Grants special intervention for rehabilitation
One of the worse disasters hit the University of Jos (UniJos) a fortnight ago, destroying its library complex in totality. MARTIN PAUL writes that TETFund has now come to the rescue of the institution.
It is often said that anguish, weeping and gnashing of teeth are better expressed when the eyes, physically, see the body of a beloved one untimely and accidentally snatched away by death.
It is also a generally accepted norm that extent of damage to a property cannot be quantify by mere assessment without a calculated visibility of the issue involved.
The story of fire disaster that ragged down the University of Jos (UniJos) library a fortnight ago would not be properly and adequately told without experts impute, who have assessed the extent of damage done to the institution.
In this regard, despite the saying that elders tears stocked within their eyes, the vice-chancellor of the university, Prof. Sebastian Maimako, could not resist the temptation of pouring out tears when the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, led a high powered delegation to visit the university last weeks the extent of damage to the institution’s library.
Maimako, who led the TETFund team around the damaged property, which include the library building, books and shelves, tables, chairs, records and other valuable documentations, described the incident as a terrible lost to the University of Jos.
Maimako said. Who also described the fire incident as a bitter experience and worse thing to happen to humanity, said even the community was helpless during the inferno.
While disclosing that virtually “every fire-fighting equipment in Plateau state was deployed during the incident”, the vice-chancellor said all efforts were to no avail.
The fire incident, according to Maimako, gain supremacy over the firefighter because most of the materials within the library complex were books and it helped in fueling the fire and nothing could be salvaged from the ugly incident, which occurred Saturday October 8 in the library complex that had two faculties and four departments in it.
Expressing the concern of TETFund on the negative impact the fire disaster has caused the students and the university community, the vice-chancellor said the university had already started putting facts and figure together to ascertain the cost of reconstructing and re-equipping the library complex, including the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) component.
The bewildered vice-chancellor, no doubt, expressed thanks to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, TETFund executive Secretary, Baffa, and his team for their concern and personal interest in the wellbeing of the university and its students, stating that the determination to come to visit the institution during the present harsh economic condition, was a great privilege.
However, wiping a child’s tears without breast feeding tantamount to continuous cry, but Baffa has asked Maimako to ‘weep no moe’ by announcing the federal government readiness rebuild the burnt library complex of the institution and restore lost academic materials through the Special Intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Majorly, the library complex consisted of two faculties and four departments as well as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facility and Baffa assured that the federal government was ready to replace all.
Lamenting the loss of some irreplaceable academic materials that dates back to several decades, Baffa told the university authorities that Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has already directed TETFund to ensure the restoration of the burnt library complex to its original status.
The TETFund boss took the opportunity to explain the various kinds of interventions available and offered by the Fund, saying: “Library is the soul of any institution.
The news of the fire incident was received with sadness and that is why I am leading the team from TETFund myself to see the extent of the damage. I am short of words to express how I felt, when I saw that the entire library complex and collection of books, computers and furniture were all burnt to ashes.
“The Honourable Minister of Education, sincerely commiserates with the management and students of the university, that is why he is interested in how and what we should do to ensure that the library complex is quickly restored and becomes functional again in no distance time.
“This is where a special intervention from TETFund, in its original concept, comes in. I have insisted that we can give all the normal or annual intervention that we can give, but when something like this happens, something like natural disaster, a fire disaster like this one that happened to university of Jos, then we can respond with Special Intervention.
“That is the original intent and we are working towards ensuring that we implement it as such. It is so for other interventions of TETFund and I usually take the opportunity such as this wherever I go and see my colleagues, professors, Deans and Heads of Department to tell them how we are going to do the interventions from now.
“For example, our Academic Staff Training and Development, we cannot be training our lecturers in bottom of the league of universities in any part of the world and expect them to come back and make our institutions great or world class. It is just not possible because you cannot give what you don’t have.
“Already, I have started implementing it. We have a standard for the various countries depending on their global ranking. If our scholars that want to enjoy TETFund’s sponsorship cannot get admission into top institutions, then they can look for money from somewhere else and sponsor themselves, not public fund.
“The same goes for Conference Attendance and everyone within the university community and even this Senate Chamber know what conference attendance is all about. It must be academic conference organised by a scholarly body. Conferences that we sponsor must be where a participating lecturer will present paper and then share knowledge through discussions with other scholars.
“We all know this, but we allow some persons not qualified to be even our students to organise conferences outside the country and we are rushing there. Most of the time you get there and it is only tourism opportunity that they are offering, nothing academic can be gained from such arrangement and we are stopping it. If you send such request, we will refuse to give approval and send it back to you.
“Also, in our physical projects, we no longer want to fund match-box projects. Universities must start building projects that are big, beautiful and functional with state of the art facility. The environments where our students study also affect their psyche and self-esteem. I don’t mind if you merge your interventions, but we will no longer accept match box proposals, we must start building infrastructures befitting a university, not the types that primary and secondary schools are no longer building”.
In the team with Baffa on the assessment visit were the Director, Executive Secretary’s Office, Barrister Ifiok Ukim, Director, Corporate Affairs and Public Relations, Mr. Benn Ebikwo, Acting Director, Education Support Services, Dr. Salisu Girei, Deputy Director, Project Management, Arc. Buhari Makailu, Zonal Coordinator, North Central, Mr. Abdulmumuni Oniyangi and other staff of the Fund.
