- Education Ministry says Tinubu approved Epe University before the 7-year moratorium.
- The approval covered Epe, Kachia, and Ogoni universities.
- Moratorium still stands, no new schools for seven years.
The Federal Ministry of Education has clarified that the approval granted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the establishment of the Federal University of Science and Technology, Epe, Lagos State, predated the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) seven-year moratorium on the creation of new federal tertiary institutions.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that, in a statement released in Abuja on Saturday, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, explained that the President had already endorsed the establishment of the Epe university through a Presidential Executive Memo well before the moratorium was adopted.
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The memo, according to the Ministry, also covered approvals for the Federal University of Science and Technology, Kachia in Kaduna State, and the Federal University of Environment and Technology, Tai and Koroma in Ogoniland, Rivers State.
Dr. Alausa’s clarification follows public concerns over the seeming contradiction between the recent presidential assent to the Epe University Establishment Bill and the FEC’s August 2025 decision to halt the creation of new universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education for seven years.
The moratorium, government officials said at the time, was aimed at consolidating existing institutions, improving funding, and addressing infrastructural decay before expanding the federal tertiary network.
According to the education minister, the delay in announcing the Epe university’s establishment was purely procedural.
The Senate had gone on its annual recess shortly before the bill’s final passage, he noted, which postponed its formal transmission to the President.
President Tinubu had signed the Federal University of Science and Technology, Epe (Establishment) Bill into law earlier this month, thereby formalising its legal existence.
The specialised university is expected to focus on cutting-edge disciplines such as artificial intelligence, software engineering, data science, and other STEM-based fields, aligning with Nigeria’s digital economy aspirations and the industrial growth corridor emerging around Epe and Ibeju-Lekki.
The clarification from the education ministry is aimed at forestalling misinterpretation of the government’s policy consistency.
The establishment of the Epe university, coming months after the FEC announced a moratorium, had raised eyebrows among education stakeholders and policy watchers, some of whom questioned whether the administration was breaching its own directive.
By confirming that the Epe approval was granted ahead of the moratorium, the ministry sought to reinforce the credibility of the Federal Government’s policy stance.
“The Federal Government remains fully committed to enforcing the seven-year moratorium on establishment of new federal tertiary institutions, and this moratorium remains sacrosanct. The Federal Government will not approve any new federal Federal Tertiary institutions within that period of Moratorium,” the statement, signed by Folasade Boriowo, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Ministry, concluded.
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The clarification now places the Epe university within the category of institutions approved before the freeze on new establishments, suggesting that no further tertiary institutions will be created until at least 2032 unless the Federal Executive Council decides otherwise.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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