Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), has called for the sustenance of funds in the tertiary institutions across the country.
The committee said rather than scrapping TETFUND, it should be improved and sustained.
Chairman of the committee, Miriam Onuoha, stated this on Thursday in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State.
She spoke at the Permanent Site of Ebonyi State University (EBSU) during the inauguration of three new TETFUND projects in the university.
She described TETFUND as the lifewire of tertiary education in the country.
She expressed the hope that President Bola Tinubu will not support the call by some persons in the country to scrap the fund.
Onuoha averred that if TETFUND is scrapped many people will be jobless as according to her, the fund has created a lot of jobs for Nigerians.
She said: “TETFUND has become the lifewire of tertiary education in Nigeria and therefore deserves to be sustained. I say this from the legislature and as the oversight committee having toured the length and breadth of Nigeria to oversight these projects.
“It is therefore not right that the child you have nurtured to grow will be starved of life or the air with which the child deserved to live.
“TETFUND also has a host of staff and with zonal offices already spread across the country. I want to say that if TETFUND is scrapped, it will lead to loss of jobs.
“I believe that the President is a father and he is a listening President and he has listened to the reports just as the bill is being read today for the second time in the House of Representatives.
“When it will get to a committee stage, I will be one of those who will champion that you don’t throw away a baby with the bath water.
“All that need to be done, all that have been complained by the stakeholders about substandard projects, abandonment, delay in accessing projects. All of these are the reasons government and the legislature embark on oversight.”
Executive Secretary of TETFUND, represented by Babatunde Olajide said the three inaugurated projects in the university were Annual interventions of years 2016-2019 (Merged), 2021-2022 (Merged) and 2020 amounting to N1,339,791,726.06, all delivered successfully in line with the TETFund guidelines
“We are optimistic that these projects will strengthen efforts of the university to become a global player in the tertiary education subsector and significantly contribute to research and development.
“I salute the doggedness of the Management and urge you to maintain focus and ensure consistency in realising the mandate of the university.
“Our resolve as a Fund is to ensure that our interventions are sustained and improved upon as much as possible to enable our institutions undertake bigger, and more laudable and impactful projects that will make them become globally competitive and situate them in enviable positions among their peers both nationally and globally.
“We shall continually engage with our beneficiary institutions towards ensuring the delivery of iconic and impactful intervention projects in subsequent intervention years.
“Let me use this opportunity to inform you that government has directed that the 2025 intervention allocation for physical infrastructure be utilised for the comprehensive rehabilitation/upgrade of old dilapidating infrastructures, in view of the massive and embarrassing level of decay of existing buildings in our institutions.
“The purpose of this is to give the learning environment a facelift that is conducive for teaching, learning and research, comparable to what is obtainable abroad. Consequently, no new structures are to be built with the upcoming year 2025 TETFund allocations for physical infrastructure,” he stated.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, represented by his Deputy, Patricia Obila commended TETFUND for infrastructural development in higher institutions across the country.
