Members of the Northern Youth Forum (NYF) led by Ahmed Garo have described the recent attacks on the leadership of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) as unwarranted and baseless.
Garo said the latest sinister plot at the agency is aimed at instigating the illegal removal of the executive secretary, thereby disrupting unnecessarily, the current reforms undertaken by the agency.
He said the menacing move against Arc. Sonny Echono is deliberate and nepotistic in nature and is meant to cast aspersion and malign his person and office, just to achieve a sectional agenda, as a certain Professor, from the South West zone of the country, is currently being paraded as his replacement.
According to him, in furtherance of this move, frantic efforts are being made by the promoters of this ethnic agenda towards organising a protest at the EFCC offices on Monday by 10 am.
Garo, in a press statement, said the media attacks and planned protests in Lagos and Abuja are perceived to be orchestrated by some unscrupulous mischief makers who are bent on discrediting the achievements of Sonny
Echono, whose efforts at charting reforms that have leapfrog the tertiary education sector, have received accolades from educational stakeholders both within and outside the country.
He lamented that, rather than encourage the current leadership of TETFund to continue with its transformative agenda, that has brought onboard laudable developments in our tertiary education sector, some individuals are bent on orchestrating his removal from office for their pecuniary reasons.
He said Echono’s track records and achievements dates back to his years of experience as a seasoned administrator, having served the nation in different capacities in the past, stating that his contributions to the education sector should not be rubbished, under any guise, by people who are filled with parochial sentiments and envy over his achievements.
“If you look at the sustained improvements in performance across tertiary institutions in the country, be it Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education, you will agree with me that there are significant milestones and if we allow the current leadership of TETFund to effectively discharge its mandate, not only will this go a long way to sustain the tempo, but further deepen the infrastructural and academic architecture of our tertiary institutions as well as create an enduring legacy for the Tinubu-led administration.”
He therefore, called on all Nigerians to join forces in condemning the attacks on the person of Echono, saying such acts will not only contribute to truncate ongoing reforms at TETFund but further derail people’s chances of benefiting from the good initiatives of the Fund that are already maximizing efficiency in the tertiary education sub-sector.
