By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
PROF. Olayemi Akinwumi, Vice Chancellor of Federal University Lokoja (FUL), has appealed to the Federal Government to rescind its planned extinction of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by 2030.
The Vice Chancellor made the appeal on Thursday in Lokoja when the Executive Council members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of Kogi State Council Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), paid him a familiarization visit at the Felele Campus of the University.
He opined that the proposed scrapping of TETFund through zero allocation in the 2030 budget, if not reviewed, would definitely spell doom for the infrastructure development of the nation’s tertiary institutions.
He said that, “Many universities today are like the University of TETFund” in view of its physical presence in the institutions adding that from 2021 to date, TETFund has been very helpful and was responsible for many of the iconic structures on the two campuses of FUL.
“Stoppage of TETfund, if allowed, will lead to collapse of the University and Polytechnic education system in Nigeria especially in the area of provision of the needed infrastructures”, he said.
On the FUL journey so far, the Professor of History told the journalists that the institution required a lot of resources to meet its development needs saying that the era of universities waiting for the government to meet all their needs was over.
“We are facing a lot of challenges”, he said, adding that the two big hostels built in “Build Operate and Transfer (BOT)” arrangement for students’ accommodation have remained uninhabited as a result of security challenges.
The VC disclosed that his administration embarked on aggressive internal revenue generation (IGR) to complement TETFund efforts at closing infrastructure gaps in the institution.
Earlier, Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Mr Segun Salami of Channel’s Television commended Prof. Akinwumi for his developmental strides and reiterated the need for more Media collaborations.
The Chairman underscored the importance of constant interaction and effective partnership with the Chapel for adequate dissemination of information and publicity of the institution’s activities
