The Federal Government has maintained that it will proceed with the concession of King’s College, Lagos, to the institution’s Old Boys Association, despite ongoing protests by education workers and concerns raised by parents and other stakeholders.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the arrangement was designed to address longstanding infrastructure and management challenges at the college, stressing that the Federal Government would retain ownership of the institution. The government has previously clarified that the concession transfers responsibility for financing, rehabilitation, modernisation, operation and maintenance to the King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA), while legal title remains with the government.
Alausa spoke in Abuja while addressing journalists amid the continuing dispute between the Ministry of Education and unions representing workers in the ministry and Federal Unity Colleges.
The controversy has also affected the resumption of Federal Unity Colleges, with workers and parents protesting the concession and demanding changes to the government’s approach. The Federal Government has maintained that the arrangement does not amount to selling or privatising King’s College.
Meanwhile, policemen from different formations in Lagos State took over the premises of King’s College, Onikan, on Wednesday following days of protests over the concession.
The development came a day after parents protesting the arrangement had an altercation with policemen and members of KCOBA. By Wednesday morning, protesters were no longer seen around the school’s main gate, while police vehicles and officers were deployed along roads leading to the institution.
At about 11am, members of KCOBA, including its National President, Ibrahim Kassim Imam, and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, arrived at the school for a meeting on the concession.
Speaking after the meeting, the KCOBA executive committee, led by Imam, assured stakeholders that the college would continue to operate according to the principles on which Federal Unity Colleges were established.
“We are saying it again that we are not going to turn the college to an elitist one. We will run it in line with the principles behind the setting up of unity colleges and their operation.
In fact, that is contained in the agreement we signed for the concession. To say we are buying it is wrong. There is no willing seller or buyer of King’s College. The Federal Government is not selling, while KCOBA is not buying,” Imam said.
He said previous interventions by old students to rehabilitate and renovate facilities at the school had been affected by vandalism and poor maintenance.
“Our agreement with the Federal Government is open for public scrutiny. We are open to scrutiny by the public and we want the government to also look into how the school has been run so far,” he said.
Imam also said KCOBA would maintain the federal character principle by ensuring that students from all states of the federation continued to have representation at the college.
He assured stakeholders that school fees would not be increased under the arrangement.
On funding, Imam said that even if half of the proposed ₦100 billion endowment fund was raised, it could be invested to generate sustainable revenue for the management of the institution.
The Secretary of KCOBA, Etigwe Uwa, SAN, recalled his experience as a student of the college and said the institution gave him the opportunity to interact with people from different parts of Nigeria.
“I cannot be part of a system that would deny people a platform to fly. King’s College gave me such a platform and I have to extend same to others, but we must first save the college from its deplorable state,” Uwa said.
Akpata also rejected claims that parents and staff had been excluded from discussions concerning the concession.
“It is not correct to say we are not carrying the parents and staff along. They were always part of the meetings called by the ministry and our own meetings here,” he said.
He said he and members of his set had been deeply concerned after seeing the condition of the school’s facilities during a reunion visit.
A Vice-President of KCOBA, Rotimi Aladesanmi, also alleged that the principle of federal character had been undermined by what he described as admission racketeering at the college.
Government will not sell Unity Colleges
In Abuja, Alausa reiterated that the Federal Government had no intention of selling any Federal Unity College.
“The Federal Government is not selling any Unity College. The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, does not have intention to sell any Unity College, and we will not sell any Unity College,” he said.
He explained that the government was exploring alternative ways of addressing infrastructure and management challenges because of the funding gap facing the education sector.
According to him, the infrastructure deficit across Federal Unity Colleges had accumulated over decades and could not be resolved through conventional government funding alone.
“It is only if Mr President gives us, myself and the Minister of State, two trillion naira today, it will not be enough to fix our Unity Colleges,” Alausa said.
The minister said his visit to King’s College showed that although some parts of the institution were clean, the overall infrastructure was old and required substantial rehabilitation.
He rejected claims that the concession amounted to the sale of government property, stressing that ownership would remain with the Federal Government.
Alausa also accused some directors in the ministry of allegedly encouraging workers to oppose the government’s policy, saying the government had information on officials allegedly involved in mobilising staff against the concession.
“It’s obvious now that some directors in the Ministry of Education are instigating their staff. We have intelligence to show us some directors in the Ministry of Education that are instigating their staff,” he said.
He said the government had engaged the unions and reached a six-point agreement intended to resolve the dispute and enable workers to return to their offices.
However, he said another group of protesting workers had not met conditions set by the ministry for further discussions.
Alausa acknowledged workers’ right to protest but said such demonstrations must remain within the law.
“To maintain peace and harmony, we will not allow people to take laws into their own hands. This is a responsible government. We have given them all the room and scope for them to do their protests within the ambit of the law. There is a limit to government patience,” he said.
The minister also rejected claims circulated by some workers and unions concerning the dispute, describing them as misinformation.
Concession to run for 25 years
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, said the Federal Government remained willing to engage the unions but insisted that normal activities must resume within the ministry.
Ahmad said resistance to the concession appeared to be partly connected to concerns about changing the existing system.
She disclosed that the proposed concession of King’s College would last for 25 years, explaining that the period was considered necessary for the concessionaire to establish sustainable management systems and for the government to evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangement.
The government has separately stated that the concession agreement contains provisions for infrastructure investment, performance monitoring, audits, inspections and government oversight, while KCOBA would take responsibility for financing and implementing major rehabilitation and development works at the college.
The dispute over King’s College and the wider management of Federal Unity Colleges remains ongoing, with education workers and other stakeholders continuing to raise concerns about the concession while the Federal Government maintains that the arrangement will proceed.
