***Gov Bello making right 6 decades wrong
By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
Speaker of Kogi State 8th Assembly, Rt Hon. Aliyu Umar Yusuf has described the establishment of Kogi State University, Kabba, as an answer to six decades of yearning and craving for a university in Okunland.
Speaker Yusuf who disclosed this during an interactive session with the Assembly Correspondents in his office in Lokoja said people of Okun extraction had craved for a university for over six decades to no avail.
According to him, the people of Kabba Province had consistently been the brain box and producer of manpower for Northern Nigeria but could not boast of a university of their own we t.
He noted that the Eastern and Central flanks of the state could boast of universities in their immediate domains while the Western flank could not.
This, he said, accounted for Governor Yahaya Bello’s desire to establish a state varsity in Okun land, saying it was to create a balance in the education sector of the state .
Speaker Yusuf noted that massive turnout of stakeholders such as traditional rulers, captains of industries, community leaders, commissioners, politicians at the public hearing where they presenting memoranda was an attestation to the fact that the people yearned for the university.
The adduced reasons for the establishment of the University, he said, ran contrary to the biased views being expressed by opposition parties and pessimists.
On the Bill on kidnapping which was repealed and re-enacted, he said it was to stem the daily rise in crimes especially, kidnapping in the society.
Yusuf pointed out that there was a great need to address the craze for materialism and wealth through illegal means such as kidnapping by enacting better laws.
“It is therefore imperative that we give teeth to our laws so that criminals would not escape through the loopholes”, he said.
Speaker Yusuf said that it was also to caution and deter would be criminals, adding that the lawmakers were elected to make laws and give their constituents good representation.