Tax Bills: Stakeholders Worry Over Future Of Nigerian Tertiary Education

The proposed tax reforms by the Federal Government have sparked widespread concern among key stakeholders in Nigeria’s educational sector.

Academic unions and other stakeholders have raised alarms, warning that the changes could trigger a crisis in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

A major comcern is the introduction of tax bills that threaten the future of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

This has led to strong opposition from academic unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).

Critics argued that phasing out TETFund would cripple public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, potentially reversing decades of progress in infrastructure development and academic advancement.

Stakeholders are now calling for urgent consultations to ensure that the funding needs of Nigeria’s public education system are not undermined by the proposed reforms.

ASUU, on its part appealed to the government to reconsider any move to phase out TETFund, which has been instrumental in transforming tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria over the last three decades.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, warned that suffocating the funding source of TETFund to fund the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) would destroy public education in the country.

“The only source of funding is from TETFund, so when you destroy it, you have destroyed public universities,” he said. Osodeke also alleged that some members of the ruling class want to dismantle public universities and ensure that only the wealthy have access to quality education.

He criticised the Tax Bills introduced by the President Bola Tinubu administration, noting that key stakeholders within the educational sector were not consulted before the bills were presented to the National Assembly.

“TETFund is a product of ASUU. You can’t make tax laws without consulting ASUU for inputs. The Vice Chancellors were not consulted, Pro Chancellors were not consulted. The people sat down somewhere and decided to scrap it without consulting those who initiated this bill,” he added.

Osodeke further proposed that instead of phasing out TETFund, which is funded through consolidated revenue from company income tax, the government should fund NELFUND through Value Added Tax (VAT), ensuring that TETFund continues to support public tertiary education.

COEASU, too, has expressed deep concern over the proposed tax reform bill, warning that it could jeopardize the survival of TETFund and, by extension, Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

COEASU President, Dr. Smart Olugbeko, criticised aspects of the proposed tax reforms that threaten to cut off TETFund’s funding sources, calling the move a “dangerous ambush” that could severely undermine the development of public tertiary institutions.

Also speaking, an educator and political analyst, Olawale Oluwaseun Afolabi argued that the proposal on TETFund seems to be part of an agenda to dismantle the agency.

He questioned why both TETFund and NELFUND should not be funded from the national budget, suggesting that defunding TETFund could be the first step toward its eventual elimination.

“If TETFund does not need special funding because it is an agency of the FG, why is NELFUND retaining a special levy?” he asked.