Authorities of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna have disclosed that the institution was making impressive in-roads in its quest to support the Nigerian Armed Forces in sourcing for local alternative hardware to combat Boko-Haram and check other security challenges.
Though such in-roads cannot be financially quantified, FUT, Minna has been a partner to the Nigerian military to reduce the huge sums of money expended to acquire arms and ammunitions used by security agencies to fight crime in Nigeria.
Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Musbau Adewumi Akanji, disclosed this while briefing journalists during the 26th Convocation and 34th Founder’s Day of the university which held at the main campus, Gidan-Kwano, on Thursday.
The vice chancellor who however did not give details of the collaborations, said, “FUT, Minna has been a dependable partner to the Nigerian military”.
Prof. Akanji explained, “Experts in relevant fields from this university have been invited on several occasions by the military to explore areas of partnership on the possibility to locally manufacture equipment and spare parts needed to combat terrorism”.
Meanwhile, the vice chancellor has thrown more light into what led to the expulsion of about 700 students from the various departments and this he said affected mostly new students was not targeted at any particular group or gender.
Contrary to insinuations that most of the affected students were being witch-hunted by lecturers, Akanji said that the policy that gave credence to the expulsion was not only made known to the students’ body before now but was publicized.
The weeklong event, according to Akanji, will include, commissioning of completed projects, novelty Basket Ball Match and as well, convocation lecture titled: “Science-Based Management Safeguards for Sustainable Biodiversity Resources in Developing Countries”.
Prof. Muabau Akanji who may be celebrating his last convocation as his tenure expires after spending five year as Vice Chancellor of the citadel, said that the climax of the event would be the award of Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees as well as Postgraduate Diplomas to graduating students.