• ABU seeks legal redress
• TETFund spends N761m on foreign scholarship in Q1 2024

The Federal Government has described as alarming, the rising cases of abscondment by academic staff of various Nigerian universities sponsored for training in foreign countries.

This is even as the authorities of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria confirmed taking legal action against its lecturers, who absconded after studying abroad via Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) scholarship.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kabiru Bala, said the development has led to a dearth of academic staff in the institution.

He stated that though legal steps had been taken to seek redress, the courts have not helped matters, as the verdicts favour the absconded lecturers.

Bala pleaded: “The ministry should do something to assist universities. We don’t have these teachers. And the few that we have trained with hard-earned Nigerian money, go to help other economies.”

The development is coming at a time when the nation is still battling to repatriate the over 137 academics who refused to return home after their sponsored studies.

The disclosures were made at the maiden Quarterly and Stakeholders’ Engagement, organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.

The Guardian reports that in January this year, the interventionist agency approved N63,457,600 each for 12 scholars for a three-year postgraduate scholarship in France, totalling N761,491,924.80.

Reacting to the concerns raised by the ABU vice chancellor, Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, admitted that the situation was denting Nigeria’s image.

He lamented that the intervention, tailored to address the needs of the nation’s higher institutions of learning, was being abused, stressing that it is slowly becoming a major problem affecting the country’s education system.

The Ministry, he submitted, was already thinking of how to halt the ugly trend.

The minister said: “Your concern about trainees of TETFund absconding is a very tough thing. We are not particularly good at obeying laws. That’s the problem. Otherwise, if you have a bond with an institution, there is no reason why you should not serve out those bonds.”

“And I remember when some of us benefitted from university sponsorship, I remember for my Master’s and PhD, we signed bonds. And we served out all those bonds before we left the university. So, I can’t understand now that people just sign bonds and disappear.

“It is not good. So, we will have to rethink how we will enforce some of these things; how to make our people law-abiding citizens.”

Recall that in July 2023, TEFFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, disclosed that more than 137 lecturers, who were sponsored abroad by the agency, had absconded, refusing to return to the country after completing their studies.

He described the phenomenon as a major crisis, calling the academics unpatriotic.

Echono stated this while appearing at an investigative hearing organised by a House of Representatives ad hoc committee.