Minister/Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman says the commission will commence monitoring of the projects embarked upon by the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) across the country in September.

 Abubakar stated this while receiving in audience the management team of the University of Abuja, led by its Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Adikwu in Abuja.

The monitoring, according to the minister, will have 20 academics as team members in the new spirit of creating a better synergy between the NPC and the academia, which he insisted will bring integrity to the exercise.

“Twenty members of the academia will participate in the monitoring of the federal MDAs projects across the country, with 12 coming from University of Abuja. The effort is geared towards bringing integrity to the exercise and also exposing them to the practical aspect not just the theory of what government is doing,” the minister added.

He also hinted that if the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) already ratified by the National Economic Council (NEC) is approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the academia will also be involved both in the blueprint as well as the implementation plan.

Sulaiman pledged to assist the staff of Uniabuja who came to solicit his help in their quest to fix the university, by bringing development partners who will assist them in the area of grant which they can access as well as ensure their cause is taken to the National Assembly.

The minister further tasked them on the need to fix their distance learning programme, which he lamented has dropped in terms of  students patronage and also the school’s  post graduate programme.

Speaking earlier, the institution’s  Vice – Chancellor, Professor Adikwu said  the visit  was to congratulate the minister as one of their own and  solicit his  assistance  in fixing the infrastructure gaps  existing  in the university, and also create a great university that they can boast of.

He stressed the need for research to be given a prominent role in the university system, insisting that the case of Ebola virus in Nigeria would have been better managed if the universities were well equipped to carry out research.

Adikwu also stated that the role of tertiary institutions is critical, arguing that there is a direct strength of tertiary institutions of top 20 universities in the world and their economies.