By Adesina Wahab

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFund, Mr Sonny Echono, has said to reduce friction between university managements and their Governing Councils, both sides must stick to their statutory responsibilities.

According to him, standards and parameters guiding the running of the institutions must also be followed to the letter.

He stated this in Lagos yesterday while addressing a meeting of the Committee of Pro-Chancellor of Nigerian Federal Universities.

The knowledge sharing programme was  entitled: “Re-thinking governance models for innovation, growth and resilience in Nigerian universities.”

“Respecting the laws that govern the university system is the way out. We have an enabling law and every university has its Establishment Law. If we follow the laws strictly and entrench the creation of merit in all we do, there won’t be any friction. This is because more often than not, trouble arises because of conflict of interests. The different interests come to play when they want somebody who is pliable. Somebody who will help them organize elections or serve as returning officers, they would then begin to narrow the field to fit who will now do their bidding.

“There are standards, there are parameters established under the law and if they are faithfully implemented and enforced, then the best would emerge. That is the whole concept of merit, the likelihood that the person who emerges from such a system that is inclusive, that involves all the stakeholders, that is merit driven, is likely to be more accountable to that community. It is likely to project the overall interest of the university more than the narrow interest of a section of the community or individual and that is what we are aspiring for,” he stated.

While speaking on the importance of university education, the TETFund boss noted that universities should be innovation hubs , while also producing manpower for the society.

He listed some challenges facing governance in the university system to include lack of cooperation between managements and their Governing Councils, leading to unending power tussle.

“Smooth running of universities also require availability of human and material resources. Public universities suffer from over-dependence on the government for funding. Therefore, universities are supposed to seek other sources of revenue and their councils should support such initiatives,” he said.

Echono added that a university system worth its salt should have the characteristics of access, quality and relevance.

On how far the Fund has supported tertiary institutions in the training of their manpower, Echono said over 42,000 lecturers have been supported to obtain masters and doctoral degrees both locally and abroad.

He said the Fund has the Annual Direct Disbursements which has about 13 components under it such as Physical Infrastructure Developmet, ICT, Institution Based Research, TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) among others, as well as special interventions such as the Special High Impact Projects.