CALEB OJEWALE
