Governor El-Rufai at the meeting with the stakeholders from southern Kaduna.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Tuesday ordered the reopening of tertiary institutions shut in Southern Kaduna in the wake of ethno-religious crisis in the area.

A statement issued by Governor’s spokesman Samuel Aruwan, said El-Rufai gave the directive when he received in his office stakeholders from southern Kaduna.

He thanked the delegation, which included Air Commodore E. K. Jekada and Bishop George Dodo, Catholic Bishop of Zaria, for helping to stabilize and restore peace in the affected local government areas.

The governor commended members of the delegation for their individual and collective roles in restoring peace to the affected areas.

“I salute you for helping to uphold a common humanity, for keeping the voice of reason alive.

“It is voices like yours that are helping to anchor peace, upsetting the designs of people who think that a relentless focus on ethnicity and religion is the best way to advance their personal agenda.

“We are determined not to allow anyone to profit from strife. Thank you for your contributions to the steady advance of peace in the area.”

He said that due to the marked improvement in the security situation, the government had decided to reopen all tertiary institutions in Southern Kaduna.

El-Rufai said that the government had also decided to adopt a multi-campus structure for all its tertiary institutions.

According to him, the initiative will entail at least one campus of a tertiary institution being located in one local government area of the state.

“This multi-campus policy will be implemented in a way that assigns at least one tertiary institution to each of the 23 local government areas.

“The laws of some of our institutions are already been amended to reflect this,” he said.

El-Rufai said that the new policy had been approved by the State Executive Council as a means to further expand access to higher education.

The governor also said that the initiative would make accreditation of courses more cost-effective and respond concretely to the desire by several communities to host tertiary institutions.

The government explained that a multi-campus structure will help to make the state’s tertiary institutions more inclusive and expand the range of courses that students can study by making most courses available in all campuses.

“Memo presented to the State Executive Council indicates that government hopes that the various campuses spread across the state can over time evolve into full-fledged universities in their own right,’’ he said.

According to him, that is how the campuses of the University of California system and those of the University of London evolved.

The governor reiterated a commitment to transform KASU into a world-class university in the long-term.

“Part of the transition to a multi-campus structure entails moving the main campus of KASU itself to a big purpose-built main facility behind the NTI in Rigachikun,’’ the he said

Members of the delegation applauded the governor for reopening schools and for adopting the multi-campus structure.

Bishop Dodo was quoted as saying that it was clear that the government has good intentions, and was doing a lot, but he urged more efforts at communicating what was being done to the people.

Also, Air Commodore Jekada expressed appreciation to security agencies and the state government for restoring order and return to normalcy possible.

He pledged that members of the group would continue to support and cooperate with the government to sustain peace and development in southern Kaduna.

(NAN)