Buhari demands accountability, prudence from VCs over varsity resources

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that government’s investment in the education sector through various interventions far exceeds budgetary allocations.

He, therefore, tasked vice chancellors and other heads of tertiary institutions to be prudent and accountable in the management of resources made available to their institutions by the government.

According to the Weekly Bulletin of the National Universities Commission (NUC) obtained in Abuja, President Buhari spoke at the combined convocation ceremonies of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.

Represented by the NUC deputy executive secretary (academics), Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, the president said the criticism of inadequate funding of the sector based on percentage of national budget allocated to the sector is unjustified.

He noted that government had various investments and intervention programmes outside budgetary allocations as part of commitment to the development of education, especially at the tertiary level.

He cited the massive interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund as extra-budgetary, noting that the impact of its interventions in universities, colleges of education and polytechnics could not be denied even by harshest critics of government.

He, therefore, urged universities to do a lot more with the available funds, given the economic realities confronting the nation, and called for innovative and transparent management practices in the system.

Buhari reiterated that there was absolutely no room for corrupt practices, and that his government would continue to apply sanctions against anyone found culpable.

He cited the establishment of nine Centres of Excellence by the Central Bank of Nigeria in federal universities as another notable investment intervention by government, two of which he personally inaugurated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) on January 24 and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria on August 22, 2019.

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He said, “I must not fail to mention one of our initiatives in the tertiary education subsector aimed at solving the problem of inadequate power supply in our institutions of higher learning – the Energising Education Programme (EEP), an initiative of my administration under the Rural Electrification Agency.”

According to him, the project is meant to provide “89.6 megawatts off-grid power that is reliable and sustainable to 37 federal universities and seven teaching hospitals across the country.

“We are currently executing phase one of the project designed to cut across nine federal universities and one teaching hospital, and benefit 127,000 students, 28,000 staff of universities, 4,700 staff of teaching hospitals and power 2,850 streets.”

He also said that government had already inaugurated two of the EEP projects, the first at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, and the second, a 7.1 megawatts solar hybrid project at Bayero University, Kano on 3rd September, 2019.

He added that the BUK project was the largest in Africa, and would provide stable power supply to the university, improve its efficiency and productivity to enable 24-hour functionality of research and technology laboratories in the university.