Echono’s charge to local councils on tertiary education investment
The desire of the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, to see the country’s education sector that receives the attention of all stakeholders cannot be over-emphasised.
Consequently, he has sustained commitment at TETFund to ensure that necessary reforms are in place. He also reminds stakeholders at every given opportunity of their collective responsibilities to ensure that Nigeria prides itself among comity of nations when quality education resonates.
This explained his recent call on Local Government Area Councils to make strategic investments in tertiary education.Echono gave the charge in Abuja after receiving an award of excellence at a three-day annual summit organized by the Association of Chairmen of Local Government Service Commissions (LGSC) in Nigeria.
The theme of the summit was, “Addressing Security and other Contemporary Challenges at the Local Government Areas in Nigeria.” The Executive Secretary expressed appreciation to the association for honoring him with the award, even as he appreciated President Ahmed Tinubu for restoring autonomy to local governments. He used the occasion to once again, reaffirmed that TETFund will continue to support tertiary education in Nigeria.
“As I told them, to whom much is given, much is expected. Now that Mr. President has taken a bold and courageous step to restore local government autonomy, we expect more resources to flow to that sector.
“Having done that, we expect them to invest in tertiary education, and TETFund will be there to support them.
“With these increased resources, we expect them to come on board and be equal partners with the state and federal government”, Echono stated. Also speaking, the Chairman of LGSC, Kamal Ayinde Bayewu, commended the Executive Secretary for his tireless efforts in upgrading tertiary education and expressed hope that the award will inspire him to achieve even more.
In the meantime, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Aminu Bello Masari, has assured Nigerians that the newly inaugurated BOT of the Fund would strive towards further improving the public tertiary education sector through implementation of impactful programmes.
Masari stated this during the inauguration of the Board of Trustees of TETFund and Governing Councils of some Federal Government tertiary educational institutions at the TETFund Auditorium in Abuja recently.
The Chairman who spoke on behalf of members of the TETFund BOT, as well as Chairmen and members of the newly inaugurated Governing Councils, expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the appointments.
He noted that with the calibre of persons appointed by the President to the TETFund Board and Governing Councils of other institutions, he was confident that the education sector would benefit immensely, with the right investments in place.
“If this country can invest all it has in education, the nation will be better for it. For us, we should count ourselves as very lucky, but only if we do what we are expected to do. Lucky in the sense that any investment in education; be it resources, time, intellect or energy, there is no investment better than it. So, we should be grateful to Mr. President for giving us the opportunity to serve.”
“We need a new direction. For us at TETFund, we are not going to be a contract awarding agency; we are going to be an education improvement agency. “We thank Mr. President, and we assure Nigerians that with the calibre of people I am seeing, education is going to benefit tremendously from their experiences,” he said.
Masari also expressed gratitude to the former Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman who performed the inauguration ceremony, heads of agencies and others who contributed to the successful inauguration.
Also, issues surrounding the advancement of quality higher education delivery, innovative research and economic recovery in Nigeria formed the focus of discussions at the three-day 2024 TETFund Board of Trustees’ Retreat held in Lagos recently, with stakeholders from the National Assembly, experts and academia in attendance to provide guidance for policy direction.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the retreat, Masari reiterated the commitment of the board towards the improvement of higher education delivery and support for innovative research, as part of efforts geared towards revamping the Nigerian economy.
Noting that investment in education was critical to the development of the country with potential for addressing Nigeria’s economic challenges, he urged members of the BOT to bring their wealth of experience to bear in contributing to the development of education.
He gave assurance towards enhancing the value of education through the provision of necessary infrastructure in public tertiary educational institutions and making tertiary education more accessible to Nigerians irrespective of their social class.
The Chairman also requested for the support of TETFund management towards achieving the Fund’s mandate and maximizing its impact, noting that their collaboration would go a long way in ensuring greater development of tertiary education in Nigeria.
Additionally, Echono out of his passion for quality education, expressed the Fund’s readiness to making more positive changes in the higher education sub-sector. He however, challenged heads of Beneficiary Institutions on the need for quality and timely delivery of intervention projects in their various institutions.
“We have set a high standard for our universities and other higher institutions benefiting from our intervention projects. They must manage the resources given to them well. They must be efficient in their planning, accessing and managing the funds given them. They must be prompt in dealing with contractors. We don’t want any wasting of time that would let our projects be caught up in the web of inflation.
“They must also up their supervision mechanisms. We are also introducing more efficient supervision mechanisms. The projects must be of optimal quality. They should also take advantage of the opportunities we are giving them in the area of research, innovation, entrepreneurship among others. We are also encouraging them to be able to improve on the revenue generation so that they won’t be too dependent regarding funding.”
Speakers at the retreat included the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, former Executive Secretaries of National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola and Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, Managing Director of Rural Electrification Agency, Alhaji Abba Abubakar Aliyu, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Charles Igwe, Pioneer Vice- Chancellor, National Open University of Nigeria, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, Innovation Consultant, Mr. Tope Toogun, a medical expert, Prof. Olawale Sulaiman and Chairman of TETFund’s Committee on National Research Fair/Exhibition, Dr. Umar Bindir.
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