President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday approved the staggered takeoff of six out of 14 public universities established in the twilight of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who revealed this to State House Correspondents, said the choice of the universities — two colleges of agriculture, education and medicine each—was strategic to the skills-empowerment goals of the Tinubu-led administration.

The Buhari administration approved the establishment of no fewer than 75 universities, encompassing federal, state and private institutions within seven years.

However, Mamman said the Federal Government lacked the funds and qualified staffing to kick start all institutions at once as they are capital intensive.

He added that the Tinubu administration will be “conservative” in doling out approvals for the establishment of new universities.

“And then there are quite a number of universities and institutions which were approved in the last days of the last administration, which because of issues of funding, and even staff it may not be prudent to get these institutions to take off altogether at once.

“So Mr. President has directed we stagger their commencement, their takeoff so that the government can properly support them,” the Former Baze University Vice Chancellor said, after he briefed Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa,” he said. (The PUNCH)