President Bola Tinubu has received counsel from Osun monarch, Oba Hammed Adekunle Malama, cautioning against merging the Nigerian Army University (NAU) with the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA).
Oba Malama emphasized that NAU, being a full-fledged federal university with diverse courses, established by an Act of the National Assembly, should not be amalgamated with the specialized NDA.
He urged consideration for the unique purpose of NAU in providing university education in the North East, expressing concern that merging it with NDA might undermine its original intent.
The monarch also commended President Tinubu for pursuing civil service reforms initiated twelve years ago, but suggested wider consultations to avoid such mix-ups in the future.
According to the statement, “Nigerian Army University, Biu, unlike the Nigerian Defence Academy, is a full fledged federal university like other federal universities in the country, offers various courses and not specialised like NDA.”
“Merging NAU with NDA means the Federal Government is ready to merge every federal university created by Act of the National Assembly,” he said.
“Finally I believe the mix up should not have arisen if proper wider consultation were made before advising Mr President on inclusion of NAU because the University was not even in existence during the Orosanye panel seatings,” he added.
