The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFund), Arc. Sonny Echono, has decried the high charge of electricity bill in universities, saying some were charged between N300 and N400 million bill in one month.
He wondered how the institutions can cope if there is no urgent intervention.
Echono who stated this during a meeting with a delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS), led by Its National President, Comrade Lucky Emonefe, on Monday in Abuja.
He disclosed that TETFund has commenced conversations and held a meeting with the Ministry of Power to find a way to address the issue.
“It’s going to be one of the major issues we are going to look at when we call our major stakeholders meeting of all heads of schools. We have to put our heads together to see how we need to have alternative power sources that will reduce the burden. As I speak, some universities are getting N300 million, N400 million bill for electricity in one month. How can they cope? Some are even rationing; they have light for only four hours a day,” he said.
The executie secretary also charged Nigerian students to be on the watch out in all campuses and protect school infrastructure by ensuring that hoodlums do not infiltrate the campuses to cause havoc.
Echono reeled out series of interventions in infrastructure targeted at ensuring conducive learning environment for students across all tertiary institutions.
“I am enjoining you today to please be on the watch out in all your campuses. All our TETFund assets, all the buildings that taxpayers money has been used to provide; not only should you ensure that you protect them, please nobody should go and destroy them. Let us not give chances to these hoodlums who will take advantage of your legitimate demands to cause havoc,” he said.
Echono, who stressed the need to ensure a stable academic calendar, said: “When President Bola Tinubu was told about frequent disruptions in the academic calendar, the president gave specific instructions to the minister that one of your first expectations is for us to have harmony in the sector, so we can have a predictable academic calendar that our students will go to school and know when they will graduate and ensure that that is kept.
“We are also pleased that this same president gave a charge to us at TETFund that we must do everything possible to improve the learning experience of our students, the quality of education we are getting and improve your welfare on campus.
He also noted that after raising the issue of campus transportation with the president, he directed the fund to work with relevant agencies to convert existing buses to CNG and provide mass transit buses for students in campus as part of TETFund’s intervention for next year.
On his part, the National President of NANS, Emonefe, noted that the leadership of NANS has resolved not to go on a national protest because it has realized that most of the interventions the students were enjoying were not gotten through protests. (Daily Trust)
