Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu has distanced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the University of Nigerian Languages, Aba (Establishment, etc) bill, 2024.
The Deputy Speaker, who is the sponsor of the bill, said it was only seeking to upgrade the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba, Abia State to a University of Nigerian Languages.
Speaking when the members of the Governing Board of NINLAN led by the chairman, Professor Victor Ukaogo visited him in Abuja, Kalu said that the bill sponsored by him and eight others does not have the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a prefix to it.
He said: “To review the establishment act of the NINLAN to change your status from not being funded by TETFUND to a level where you can be funded, enlarge your curriculum and give out more to the society is what the bill is all about.
“The Bill has nothing to do with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s name. What was published in our journal says university of Nigerian languages.
“This was what we submitted but the news we are getting outside is that they are attaching the name of Bola Ahmed Tinubu just to drag a president who is making concerted efforts to ensure that education in Nigeria is stronger than he met it.
“Election is over, people should leave the President out of petty issues. He doesn’t know about this, was never part of it. We are looking for how to lift the standard of the institution which the federal government is spending money on to go from where it is to where it ought to be and that we must do.
“This is not the first institution I am moving bills for their status to change and it’s not going to be the last.
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“My interest is that we should not allow NINLAN to die. The issue of the school’s nomenclature is secondary, it’s a federal government establishment already. It has the potential to create more jobs, do more for our people.
“It’s not a new university. We want to upgrade you to where you can benefit from TETFUND and build capacity and train more people and be a reference point.
“As leaders who want to protect what our forefathers handed over to us, we must push for the element of our identity found in our Nigerian languages.”
Kalu emphasised the need to preserve Nigerian languages as a uniting element, while stressing a possible plan of amending the act establishing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to accommodate the funding of specialized institutions of higher learning and inter- university centres in the country.