ALLEGATION OF DELIBERATE OMMISSION OF SCHOLARS’ NAMES IN PRESIDENTIAL BAILOUT SPURIOUS

ALLEGATION OF DELIBERATE OMMISSION OF SCHOLARS’ NAMES IN PRESIDENTIAL BAILOUT SPURIOUS

The attention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been drawn to media reports about a group of Nigerian lecturers studying under the sponsorship of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) programme, alleging deliberate omission of their names from the bailout approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for stranded TETFund scholars abroad, and making spurious claims of malfeasance in the scholarship allocations.

The Fund specifically notes the case of one Kamal Adewole Saka, a lecturer at Federal University, Oye Ekiti, who was awarded a TETFund scholarship for Ph.D. in Psychology at Girne American University, Cyprus to the tune of N27,573,350.00 and has lately been in the media wrongly accusing staff of the Fund of “embezzling his N10 million scholarship grant” when, in actual sense, his full tuition had since been paid directly to the institution  since 3^rd November, 2022.

Although the Fund had reported expending over N3.8 billion as bailout to about 1500 stranded Nigerian scholars studying abroad under the TSAS programme to cushion the effect of the current exchange rate in compliance with Mr. President’s directive, it has become imperative to give detailed background and steps taken generally by the Fund and to specifically address the disinformation being peddled by Kamal Adewole Saka.

BACKGROUND

The TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) Intervention programme was introduced in 2008 to sponsor teaching staff of Nigerian Public Tertiary educational institutions to acquire additional postgraduate degrees both within and outside Nigeria to enhance their research experience and teaching capacity. The maximum duration of PhD programmes is four (4) years while for Masters degree is one (1) year in Europe and two (2) years in other parts of the world.

Prior to September 2019, all approved funds were disbursed to Beneficiary institutions, and they were required to lodge the full amount into domiciliary accounts and release same to various scholars in line with the Fund’s guidelines.

Arising from observations made during monitoring exercises and through numerous complaints of late release of funds and non-operation of domiciliary accounts by some Beneficiary Institutions, the Fund in 2019 adopted direct payment of tuition fees to foreign institutions on behalf of the scholars.

KEY FINDINGS FROM PREVIOUS INSPECTION AND VERIFICATION EXERCISES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TSAS PROGRAMME

a.       Complaints about delays in release of Funds by scholars’ home institutions;

b.       Scholars were affected by the exchange rate fluctuations due to non-operation of a domiciliary account by their home institutions, which left them indebted on their programme;

c.       A lot of scholars complained that their duration of studies was for four (4) years, while the Fund processed their tuition and allowances for three (3) years , leaving them with a shortfall of one (1) year.

d.       A lot of foreign training institutions were not aware that the scholars were being sponsored by TETFund;

e.       A lot of scholars expressed lack of communication between them and their home institutions;

f.        Some scholars changed their institutions of study based on the approvals obtained from their home institutions, contrary to the Fund’s guidelines;

g.       Some scholars complained about their home institutions introducing administrative charges on funds approved for them by the Fund;

h.      A lot of scholars complained that their Desk officers were making    life difficult as they did not attend to their issues in good time.

POLICY CHANGES INTRODUCED BASED ON THE KEY FINDINGS

Review of the guidelines for accessing the TSAS intervention programme which informed the introduction of the following:

1. Sensitization visits to all TETFund beneficiary institutions to acquaint them with the Fund’s guidelines;
2. Introduction of the issuance of scholarship award letters to all approved individual scholars;
3. Review of the duration of studies for PhD from 3 years to 4 years ( Tuition fee payment for three years and Upkeep payment for 4years);
4. Introduction of the Postdoctoral Fellowship programme;
5. Commencement of the direct payment of tuition fees in favour of scholars to approved foreign institutions of study;
6. Opening of TETFund dedicated email addresses for all beneficiary institutions;
7. Opening of Departmental email addresses;
8. Processing of funds in favour of stranded scholars based on information provided by the concerned scholars;
9. Signing of MoU with selected foreign Universities.

