Coronavirus: FG considers full reopening of higher institutions

The Federal Government of Nigeria has began consideration of full reopening of tertiary institutions.

Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, says the Federal government of Nigeria has began to consider the reopening of higher schools across the nation.

He made this revelation during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja, which was followed by our OnyxNews Nigeria.

However, he said no date has been fixed yet for full schools’ resumption, the minister urged protesting students to be patient with the government.

He explained that the government had continued to engage stakeholders, some of whom have expressed readiness to resume fully.

Secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria were shut down in March 19 2020 to prevent the continuous spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister expressed assurance that the date for resumption was “around the corner”.

He disclosed that he and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, met some stakeholders in tertiary education on Monday on the issue.

Nwajiuba said about 78 privately-owned universities were insisting that they were ready for resumption while the response from government-owned universities was still “50-50.”

He said that after aggregating opinions, he would return to the PTF to review the situation and then go ahead to make a pronouncement.

“I urge our students who have actually exercised a lot of patience along with their parents … I urge you to bear with us a little bit more. The rioting needs to stop; there is nothing to riot about.

“We don’t want to bandy around dates,” he said, “We remain positive,” he added.