Niger Delta youths task stakeholders on collaboration with TETFUND
Simon Ogunde, Yenagoa
Youths from the Niger Delta under the auspices of Niger Delta APC Youth Vanguard (NDAPCYV) have challenged well-meaning Nigerians and stakeholders in the education sector to collaborate with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to boost infrastructures in institutions of higher learning.
TETFUND is a scheme established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2011 to disburse, manage, and monitor education tax to government-owned tertiary institutions in the country.
The National Coordinator, Niger Delta APC Youth Vanguard (NDAPCYV), Comrade Fiawei Pathfinder, said in an electronic statement on Monday that the call became imperative to enable the Executive Secretary, TETFUND, Mr Sonny Echono, to succeed in taking the nation’s education to greater and enviable heights.
Pathfinder noted that educational infrastructures remained the key to a conducive learning environment and capacity building in any nation, saying that rallying around the TETFUND boss would go a long way in repositioning the nation’s tertiary institutions.
He said during the group’s visit to Echono, they awarded him the ‘Most Performed and Outstanding Executive Secretary of Tetfund Ever’ and also presented him with a ‘Landmark Achievement Excellence Award for Meritorious and Selfless Service’ for his contribution to the education sector and humanity in Nigeria.
Pathfinder said it became necessary for his group to inform Nigerians about what Echono was doing with his leadership, wealth of experience and patriotism to galvanize infrastructural development in all of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
According to him, the TETFund boss has amazingly and enormously done well under President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and deserved a commendation by passing a vote of confidence in him.
Pathfinder said: “Education is the bedrock of any nation. To get it right, there is the need for all hands to be on deck to move the sector forward, particularly in the area of infrastructure development and advancement.
“Therefore, we are calling on all well-meaning Nigerians and stakeholders in the education sector to join hands and collaborate with TETFUND boss to ensure rapid development of the infrastructures in the nation’s institutions of higher learning.
“We also observed that under Echono’s leadership of TETFund, there are massive structures including lectures theatres, academic office buildings, blocks of classrooms, furniture, laboratories and library equipment.
“Besides, there is also the construction of road networks within the higher institutions, provision of potable water and creating a serene environment for teaching and learning across all tertiary institutions in the country notwithstanding the long strike by academic staff.
He described Echono as a seasoned and astute administrator, a civil servant par excellence, a detribalised, patriotic Nigerian, core technocrat with an untainted and incorruptible track record.
He said that Echono being a visionary and game-changer had rapidly upscaled the capacity building of undergraduates, graduates and post-graduates as over 35,000 scholars had already benefited from the intervention funds under his leadership.
