The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called for its direct involvement in the implementation of projects under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
The leadership of the ASUU Owerri zone, comprising Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State; Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State; Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State; Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, made the call while briefly newsmen at the ASUU, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, chapter secretariat yesterday.
The coordinator of the ASUU Owerri zone, Professor Dennis Aribodor, who led other union leaders in the zone, also demanded decentralisation of the management of TETfund so that the respective tertiary institutions would be responsible for managing the funds allocated to it.
He emphasised that the present practice where the management and Governing Council of the respective tertiary institutions are the ones who recommend projects and other needs of their institution to be executed under TETfund without ASUU involved was responsible for the fraud being recorded in the TETfund management because according to him both the “management and Government Council members are appointees of the visitor” so they collude with TETfund management at Abuja over the execution of the projects in the tertiary institutions.
The Owerri zone ASUU particularly warned against abolishing TETfund as contained in the proposed Tax Reform Bill (2024) currently in the National Assembly.
The Owerri ASUU zone rather urged all stakeholders to save public tertiary education in the country by “rejecting the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024 especially as it affects the abolishing of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)”.
Aribodor argued that TETfund has been the life-wire of all public tertiary institutions including Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, and, warned that if TETfund is abolished public tertiary institutions will become comatose for the privately owned counterparts to thrive.
“ASUU is alarmed by this dangerous and unpatriotic aspect of the proposed new tax regime to wit: that the Education Tax, called Development Levy, used to bankroll TETFund’s programmes should be ceded to the newly established Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
“ASUU notes with serious concern section 59(3) of the Nigerian Tax Bill (2024) which specifically states that only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETfund in 2025 and 2026 while NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND would share the remaining percentage”, he stated further.
The ASUU zone particularly condemned plans to stop TETFund’s funding total in 2030 as proposed in the tax bill.
It also opposed the proposal to channel all the education tax to NELFUND, arguing that the provision of bursaries to students should be prioritised.
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