The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said he had no regrets
\nsiting the transportation university in Daura.<\/p>\n
Mr Amaechi said this at the ground breaking of the Transportation
\nUniversity in Daura, Katsina on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201dWhen we sited the factory at Kajola, there was no noise, nobody debated
\nabout it, nobody abused us for it unlike the site for the university.<\/p>\n
\u201dDaura is in Nigeria, it is not in any other part of the world. It is
\nnot in Niger Republic, Biafra or Mali, it is in Nigeria. So, what is
\nwrong in siting the University of Transportation in Daura?<\/p>\n
\u201dI have no regret siting this university where I have sited it, it is
\nnot because I want to get any gain,\u201d Mr Amaechi said.<\/p>\n
Daura is President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s hometown thus leading to the
\ncontroversy.<\/p>\n
According to the minister, the establishment of the university was an
\nattempt at responding to the question of how we (Nigeria) will maintain
\nthe infrastructure we are building in the country.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201dIt is my attempt at responding to the question of how to
\nmaintain and manage all the infrastructure we are building and realised
\nthat education is key.<\/p>\n
\u201dI engaged the companies, the first engagement was when they were
\nconstructing Lagos-Ibadan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not so keen at spending their funds to build a university for
\nNigeria until I refused to sign the contract for the Lagos to Ibadan
\nrailway.<\/p>\n
\u201dI insisted that I will only sign if three things were done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing is to take our children to China and train them by
\ngiving them first degree in railway technology.<\/p>\n
\u201dToday as I speak, 60 of our children are in their second year and we
\nthank CCECC and 90 are on their way to China this week, making it 150.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe second is that, if we must sign the purchase of locomotives in
\nChina, they must build a factory were we can construct for coaches,
\nlocomotives and wagon and today at Kajola that factory is being
\nconstructed.<\/p>\n
\u201dFinally, I insisted on the University of Transportation and today we
\nare here for the ground breaking of the University and for all we are
\ngrateful to CCECC and the Chinese government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister commended the Governor of Katsina for the speed in which he
\ndonated the land for the project.<\/p>\n
He said the land which is about 413 hectares was donated by the Katsina
\ngovernment and it has promised to increase it.<\/p>\n
He also commended the various governors, ministers, stakeholders, the
\nChinese government and all who have made the project a success.<\/p>\n
The Chairman, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Ibrahim Hassan,
\ndescribed the university as the first of its kind which would boost
\neconomy and educational quest of Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Mr Hassan said that Engineering courses as regards to transportation
\nwould be introduced, adding that courses like Marine, road, rail and
\ninland water transportation would be the main focus.<\/p>\n
On the challenges faced by the rail sector, he said the board was
\ncommitted to improving the welfare of staff and exposing them to modern
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
According to the Managing Director, NRC, Fidet Okhiria, the university
\ncame about due to the persistence of the minister.<\/p>\n
\u201dAmaechi insisted that there should be a university as part of the
\nCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the contractor that is
\ndeveloping the rail industry in Nigeria that is the CRCC and the CCECC.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe believe that from their profit they should do something meaningful
\nfor Nigeria so that we can develop human capacity and Nigerians can
\nbenefit from the on-going rail modernisation,\u201d Mr Okhiria said.<\/p>\n
On Nigeria\u2019s commitment to the project, he said there was no
\ncontribution from Nigeria except that we (Nigeria) gave them (the
\ncontractors) work to modernise our rail.<\/p>\n
On the completion of the project, Mr Okhiria said it could be about two
\nyears, adding \u201dwe hope that by the time we get the rail from Ibadan to
\nKano the University should be in place\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201dAnd remember that we have about 150 Nigerians that we have sent to
\nChina, among which some of them will become lecturers, some
\npractitioners in the rail engineering processes.<\/p>\n
\u201dSo we expect them to get to PhD level and that is the idea of sending
\nthem to China to specialize in transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201dSo that by the time they come back here, we will have the lecturers in
\nplace to pioneer and continue the process of indigenizing the
\nUniversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the university would offer
\ncourses and award degrees in Railway Engineering.<\/p>\n
(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said he had no regrets siting the transportation university in Daura. Mr Amaechi said this at the ground breaking of the Transportation University in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n