Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro, the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Fund (TETFund), is a great thinker, scholar and a 21st Century modern day leader with a clear vision and mission . In line with the cardinal objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Bogoro continues to introduce policies on research and development while he also ensures continued support to TETFund-sponsored scholars through to the end of their academic programmes.
To place Nigeria on the path of sustainable productivity and R & D innovation are his objectives. This, along with his culture of integrity, are what made President Muhammadu Buhari bring him back into office for the second time in 2019. With this reinstatement, he has been firing on all cylinders to create a formidable path for the development of Nigeria, making TETfund a global brand, and putting emphasis sustainable researches and innovation that embrace issues such as renewable energy, among others. In this way he is on the right path as you take TETfund to the next and desired level in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of altruistic transformation of our education system.
“I humbly pledge to keep the dream and hope of our dear President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) alive as a way of making TETFund the hallmark of a success story in our education sector”. That was Prof Bogoro, Executive Secretary, TETFund, as captured by Aljazerah newspaper in 2015. That was during his first tenure.
As a man of action whose intention is very clear about education, Bogoro, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s transparent and accountability policy, has been working hard in the area R& D as well as monitoring of TETfund-sponsored participants to local and foreign conferences to ensure that staff of beneficiary institutions attend the conference as approved for them by the Board of Trustees of TETfund.
To help Bogoro realize this ambition, the Federal Government reviewed its National Research Fund (NRF) domiciled with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to N7.5 billion for 2020 from an initial N5 billion in 2019. The agency also said the latest increase in the fund makes it the largest holder of research grants in Nigeria.
The National Research Fund was established pursuant to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011 for the resuscitation of research activities in Nigerian institutions. Bogoro, said this at the 2020 TETFund Board of Trustees (BOT) Retreat in Abuja.
He disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari also approved the establishment of six medical simulation research and clinical training facilities in six colleges of medicine in each geopolitical zone within the year. According to him, the approval provided an opportunity for TETFund to provide 12 COVID-19 and related infectious disease molecular laboratories, two in each geopolitical zone, “making the fund the highest single provider of such test centres in Nigeria.”
“The BOT also approved that TETFund sponsors some COVID-19 research proposals to the tune of over N200 million, mainly from Universities and NAFDAC, this being one of the reasons TETFund has recently been made the secretariat for the Nigeria COVID-19 Research Consortium R&D,” he said. He also asserted that the board of trustees of TETFund also approved over N200 million, to sponsor some COVID-19 research proposals mainly from universities and NAFDAC.
“In addition, the BOT also endorsed and (this) was subsequently approved by the President, that six medical simulation research and clinical Training facilities in six colleges of medicine (one in each geopolitical zone) are to be established this year.”
The TETFund boss noted that approval had been granted for TETFund to commit funds “to reverse the embarrassing situation of hostel accommodation in tertiary institutions and make learning environment more attractive for local and foreign students.”
He added that 15 per cent of Nigerian students were living in hostel accommodation in their institutions, disclosing that the BoT has also directed the management of the agency to make recommendations towards migration of e-learning consistent with global best practice.
Speaking on the achievements of TETFund between 2011 and 2019, the BoT Chairman, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, said the fund constructed 80 auditoriums and lecture theatres in the 223 benefitting institutions.
Ibrahim-Imam said the fund also constructed 500 classrooms, 2,383 administrative and staff offices, 40 fully equipped libraries, 250 science laboratories, 38 ICT centres, 8 medical centres and sick bays, 100 vehicles and major infrastructures in the 12 newly established federal universities.
“To consolidate on the achievements, the TETFund has made provision in the 2020 budget for emergency special intervention to the University of Abuja and special high impact projects to six universities, one from each geopolitical zone,” he said
He said the agency will provide take-off grants to the six newly created federal polytechnics, one in each geo-political zone, and construct over 200,000 hostel accommodation in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to tackle the deficit of accommodation in the institutions.
“We will scale up the provision of fit-for-purpose infrastructure, result-oriented research, and cutting-edge technology to our tertiary institutions. And we will do all these with utmost integrity,” he said.
And as 2020 rolls gradually gently on, Bogoro is achieveing his purpose at TETfund. He continues to see the seeds of his labour blossom, with many flowers. In September this year, he set up R & D committee in order to be able to realize his ambition of making Nigeria an innovation hub..
Sometimes ago, he revealed that over 60% of lecturers in the Nigerian University system today are now Doctorate degree holders as against 40 per cent that was obtainable four years ago. Bogoro’s reforms also include the maximum sponsorship of three years for Doctorate degree programme to four years’ period.
“When we started the idea of supporting Masters’ Degree, but mainly PhD sponsorship both overseas and local at that time, only 40% of Nigerian lecturers had PhDs. After about three to four years of that intervention, the percentage went up to 60% and today we believe it is in the region of 70 to 80 per cent,which is a significant improvement,” Prof. Bogoro stated.
On impact assessment committee, Prof. Bogoro said his team has succeeded in putting up an independent committee. The leadership and composition are exclusively made up of independent persons. The document tells the story of TETfund from 1999 to 2019. Bogoro said: “In our own way of opening up ourselves for public scrutiny, where we have weakness, we will be happy to be reflective, go back and be guided by their suggestions.”
At the polytechnic level, Prof Bogoro’s intervention includes: fabrication intervention. Nigerian polytechnics get subvention annually for fabrication while Colleges of Education (COEs) are also not left out. Bogoro’s initiatives at the COEs also include the support of teaching practice as well as making available micro teaching laboratory equipment and at the universities, Entrepreneurship Fund is provided by TETFund and Bogoro is deliberately encouraging it knowing well that knowledge is power and very relevant.
