The House of Representatives has passed for second reading, a bill seeking establishment the first federal tertiary institution in Osun Central Senatorial District of Osun State.
At the plenary on Tuesday, the House debated and passed the bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Federal College of Education, Ila Orangun, Osun State, which was sponsored by Hon Femi Fakeye, representing Ila/Boluwaduro/Ifedayo Federal Constituency of Osun State.
While leading debate on the motion, Hon Fakeye, who is a third term member, said with a population of over 200 million, Nigerian is being served by “a relatively small number of tertiary education institutions”.
The lawmaker said there was no gainsaying that there was a need for the establishment of more tertiary education institutions across the country.
According to him: “This bill proposes the establishment of the Federal College of Education to be located in Ila Orangun, Osun State. The proposed location, Ila-Orangun, is in the Osun Central Senatorial District and is adjacent to three neighbouring states of Ondo, Kwara and Ekiti, making the college accessible to a vast array of young people even beyond the shores of Osun State
“As Nigeria grapples with the need to keep her teeming but restive youths productively engaged and away from criminal tendencies, one ‘win-win’ way of achieving this is by encouraging them to build a very strong educational foundation early, thus steering them away from pedestrian subsistence later in life, which often tends towards criminality.
“So, few would argue against any fresh investment in education as a sine qua non for increasing the country’s human capital development index, currently rather low for Nigeria.
“The Federal Government currently has a commendable policy of seeing to it that each state of the federation has, at a minimum, one federal university, one federal polytechnic and one federal college of education.
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“At the moment, in Osun State, the Federal Government has a federal university, the Obafemi Awolowo University, located in Osun East Senatorial District; a federal polytechnic located in Ede, in Osun West Senatorial District, while there is no federal tertiary education institution at all in Osun Central Senatorial District, which is one major rationale for proposing this Federal College of Education for Ila-Orangun.”
The bill has now been sent to relevant committee for more legislative work on it. (Tribune Online)
