Upgrade of Federal Polyrechic Nasarawa to University is a Win

By Ali Abare 

News broke on Friday that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had approved the conversion of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, into the Federal University of Mining, Engineering and Technology.

Within hours, instead of the celebration such news should ordinarily attract, a section of commentators moved quickly to dismiss it, some claiming it changes nothing, others suggesting it cannot be true because of an existing federal policy on new institutions.

This response says more about politics than it does about facts.

Let us deal with the facts first. The statement announcing this approval did not come from a blog or a rumour mill. It came directly from the Presidency, issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and published on the official website of the State House.

Multiple credible national newspapers have carried the same statement word for word. Anyone still asking for verifiable evidence only needs to visit the State House website. It is there in black and white.

On the claim that this changes nothing because of the six year pause on new federal tertiary institutions announced in March, this argument does not hold. The directive from the Presidency is clear that what has happened is a conversion of an existing institution, the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, into a specialised university.

No new campus is being created from scratch. No new site is being carved out. An institution that already exists, with its staff, its infrastructure and its students, is simply being repositioned to do more, to train specialists in mining, engineering, mineral processing and metallurgy.

This is an upgrade, not a new establishment, and treating the two as identical is either a genuine misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.

What should matter more to the people of Nasarawa State is what this conversion means for them practically.

A specialised university focused on mining and engineering, sitting in a state that is already hosting one of the largest lithium processing investments in West Africa, is not a small thing. It means more research into how the state’s mineral wealth can be processed and not merely extracted.

It means young people from Nasarawa State training close to home for the very industries now setting up around them. It means the state’s name attached to a centre of technical excellence that other states do not have.

These are not abstract benefits. They translate into scholarships, staff appointments, contracts, and eventually jobs for graduates who understand the mining sector because they were trained inside it.

It is worth stating plainly that Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu, who proposed this institution, did not do so as a personal favour to himself. He did so as the senator representing Nasarawa West, using his position at the National Assembly to attract federal investment to his constituents.

If political opponents believe they can do better, the honest response is not mockery on social media but action, bring a similar or greater development to the state and let the people compare. Until then, Nasarawa State should accept this achievement for what it plainly is, progress.