By Aideloje Ojo Minna
A lecturer at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai, Niger state, Prof. Gorge Bamidele Eweniyi, has called on federal and state governments to allocate reasonable percentage of their annual education budget to guidance and counselling towards ensuring adequate funding and provision of necessary guidance facilities in schools. Eweniyi stated this in an inaugural lecture delivered at the weekend at the university campus in Lapai. He also called on government to promulgate enabling laws that “will not only make guidance and counselling compulsory subject in schools, but also a profession in the country.”
“Th is lecturer calls on every level of government in Nigeria to vote a special percentage of their annual education budget for the provision of guidance and counselling so as to minimise wastage of our human resources and to prevent several problem that may later cost a lot of money and resources to check,” he said. Eweniyi stressed the need for government to give more prominence to guidance and counselling in the national policy on education, adding that “state governments should be compelled to approve the practice of counselling in our schools.” In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Maiturare, described inaugural lecture as “a regular and fundamental tradition” of the institution in which senior intellectuals celebrated zenith of their research feats. He promised that the university “will continue to sustain the tradition” and commended the lecturer for successfully attaining the peak of his career. He charged other academics to work hard towards scholarly achievements.
