Members of the Borno Concern Citizens group are against the plan to combine the Nigerian Army University Biu (NAUB) with the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna.
They wrote a letter to President Tinubu and the National Assembly to express their concerns.
The letter signed by Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim (Dan Masanin Biu), for the Borno State Concerned Citizens, urged the Federal Government to allow both military institutions to operate separately and allow each to play its distinctive role in the overall interest of the nation.
They believe that mixing civilian students from NAUB with the NDA would not be helpful. They want both military schools to remain separate so they can each focus on their specific roles.
The Borno Concern Citizens group explained that NAUB was established in 2018 with a focus on innovation and technology development for the Nigerian Defence sector.
They emphasized that NAUB was created according to the law and received approval from various government bodies.
They highlighted NAUB’s vision to be a center for technology, research, and development to address educational challenges in the military and the nation.
The group is worried that merging NAUB with the NDA would not be good for military training and defense systems.
They argue that the NDA is specialized in training officers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and mixing civilian students from NAUB with military training could be problematic.
They also pointed out that the idea of merging NAUB with the NDA was not part of the initial Oronsaye Report in 2012 or its review.
They believe it would be inappropriate to include them in the list of institutions to be merged or streamlined.
They mentioned that many bills for establishing universities and other institutions of higher learning have been passed after NAUB was established.
“I observed that many bills for the establishment of universities and institutions of higher learning were passed by the National Assembly and signed into law after the establishment of NAUB”.
“I also observed that the National Assembly has passed and will continue to pass bills for the establishment of tertiary institutions in the country as it becomes necessary”.
The group noted that the National Assembly continues to pass bills for establishing tertiary institutions, and more licenses for private universities have been granted by the National Universities Commission (NUC) due to the shortage of tertiary institutions in the country.
“More licenses for the establishment of private universities have also been granted by NUC because of the inadequate number of tertiary institutions in the country,” the group added”.
