Tinubu Rejects Establishment Of Fed Varsity In Atiku’s State

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declined the signing of a  bill to establish a federal university in Adamawa state.

The president, the magazine learnt made his intention not to assent to a bill establishing the Federal University of Education Numan, Adamawa State, known in a letter he sent to the House of Representatives.

The Bill was passed by the Nigeria’s lower house of Assembly in 2024 and sent to the president for his assent. But on Tuesday, Tinubu said, in a letter read at the floor of the House by the Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu that he has declined his assent.

The magazine reports that Adamawa is the home state of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a prominent opposition leader and 2023 PDP Presidential candidate.

The bill was sponsored by the lawmaker representing Adamawa South Senatorial District, Binos Yaroe. .

In the letter, Tinubu raised concerns over Section 22 of the bill, which grants the authority to dispose of land belonging to the federal institution to the Adamawa State Governor, stressing that the President has authority on issues relating to Federal Government-owned property, especially federal-owned universities7 January 202500 / 1:01

“Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I hereby convey to the House of Representatives my decision taken on December 23, 2024, to decline presidential assent to the Federal University of Education, Numan Establishment Bill 2024 recently passed by the National Assembly.

“I am declining assent to the bill as Section 22 of the bill confers the authority to the disposal of the land of the university on the governor and not the President as it ought to be in the case of land belonging to the Federal Government,” the letter read in part.”