Why Kogi varsity is yet to assume new name

The Kogi State University (KSU) Anyigba, which was renamed after Abubakar Audu (late), a former governor whose administration built it, is yet to bear its new name after one year due to non-passage of an executive bill sent to the state House of Assembly.

Daily Trust obtained the clarification yesterday, and reports that Governor Yahaya Bello had in June last year renamed the school as Prince Abubakar Audu University during a statewide broadcast to mark his victory at the state governorship election petition tribunal, saying it was a worthy honour to Audu who governed the state twice from 1991 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2003.

When Audu built the university in 1999, he named it Kogi State University, but he changed it to Prince Abubakar Audu University in 2002 amidst protests that he was glorifying himself, and the government that succeeded him reverted the name to Kogi State University in 2003.

The Chief Press Secretary to Yahaya Bello, Mrs Petra Akinti Onyegbule, told Daily Trust yesterday that the institution was still bearing its old name because the executive bill the governor sent to the state Assembly had not been passed.

When contacted, Mr Umar Ali, the Chief Press Secretary to the speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, said the bill had gone through second reading and was currently at the committee stage, adding that the bill would sail through further stages when members of the Assembly resumed from their recess.