Members of the Kwara State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed into the law the bill seeking to change the name of the state-owned University, KWASU, to Abubakar Sola Saraki University (ASSU).
The bill was read for the third time before its passage.
A report by the House Committee on Education and Human Capital Development explained that before the passage, the bill had been subjected to public hearing after it scaled first and second reading.
The report indicated that 40 stakeholders made both oral and written submissions during the public hearing but only five of them opposed the then proposed bill.
Part of the report reads: “However, only five (5) of the stakeholders were against the proposed Bill… on the ground that State and Local Government resources are used to fund the university. Hence, KWASU should not be renamed after Sola Saraki.
“Contrary, thirty (35) of the stakeholders were of the view that KWASU be renamed after the late Political Icon due to his socio-economic and political contributions to the development of Kwara State in particular and Nigeria in general”.
After deliberating on the report, the House endorsed the recommendations of the committee and approved the renaming of the university after the late Saraki who was political leader of the state for many years until his demise last year.
Speaking on the bill, Speaker of the Assembly, Razaq Atunwa said: “With the commencement of this law, KWASU shall be Abubakar Sola Saraki University (ASSU) wherever it occurs in the University law and the law may be cited as Kwara State University Amendment Law”.
