Jonathan's TETFund saved Nigeria from 'brain evacuation' — Bogoro

Nigerian would have lost all the best brains to foreign countries if the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) had not been formed as an intervention agency by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, said this during an interview with Daily Trust in Abuja.

According to him, strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) led to the Fund's establishment, and better fortunes for education at the tertiary level.

"If the early ASUU strikes had not led to the establishment of TETFund and improved salary structure for lecturers, like someone said, there would not be brain drain, but brain evacuation," Bogoro said.

"Nobody that sees himself, as an intellectual would have wanted to teach in Nigerian universities.

Bogoro said the Fund made the Nigerian institutions attractive enough to keep the best brains interested.

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"As a result of the sustained intervention and improved funding in our tertiary institutions, today we can afford to keep first class graduates in the system.

"Ten to 15 years ago, our first class graduates in courses like mechanical engineering, medicine would prefer to go into banking than teach.

"These were terribly negative signals that TETFund has helped nip in the bud."

He added that the Fund has over the years helped in training academic staff in the institutions.

“We have done a lot also in the area of academic staff development, by sending out this class of people to different universities within the country and abroad including Ivy League institutions, to better their lot, by acquiring masters and doctorate."

TETFund was formed in 2011 under the TETFund ACT, 2011, charged with the responsibility for managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.