Pinda counsels Butiama residents to nurture the nascent Nyerere university

By Lake Zone Watch writer

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology (MJNUAT) Chancellor and former Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has appealed to Butiama residents in Mara region to nourish the young higher-learning institution and take care of its growth.

“I want to appeal to you Butiama residents, your relations now should be built around principles of friendship so that this young child (university) should grow up healthy. Don’t allow, in the shortest possible time since the start of the institution, the occurrence of acts of theft. If you hear people are hatching plans of theft, you should immediately volunteer information,” he said.

Pinda made the appeal recently in Butiama during his first tour of MJNUAT since he was appointed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan as the Chancellor in October last year.

He said the presence of the new institution will bring tremendous socio-economic changes to the lives of the surrounding Butiama community with the reported enrolment of 6,000 students who will obviously need various services, thus, creating economic opportunities for the area residents.

“Therefore, for the ingenious young men and women who visualize the future, you should see 6,000 students are at Butiama. You shouldn’t reach a stage of blaming yourselves why you were late or ‘why I didn’t see this’. You should start restaurants after ascertaining what the students want. The most important thing is that I want to caution you on this, lest you come to blame yourselves,” Pinda counselled the Butiama people.

Speaking at the same venue, the Chairman of the MJNUAT Governing Council and former Chief Secretary, Philemon Luhanjo, said the university failed to enrol students for seven years for lack of the required infrastructure.

“Emphasis was placed on the development of infrastructure with the renovation of buildings which belonged to the then Oswald Mang’ombe Secondary School. I want to thank the Sixth Phase Government led by President Samia Suluhu Hassan for the availability of funds and manpower towards the repair of buildings of the first Oswald Mang’ombe Campus. Construction of both the major campus and that of Tabora respectively, will begin soon,” he said.

The rehabilitation of the Oswald Mang’ombe campus will cost an estimated 2.661bn/- while the High Education Economic Transformation project at the Butiama-based major campus and that of Tabora respectively, will consume 102.bn/-.