YETFund Chairman visits Neptune Prime, solicits for cooperation

YETFund Chairman visits Neptune Prime, solicits for cooperation

The Chairman of the Yobe State Education Trust Fund (YETFund), Engineer MAK Abubakar, in the company of the Fund’s Engineering Consultant, Engineer Ali Goni, today paid a courtesy visit to the office of Neptune Network Nigeria Limited, publishers of Neptune Prime online newspaper, in Abuja.

Stating the purpose of their visit to the Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of the media company, Dr Hassan Gimba, Engineer Abubakar, said it is necessary to make sure those the fund was set up are aware of their efforts.

The Chairman revealed that the fund was set up by the Yobe State Governor, His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, to rejuvenate the education sector of the state after declaring a state of emergency on education shortly after he was sworn into office.

He added that the Fund has gone around over one hundred and forty schools of the state and taken inventory of the necessary things to be done, Engineer Abubakar told Neptune Prime that the fund’s intervention would not only focus on infrastructural development but human as well.

Reminiscing on the “training to fit” that saw the northern leaders of the first republic excelling even without degrees “because they were trained to fit”, he said the YETFund will focus on retraining teachers and psyching them up to understand what they are doing is a great service and therefore they should see their jobs as careers.

He also disclosed how the YETFund board has been very prudent with the resources available to them, making them work by direct labour, thus cutting costs up to 75% with the hope of bringing it down to 50% in the near future.

Speaking further, Engineer MAK Abubakar solicited the cooperation of Neptune Prime to attain success in the educational system and make the vision of Governor Buni realisable.

Responding, Dr Gimba said he and the entire staff of Neptune Network Nigeria Limited are honoured by the visit, he assured that Neptune Prime would persist on its path of developmental journalism and continually promotes the positive strides of Yobe State under the visionary leadership of Governor Buni.

He assured the chairman that the propagation of the efforts of the YETFund will be a top priority for Neptune Prime and its sister, Neptune Hausa.

In appreciation of their visit, Dr Gimba donated some copies of his book, The Arbiter to the organisation.

Neptune Prime recalls that Governor Mai Mala Buni had declared a state of emergency on education when he was sworn in as governor, following which he organised an education summit in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.

He went on to set up an education fund under a board of seven Yobe indigenes of impeccable character and later organised a fundraiser as an intervention fund that would rejuvenate the education sector.

READ ALSO: Yobe moves to revive education sector with over N25 billion

Members of the board are Engineer Muhammad Ali Kachalla Abubakar as the Chairman with Mohammed Bukar, Malam Sule Dauda, Alhaji Ballama Manu, Professor Mohammed Salisu Adaya, and Professor Maimuna Waziri as members with Professor Mamman Yusuf Yusufari SAN) as Secretary.

Even though the fundraiser had over ₦10b in pledges out of a ₦25b target, just about 10% of that amount was redeemed.