The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has advised students of the University of Abuja (Unibuja) to channel its welfare demands to the federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, which administers the university.

This is just as it condemned and described as unjustified and embarrassing, the action of some students of the University of Abuja under the guise of FCT National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other institutions in the FCT, who barricaded the entrance and exit gates of the FCTA Secretariat last Thursday.

The protesting students, led by the chairman of the University of Abuja Chapter of NANS, Comrade Friday Omadewu Adayi, had on Thursday, laid siege on the FCTA secretariat, insisting that their demands, among them, that the FCTA must purchase a vehicle for their association immediately to enable them attend their various conventions, develop the university unity park, solve water supply challenges at the university’s mini campus and furnish the common room of the NANS chairman, saying they would not leave the place unless the FCTA met their demands.

Special adviser on media to the FCT Minister, Nosike Ogbuenyi, in a statement, said selected leaders of the students later met with FCT officials led by the FCT Education Secretary, Alhaji Kabir Usman who promised to look into their demands despite the obvious fact that most of them were either untenable or should have been pursued through the Ministry of Education which administers the university.

The secretary, the statement said, also told the students that their request for a vehicle was receiving attention and would be granted if funds become available.

“While the FCTA acknowledges the right of the students to request for assistance, it abhors any action taken to disrupt government activities. It was wrong for the students to attempt to use force to compel government to fulfil requests that are not statutory responsibilities of the FCTA. The point should be stressed that it is not part of FCTA’s official responsibility to furnish the NANS chairman’s common room or to provide internal infrastructure in federal universities. Similarly, government’s action on the kind of demands made by the students is discretionary and dependent on resource availability,” the statement quoted the secretary to have said.

On the issue of water, Usman explained that the FCTA through its water board has provided potable and wholesome water to the residents of the FCT including Gwagwalada township by the recent commissioning of the Lower Usuma Dam Phases III and IV water treatment plants and therefore, it is the duty of individuals, institutions and corporate organisations to undertake water reticulation in their areas of abode.

APPLY AS A SKILLED WORKER IN CANADA RECRUITMENT

Hello Visitors!

Jobs and similar opportunities like this are listed daily on our platforms, and as such, it is important to take due advantage of that.

Here is how:

View today's jobs