The Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership has praised the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, for launching the Federal Tertiary Institution Governance and Transparency Platform (FTIGTP), describing it as a landmark step toward accountability and openness in Nigeria’s higher education system.
The platform, unveiled on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at The Podium, Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, provides a centralised, real-time database of financial and institutional data from all federal tertiary institutions. It covers key metrics such as student enrolment, TETFund disbursements, NELFund interventions, and governance indicators.
The event was attended by the Minister of State for Education, Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts, and other senior officials of the ministry.
Chancellor of the Athena Centre, Osita Chidoka, said the initiative was inspired by findings from the Centre’s Governance Insight Report, which exposed widespread non-disclosure and weak accountability mechanisms in the nation’s universities.
“The study revealed that none of the 63 universities surveyed had published comprehensive financial statements or audit reports — a situation that severely undermined stakeholder trust, donor confidence, and global competitiveness,” Chidoka stated.
He commended Dr. Alausa’s response to the report’s findings, describing the move as a model of evidence-based leadership.
“Dr. Alausa’s decisive response to those findings exemplifies the leadership Nigeria needs, one that respects evidence, values collaboration, and delivers results,” he said. “What the Minister has done is exemplary. He has shown that when evidence meets leadership, reform becomes inevitable. This is a model of governance that listens to data and acts decisively.”
In his remarks, Dr. Alausa reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to transparency and governance reform, announcing that future government funding and intervention programmes will now depend on compliance with the new reporting standards.
The minister noted that the new platform “marks the beginning of a new accountability culture across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions,” and commended the Athena Centre for its role in generating the evidence that informed the reform.
The Athena Centre reaffirmed its commitment to promoting evidence-based policy and strengthening national institutions, pledging continued collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC), and other stakeholders to sustain compliance through an Annual University Transparency Index.
