Kogi State Governor, Yahya Bello has explained what his government had been doing about the five year non-accreditation of the medical programme at the Kogi State University. In an interview with EduCeleb.com in Lokoja, the governor spoke through the Director General, Bureau of Information Services and Grassroots Sensitisation, . He assured students of the school that his government was committed to all round development as he enjoined them to be patient. Recall that students of KSU Medical School had earlier in the week embarked on protests over the five year long accreditation challenge. They demanded action toward the restoration of the accreditation. In response to that, the government said that education tops its priority. “Education takes the front burner of ‘s New Direction Agenda. When you take education away, there is no development. Education is the foundation of whatever good you expect from the society. “The Kogi State University is the flagship of tertiary educational institutions in the state. Therefore, no responsible government would be in place and not want to give that institution the deserving attention,” he stated. The communications chief emphasised that the problem that led to the loss of accreditation of programmes at the KSU preceded the current administration of Bello and efforts had been ongoing to correct the anomalies. “When we came on board, what we met on ground was that which successive administrations that handled the university left behind. Late Governor Abubakar Audu established the university and equipped it with sufficient facilities before take off.” “Thereafter, the medical college was added to it by another administration. The then government, was very ambitious about having a medical college for the institution in Kogi State. But, unfortunately, the needed infrastructure was not put in place and this is why the college lost accreditation from the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) for clinical training,” he said. reports that the Kogi State University was established in 1999 by the Abubakar Audu administration in Anyigba. The additional Medical School was established by the Idris Wada administration on 29th February, 2011 and commenced admission of students in October, 2012. With the lack of accreditation for Medicine since inception, the state government under Governor Bello shut the college in November 2017 to review its operations, and took up the challenge of financing the education of 25 students in other universities where they could complete their education. Various students transferred from KSU are all on full scholarship at one of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, and the University of Ilorin, Ilorin where they are currently schooling. “The government of Yahya Bello took a stand to study the whole situation and saw that there was a need to set up a committee to look into the myriad of problems associated with the college.” “The first step taken was to suspend the college while students were sent to other institutions that had accreditation to continue their medical training at the expense of the state government,” he said. Our correspondent was able to establish that on 7th December, 2016, a 16-man committee, which Bello mandated to study the recommendations submitted by the Commissioner for Health, Saka Haruna Audu on the subject matter was inaugurated. Mr Abdulmalik confirmed that the committee inaugurated by the government was to review the situation and profer solutions to the challenges at hand. He however said that he could not provide details about the recommendations of the committee as presented before the government when sought to have it. “The government set up the committee to review all the options available and solve the many problems of the college. The committee submitted its report not long ago before the State Executive Council. The Council took a decision that that medical college is a must done. “Therefore, government is going to put in all resources available to ensure that the medical college take its place of pride. We are very serious about it and the government is not going to back out on that,” he said. A copy of Dr Audu’s recommendations as obtained by included the need to “retrieve a comprehensive checklist from NUC/MCDN on accreditation requirements for the establishment of the clinical wing/teaching hospital for the training for the training of Medical students up to 600 Level as this will assist the state government to make a holistic plan and budget”.