Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro, says the increase in the number of tertiary institutions in the country is a good development that could be marred by paucity of funds. He encouraged proprietors of publicly owned tertiary institutions to develop a funding plan. Bogoro, who has won a number of awards for the success of TETFund, also discussed other issues bedeviling the funding of tertiary institutions in this interview with Francis Kadiri.
Some states in the country have more than one public university while others have only one. Do you think this is healthy for funding of tertiary education in the country?
You are absolutely right. Some states have more than two, even three, four or even five. The truth is that a decision had to be taken recently on that. The number of tertiary institutions is increasing, but the money available for their funding has not increased, so it is a problem.
In other words, the per capital fund available per institution is going down; so, the impact will be reduced. If I were giving you N10,000 to feed in a month, for instance, you are a student in a higher institution, and suddenly you wake up in the next six months, and I say I have only N5,000 for you, after another six months, I have only one thousand, meanwhile, inflation is rising, you will agree that there will be no impact. The board has to take a decision that the highest number of universities, polytechnics or colleges of education in a state to be supported by TETFund is two so that we don’t encourage many to reduce TETFund impact. So, each year we alternate interventions in the two institutions. That is the only way we can solve the problem.
What do you want Nigerians to remember you for after leaving TETFund office as Executive Secretary?
I would like to be remembered for adding value and making a difference. I must acknowledge that I came and met fantastic initiatives by my predecessors. For instance, the academic content component, research, book development, and library intervention, name it.
They identified these things very well, but time changes and there are new things, so I came and introduced R&D Department. The R&D Department is just to remind us that research is not done for the sake of it. It is deep research, problem-solving research. This is my idea that I would like to be remembered for.
Aggressively, I visualised that Nigeria needs to institutionalise R&D, not only in our academic institutions, but in the industry. If you institutionalise R&D, you are bringing the researchers to work hand in hand with industries to solve problems.
We have passed a stage when we did it for people to clap for us, even if it is theoretical research that does not solve any problem. So, I would like to be remembered for making a case for the institutionalisation of R&D in Nigeria to solve the problem of the economy, problem of technology and problems of the nation.
“I would like to be remembered for making a case for the institutionalisation of R&D in Nigeria to solve the problem of the economy, problem of technology and problems of the nation”
In view of your emphasis on research that is relevant to society, is there any grant for lecturers for research on Covid-19?
As soon as coronavirus broke out, I said, now, there is justification for our emphasis on research for universities, polytechnics, and colleges. I said it in my appreciation remarks at the Leadership Award.
In fact, we got information that Israeli scientists might have made a breakthrough in getting the cure for the coronavirus. That is an outcome of research. We don’t need to single out coronavirus to know that research is important. Even for the economy over all, and we can go into the specific – health, education, and infrastructure, call it. It is all research. We have to do research to get the right materials for building to avoid building collapse, for instance, and get varieties of materials that are longer-lasting and perhaps cheaper.
It is only research that can do that. For agriculture, it is only research that helps us know what we need to apply in science and technology for agriculture to raise daily milk production by our local breed of cattle, from only one to two litres of milk per day, to 10, 20, 30, and up to 50 litres a day like in temperate countries. It requires injecting science and technology into agriculture.
So, we can go on and on. Even insecurity, there is the tracking of individuals that are done through electronic technology, to track persons that are criminals out there. If we do not undertake research to get the best technology to do that, we have done nothing.
So, if you look at it in the proper context, in fact, what we are saying is that now, you can see the partnership between TETFund and the regulatory agencies, particularly the National Universities Commission.
We are working closely with the National Board for Technical Education and National Commission for Colleges of Education to deepen research.
We anticipated it and we saw it coming in a knowledge economy. It is knowledge that solves problems. Now, the Federal Government, I think, has just released N100 billion to medical laboratories for assessment, analysis and evaluation. And, of course, that implies further research.
