President Buhari tasks VCs on Accountability, integrity

President  Muhammadu Buhari has stated that government’s investment in the education sector through various interventions far exceeds budgetary allocations hence the need for vice chancellors and other heads of tertiary institutions to be prudent and accountable in the management of resources made available to their institutions.

According to the Weekly Bulletin of the National Universities Commission (NUC) obtained in Abuja, President Buhari spoke at the combined convocation ceremonies of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.

Represented by the NUC deputy executive secretary (academics), Dr. Suleiman Ramon-Yusuf, the president said the criticism of inadequate funding of the sector based on percentage of national budget allocated to the sector is unjustified.

He noted that government had various investments and intervention programmes outside budgetary allocations as part of commitment to the development of education, especially at the tertiary level.

He cited the massive interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund as extra-budgetary, noting that the impact of its interventions in universities, colleges of education and polytechnics could not be denied even by harshest critics of government.

He, therefore, urged universities to do a lot more with the available funds, given the economic realities confronting the nation, and called for innovative and transparent management practices in the system.