Reject FG’s plan to abolish TETFund, ASUU urges students

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Owerri zone has called on Nigerians, particularly vulnerable students, to voice out against the Federal Government’s proposed policy to abolish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) across public institutions in the country.

They alleged that the proposed policy is a plot to kill public tertiary education in favour of private schools largely owned by political leaders.

The call was made by the Owerri zonal coordinator of ASUU, Prof Dennis Aribodor, on behalf of the zone during a press conference held at the ASUU-UNIZIK conference hall in Awka, on Saturday.

Prof Aribodor said the Union has urged the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, and the Federal House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, to be wary of the potential consequences of abrogating the TETFund.

He said for the last one-and-a-half decades, it has been the backbone of Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions, supporting infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building.

He said the union stands against anything that would lead to the denigration or obliteration of TETFund as it observed with keen interest the ongoing debate on the review of the tax system in the country.

He said part of the bill proposed to end funding of the TETFund by the year 2030 and thereafter cede the responsibilities to the newly established Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

According to the zonal coordinator, the conference aimed at sensitising and inviting all stakeholders for a patriotic action to save public tertiary education in Nigeria by rejecting the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, especially as it affects the abolishing of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

“Going back to history, the 1980s were a particularly difficult period for Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions.

The economic downturn, compounded by the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) of the Babangida Administration, masterminded by the IMF and World Bank, led to cuts in public spending on education. Universities and other tertiary institutions were starved of resources, and lecturers were poorly paid. ASUU, recognising that the future of Nigerian education was at stake, embarked on a series of strikes and negotiations with the government. Their demands were clear: improved funding for universities and education, respect for university autonomy, and better welfare for lecturers.

“During this period, ASUU played a key role in the development of what would later become the Education Tax Fund (ETF), now known as TETFund (Tertiary Education Trust Fund). In January 1993, the Education Tax Act No7 of 1993 was promulgated. The Decree imposed a 2% tax on the assessable profits of all companies in Nigeria. This was a home-grown solution to address issues of funding to rehabilitate decaying infrastructure, restore the lost glory of education and confidence in the system as well as consolidate the gains thereto; build capacity of teachers and lecturers; teacher development; development of prototype designs; etc.

“The Education Tax Act of No7 of 1993 mandated the Fund to operate as an Intervention Fund to all levels of Public Education (Federal, State and local). This mandate lasted between 1999 to May 2011 when the ETF Act was repealed and replaced by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act, due to lapses and challenges in operating the Education Trust Fund. These lapses and challenges include that the ETF was overburdened and overstretched and could only render palliative support to all levels of public educational institutions in Nigeria and duplication of functions and mandates of others.

“Agencies set up after the ETF, such as Universal Basic Education (UBE). The Education Tax Fund played a significant role in funding education from primary to tertiary in Nigeria until the law was amended to focus the Fund on only tertiary education, thus changing the name to TETFund.

“TETFund has since become one of ASUU’s most significant achievements, channelling much-needed resources into the tertiary education system for infrastructure development, research, and teaching facilities.

The distribution ratio of the Fund is 2:1:1 between Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. TETFund currently provides intervention to Two Hundred and Forty-Four (244) public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, which are 96 Universities, 72 Polytechnics and 76 Colleges of Education.

The breakdown of these institutions is as follows: 49 Federal Universities, 47 State Universities, 34 Federal Polytechnics, 38 State Polytechnics, 28 Federal Colleges of Education and 48 State Colleges of Education. A tour of any campus of any public tertiary institution in Nigeria will bear eloquent testimonies to the establishment of TETFund.

“Federal and state-owned tertiary institutions are currently referred to as TETFund Institutions because most projects are funded from this interventionist agency and should not be killed through the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024.

“ASUU Owerri Zone has observed with keen interest the ongoing debate on the review of the tax system in Nigeria, which is currently before the National Assembly.

“Arising from the tax bill is the proposed abrogation of Education Tax. 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 Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 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 percentages. TETFund will also receive “66⅔% in 2027, 2028 and 2029 years of assessment” but “0% in 2030 year of assessment and thereafter”. This is alarming and should not be allowed particularly when priority has not been given to funding public education through budgetary allocation by successive federal and state governments.

“To substantiate this, 7% was allocated to education, as against 15% in the manifesto of the APC (the party in power), and over 20% was recommended by UNESCO. Education, including tertiary education, is a public good and should not be commercialised, especially by persons who benefited most from public education.

The far-reaching consequence of the new tax system is that from 2030, all funds generated from the Development Levy will be passed to NELFUND.

“ASUU Owerri Zone finds this development not only worrisome but also inimical to our national development objective because of the potential danger it has to the survival of TETFund. While viewing TETFund as the backbone for infrastructural development, postgraduate training and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions in the last fifteen (15) years, ASUU Owerri Zone is compelled by the circumstance to seriously observe that; “Taking any percentage out of the Education Tax (Development Levy) to service another agency not known to the TETFund Act 2011 is illegal and should not be allowed to stand;

“Giving zero allocation of Development Levy to TETFund as from 2030 is a technical way of killing the agency and public tertiary education; the purported admonishment that TETFund should seek innovative ways of generating its funds is spurious and ill-advised because, as a creation of an Act, the institution dies without the fund;

“Replacing TETFund with NELFUND is comparable to killing a parent to keep a newborn child alive; it is unethical and against the principle of natural justice;

“The impact of TETFund on the campus of every tertiary institution in Nigeria is beyond description; abrogating it will take public tertiary education many years back and undermine the modest gains in repositioning Nigerian universities for global reckoning and transformative development;

“Annual supports given to tertiary institutions by TETFund have substantially reduced industrial crises in many tertiary institutions; renovation of old facilities and provision of new ones and opportunities for staff development leading to career advancement have doused labour-related agitations on our campuses;

“TETFund impacts not only tertiary-level education, but also the secondary down to kindergarten; it directly and/or indirectly supports the production of quality teachers and different categories of support staff in the entire educational system; and ‘The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) borrowed from the Nigerian experience while some other African countries have recently visited to understudy TETFund; Nigeria should be improving on the operations and sustainability of the agency, and not planning to emasculate or abrogate it.

“ASUU Owerri Zone has resolved not to stand by and watch the denigration or obliteration of TETFund which represents the positive testament to our Union’s constructive engagements with Nigeria governments since 1992.

“It is our considered view that abrogating the TETFund Act 2011, by design or default, will be a great disservice not just to education but to Nigeria as a nation. As a result, ASUU Owerri Zone is urging all stakeholders in the Nigeria Education project, particularly the National Assembly, especially the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to do all within their capacity to protect TETFund from being abrogated under the Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 and save the killing of public tertiary education,” Prof Aribodor concluded.

Tribune Online gathered that ASUU Owerri Zone comprises 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.

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