By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi Zone, has faulted the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, describing it as a “clandestine move” by the Federal Government to abolish the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
“The bill seeks to enact a new law and to abrogate the Education Tax. The Bill, if passed into law, will replace the development levy, a major source of TETFund projects, so that all the funds generated from the Education Tax will be ceded to the newly established Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND)”, ASSU said on Thursday in Jos.
Speaking further, the union argues that this will reverse decades of progress in Nigerian public tertiary education.
However, in an address with Journalists in Jos, the Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi zone ASUU, Comrade Namo Aku Timothy, expressed concerns about Section 59(3) of the proposed bill, which outlines a phased reduction of TETFund’s funding until it receives zero allocation by 2030.
According to him: “This bill is nothing short of an attempt to systematically kill TETFund, the brainchild of ASUU, which has salvaged Nigeria’s public university system from imminent collapse over the years”.
Timothy reminded Nigerians of TETFund’s origin as the Education Trust Fund (ETF), established in 1993 following ASUU’s recommendations during the Babangida regime.
“The fund was created to address the chronic underfunding of Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.
“Since its establishment, TETFund has been the most successful agency in providing interventions to Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions.
“It has financed physical infrastructure, library development, research, staff training, conference attendance, and manuscript development.
“The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), borrowed from the Nigerian experience while other African countries are queuing behind Ghana to understudy. TETFund, Nigeria should be consolidating on the gains that have been made instead of planning to kill the Agency”, he said.
The Zone called on the National Assembly, especially the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to halt further debate on the Bill and to protect the sanctity of TETFund Act 2011. The Zone also calls on the Nigerian People to rise against anti-people policies of the Tinubu-led admission.
