By Jonathan Ugbal
Cross Riverians have been sharply divided over the ownership of one out of two private Universities approved by the Federal Government in Cross River State.
A document obtained by CrossRiverWatch shows that the British Canadian University, Obudu, and The Duke Medical University, Calabar were among 39 universities approved by the Federal Government, as announced by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adami after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
The issue came up after Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade told Arise Television on Wednesday, “I built the British Canadian University, only (the) day before yesterday, the Federal Executive Council approved the British Canadian University Obudu.”
This immediately raised questions in the minds of many.
The State Chairman of the African Action Congress, Citizen Agba Jalingo in a statement to CrossRiverWatch wrote, “The British Canadian school is a State government project. Built with SUBEB money and counterpart funding from the State government. The idea started as a model primary school which was also approved by the same federal government.”
He further queried, “At what point did it become private? If it is private, who bought it? How much was it sold? Who approved the sale of the school?”
On his part, the Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council and Chairman of, the Young Progressives Party in the State, Mr. Anthony Bissong wrote, “Forget it, the British Canadian University, Obudu, Cross River State cannot operate as a private university when money meant for Primary/Basic education was used for structural development. At best it will function as a Model Primary and Secondary School. We are not all living in fool’s paradise!”
Inyali Peter, a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, in a Facebook post titled, “Is British-Canadian University A Private Or State-owned University?” said, “throughout the construction period, the Governor and the government presented the facility as a state-owned infrastructure with international connectivity.”
He called on the State to come out plain about the ownership of the institution.
“Is it one of the things concession by the state government? Whether it is or not, methinks to avoid leaving Cross Riverians to speculate or creating opportunities for people to have indifferent feelings towards what I described as a “goal” for our education sector during an article on the issue in 2020, the state government should clearly communicate the doubts surrounding the ownership of the institution to the public.
“If it is public but now privatized as I personally suspect, Cross Riverians on whose mandate the Governor signed the MOU that has birthed the University deserve to know. If it is not and has been a private investment all along, the people also need to know,” he wrote.
Responding to his post, an aide to Governor Ayade, Mr. Kalita Joe Aruku said the State never owned a University but buildings.
“There was never a Canadian University Obudu in existence, there was no law even in Cross River State establishing a Canadian University. What you had was a proposed University, in the eyes of the law it was just a physical building.
“So (the State) never owned a Canadian University, what they owned was a physical structure built to accommodate a University which was leased or concessioned to the company that officially applied to own and run the Canadian University Obudu. This does not also mean (the State) cannot have shares in the company operating the University,” he wrote.
For Mr. Mike Udam, a teacher, the essence was for the institution to kick off as he did not bother about the ownership.
He wrote, “It started as a British Canadian school design to bring qualitative secondary school to the Northern Cross River State. While the project was going on, several times and on several occasions, it was termed a secondary school.
“One afternoon, it turned to British Canadian University. Some weeks ago, the name suddenly changed to University of Law and Medicine. Till this moment, no one is certain as to whether it is a public or private entity. The kick-off date is still unknown.
“I have resolved not to bother myself about the nomenclature of the school. My interest now is when is the school taking off? If it is a university, is all the paperwork associated with accreditation done? Since we did (not) get the Federal University of Technology Ogoja, this one will be a good fallback position.”
See the list of approved universities below:
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