ASUU President Criticizes Governors for Establishing State Universities They Cannot Fund, Accuses Them of Exploiting TETFund
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused state governors of establishing universities they cannot afford to fund, with the main aim of accessing money from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). states are supposed to fund their own. It’s an intervention fund but there are people who want to have access to that money from the political circle, from the bureaucratic circle, at all cost", ASUU's President said.
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Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused state governors of establishing universities they cannot afford to fund, with the main aim of accessing money from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke, made these claims in a recent interview. "Any governor today establishing a university is eyeing TETFund as a source of funding," he alleged.
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Osodeke argued that TETFund, originally intended as supplementary support for public universities, has been misused by politicians and civil servants for personal gain through inflated contracts. “TETFund was created as an intervention fund, not the major funding. The universities belong to the Federal Government and government is supposed to fund them and states are supposed to fund their own. It’s an intervention fund but there are people who want to have access to that money from the political circle, from the bureaucratic circle, at all cost", he said.
Osodeke emphasized the need for stakeholders to oversee the projects funded by TETFund to ensure transparency. “There should be stakeholders’ meeting to assess what you want to do with the funds,” he said. He suggested that these stakeholders should include the university community, lecturers, and student groups. “Every university council should be allowed to run their projects with the stakeholders involved,” he added.
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He restated ASUU’s commitment to advocating for the university community. “Any day we give up like others, our public universities will be gone,” he said, criticizing Federal Government officials for their lack of interest in addressing the deteriorating state of tertiary education and meeting ASUU’s long-standing demands.
TETFund was established to provide supplementary support for public tertiary institutions, focusing on infrastructure rehabilitation and other needs. Funded by a 2% education tax on the assessable profits of Nigerian companies,
