Regina Otokpa 
The Academic Staff Union of U n iv e r s i t i e s (ASUU) has criticised the Federal Government for paying $44 to a company in the United Kingdom for each IPPIS account, instead of adopting UTAS developed by the lecturers for the same purpose. ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, who made the disclosure at the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research, TETFAIR, Showcase and Closing Event, held yesterday in Abuja, said it was important Nigerians deal with inferiority complex, which allows them to depend on services abroad.
According to him, every country in the world that wants to develop must use its ideas and use its people and those ideas are in the universities. He said: “In 2020 we were challenged to produce something better than IPPIS, it took us two months to produce it, UTA, which we have presented to the National Assembly, to the House; then we said let’s test the twin and IPPIS came last; but Nigeria insisted on using IPPIS. “Every year, the Nigerian government pays $44 to a company in the UK for paying my salary and you reject the one in your university. You want to do anything you run abroad.”
Osodeke, who called on budgeting agencies to separate the budget of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) from Nigeria’s annual budget to enable effective implementation, observed that strangely, for the first time, the government decided to add TETFund’s budget to the national budget. “Once TETFund’s budget is included in the national budget, it is finished. “Nigeria is in a deep crisis. Our best brains whether in the academic or medical field are leaving the country.
Thousands of our colleagues, the good ones, are leaving the country. Some are leaving to go and farm. We must rescue our country. Allow the money for universities to go into universities,” he added. Minister of Labour, Simon Lalong, who described the occasion as a celebration of the remarkable innova- tive achievements over the year, said the scheme serves as a platform for researchers and innovators to showcase their ground-breaking ideas to transform them into tangible solutions. Earlier, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, said the fair was organised to support researchers in universities to bring their innovative ideas to fruition.
While reiterating the importance of Nigeria transit- ing to a knowledge-based economy, Echono stated that the world has moved from a resource rich economy to a knowledge-based one and Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind. Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, said the TETFAIR was not the only research effort being made towards national development, stating that Nigerian researchers were also engaged in multi prong efforts, including the development of vaccines for preventable diseases in Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
