By Muhammad Muntazar
99% of stranded Members of Academic Staff Union of Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP) in Bauchi state have distanced themselves from false allegations levelled against the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro, by one of them, Dr Ibrahim Sanusi, in some national dailies.
Spokesperson of the stranded lecturers, Mr Osifo Aibuedefe Stephen, in the company of his colleagues, while addressing journalists on Monday (24/08/2020) in Bauchi, decried that Dr Sanusi abused due process in pursuing his case with the TETFund. They opined that their aggrieved colleague ought to have taken up his case with the school’s management, rather than attacking the Executive Secretary.
The lecturers opined that the Executive Secretary who is a man of integrity and one of the few respected elder statesmen in the country, has however, as we learnt, promised to look into the cases of the stranded lecturers with the view of addressing them, adding that the series of letters published in some newspaper by Dr Sanusi were not with their consent.
“We therefore denounce and dissociate ourselves from Dr Ibrahim Sanusi’s excesses. That he is not recognized as the spokesperson for the stranded scholars in Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic. We are not privy to any of the publications made by him in the Nigerian dailies.” They said.
When contacted, Dr Ibrahim Sunusi claimed that he was not speaking on behalf of ATAP lecturers but was authorized by stranded lecturers in over 60 public tertiary institutions across the country.
According to him, over 560 lecturers nationwide were affected and that as secretary of their union which is called TETFUND stranded lecturers, he has every right to speak for his members.
It would be recalled that in response to the allegations by Dr Sanusi, TETFund said, “The article, (by Dr. Sanusi) and some other misrepresentations are mostly mischievous and poorly aimed at discrediting an organization lately re-energized and refocused for better performance and relevance by its Executive Secretary, Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro”.
“The said letter, amongst misinformation, referred to a certain cohort of 2013 and 2017 foreign scholars of TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) Intervention program for public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, alleging hardships because of improper administration of funding and the vagaries of exchange rates. They also alluded to the manipulation of a list of scholars by their beneficiary institutions, when the Fund tried to remedy the alleged anomalies asking that the Fund should rather deal directly with scholars, rather than their beneficiary institutions which is inconsistent with the Funds guidelines for TETFund’s Scholarship for Training of Academic Staff (TSAS).”
“Ordinarily, the Fund would not have responded as there are established protocols that address challenges that may arise in the cause of implementation of the TSAS Intervention, and indeed any of our intervention lines.” TETFund stressed.