“Let our graduates be job creators, not only employable which is a higher threshold than just being employable” Prof. Bogoro was quoted to have said in The Nation newspaper of December 7th, 2019. Manuscript development is also one of key interventions under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, which include; the support of textbook production by lecturers and supporting the transformation of PhD thesis to textbook and in line with this, the technical advisory committee inaugurated recently is doing well in this regard.
Bogoro said: “There are also journals, which is another area of intervention by TETFund. There is mechanical pathology, anthropology, criminology of artificial intelligence, artificial dissemination, which applies to every discipline including ICT, Architects and Society of Engineers and so forth.
If Bogoro could achieve these feats within one year of his reinstatement then one could say, without any fear of contradiction that the TETfund supremo has been a change agent, working to bring a new lease of life to higher education system in Nigeria in no distant time. But what have been the magic behind Bogoro’s success?
He revealed that the underline factor for his achievements is focus coupled with team work as captured by Henry Ford’s quote who said: ‘Working Together is Success. “Focus is secret of my numerous achievements recorded since assumption of office and I have justified the confidence reposed in me as the Executive Secretary TETfund by turning around the stories of Nigerian’s public tertiary institutions within the shortest time that I took over the mantle of leadership of TETfund.”
Obviously, one of the pillars of support working with the executive secretary is Dr Dr Salihu Girei Bakari.
TETFund, has tasked researchers in the academic community to end the myriad of problems confronting Nigeria through research.This came as it explained that its recent exposure of some illegalities being perpetuated by some scholars over money for foreign studies, was aimed at stopping the unwholesome trends.
TETFund’s Director of Research and Development, Dr Salihu Girei Bakari, said these in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate, UAE, during the just concluded capacity building workshop it organised for researchers drawn from selected universities in Nigeria.
Bakari said challenge thrown at academic researchers came against the backdrop of too much concentration on research publications, rather than addressing the immediate needs of development.he added that the TETFund’s new focus in providing grants for research and development activities in tertiary institutions was borne out of a need to create leverages where contemporary challenges in Nigeria would be resolved.
According to him, the concern raised by the Fund concerning misapplication of scholarly funds by beneficiaries was aimed changing the trend.
“I won’t call it diversion, there is nothing like diversion anywhere because TETFund by law is supposed to disburse and administer funds, so there are always guidelines.
Speaking on the report quoting the organisation of accusing scholars of diverting money meant for foreign studies into buying luxuries including building houses, he said: ”So if there are guidelines for application of monies, anytime we find misapplication or infractions, TETFund will pulse further disbursement and ask the recipient to account for the monies given before, TETFund has done much by producing thousands of P.hd holders including sponsoring so many Industrial Based Researches.
Backing the importance of the workshop, Bakari, said academics were meant to use their knowledge in bridging gaps hindering developmental initiatives as it concerns all strata of the Nigerian society.
He said there are many misconceptions regarding the functions of TETFund, as an intervention agency.
“This workshop is meant to set the tone for paradigm shift, TETFund is now moving towards content based intervention in the area of research and development, for too long we have been emphasizing teaching at the expense of research.
” For long universities have been carrying out research for publication and not for development and now government is investing monies in applied research because research should be problem solving, in other words lecturers should be seen at the forefront in diversifying the economy, making sure that the economy is knowledge based, solving our problems through research not with oil alone, “he stated.
Crucially his task as the director of R & D has greatly helped the performance of TETfund and boosted the image of the prganization under the watch of Professor Bogoro. Along with other staff, he has been of great value to Bogoro’s work.
Professor Bogoro commissioned the ICT centre on 24th April 2019 at Gombe State University funded with (2013 Special Intervention Fund) and the commissioning of TETfund–funded 2019 Special Intervention High Impact Projects at the University of Port-Harcourt on 30th March 2019 as well as commissioning of University Of Lagos Academic Publishing Centre among others on 30 March, 2019.
There was also the commissioning of Academic Publishing Centre and other completed projects at University of Calabar on 27th and 28th February 2019. Federal University at Gusau Zamfara State is not left out as gigantic and legacy projects were commissioned by Prof. Bogoro and his team from the 23rdto 25th January 2020. In the same vein, on 1st November 2019, commissioning of special intervention and 2013 ICT centre projects were successfully carried out at the University of Jos. Bogoro and his team also commissioned the special annual intervention projects from 6th to 8th December, 2019.
There was also the iconic commissioning of TETfund projects on 12th December 2019 (TETfund 2014 normal intervention projects) at the Federal University Lokoja. Interestingly, landmark and legendary projects were also commissioned by Bogoro and his team from 26th to 30th November, 2019 at the University of Benin, Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma, Edo State, Polytechnic Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State University Abraka, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwu and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
In line with global standard and practice, TETfund is now a global brand, and has embraced renewable energy to light up the higher institutions as seen in Bayero University Kano (BUK). According to Bogoro, “Renewable energy is the major quest for sustainable development in western world today and with this centre now in operation at Bayero University (BUK) Kano, it is expected that Nigeria would seek goal in earnest”.
To him, poor research is responsible for low ranking of Nigerian universities. And he has the task of rewriting the history ’ “All over the world, universities and other higher institutions are positioned to be the bridge between a productive society, knowledge and growth. It is unfortunate that research which remains critical in this respect had been at lower ebb.’
As the tireless professor drives TETFund to the Next Level, we pray that he will continue to move from strength to strength and keep on treading on the right path of President Buhari’s