Professor Charles Esimone is the Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Anambra State. He was appointed in 2019 and by June this year, he will be completing his 5-year tenure. Within the last three years of his administration, just like many others, UNIZIK has revolutionized, recording unprecedented developments, especially in the area of infrastructure and development.
But for the special interventions from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) these projects would not have been achieved, a development Professor Esimone says he is impressed with, especially the impact it has made on the University while describing the interventions as one of the most consistent in the history of Nigeria.
Beginning from the faculty of Social Sciences which never had a building of its own, through the Fund’s intervention, the faculty now has a gigantic building as well as huge building for the department of Psychology. The Faculty of Education also has a big building with a department of Vocational Technical Education (VTE), a course that produces middle-level manpower which the nation has sadly lost over the years.
At the faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences where the then structures could no longer accommodate the growing population, today, the faculty has two laboratories and office complexes. In addition, the faculty has a first-time pharmaceutical microbiologist with an established molecular research laboratory at the Nnewi campus of UNIZIK.
Through the Fund’s Special Intervention, the University Teaching Hospital now has a Urology Research Center as well as the establishment of a standard zoo which is about to be completed. Anambra state as a whole has never had a zoo before now but for TETFund interventions.
The faculty of Engineering and department of music also received state-of-the-art equipment within this period with six laboratories and workshops for the engineering faculty while the department of architecture was also established at the University from the TETFund Special Intervention Fund and the building is speedily ongoing.
At the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), the Vice Chancellor, Professor Suleiman Mohammed wonders what would have being the state of tertiary institutions in the country without TETFund interventions. He said the several TETFund projects have helped infrastructure at NSUK. His words “We have been so fortunate to have support from TETFund and I have impressively utilized the support and intervention. I used it to build this present senate building, an excellent workshop in the faculty of engineering, bought equipment for engineering and built the college of health sciences. I was also able to get support for the building of a 1,000-seater capacity ICT Centre”.
“Through TETFund, we were able to build our college of medical sciences; at least one phase is completed and the college has taken off with two programmes which are Community Health and Health Information Management. Through interventions, we were able to build our library. It is one of the most fantastic libraries around and we feel good about it. We have also met some of our infrastructural deficits through these interventions. As far as infrastructure is concerned, TETFund has given us massive assistance that has transformed the university such that if you go around the university, you are likely going to assume that it is a TETFund university”, he said.
For Sule Mundi who is the Provost, FCT College of Education, Zuba, the tertiary education system in Nigeria would’ve been in a terrible state if not for TETFund’s intervention. Mundi who was speaking on the importance of the Fund in sustaining the nation’s educational system, said most of the infrastructure you see in Colleges of Educations, Universities and Polytechnics wouldn’t have existed without the intervention of the Fund. He attributed the location of the College Administration; School of Sciences complex; School of Languages; School of Arts and Social Science; School of Vacation, Department of Agriculture and other four theatres at the new site to the full completion of TETFund intervention projects.
Mundi further disclosed that in the area of training, the College has about 70 staff members who have been sponsored for PhD and Masters programmes all through TETFund interventions. Others areas are staff participation in several conferences and workshops as well as Institution-Based Research (IBR) among others.
Despite the myriad of challenges, the nation’s tertiary education system has suffered in the past, with the federal government’s continued intervention through TETFund in the area of research, development, rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of teaching and learning infrastructure, the Nigerian university system will soon rank among the best in the world.
Adagher Tersoo
A Public Affairs Analyst.
