CAN TETFUND BE THE GAME CHANGER IN TRANSFORMING NIGERIA'S EDUCATIONAL SECTOR BY TERSOO ADAGHER

One public institution that has been silently taking giant strides in transforming our educational sector in the past ten months is the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), and it is more than mere coincidence that the spike in the positive impacts of the fund came with the tenure of its incumbent Executive Secretary, architect Sonny Echono

Like its precursor, the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) as ably led by the President Muhammadu Buhari in those days, which made tremendous contributions to education, TETFUND under Echono has demonstrated what is possible given the right political will. The ten months has seen the Fund made progress that an organisation can only make under a leadership that is amenable to change. The high point here is that the Seasoned administrator had already whipped up a micro version of the large transformational agenda of the present administration of President Buhari .
In a not too distant past, the various special funds for education – or for other sectors, were at best dismal in the perception Nigerians have of them. A lot of these funds operate the most opaque regimes for bodies that were specifically set up to addressed identified shortcomings in the education sector. There were some that were so twisted that even the National Assembly invoking its investigative powers was never able to unravel the complex and knotty corruption that have taken roots in such places.
This has, fortunately, not been the case with the current result-oriented TETFUND, which has given hope to Nigerians that great things happen when the right leadership is in place.

This apparently explains why several groups have hailed or eulogies the leadership of Architect Sonny Echono as well as testifying to the impact of TETFUND under his watch. Anecdotic testimonials by such groups indicate that there have been visible improvements in Nigeria’s tertiary schools as evident in the renovation, upgrade and construction of critical infrastructure. Others have identified overall improvement of the environment in which students study. Interestingly, several media reports have validated the assessments made by these organisations and given that media organizations are thorough in arriving at their reports then one can safely accept that great things have really happened at the fund.
These testimonials never came to me as a surprise even as he was conferred the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) from President Muhammadu Buhari and the recent award of a Fellow of the Nigerian Association for Educational Administration and Planning (NAEP).

The National President of NAEP, Prof. Hauwa Imam, said the award was in recognition of Echono’s track record of leadership in the education sector, quality assurance and service delivery in Nigeria.
It is now safe to say that everything thing in life Rise and Fall on Leadership.

According to the Executive Secretary in his recent outing highlighted that ‘The growth and improvement in infrastructure is only rivalled by the capacity building for staff of tertiary institutions in the country’. The implication of this is that those entrusted with educating our youths are themselves now being empowered. This move is one in the right direction because it would have been pointless building, renovating and furnishing structures while those who churn out the products remain mentally stuck in the 90s.
It is thus remarkable that this aspect was not overlooked by TETFund. He revealed this at the 16th Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria ,ABU, Alumni annual General Assembly held at Centre of excellence of the institution, he explained that already more than 90,000 academics from universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education were supported for various programmes under staff development training.

More so, within the short time that Echono has been in charge, this speaks volume of a man who is committed and dedicated to excellence. It is a re-assertion of the primacy of quality leadership in the contemporary world.
Such attention to details extends even to other decisions that Sonny Echono has taken as the helmsman of the fund. He seamlessly keyed into the Next-Level Education agenda of the incumbent government and the fund is kind of already moving in the direction that is desirable to Nigerians and in tune with the policy drive of government.

The kind of changes taking place at Nigerians tertiary schools courtesy of TETFund is the kind that will once again make our institutions attractive to prospective students who will likely no longer have to spend billions of naira paid as school fees that in turn power the economies of other countries to the detriment of Nigeria.

Whatever Architect Echono did to turn TETFund around should be studied and properly articulated with a view to making related agencies and organisations see what they can adapt for implementation in their own sphere.

The seasoned administrator must however realise that the kind of ovations following his achievements will only lead the people to demand more action. He must thus continually dip into his bag of ideas and think on his feet to come up with further innovations that can make Nigeria into an education destination, not just for the African continent but for the whole world.

He must also watch out for those who could attempt to drag him into needless confrontations aimed at distracting the transformation taking place at TETFund.
This has happened to trailblazers in the past and it is something the country cannot afford to happen at this critical juncture when the preponderance of desire is to see the key institutions of the land reboot into functional modes for development.

So, like Oliver Twist, one must ask for more. Architect Echono must sustain the tempo he has started with at TETFund, but this is a given. The actual demand one must make of this erudite administrator is that he must take TETFund to places. He should demonstrate to Nigerians that institutions can excel. And for this we will be grateful to him.

* Adagher, a public Affairs Analyst writes From Abuja.