- ASUU backs probe
- We’re not aware – INEC
The National Assembly and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, may soon be on a collision course as the Senate is set to begin an investigation into the N3.02billion reportedly allocated to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund during the tenure of the INEC boss as the agency’s executive secretary.
The N3.02billion was released to TETFUND for disbursement to federal higher institutions between 2007 and 2012, when Yakubu was the boss of the agency.
The fund, which was released to Federal Government owned universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, was meant to provide infrastructure, aid research, library development, staff training, publication of journals and to build entrepreneurship centres in the various institutions.
However, TETFUND’s alleged inability to account for the fund, which was said to have been released to some federal higher institutions of learning across the nation, but allegedly didn’t get to the schools, is already raising some dust, attracting the attention of the Senate.
TETFund, which gains its funding from two per cent of the assessable profits of all the registered companies in the country, is a body set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria, ostensibly to arrest the rot and deterioration in infrastructure in the country’s higher institutions, occasioned by long period of neglect and very poor resource allocation.
A document (TETFund Intervention Allocation) obtained by our correspondent from an impeccable source in the agency, which though didn’t disclose the agency’s allocations between 2007 and 2008, revealed that while it allocated N127 million to 57 universities, N72.3million to 52 polytechnics and 62 colleges of education in 2009, it also allocated N305.14 million to universities, N216.56million to polytechnics and N157.17 million to colleges of education in 2010.
In 2011 and 2012, respectively, the agency, under Yakubu, also allocated N395 million and N240 million; N190 million, and N595 million; N357 million and N319 million, respectively, to universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, totaling N3.02 billion.
WE’VE LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATIVE AUDIT – SENATE
Confirming the resolve of the National Assembly to probe the various huge allocations to the agency, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions & TETFund, Senator Jibrin Barau, told our correspondent that the legislators already had in their possession various documents on the increasing parlous state of infrastructure in most of the tertiary institutions from concerned local and international bodies.
He said the legislators would soon invite past executive secretaries of TETFund, including Yakubu, to account for how they allocated and monitored the projects during their terms.
Barau said that the parlous state of infrastructure in most of the institutions and the absence of a conducive working and learning environment for Nigerian students could not justify the huge allocations released by the Federal Government through the agency.
He said, “I have sought for an investigative audit of the contracts awarded by TETFund in the past years. The contracts for projects to enhance quality of teaching, research and infrastructure in tertiary schools were awarded to contractors, some of whom allegedly collected project monies and walked away without executing the contracts.
“Though some of the allegedly fraudulent contractors are yet to be identified, we will dig them out. The deficits in the infrastructural needs of the tertiary institutions were worsened by circumstances of absconding with funds for projects.”
Barau added that a probe of TETFUND had become imperative, given the recent pronouncement of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on the renewed commitment of the Senate to expose corrupt practices in all facets of the Nigerian society and bring culprits to justice.
Some of the institutions that have allegedly benefitted from the trust fund are Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, Osun State; University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Oyo State; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State; Bayero Universty, Kano; Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State; Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State; University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State; and Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.
Others are Yaba College of Technology, Lagos; Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State; Federal Polytechnics in Bauchi, Niger, Yobe, Osun, Kogi, Ogun, Zamfara, Kaduna, Taraba, Imo and Kwara states, among others.
ALLOCATIONS WERE A MIRAGE- EX-STUDENTS
However, investigations revealed that some of the projects that were supposed to be constructed across the institutions were either abandoned or never started. Some ex-students, who were on the campuses between 2009 and 2012 alleged that the agency under the leadership of Yakubu fell far short of their expectations.
Some of them, who spoke with The Point in separate interviews, alleged that some of the schools mentioned above did not feel the impact of the allocations as some of the institutions remained a shadow of their former selves during Yakubu’s tenure as TETFUND boss.
Lecture theatres in some of the universities were in bad shape while toilet facilities were also dilapidated, they alleged.
A chartered accountant, who was a student at the University of Abuja, Mr. Soji Aboderin, alleged that it was either the funds were not released to the school or the school authorities diverted them.