EMERGING EVENTS POST COVID-19

1. Operational Changes to the foreign exchange market that led to the abolition of the official exchange rate at the Central Bank of Nigeria;

• Receipt of  numerous requests and letters by the Fund from various  TETFund foreign scholars, through the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the Chief of Staff to the President, requesting for financial bailout which informed Management’s decision to hold a virtual meeting on 22^nd September, 2023 with representatives of TETFund sponsored scholars in India, United Kingdom , Kenya, Ghana , South Africa , U.S.A, Cyprus and Malaysia with the following resolutions made:
• That both inflation index and cost of living index should be considered while computing the bailout;
• That the issues of shortfall would be taken care of;
• Individual peculiarities due to unforeseen expenditure incurred by some scholars due to Covid-19 pandemic like the compulsory evacuation, flight back to the country of study and quarantine , to be backed up with relevant substantiating documents;
• That the shortfalls from Beneficiary Institutions would be compiled and used as the basis for repayment.

STEPS TAKEN SO FAR BY THE FUND ON THE FINANCIAL BAILOUT OF CONCERNED SCHOLARS AMONGST OTHERS

1. The Fund requested for status update in respect of the implementation of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention Programme with a view to reconciling its records and addressing genuine and verifiable challenges. The request comprised the following:
2. Details of all returnee scholars (i.e., All TETFund scholars that have completed studies (local and foreign);
3. Details of all abscondees ( Scholars that failed to return to their duty posts upon completion of studies ), including all moves made by the beneficiary institution to trace the whereabouts of the abscondees;
4. Details of scholars with extension on approved duration of studies;
5. Evidence of operation of domiciliary account for the foreign exchange component of the programme; and
6. Any other key/vital information you may find useful for the reconciliation exercise.

Unfortunately, the feedback from beneficiary institutions on the request has not been impressive, which informed reminders being sent to the institutions on same, severally.

   So far, a total of 84 beneficiary institutions have responded to the Fund’s request.

• The Honourable Minister of Education (HME), vide a letter No FME/PSE/720/C.2/IV/713, dated 30^th October, 2023 conveyed the approval for the processing of bailout requests received from Beneficiary Institutions in respect of the compilation of shortfalls in tuition and upkeep earlier approved in favour of the concerned and verified scholars with a view to addressing their financial challenges;
• All TETFund beneficiary institutions were communicated to compile/ collate all eligible scholars for bailout and forward same to the Fund for compliance with the Minister’s approval;
• Sequel to the Honourable Minister’s approval, the total number of scholars processed for bailout stands at 1,476 Scholars and the sum of N3,897,282,932.00 was processed and disbursed in favour of concerned scholars. (i.e On-going Masters and PhD Only)
• It is pertinent to mention that the bailout was an extra budgetary expenditure, and as such, the Fund sought for the approval of the Honourable Minister of Education (HME) in the absence of the Board of Trustees to utilize the stabilization funds in offsetting part of the variations in tuition and upkeep allowance.
• The bailout processed so far was activated based on substantiating documents presented in favour of concerned scholars .
• In order to control the influx of requests and publications by faceless groups, the Fund in a letter dated 15^th April, 2024 informed TETFund foreign scholars through their supposed ‘Caretaker’ and also heads of Beneficiary Institutions on the following:
• The group(s) or association should discontinue usage of the Fund’s logo and its name, as no permission was granted to that effect;
• That all requests and communication concerning the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff programme must be routed through Scholars’ home institution(s) who are the beneficiaries of TETFund and nominated the scholars in the first place.

 Note: Scholars who have completed their programmes and returned home, abscondees,         benchwork and postdoc programme were not eligible for the bailout as recommended by Tetfund and approved by Mr. President.

