Infrastructural development under your leadership very visible, Otu tells Echono

More governors have continued to seek the support of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for infrastructural development in their higher institutions. The frequent visits of state governors on the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Sonny Echono, was not unconnected to the desired attention he often gives to issues affecting tertiary education in Nigeria.

Recently, it was the turn of Cross River State Government. Led by the Governor, Bassey Otu, the state came to solicit for TETFund’s support to build an edifice for all practical skills for the state-owned University of Education and Entrepreneurship. He had earlier stressed the importance of human capital development in confronting challenges of underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment.

He, however commended TETFund under the leadership of Echono on the visible infrastructural development across the country’s tertiary institutions, noting that his state required support for its newly converted College of Education to University of Education and Entrepreneurship, where craftsmen, bricklayers, welders and others will be trained.

He said: “Let me on the same note start by commending you highly because what you are doing in terms of infrastructure in our universities and other tertiary institutions is very visible, particularly under the leadership of the present Executive Secretary. We have seen and noticed a lot of changes. It is not very easy to put in this number of years in service without blemish. It is normally not very easy.

“We are here to put it on record that you have been doing well, and we do need your help and support.

“Nigeria has a very big problem. Aside the fact that other entities and realms have moved beyond in terms of education, Nigeria’s education is one of the problems we have. You will agree with me that even when you visit a country as close as Ghana, Nigerian professors are introduced as professors from Nigeria while others are simply introduced as professors.

“In my days in school, there were too many international students, even the South Africans that are very hostile to Nigerians today had quality education in Nigeria. I think somewhere along the line, we lost it, probably in terms of priority. But it is better late than never. It is time to give our best to education.”

Otu informed that the College of Education being upgraded to University of Education and Entrepreneurship would be the first in the country and that was the reason for soliciting for the Fund’s assistance.

The governor decried that the country has continued to produce unemployable graduates and study one thing and practice another.

“So we have gotten to that point where we have to change things. We want every student that goes out of this university to be able to have at least, two skills and should be able to define two theses, one in education and the other in the skills acquired.”

Responding, Echono assured the governor of support as one of TETFund’s obligations to the states.

“On behalf of our management and especially, the Board of Trustees, I pledge our support to this initiative. We are aware of the guidelines and the procedures of enlistment but we are also flexible because the board of trustees have taken the position that we must meet our obligations to states – what we refer to as equality of states and the resources available to us must go to all the states of the federation through their institutions.

“On the issue of the conversion of the College of Education to a specialized University of Education and Entrepreneurship, I think it is profound and consistent with the type of thinking that we have. I am so happy because I see a whole lot of similarity between your vision and that of the President.

“Mr. President gave us a task to ensure that every Nigerian child graduating from our tertiary institution must have proficiency in ICT and technology skills in addition to their course of study. And we have been taking steps towards this, especially by promoting various digital resources that we want to make available to students in our beneficiary institutions.

“We must make the right investments. We must review our entire curriculum and the delivery systems to ensure that the graduates we produce not only have the skills but are global citizens that can work anywhere in the world.