ASUU CONCERNED OVER TETFUND'S FAILURE TO REMIT N132 BILLION

Alarm has been raised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) about the TETFund's unremitted N132 billion, or 41% of the N320 billion authorized money for reviving tertiary institutions.

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According to ASUU, only 58% of the country's approved budget has been given to public tertiary schools.

As previously reported by MON DIARIES, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, revealed on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari had authorized the payment of N320 billion to Nigerian public tertiary institutions in order to address some of the grievances raised by ASUU during the strike last year.

As part of the union's four cardinal demands and a reworking of the 2009 government-ASUU agreement, the money were intended to revitalize the public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The TETFund distribution ratio, according to Emmanuel Osodeke, national president of ASUU, amounts to N186 billion when every public tertiary institution is taken into consideration, or just 58% of the total amount the president has authorized for release.

The university dean stated this during an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, stating that TETFund must account for the money that have not been distributed.

"What are we using that N132 billion [for], which is 41% of the total money? Is it for bureaucracy or what?

"We need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90% of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy or whatever," he added.