Lawmaker begs FG to salvage French Language Village

Lagos –  A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr David Setonji, has decried the decay of physical infrastructure occasioned by poor funding of the Nigeria French Language Village in Badagry.
Setonji representing APC-Badagry II decried the decay in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
He appealed to the Federal Government to salvage the institution from total collapse due to the deplorable condition of institution’s physical infrastructure.
According to him, it has become necessary for the government to re-enlist the institute as part of the beneficiaries of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention policy.
The lawmaker said that the only way out of the present predicaments of the institution was to restore funding to the school through TETfund to live up to its mandate.
“It is sad that physical infrastructure and learning facilities in the French language school are decaying while many have become obsolete.
“It is also regrettable that the school was delisted from accessing the TETfund since 2010.
“I will urge the government to rescue the school from total ruin and save it from going into extinction.
“The Federal Government should allow the French Language School to access the TETfund like other higher institutions in the country as it was before in order to restore its glory,’’ he said.
According to him, lack of fund has impacted negatively on students’ hostels, road network, water and power facilities, sanitary, staff capacity building and library facilities in the school.
Setonji added that the institution was in the category of universities and needed to be reconsidered for TETfund support for development and growth.
The lawmaker, however, noted that Nigerian students needed not to travel to foreign countries for the special French language programme if the school was sustained.
NAN reports that the institute was established as an inter-university centre to provide a mandatory French Language Immersion Programme for undergraduates of French from all Nigerian universities and colleges. (NAN)