Budget for higher education exceeds N100bn – Delta Commissioner

2026-02-13 - 11:29

The Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Professor Johnbull Tonukari, has said the state government has earmarked over N100 billion for higher education. He described the act as a demonstration of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s commitment to advancing tertiary education in the state. Tonukari made the disclosure on Thursday, during the Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series held at the Southern Delta University, Orerokpe Campus. According to Prof Tonukari the allocation would be spent prudently to strengthen infrastructure, expand access and improve the overall quality of tertiary institutions across Delta State. He noted that the Orerokpe Campus, which he described as the governor’s vision, would be a major beneficiary of the investment. He also revealed that student enrolment across the nine state-owned tertiary institutions had grown significantly since the current administration assumed office. He said that the number has increased from about 55,000 to slightly over 100,000, attributing the rise to strategic educational reforms introduced by the governor. He added that nearly 1,000 academic and non-academic staff had been recruited to support the expansion. He said: “Our governor is a man who loves education so much. When he took over office, the total number of students in the nine tertiary institutions owned by Delta State was about 55,000. As at today, the total number of students we have in these institutions is slightly more than 100,000, and this happened as a result of the educational programme strategies he put in place. “This Orerokpe Campus is the dream of our governor. Immediately he came to power, he wanted a campus in Orerokpe just because he wanted to bring tertiary education closer to the Orerokpe people, and he gave them a modern campus. “This is because the government is very prudent. The budget for higher education is over 100 billion. That money is going to be spent judiciously to improve tertiary institutions in Delta State. “Orerokpe Campus will benefit a lot from that. Since he came into power, he has hired approximately 1,000 academic and non-academic staff in tertiary institutions. This lecture series is very good; please keep it up.” Delivering a lecture on Cultural Constellations and Intersections in Virtual Space, Professor Hope Eghagha of the Department of English, University of Lagos, urged students to harness digital platforms for cultural promotion and national development. He emphasised the importance of leveraging social media positively and called on young people, including those involved in internet fraud, to redirect their skills towards productive ventures. He encouraged students to use their smartphones as tools for content creation, cultural branding and global engagement, noting that the digital space had democratised access to knowledge and opportunities. He also appealed to government to establish mentorship and training programmes to help youths harness digital culture for sustainable development. “Students, that smartphone you have is an asset. You can use it to further your way into the world. You can create content. Youths, channel your digital skills from fraudulent activities to positive things. “I have students I teach at the University of Lagos who managed to pay their fees from content creation. The virtual space has democratised access to knowledge anywhere you are. “You can market this university better than the sciences. You can create content with cultural songs from this environment, songs from Urhoboland, and showcase them in the digital world. With that, you can showcase yourselves to the world. Those platforms you use for nefarious things, use them for positive things. You can challenge the world with your smartphones through the content that you create. “I urge you, break into the digital space through content creation with your smartphones. You can do a fusion of Udje dance and internationalise it. “Our boys who are into internet fraud are intelligent and brilliant. It is only an intelligent brain that can persuade someone to send their retirement and hard-earned money through a romance scam. Imagine the greatness they would achieve if they channel that intelligence into something positive. If you are into that profession, please think of how you can get out of it and use that mind to do something legitimately. You can become a billionaire with that brain. “The world is so digital now that students can educate and train themselves through digital platforms such as Coursera and the rest. Information is no longer confined to the library space. We should do a hybrid of education. We need mentorship programmes to help our youth and people rethink development. We can harness digital culture for sustainable development,” he said. In his remarks, the Dean of the Postgraduate School, Delta State University, Abraka, Professor Sunny Awhefeada, noted that digital access had transformed academic research and broadened acceptable areas of study. He called on government at all levels to prioritise digital culture as part of national development planning. “In my department at Abraka, some of the topics we now approve for PhD, some 10 years ago, would have been taboo, but that is possible now because of access to the digital space. Government should do more and teachers should be liberal because this old order is passing away. A time is coming when nobody will be reading paper in its present form; it is going to be reduced minimally into something that the digital space can support. In the next 10 to 20 years, the Nigerian government from local to federal should do something to ensure that digital culture becomes a way of life. That is where the world is headed, and Nigeria cannot be left behind.”