He recalled that the quality of the chairs were so poor that a lot of them collapsed during lecture periods, adding that the students were starved of some equipment they needed for practical, including standard laboratories.
Aboderin said, “Apart from the commotion that each collapse of the chairs and tables caused during class, we often had to tend to serious casualties, because students often got injured when their seats collapsed. A lot of science students could not compete optimally with even their local counterparts because they were not really exposed to certain practical in their days in school.”
Similarly, a public administrator and former student of Ahmadu Bello University, Mr. Segun Meyungbo, said, “Many of the institution’s learning resources were obsolete and non-functional. ABU is well known for two of its programmes, Architecture and Engineering, but the infrastructure and learning resources in the two departments were in a parlous state as at 2012.
“Apart from that, there were also an acute shortage of accommodation in the institution, which explained why the classrooms at the College of Medicine were originally a car park and the head of Department of Medicine shared a 12’x12’ room with his secretary.”
In Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, within the period under review, a former lecturer, Mr. John Pius, said, “About 40.1 per cent of the physical facilities were in serious state of deterioration and basic general learning resources were either not available or grossly inadequate.
“Only four per cent of major laboratory equipment were in good condition, 55 per cent were bad and inoperable while about 40 per cent were in fairly serviceable condition. So bad was the situation in the school that some foreign scholars that visited then recommended that a state of emergency be declared in the university, as a way of saving it.”
WE SUPPORT PROBE – ASUU
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has thrown its weight behind the legislators’ planned probe of the management of the Fund to forestall a recurrence and probably put an end to the increasing infrastructural decay across public institutions in Nigeria.
ASUU President, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, told our correspondent on the telephone that the education sector had suffered financial misappropriation for decades, adding that this situation had largely contributed to the problem of paucity of funds now confronting the sector.
Though he admitted that the Federal Government, over the years, had been relying on TETFund, which is only an intervention fund, for infrastructural development across public institutions, he insisted that the union would not support any diversion of funds meant for the development of the sector.
Ogunyemi said as one of the representatives of ASUU in the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities in 2012, the July 2012 edition report of the committee confirmed the claims of the alumni as it found monumental decay across public institutions and proffered solutions on financial management, among other issues.
According to him, the 418-page compendium, apart from showing the extent of decay in the universities, was borne out of government’s decision to get a clearer picture of the state of Nigerian universities. To get a first-hand situation report on the universities, the Federal Government set up the assessment committee, he said.
“We inspected the state of infrastructure in 61 out of 62 public universities in Nigeria and found that they were in a sorry state. Most of them lacked what you would call sane environment for learning and there were allegations of misappropriation of funds between the school authorities and the agency,” he said.
According to the report, the situation at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, was no less disturbing as the team of assessors found collapsed or broken ceilings within the school compound, students standing for lectures because there were no seats, overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated lab furniture, students queuing for water, hostels with no windows, doors and enough toilets to serve the students, and an “automobile workshop” under a tree.
The report also states that although there were three ICT centres in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, each of which has 100 computers, “about 60 per cent of the computers at Malam Isa Yuguda Digital Centre are not functional and require replacement” and “ATBU has indicated significant deficit of basic learning resources, which include multimedia systems, magnetic boards, computers, printers, plotters etc.”
WE’RE NOT AWARE – INEC
In his reaction, the spokesman to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said he was not aware that the Senate had instituted any probe into the activities of TETFUND under his boss.
Oyekanmi said he had inquired from the Senate and nobody confirmed that any investigation of his boss had commenced in the National Assembly.
He said, “What is the issue? When did the Senate say that? Which report? But I’ve spoken to those who should know and they said there was nothing like that. I don’t know where you got your own report. That’s why I’m really interested. I’ve spoken to people in the Senate and they said they don’t have anything like that. That’s why I’m wondering where the report came from.
“Except it’s another Senate of another country, but if it’s the Senate of this country, the understanding I have is that they don’t have any such thing on their agenda. So, I’m wondering who really is behind this one and what are they interested in. At what point did the Senate say they want to investigate whoever’s tenure at TETFUND?”
