The governor attributed the reopening to the return of peace to the troubled region.
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| Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State. (Guardian) Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai has ordered the reopening of the three tertiary institutions that were shut down in the southern region of the state in December 2016 due to a bloody conflict.The institutions shut down by the governor are: Kaduna State University (KASU), Kaduna State College of Nursing and Kaduna State College of Education Gidan-waya. According to the governor's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, he ordered that the institutions be reopened while he was receiving stake holders from the region on Tuesday, September 5, 2017. The governor announced that his reason for the decision was due to the marked improvement in the security situation of the region. While addressing the delegation, the governor expressed his appreciation for all the parties that were involved in restoring peace to the troubled region. He said, "I salute you for helping to uphold a common humanity, for keeping the voice of reason alive. It is voices like yours that are helping to anchor peace, upsetting the designs of people who think that a relentless focus on ethnicity and religion is the best way to advance their personal agenda." Governor El-Rufai also announced the government's decision to adopt a multi-campus structure for all tertiary institutions owned by the state. According to him, this move will make it possible to assign at least one tertiary institution to every local government area in the state. He confirmed that the structure has already been approved by the State Executive Council. He said, "This multi-campus policy will be implemented in a way that assigns at least one tertiary institution to each of the 23 local government areas. The laws of some of our institutions are already amended to reflect this." The governor had faced months of mounting pressure from the Southern Kaduna Youth and Student Forum (SKYSFOM) who had criticised his decision to not reopen the institutions despite other government institutions like primary and secondary schools and markets in the region operating without the same security issues. A vote of no confidence was even passed on the governor by a total of 3,753 students in July. |