The president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has accused state governors of establishing universities they have no capacity or willingness to fund. Osodeke said most governors establish universities just to access the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND).
“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 wants to have access to that money from the political circle, from the bureaucratic circle, at all cost. We are struggling with that,” he said.
“Any governor today establishing a university is eyeing TETFUND as a source of funding,” he added.
The ASUU president said a structure should be created to carry stakeholders along in the process of how the money is allocated and spent in an open and transparent manner.
“There should be stakeholders’ meeting to assess what you want to do with the funds.”
“You see today where somebody comes from the TETFUND and say, ‘I have a project for you and I am going to be the contractor. We want an open project.”
“Every university council should be allowed to run their projects with the stakeholders involved,” he said.
Osodeke also praised the work of his union saying the university system is standing on the backs of the fight they took on.
