Benin Zonal ASUU Opposes Tax Reform Bill On TETFund

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Benin Zone, has kicked against what it described as ‘scandalous’ the federal government’s attempt to foist on the body the Tax Reform Bill, noting that such is harmful to the educational well-being of the Nigerians.

The Benin Zone of ASUU which comprises the University of Benin; Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma; Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko; Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa; Delta State University, Abraka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun; University of Delta, Agbor; Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba and Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro, stated this at a press conference held in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

Addressing newsmen, the ASUU zonal coordinator, Prof Monday Lewis Igbafeh said after a careful review, the union is alarmed by Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024 which states that only 50 percent of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025 while NITDA, NISENI and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.

He said, “Our Union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is compelled once again to address you on Nigerian government’s deliberate ploy to destroy the education system of this country through a deliberate act to wind up a critical institution that has been the backbone of the continued sustenance of tertiary institutions in the country.

“Recall that our union, ASUU has been entangled with the Nigerian government over deliberate starvation of funds which resulted in parlous infrastructural decay of teaching facilities, students’ welfare and low staff remuneration and retardation in public universities in the country. Nigeria remains one of the worst countries in the world with abysmally low annual budgetary allocation to education.

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“Against the 26 percent benchmark of budgetary allocation to education prescribed by the United Nations, Nigeria in the past few years has continued to oscillate between 5 and 7 percent with Tinubu government affirmation retaining 7 percent budgetary allocation to education in its 2025 Budget.

“As a union of intellectuals, we vehemently reject this Tax Reform Bill, especially for its attempt to erode the concrete relevance of TETFund to the infrastructural development, postgraduate training and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions.

“We are calling for mass resistance against this potent threat to the life-wire of tertiary education in our country because the impeding abrogation of TETFund will take public tertiary education many years back and undermine the modest gains in repositioning Nigerian universities for global reckoning and transformative development.”