The Ibadan Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to sacrifice Nigeria’s educational system in blind obedience to the International Monetary Fund-directed policies.
The advice was given at a press conference held on Sunday, January 19, 2025, in Osogbo, Osun State.
At the press conference, the Ibadan Zone of ASUU, comprising the University of Ibadan, Ibadan; University of Ilorin, Ilorin; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; Osun State University, Osogbo; Kwara State University, Malete; and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo, drew the attention of the National Assembly and the Federal Government to the inherent dangers in the proposed abolition of TETFund and its replacement with NELFUND in the proposed Public Benefit and Taxation Bill (PBTB) of 2024.
Led by the Zonal Coordinator, Professor Oyegoke Oyebamiji, the Ibadan Zone of ASUU noted: “TETFund, which is the brainchild of the Union, has greatly helped in improving infrastructural development in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
It has also had aided capacity building of members of academic staff, contributed immensely to promotion of cutting-edge researches, assisted in organizing seminars, workshops and learned conferences, both locally and internationally, helped in equipping scanty scientific and engineering laboratories, helped in purchasing books to stock obsolete libraries and useful in providing state-of-the-art e-libraries in Nigerian tertiary institutions, to mention but a few.”
The chairpersons of ASUU in the Zone stated that replacing TETFund with NELFUND is tantamount to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face, adding that “it is retrogressive and inimical to the desirable future of the Nigerian public education system.”
ASUU noted that taking any percentage out of the Education Tax (Development Levy) to service other agencies not known to the TETFund Act 2011 is not only illegal but should not be allowed to stand, especially when no visible priority has been given to funding public education through budgetary allocation by successive Federal and State governments.
“ASUU notes with serious concern, Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024 which specifically states that only 50 percent of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025 and 2026, while NITDA, NASENI and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.”
Professor Oyebamiji stated that a “government that allocates 7 percent of budget to education, as against the 15 percent in its manifesto during campaign; and over 20 percent recommended by UNESCO, should be resisted from commercializing public education they had benefited so much from to be who and where they are in Nigeria and the rest of the world.”
“TETFund will also receive “66⅔ percent in 2027, 2028 and 2029 years of assessment, but 0 percent in 2030 year of assessment and thereafter.
“Giving zero allocation of Development Levy to TETFund as from 2030 is a technical way of abrogating the agency and public tertiary education in the country. The purported admonishment that TETFund should seek innovative ways of generating its funds is a confirmation of the say of a one-time Vice-Chancellor of the premier university of Nigeria, who observed, ‘all things bright and beautiful, Nigerians destroy them all’.
“If TETFund as a creation of an Act is technically killed through the proposed Tax Reform, then how can a dead agency devise an innovative means of generating its funds?”
The Ibadan Zone of ASUU expressed serious concern that while Ghana has just established Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) borrowed from the Nigerian experience and other African countries recently visited the country to understudy TETFund, Nigerian government is, unfortunately, planning to kill an Agency that has kept all public universities alive for more than three decades.
The Union leaders listed the danger of abolishing TETFund to include loss of critical funding, disruption of ongoing projects and programmes, negative impact on research and development, increased burden on students and parents, undermining university autonomy, problem of loan recovery from defaulters, looming and ominous loss of jobs for employees in TETFund office.
While opposing any plans to destroy TETFund and its replacement with NELFUND, ASUU urged the National Assembly and the Federal Government to reconsider this proposal and, instead, work to strengthen TETFund and ensure its continued relevance in supporting tertiary education in Nigeria.
The conference was attended by Prof. Ayoola Akinwole (ASUU-UI); Dr. Alex Akanmu (ASUU-UNILORIN), Dr. Dada Olujinmi (ASUU-LAUTECH); Dr. Wende Olaosebikan (ASUU-UNIOSUN); Dr. Shehu Salau (ASUU-KWASU) and Dr. Bamidele Ojo (ASUU-EAUED).
