Tertiary Education in Nigeria is confronted with several complex challenges. Perhaps the most formidable one is poor learning infrastructure. Lack of infrastructural facilities and decay of same of already existing buildings, are common sights in our tertiary institutions. The situation is so pathetic that almost all the tertiary institutions in Nigeria have gotten its own fair share of the infrastructural challenge and decay.
An average government owned university in Nigeria lacks basic infrastructure such as sufficient and conducive learning lecture halls, regular water supply, electricity supply, hostel accommodation, well-equipped libraries and laboratories, office space and academic equipments, to mention but a few. In most instances, the toilets that serve the students are in bad shape, as many do not have running water. There are instances where about 10 students live in the same room and sleep on mattresses which are placed on bare floor. The situation is the same in most of the tertiary institutions across Nigeria, particularly government owned institutions.
Due to the large influx of students into tertiary institutions, and consequent increase in the population of students, one can also rightly say that the decaying standard of education, is largely contributed by poor infrastructure. There is a yearly increase in the number of students seeking to be admitted into various tertiary institutions which is not proportionate to the already existing infrastructure. I personally have witnessed a situation where four different lecture classes were going on simultaneously in different corners of one lecture hall, the lack of concentration among the students was second to none. Lecturers are faced with difficulties in lecturing due to poor infrastructure.
It was to these challenges that TetFund was established in 2011, enacted by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. An Act to repeal the Education Tax Act Cap. E4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Education Tax Fund (Amendment) Act No. 17, 2003 and establish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund). TetFund is charged with the responsibility of imposing, managing and disbursing the education tax to public tertiary education institutions in Nigeria; and for related matters.
However, since its establishment, there has been so much ambiguity and lack of transparency in the expenditure and reporting of funds allocated to TetFund. The reporting system is not clear and we cannot find a breakdown of billions of interventions and the expenditure framework.
Currently, around 21 February 2017,President Muhammadu Buhari approved the disbursement of over NGN 213 billion intervention fund to tertiary education institutions through TetFund. The stated amount was budgeted in 2016 to be released and utilized in 2017. From the aforementioned amount, each Federal University gets NGN 1.009 billion.
To ensure Transparency and Accountability in the implementation of the funds, the Transparency Alert team of Basic Rights Watch is following and monitoring the implementation of this intervention fund in 12 Federal Universities, namely: the Universities of Lagos, Ibadan, Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Uyo, Abuja, Jos; as well as Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Bayero University Kano, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Federal University of Technology Minna, and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi.
The team has sent aFreedom of Information Requestto the Executive Secretary of TetFund on 29 March, asking: For the list of federal universities that have met the conditions to be given their own share ( NGN 1.009 billion) from the NGN 213 billion; If any of the 40 federal universities received the first batch of the NGN 1.009 billion disbursement? If they have, how much was released to them? If they have not, when will the funds be released to them; and If there was a work plan provided by the federal universities to access the fund?
Stay Tuned!!!
Austin Ekwujuru is the Chief Executive Officer of Basic Rights Watch. He is a human rights activist, a public speaker and at best spends most of his time reading and researching. Follow him @austinchinonye1, contact him at austin@basicrightswatch.org
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