Excluding private varsities from TETFUND is illegal, unfair, unconstitutional —Afe Babalola

ELDER statesman and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, has described Federal Government’s unabated exclusion of private universities from benefiting from TETFUND largesse as illegal, unfair, unconstitutional and unjustifiable, thus giving verve to the aphorism that any fortune not shared is a misfortune and unfortunate.

In his usual frank, firm, fair but friendly persona, the frontline legal icon and proponent of quality and functional education bemoaned the lopsidedness in the disbursement of TETFUND funds when the leadership of Dominican University, Ibadan, (DUI), led by its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dokun Oyeshola, paid Babalola a consultation visit in Ado-Ekiti recently.

In his January 24, 2024, letter to Babalola requesting for the visit, Oyeshola said, inter alia, that: “…I deeply admire the commendable work you have done in your university, and I am eager to drink from the wealth of experience you have accumulated in successfully steering the university through its formative years”.

He added: “As the leader of a university (the faith-based Dominican University) that has strived for seven years, I believe that a one-on-one meeting would provide me with excellent insights that will be instrumental in shaping the trajectory of our faith-based (Catholic Church) University”.

True to the tone and tenor of his letter, Oyeshola said his team was in ABUAD to learn about its comely environment, Human Development, attitude and ICT as well as E-learning, stressing that “if you have a university that has made it in just 14 years and become one of the best in the world, that is the direction one should turn to learn a lesson or two”.

He added: “It is always a wise decision for one to relate with people and places of integrity from who and where one can learn how to change things for the better.

“We can’t compare ourselves (DUI) with just eight programmes with ABUAD which has 47 Undergraduate and 37 Postgraduate Programmes within a spate of just 14 years. We are here to see and to learn. We fervently believe in the saying that if you want a job done, you should give it to a busy person. ABUAD is not only busy with 47 Undergraduate and 37 Postgraduate Programmes, but also a successful university and that is why we are here to learn”.

He wondered why many wealthy Nigerians would not borrow a leaf from Babalola by investing in Nigeria, but instead deliberately elect to stash their money abroad without known signatories as a result of which such monies end up in the custody of other people upon the demise of such Nigerians.

Receiving Oyeshola, who was accompanied by DUI’s Acting Registrar, Rev. Father Samuel Onyiba, and Rev. Father Gabriel Avbenake, after the trio had toured ABUAD’s serene and sprawling campus, its ultra-modern 400-bed Multi-System Hospital, its expansive ABUAD Enterprise Farm, its 124-unit Industrial Park and its Independent Power Plant, IPP, Babalola congratulated the Catholic Church for being among other Christian Missionaries such as the Church Missionary Society (CMS), the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian as well as the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) which took interest in founding the first set of early Elementary and Secondary Schools in Nigeria.

A former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos, Babalola promised to extend a hand of collaboration to DUI in the areas of teaching, research and community development with a view to institutionalizing quality and functional education and making Nigeria better in all ramifications.

To put DUI on a sound pedestal, Babalola advised the new university (DUI) to ensure it moves to its permanent site, makes its university fully residential, ensures stable academic calendar, ensures regular and uninterrupted supply of water and electricity, ensures fully stocked laboratories and libraries, have robust ICT and E-learning platforms and interactive teaching and above all, ensures an all-round security like the 14-year-old ABUAD.

Babalola seized the opportunity to remind the Federal Government of its constitutional responsibility to factor in Nigerian private Universities as beneficiaries of TETFUND.

Going into the history of private universities in Nigeria, Babalola said: “Consequent upon the failure of public universities to fully accommodate most qualified candidates, licenses were granted to private individuals and organizations to establish private universities in 1999. With the passage of time, the number of such private Universities has increased steadily”.

He added: “However, even though private Universities offer a viable alternative to public institutions and even complement and aid the drive of the Government to increase the accessibility and quality of education, private universities do not receive any form of funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

“A careful reading of the relevant sections of the law shows that the intention of the lawmakers in imposing Education Tax on registered companies in Nigeria is for advancement of education to various levels and categories of education through rehabilitation, restoration, and consolidation of education in Nigeria.”

Babalola lamented that curiously by the provisions of Section 7(1) of the Act, private institutions including universities are excluded from benefiting from the funds collected from companies which are mainly private.

To him, “it seems clearly that Section 7(1) of the Act contradicts the provisions of Section 3(1) and violates Section 18 of the 1979 Constitution.  The exclusion of private institutions apart from the contradiction between Sections 3 and 7 of the law, is obviously unconstitutional, unfair, and unjustifiable”.

Seeing things from the perspective of the Federal Government, the frontline legal colossus posited: “The Government may probably be right to think that if the fund is made available to all private universities, it may be abused as some people will just wake up one morning and claim they have established some nebulous private universities just for them to access funds from TETFUND.”

But Babalola believes that there is a way out of this debacle as it is done in other parts of the world. He has since been in the forefront of the fight for an equitable use of TETEFUND resources among Federal, State and Private universities.

He therefore suggested and recommended that any Private University which operates on its permanent site with a minimum of 20 of its Academic programmes accredited by the NUC and has also commenced its Postgraduate studies should have an unfettered access to TETFUND facilities.

After all, TETFUND is money collected from taxes from public companies and is meant to fund development of education. It is tragic, to say the least, that in its wisdom, the government restricts the beneficiary of the money to public institutions alone. After all, it was the government that called on public spirited people to establish private universities to ease the burden on Federal Government on access to university education.

Private universities are established by philanthropists who otherwise could have spent their money for the benefit of their families. The graduates they produce serve Nigeria and not the families of their founders. Despite numerous appeals to Federal Government to change the policy, the discriminatory policy remains.

He therefore called on the National Assembly to amend the law so that private universities too can benefit from TETFUND, bearing in mind that graduates of private universities do not serve the families of the founders of such universities but the country.

Welcoming the visitors earlier, ABUAD’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Elisabeta Smaranda Olarinde, had assured them that they were on a sure terrain bearing in mind that Babalola had made it abundantly clear from the on-set that his non-for-profit private university was established to teach Nigerians how a university, properly so-called, should be run, an idea that had flashed through his mind during his seven-year stint as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of UNILAG.

With DUI’s quest, Olarinde reiterated that the faith-based university has joined the league of other universities such as Benue State University, the University for Industrial Development, Ghana, the International University of Grand Bassan, Cote D’Ivoire, Benson Idahosa University, Ado Bayero University, Bayero, Federal University of Technology, Akure (for Medical Programmes), Ecole Professionnelle Specialisee – La City University, Republic of Benin, Western Delta University, Delta State, Azman University, Kano, Ahman Pategi University, Pategi, Kwara State, Trinity Western University, Canada and King’s College, London as well as Johns Hopkins Hospital, USA, which are either being mentored by ABUAD or are in partnership or collaboration with the 14-year-old university which has been ranked by the UK-based Times Higher Education Impact Rankings as Number 1 University in Nigeria for two consecutive years (2022 & 2023).

Olofintila, ABUAD’s Director of Corporate Affairs, writes from Ado-Ekiti.