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PARTIAL SUSPENSION OF THE FOREIGN COMPONENT OF THE TETFund SCHOLARSHIP FOR ACADEMIC STAFF INTERVENTION IN 2023

1. The Fund partially suspended the foreign component of the TSAS Intervention for a period of two years due to the following reasons:
2. Operational changes to the foreign exchange market, that led to the abolition of the official exchange rate at the Central Bank of Nigeria;
3. Insufficient 2023 Allocation for the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention Programme Sub-head;
4. Paucity of funds as regards beneficiary institution’s available balances, amongst others
5. Prior to the suspension of the foreign component of the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff Intervention Programme , the Fund signed MoUs with the following institutions:
6. FARA / ARIFA Brazil;
7. Morgan State University, U.S.A;
8. Campus France;
9. Lovely Professional University , India;
10. Sharda University, India;
11. Integral University, India;
12. University Putra, Malaysia;
13. University Sains , Malaysia;
14. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; and
15. University Malaya.

• All Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) currently being implemented are not affected by the suspension as long as concerned beneficiary institutions’ available balance(s) can defray training cost in favour of prospective scholars.

REASON FOR NON-RECOMMENDATION OF SOME SCHOLARS FOR BAILOUT

While processing requests received by the Fund for bailout, some scholars/nominees were not recommended based on the following reasons:

1. Blank Submission by scholar(s);
2. An abscondee requesting bailout;
3. Scholar(s) that have completed studies and requesting bailout.
4. Submission of inaccurate Information by scholar(s);
5. Scholars on Bench Work sponsorship requesting bailout (short duration with full payment upfront);
6. Scholars on POSTDOC sponsorship requesting bailout (same as 5 above);
7. Submission of forged documents by some scholars;
8. Submission of wrong documents by some scholars.

In the case of Kamal Adewole Saka, he was awarded the scholarship to Girne American University on 11^th November, 2020 in the total sum of N27,573,350.00. His approved tuition fees of Euros 8,872.50 has been paid to Girne American University as at 3^rd November, 2022, almost two years ago; while his upkeep and other allowances amounting to N23,846,900.00 was disbursed in full to his home institution, Federal University Oye Ekiti in 2020 in line with the extant schedules.

The tuition fees of Kamal Adewole Saka were paid in two tranches based on invoices sent by the scholar: Euros 5,250 on 11^th February , 2021 and Euros 3,622.50 on 1^st April, 2021. However, the scholar notified the Fund in 2022 of non-receipt of the first tranche and after investigations with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the bank notified us that the payment failed. A fresh invoice was requested from Mr. Saka and this was used to re-process the payment of Euros 5,250.00.

The Fund has evidence of payment and status of the scholar’s account from Girne American University, showing that tuition fees has been fully paid as at 3^rd November, 2022. It is therefore inappropriate for Mr. Saka to resort to malicious and misleading publications to spread cheap lies when payments of tuition fees for scholars abroad are made through the CBN and not individual staff bank accounts.

One expects that Mr. Saka, a Ph.D candidate, would have been discerning enough not to level such cheap accusation. Since payment of tuition fees are made in Forex to institutions of study, the issue of fluctuations in exchange rate is between the Fund and the CBN with no effect whatsoever on scholars. 

Similarly, under the present dispensation (since 2022) even upkeep allowance of scholars after the first year are paid directly in foreign currency to the accounts of scholars thus eliminating future claims for bailout. The appropriate question the scholar should answer is whether he met the requirements for bailout or not.

In any case, the Fund has already made a formal report to the Management of Federal University, Oye Ekiti on Mr. Kamal Adewole Saka’s inappropriate behaviour and defamatory and libelous publication and has demanded appropriate sanctions, failing which the Fund would not hesitate to seek redress on its own.

While TETFund remains committed to ensuring smooth academic pursuits of its scholars, it is important to restate that TETFund Guidelines on the TSAS programme clearly stipulate the appropriate channel for addressing scholars’ plights, which is through their home institutions that nominated them in the first instance and not any other platform. It is also worthy of note that the Fund will continue to support eligible scholars to pursue their academic programmes irrespective of some seemingly deliberate smear campaigns by a handful aimed at distracting us from this onerous endeavour.