From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Vice chancellor of Federal University, Lokoja, Prof Olayemi Akinwumi has said the delay in the release of the 2024/2025 admission list for law candidates into the school will soon be over urging those that applied to the school to exercise a little patience.
The VC which said the Law faculty and all the necessary facilities were already in place for the pioneer students, saying the institution was only awaiting the visitation of the Council for Legal Education which has to inspect the faculty and give the go ahead before the programme can commence in earnest.
He said the management of the institution will fashion out a new academic calendar for the law students to enable them catch up with the lost time as 100 level students of other courses have since resumed.
Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi disclosed this on Thursday during an interraction with a group of journalists in his office. While explaining the delay in admitting students for its law program despite having approval of the National Universities Commission, NUC, he said the institution is waiting for visitation from the council of legal education as required by law.
According to Akinwumi, the FUL is determined not to run a foul of regulations in its pursuit of the law program. He said the delay in the release of the admission list is part of the measures to ensure the program begins on a sound footing.
On funding, the VC said the school has to think out of the box, often falling back on its consultancy unit to augment the federal government and sustain its functionality.
He lamented that funds are yet to be made available to the institution from the last budget saying this has caused some administrative and academic disruptions .
He appealed to the federal government not to scrap the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, noting that it has become the backbone of infrastructure development in higher institutions across the country.
“Stoppage of TETfund if allowed will lead to collapse of the University and Polytechnic education system in Nigeria especially in the area of provision of the needed infrastructure.
“Universities and Polytechnics in Nigeria have relied majorly on TETfund Projects to survive, and any attempt to stop it will certainly do more harm than good to the system”
He also hinted that during his tenure, faculties in the university increased from 4 to 10, notably Faculties of Pharmacy, Engineering, Agriculture, Law, Education Management, and Planning as well as College of Health Sciences.
Akinwumi also said the university has revived the culture of public and inaugural lectures, noting that under his watch more than 20 of such has been organised as against only two before he assumed office less than four years ago. He added that 47 programmes offered in the university have received full NUC accreditation.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Mr Segun Salami promised effective partnership with the institution.