The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the provision of the Tax Reform Bills that recommended the scrapping of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)
The President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said scrapping TETFund would kill Nigeria’s public education and would keep children of the poor in slavery.
Professor Osodeke stated this in an interview with Channels TV on Thursday. He noted that the federal government submitted the bill to the National Assembly without consulting the people in the education sector.
“The only source of funding is from TETFund, so when you destroy it, you have destroyed public universities.
“TETFund is a product of ASUU. You can’t make the tax laws without meeting with ASUU for inputs before proposing it before the National Assembly.
“The Vice Chancellors were not consulted, Pro Chancellors were not consulted. The people sat down somewhere and said over the next five years let’s scrap it without consulting those who initiated this bill that has transformed Nigerian public universities. That’s not how to work in a system. That’s not how to run a country that is democratic,” Osodeke said.
Osodeke disclosed that the plan was to replace TETFund with the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND). He advised the federal government to seek another way of funding NELFUND, suggesting deducting from the Value Added Tax (VAT)
“Let that Act that was initiated in 1993 that has transformed all Nigerian universities, allow it to stay. If you want to drive NELFUND, go and look for ways to fund it. Don’t take from the one that is in existence to fund it.
“Take 1% or 2% of VAT to fund NELFUND. Don’t take from Peter to pay Peter. Go and look for ways to fund NELFUND.
“When you go around all Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education today, 90% of the physical structures you have there are products of this struggle for TETFUND.
“But this tax bill is saying that by the year 2030, it should be scrapped and merged with NASENI and NITDA and then reduced to 2%,” he stressed.
The ASUU President further slammed the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Tax and Fiscal Reform, Taiwo Oyedele, on his statement that no part of the bill recommended scrapping of any agency.
He added that TETFund has been the game changer in tertiary schools’ infrastructural development, which other countries are emulating.
“He is playing with words. TETFund is not gotten from the budget. For TETFund, the money is consolidated in an account that is accessed by CBN; it is money coming from companies – investment by companies in education.
“When you go outside the country, companies fund universities, they give grants, which companies are not doing in Nigeria, the only one they are doing is this 2%. So, they should not look at it as tax but investment to produce graduates that would work for you.
“He is playing with words. Look at the sharing: by 2025-2026, TETFund will access 50% of this consolidated fund. 2026-2027, it will reduce to 33%. In 2030, TETFund will have zero.
“Other countries in Africa are emulating this TETFund. I will give you an example: Ghana. Because of this, in 2021, Ghana passed their GETFUND – Ghana Education Trust Fund. They got theirs from VAT.
“If you are starting your programme which is NELFUND, there is no problem. Challenge the academia, we will tell you how to fund it. We will give you a way to fund it without tampering with the one on the ground,” he added.