The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has commended the Federal Government for disbursing and approving some intervention funds to tertiary institutions.
A release made available by NANS public relation officer, Giwa Yisa Temitope, reads: “We commend the Federal Government for approving the disbursement of N330.3 billion intervention funds for public tertiary institutions in the country through a TETFUND-TSA account. It is the way to go towards funding the educational sector. We believe it is wrong for the government to continue abandoning institutions of learning after their establishment. Rather, sufficient funds should be made available to ease teaching and learning.
“We appreciate the Federal Government for approving N24.2billion for free internet at airports and varsities. As an association, we have been at the vanguard of the campaign for the proper funding of the educational sector.
“Although the approval is more or less piecemeal, we believe it is in tandem with our demand for the proper funding of the educational sector, most especially for the provision of materials that will aid teaching and learning in our institutions of learning.
“It is still fresh in our memories how institutions of learning were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria because the Federal Government failed to prepare for cases like that.
“During this period, the South West body of the association continued to make a case for a need to go virtual with teaching and learning because we believe that nothing warrants putting academic activities on hold. So, with this approval coming to the fore, we can only call on the Federal Government to ensure that it is systemic and not commercialised.
“However, we call on EFCC and ICPC to ensure that the funds are tracked and that institutions whose managements don’t make judicious use of the funds be tried in order to serve as deterrence for others as accountability must be enforced.”
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