The Federal Government has described as alarming the rising cases of abscondment by academic staff of various Nigerian universities sponsored for training in foreign countries.

This is even as authorities of the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria have revealed that it has taken legal action against its lecturers who absconded after studying abroad via a TETFund scholarship.

The development is coming at a time when the nation is yet to account for the over 137 university lecturers on TETFund scholarship abroad who absconded after completing their studies.

These came to the fore on Tuesday in Abuja at the maiden Quarterly and Stakeholders Engagement, organised by the Federal Ministry of Education.

The Guardian reports that in January this year, the interventionist agency approved the sum of N63,457,600 for 12 scholars each for a three-year postgraduate scholarship in France, amounting to a total of N761,491,924.80.

Reacting to concerns raised by the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Kabiru Bala, on the matter, the Education Minister admitted that the situation was denting the image of the country.

According to him, training intervention for academic staff which was to address the needs of Nigeria’s higher institutions of learning is being abused, stressing that it is slowly becoming a major problem affecting the country’s education system.

The Ministry, he said, was already thinking of how to halt the ugly trend.

“Your concern about trainees of TETFund absconding is a very tough thing. We are not particularly good at obeying laws. That’s the problem. Otherwise if you have a bond with an institution, there is no reason why you should not serve out those bonds.

“And I remember when some of us benefitted from university sponsorship, I remember for my Masters and Ph.D, we signed bonds. And we served out all those bonds before we left the university. So I can’t understand now that people just sign bonds and disappear.

“It is not good. So we will have to rethink how we will enforce some of these things; how to make our people law-abiding citizens,” Mamman said.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor, ABU Zaria, Prof. Bala decried that the development has led to dearth of academic staff in the institution.

Particularly, he lamented that even though the school has taken legal steps to seek redress, the courts have not also helped as the verdicts favour the absconded lecturers.

His words: “The Ministry should do something to assist universities. We don’t have these teachers. And the few that we have, trained them with hard-earned Nigerian money, and they go to help other economies.

“In ABU, for instance, we have started taking them to court. But the Honourable Minister is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). You know the court procedure. It can take many years before we get any judgement which may not even be in the interest of the university.

“For instance, we were able to successfully prosecute some cases, one of which was successful. Eventually the court said ‘Pay ABU its salary’. We said ‘how about the training cost?’ The court said ‘No, he shouldn’t pay for the training cost.

“So, these are things the Honourable Minister may look into. Maybe we have to revise the TETFund law or help us as a Senior Advocate in the universities, to see how we can take care of this.

“Now we trained you over three years. We needed you three years ago;. Three years after, you say you are not coming back. Even if they were to pay for this course, it will not pay because the value of the currency has depreciated. So if we gave you N20million for training three years ago, now you need about N60 million”.

In July 2023, the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Sonny Echono, had disclosed that more than 137 lecturers who were sponsored abroad by the agency had absconded, refusing to return to the country after completing their studies.

He described the phenomenon as a major crisis calling the academics unpatriotic.

Echono stated this while appearing at an investigative hearing organised by a House of Representatives ad-hoc committee.