FG rules out sales of King’s College, other Unity Colleges

By Mariam Abeeb

The Federal Government has ruled out the sale of King’s College, Lagos, and other Federal Unity Colleges across the country, assuring Nigerians that the proposed management arrangement involving the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) will not result in higher school fees or job losses for teachers.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance in Abuja while addressing journalists on the controversy surrounding the proposed management arrangement for the prestigious Lagos-based college.

Alausa said the Federal Government remained the owner and ultimate authority over King’s College and other Federal Unity Colleges, stressing that the proposed arrangement with KCOBA was specific to King’s College and would not be extended to other Unity Colleges.

“Let me be unequivocal, the Federal Government is not selling any Unity College,” the minister said. “The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, does not have the intention to sell any Unity College, and we will not sell any Unity College.”

He explained that the proposed partnership with KCOBA was designed to mobilise additional resources for the rehabilitation and modernisation of King’s College while retaining government ownership of the institution.

According to him, the initiative became necessary following the deterioration of infrastructure at the college. He said an unannounced visit to the school enabled him to observe poor conditions in some hostels, bathrooms, classrooms, laboratories and other facilities.

The minister also recounted the prolonged electricity challenges he encountered during the visit, saying he contacted the relevant electricity distribution company, after which power was restored to the Senior Secondary School section of the institution.

Alausa further raised security concerns over the use of parts of the school premises as a paid car park, noting that unrestricted access by members of the public could expose students to security risks. He said he subsequently directed that the arrangement be discontinued.

The minister said KCOBA had indicated its readiness to invest substantially in the institution through a non-profit foundation, while maintaining merit-based admission and ensuring that students from different parts of the country continued to have access to the college.

He added that the old boys’ association had claimed to have invested more than N2 billion in supporting infrastructure at King’s College over the years.

Alausa said the Federal Government was confronted with a huge funding gap in its efforts to rehabilitate the country’s 115 Federal Unity Colleges, noting that decades of accumulated infrastructure deficits could not be addressed immediately through government funding alone.

“President Bola Tinubu is investing in infrastructure, including the sub-sector, but there’s so much, significant infrastructure gap that has happened for 40 years and we don’t have the funds,” he said.

The minister estimated that even N2 trillion would not be sufficient to completely address the infrastructure needs of all the Federal Unity Colleges.

He disclosed that the government had secured approval to repurpose about $20 million from a World Bank-supported programme for the comprehensive rehabilitation of selected Unity Colleges.

According to him, about 20 schools had been selected for the intervention, with the funding expected to support rehabilitation efforts across the country.

Alausa said the estimated cost of rehabilitating Federal Unity Colleges in the South-West alone was nearly N100 billion, underscoring the need for the government to explore additional funding sources while retaining ownership and control of the institutions.