Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and former Education Minister, Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, have lamented the systemic decline in the federal unity schools over the years and called for urgent steps to stem the tide.

Gowon and Aja-Nwachukwu made the call on Wednesday at a lecture/dinner organised by the old students of the Federal Government College, Ilorin in Abuja as part of the activities to mark the 40th anniversary of the school.

Gowon specifically decried the current practice where 70 per cent of students in the unity schools are admitted on the basis of placement or catchment areas.

He cautioned that the noble intentions of establishing the schools was not only as tools to unite young Nigerians, but also as centres of excellence and would be defeated if such practice continued.

He also noted that the prevalent insecurity in some states had also made parents to stop their children and wards from attending schools in those volatile areas; a development, which may also defeat the purpose of the unity schools.

Gowon and Aja-Nwachukwu were in agreement that the main objective of creating the unity schools was to bring together people of diverse tribe and tongues in a unifying spirit.

"It is disheartening that for some inexplicable reasons, many of the Federal Government colleges and unity schools have ceased to be models of excellence with decaying infrastructure, hostel facilities, learning equipment, not to talk of the food," he said.

Gowon also pointed out that disruptions and inconsistencies in education policies of successive governments had not helped the schools and the education system in general.

There is however hope, he said, in acknowledgement of efforts by the current administration to revitalise the ailing schools across the country.

Aja-Nwachukwu, whose tenure as Education Minister during the late Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's government reversed the attempted privatisation of the administration of the unity colleges, noted that if the policy were allowed to succeed, the original concept of setting up the unity schools would have been defeated.

For him, fighting to preserve the legacy had become a personal task, because apart from being one of the major beneficiaries of the establishment of unity colleges, his late father was the first Nigerian Education Minister in the late Balewa regime when the first three unity colleges were established.

However, the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, assured that the current administration was aware of some of the declining features and had taken steps to correct them, with a view to restoring the schools to their old glories.