Governors abdicate duties to TETFund, Echono laments

Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has lamented that some governors abdicate responsibilities to tertiary institutions in their states to the agency.

This is as the intervention agency pledged support for the newly established College of Education (Technical) in Bauchi State. Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, stated this when he received Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, who was on a working visit to his office, in Abuja.

He explained that although the agency had the core mandate of providing funding for public educational institutions and infrastructure across the country, lamenting that some governors establish new tertiary institutions and push the responsibility of funding them solely to TETFund.

He, however, lauded the Bauchi governor for standing out among his peers. Echono stated: “Unfortunately, there are some of your colleagues, who have almost abandoned their responsibilities to their schools. And when they establish institutions, they look forward to only TETFund to help them fund them.

“But this is not the case in Bauchi. Each time we go to Bauchi to commission TETFund projects, we are impressed to see the complementary infrastructure.”

While lauding Mohammed’s efforts in establishing the new higher institution, the ES assured the governor that the agency would give maximum support to the institution, like all other public tertiary institutions in the country.

“The new institution that has come on board – the one on education technical – is very important. Because finding teachers on technical subjects at the basic level has been a challenge. And you will not only be producing for Bauchi alone, but indeed for the entire North East region.

“So, I will be advising my director to liaise with the Commissioner for Higher Education, so we do the formalities of enlistment and begin to support that,” he said.

Mohammed had said the aim of his visit was to brief the Echono on the establishment of the new tertiary institution and seek the agency’s support for its rapid development. He called on TETFund and relevant international organisations to assist in the development of the new institution.