VCs Implore TETFUND to Continue Funding Universities 

The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities has stated that “the Tertiary Education Trust Finance must continue to fund infrastructure development at universities in order to meet the demands of the large number of students accepted to the institutions,” Team PLATO gathered.

“Let me tell you, even from this moment Cambridge is still constructing, Cambridge that was formed in 1209; they are still building because the infrastructure deficiency is a consequence of the number of student intakes,” stated Prof Edoumiekumo Samuel, Chairman of CVCNU.

“As the number of students accepted to institutions grows, so must staff and infrastructure. Previously, a class may contain 15 or 20 pupils. Today, you’re talking about hundreds. As a result, infrastructure development is a continuous thing.”

Recall that the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Sonny Echono, said in January that the trust fund had delivered 162 projects in 28 states of the federation, and across 54 beneficiary institutions.
He emphasized that the trust fund’s initiatives were scattered across the country’s six geopolitical zones.

When asked if students would be allowed to take a break from academic activities to go home, collect their Permanent Voter Cards, and vote in the upcoming elections, he said only individual university senates and Governing Councils could decide to close their gates and allow students to collect their PVCs.
Speaking on the subject, the CVCNU chairman emphasized that neither the National Assembly nor the CVCNU had the authority to warn tertiary institutions that universities across the nation would be closed.

“This is not the first election; they are not the ones to inform universities,” he remarked. Individual universities have their own Governing Councils and senates, so they will examine the circumstances inside their own institutions and make appropriate judgments.”

“We have our timetable established, we are commencing examinations, and we have also considered elections and have prepared accommodations for that period,” he remarked on behalf of Nigeria Delta University, Bayelsa.

“So, we will not even resume until after the elections. We are taking care of that already. In the same vein, I know respective VCs and their senates must have considered all those things.”

(TPR)