The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has expressed concern about the high consumption of electricity bill in universities, claiming that some were presented bills totalling N300 to N400 million in a single month.
Sonny Echono, Executive Secretary of TETFund, revealed this during a meeting with a delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) led by its National President, Lucky Emonefe, in Abuja, questioning how institutions could meet such high demands.
He revealed that TETFund has begun discussions and conducted a meeting with the Ministry of Power to resolve the issue.
“It’s going to be one of the major issues we are going to look at when we call our major stakeholders meeting of all heads of schools. We have to put our heads together to see how we need to have alternative power sources that will reduce the burden.
“As I speak, some universities are getting N300 million, N400 million bill for electricity in one month. How can they cope? Some are even rationing; they have light for only four hours a day,” he said.
Echono, also charged Nigerian students to be on the watch out in all campuses and protect school infrastructure by ensuring that hoodlums do not infiltrate the campuses to cause havoc.
He reeled out series of interventions in infrastructure targeted at ensuring conducive learning environment for students across all tertiary institutions.
“I am enjoining you today to please be on the watch out in all your campuses. All our TETFund assets, all the buildings that taxpayers’ money has been used to provide, not only should you ensure that you protect them, please nobody should go and destroy them.
“Let us not give chances to these hoodlums who will take advantage of your legitimate demands to cause havoc,” he said.
Echono, who stressed the need to ensure a stable academic calendar, said: “When President Bola Tinubu was told about frequent disruptions in the academic calendar, the president gave specific instructions to the minister that one of your first expectations is for us to have harmony in the sector, so we can have a predictable academic calendar that our students will go to school and know when they will graduate and ensure that that is kept.
“We are also pleased that this same president gave a charge to us at TETFund that we must do everything possible to improve the learning experience of our students, the quality of education we are getting and improve your welfare on campus.”
He also stated that after discussing campus transportation with the president, he authorised the fund to collaborate with appropriate organisations to convert existing buses to CNG and provide mass transit buses for students on campus as part of TETFund’s intervention for next year.
Emonefe stated that the leadership of NANS decided not to have a national protest because they noticed that most of the interventions the students were receiving were not gotten through protests.