According to Punch newspaper, President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday promised that his administration would immediately begin the process of establishing the nation’s first University of Cooperatives that would be established in one of the states in the South-West.
Jonathan made the promise while granting audience to members of the Oodua Cooperative Alliance from the six South Western states in the State House, Marina, Lagos.
The President further promised to dispatch a Federal Government delegation to Nairobi, Kenya, in order to understudy a similar university established there.
The leader of the delegation, Chief Adetokunbo Osisanya, had earlier asked the government to take a cue from Kenya which already had such university.
The President said he had always been of the opinion that Nigeria needed specialised universities.
He explained that that was why he was establishing a Maritime University in Delta State.
He said, “On the issue you raised about a University of Cooperative, I will send a team to Kenya to go and look at the University there.
“They need to look at the courses they offer, the departments and how the entire institution is structured. Then we will establish our own and it will be located in the South West.”
On the request for the institution of N200bn National Cooperative Development Fund provided in the 2002 National Cooperative Policy, Jonathan promised to ask the Central Bank of Nigeria to consider its inclusion in its operations.
He further promised to look into other requests made by the delegation if he was re-elected in March.
The group leader promised to mobilise over two million votes for the President’s re-election bid out of its six million membership strength. (Punch).