ASUU kicks against inclusion of TETFund in annual budget

The country’s budgeting agencies should separate the budget of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) from Nigeria’s yearly budget to ensure effective execution, according to the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),  Prof. Emmanuel Osodoke.

He made this statement on Thursday at the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) Showcase and Closing Event, which took place in Abuja. He said, “TETFund’s budget is doomed once it is part of the national budget.”

The ASUU president, who was commenting on the doubt that the national budget may not be fully implemented, noted that oddly, for the first time, the government chose to include TETFund’s budget in the national budget.

He also urged Nigerians to overcome the inferiority complex, which makes them rely on services abroad, saying that every country in the world that wants to progress must use its own ideas and people, and those ideas are in the universities.

The Minister of Labour, Hon. Simon Lalong, who called the event a celebration of the amazing innovative achievements over the years, said the scheme provides a platform for researchers and innovators to display their ground-breaking ideas and turn them into practical solutions.

Before that, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, said the fair was organised to assist researchers in universities to realise their innovative ideas.