Governments at all levels have been challenged to collaborate with alumni associations to ensure adequate funding of tertiary education in Nigeria.
The new chairman of Ekiti State University (EKSU) Alumni Association, Ekiti State chapter, Pastor Adetunji Aribasoye, who made the call, identified under-funding and infrastructural deficit as parts of the major challenges facing the sector.
Aribasoye who charged governments and alumni associations to lead the way in tackling the challenges said it would help to address brain drain in the country’s educational sector.
He spoke in Ado Ekiti during the inauguration of the new 15-member executives of the association he will lead in the next three years.
“The challenges facing tertiary education and education generally in Nigeria have always been there. I have been to some other countries and I saw that, what they have is just a focused and purposeful leadership that seems to cherish education, the facilities are there, if they are also available in our country nobody will be thinking of leaving the country to study abroad and this brain drain syndrome will reduce to the barest minimum. These are some of the things that could be done with the help of Alumni globally,” he said.
While unveiling his seven-point agenda, he said a mechanism would be put in place to generate more income into the coffee of the association.
The speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye, who is an alumnus of the institution and a brother to the new chairman said, “My only advice to them is to work as a team selflessly. They must know that the vision of the association is greater than their personal interest and that they must put it ahead of any other consideration.
