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*By Tunde Olusunle*

One very well reasoned appointment into a very critical government
department in recent years, is bound to be the “conscription” of Sonny Togo Echono to the leadership of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND). The last five years of his most eventful public service career were spent as Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education. On a daily basis, he engaged with Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, owned by the federal government. Added together, we are speaking here of well over 100 such institutions, with the federal government hosting this tripod of institutions, universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, in most of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT). Echono’s office distilled the needs of these citadels of knowledge and activated the bureaucracy of the ministry to tend to their operational requirements.

Following his retirement from service early 2022, Echono momentarily reclined into his couch to savour desired rest and rejuvenation after a racy and most eventful career. Before his last port of call in the Federal Ministry of Education, Echono’s career which began as an architect with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in 1987, had taken him through several key Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs), availing him multisectoral experiential rootedness across the public service. He had served variously in the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, (BMPIU), and the ministries of Defence; Water Resources; Environment; Agriculture and Power. He had therefore planned to shuttle between his address in Nigeria’s capital city and his countryside abode in the Idoma heartland in Benue State, which he cherishes dearly.

*Ademola Adeleke, Governor of Osun State being received by Sonny Echono during his visit to TETFUND.*

Duty, however, beckoned within weeks of his retirement. Echono, seasoned architect, experienced public servant, consummate patriot, was appointed Executive Secretary of TETFUND. He formally assumed office on March 18, 2022. The scheme was established by the federal government in 2011, with the primary responsibility of disbursing, managing and monitoring the deployment of education tax remitted to government-owned tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Public tertiary institutions were hitherto poorly funded. This situation, expectedly, had very negative impact on knowledge dissemination, periodically engendering unrest in the institutions. TETFUND is supervised by the Federal Ministry of Education, Echono’s last official post. This naturally has ensured smooth and seamless collaboration between the parent ministry and its parastatal, since the onset of the Echono dispensation.

Three years into his five-year stewardship, Echono continues to chalk up milestones for the organisation. It was not going to be “business as usual” under his watch so he began with desirable “housekeeping” by addressing the work ethic in TETFUND. Previously perceived as a “cash cow,” entrenched interests had constituted themselves into a cabal which determined the award of contracts to predetermined interests. There were also murmurs and talks about stealing and underhand dealings which cast the organisation in bad light in the public sphere. Steeped and stewed in the ethos of due process and public procurement, Echono moved speedily to bring his imprimatur to bear on the workings of the organisation. He has since striven, gradually and unobtrusively, to straighten the administration of TETFUND and realign its operations with its core mandate.

*Sonny Echono, (right), receiving Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State, in his Abuja office*

Such revolutionary novelties in an organisation previously steeped and stuck in its ways were not going to make new friends for Echono. Fifth columnists in the system and their external collaborators, periodically engineered phoney petitions to anti-graft agencies, notably the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, (ICPC). They equally generated submissions to the nation’s parliament contending in one particular instance, that an accumulated allocation of over N2 Trillion to TETFUND over the years, could not be accounted for! The ever calm Echono has always responded to such claims and invitations to clarify the issues with impeccable documents and records. These have serially deflated the schemes and mischief of faceless rabble rousers.

Sonny Echono’s regime has brought a fresh air of activism into the endeavours of TETFUND. The federal government has also continued to reaffirm its faith in the establishment via regular upward reviews of its budgetary allocations. TETFUND continues to renew, or open fresh, possibilities for collaboration between it and a plethora of organisations. Callers at the Abuja headquarters of the organisation over time, have included the Senate and House Committees on Tertiary Institutions. Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State and his Cross River State counterpart, Bassey Otu, have also visited TETFUND seeking partnership. Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, (CDS), General Christopher Gwabin Musa has also been a guest of Echono’s TETFUND. Musa exercises oversight over the Nigerian army, navy and airforce. Over the years, the military has continued to reinvent its training institutions many of which are degree awarding citadels today. Musa believes there are areas of potential cooperation between the military and TETFUND, and has begun a conversation around this. The Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC), recently followed the precedence of the military, when its Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed, led a team to TETFUND. The FRSC canvassed support for its training institutions to enhance the capacity and professionalism of road safety personnel across the country.

*General Musa, Chief of Defence Staff, (CDS), and Sonny Echono during the visit of the CDS to TETFUND.*

Simultaneously, Echono is regularly on the road with his own officials, knocking on doors of MDAs whose partnership can strengthen the enterprise of TETFUND. Among several others, he has in recent months, led delegations to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI). Echono is equally a much sought-after speaker these days at university convocation lectures and similar public engagements. These have availed him the platform to address burning issues in Nigeria’s all-important educational sector. Echono’s Convocation Lecture at the Federal University of Technology, (FUTO), Owerri, Imo State, last December, was titled *Impact of Leadership Selection on Governance in Public Universities in Nigeria.* At a similar event at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State last January, Echono spoke on *TETFUND and Educational Development in Nigeria: The History, the Treasures and the Future.*

Echono addressed the subject *University Autonomy and the Challenge of Quality Tertiary Education in Nigeria,* at the Convocation ceremony of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, in February. He has deployed these speaking opportunities to address issues of inadequate funding in tertiary institutions, and to restate the imperative of the payment of tuition fees in public universities. This, he has regularly maintained is crucial to support that critical level of the educational hierarchy. Echono has canvassed synergy between institutions in the areas of research, innovation, alumni obligations and student exchange to broaden the worldview of young scholars. He has equally admonished on the inescapability of full autonomy in public universities, if educational standards must improve and be sustained. The acquisition of quality literacy never comes cheap, he has consistently maintained.

Elsewhere, Echono has decried the penchant of many Nigerians who were sponsored abroad on public resources, but refusing to return home to contribute to national development. Many such nationals opt to stay back in foreign lands, against the spirit of their scholarships. Echono regards this as a dimension of the pervading *japa* syndrome, the abscondment abroad of Nigerians fleeing excruciating socioeconomic conditions at home. Last November, TETFUND under Echono stopped government funding for intending foreign students. This should mitigate the double-sided loss of the country’s fiscal and human resources, respectively. At an August 2024 *Conference on Digital Pedagogy and Fundable Research Writing,* Echono criticised the arbitrary upgrading of Colleges of Education into Universities of Education, by governments at various levels. His contention is that the country remains in short supply of teachers and instructors at the foundational level of education.

Sonny Echono has also criticised the continuing politicisation and corruption inherent in the appointment of Vice Chancellors in Nigerian universities. In one of his public presentations, he abhorred political interference and financial inducement in leadership selection processes in our universities. These factors he observed are combining to erode the sanctity of the hallowed university system. Echono expressed worry about the fact that competition for appointment into principal offices in universities has become a lucrative venture which has made members of governing councils prone to fiscal inducement. Echono has received several awards through the years including that of the national honour of *Officer of the Order of the Niger, (OON).* He has demonstrably distinguished himself beyond the the half line of his present assignment. He can be trusted and should be continually supported to consolidate on his legacies in the years to come.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*