•Says Bill Seeks To Kill Nigerian Public Institutions
Emmanuel Nlewedum, Port Harcourt
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has rejected the Federal Government proposed tax reform bill, 2024, saying the bill seeks to kill the public tertiary educational institutions in the country.
The union also rejected plans by the federal government to allegedly divert funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, into the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND and other interventions
The Port Harcourt Zone of ASUU, at a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday lamented that section 59 (3) of the bill, is couched to reduce the intervention scope of TETFund to systemically reduce its accruals.
Speaking, the Port Harcourt Zonal Coordinator of the Union, Stanley Ogoun, called on members of the national assembly to take sides with the people for once and expunge section 59(3), which is anti-people, warning that the union would resist the “hostile takeover” of TETFund accruals in any guise.
Ogoun lambasted the promoters of NELFUND, saying they could not device an ingenious strategy of funding it, rather than seeking a surreptitious means to divert funds meant for TETFund.
He said, “It is informative to state from the onset that, the current government had no sustainable plans for the funding of Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
“This was one of the core questions raised by our Union and all well-meaning Nigerians (Where will the funds come from and how will the loan scheme be sustained from commencement to when eventually refunds will begin to trickle in from those graduates who become gainfully employed or become revenue earners from self-employment?).
“The planners of the scheme could not come up with an appropriate and innovative funding source. Berate of innovative thinking, these handlers simply advised Mr President to draw from the funds meant for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to commence the scheme.
“Hence, they got the needed presidential approval to vire funds from the 2024 TETFund accruals to kickstart NELFUND, without recourse to the provisions of the Act Establishing the fund.
“We challenge the Federal government to declare the source of the take-off funds used to commence the scheme. Having succeeded in this illegality without respect for its own laws, and resistance, they have now come for the kill, with the proposed Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024.
“This breach of the Act in 2024 effectively reduced the intervention scope of TETFund in the nation’s public tertiary institutions by the quantum of funds pulled out.”
Continuing, Ogoun said, “For the avoidance of doubt, what is before the national assembly as proposed in Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024 is that from 2025 to 2026, only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund while the remaining would go to funding of NITDA, NASENI, and NELFUND (recall that even without the bill, part of the 2024 funds were illegally diverted from TETFund to kickstart NELFUND).
“This would then be followed by an increase to “66⅔% in the years 2027 to 2029 to TETFund and 0% allocation from 2030 upwards. Imagine the multiplier and crippling effect of such a proposal, but unashamedly, the handlers of Mr President are defending this absurdity.
“To the proponents of this obnoxious policy, we say, if you are creative by your own assessment to have proposed it in your provision of expert advisory services to Mr. President, please guide Mr President rightly in the interest of our common good.
“Be humble enough to seek expert opinion that is citizen and national interest driven. Ignoble piracy of policy ideas from economically developed nations, and driving same through the head of Mr. President and basking in a delusional grandeur of expert adviser is clear sense of creative ineptitude.”
The press conference was also attended by Comrade Sylva Ligeiaziba, ASUU Chairperson, Bayelsa Medical University, Comrade Donny Sigah, ASUU Chairperson, University of Africa Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State, Comrade Emmanuel Davies, ASUU Chairperson, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Comrade Austen Sado, ASUU National Investment Secretary.
Others are Comrade Uzoma Darlington Chima, ASUU Chairperson, University of Port Harcourt, Comrade Oyinkepreye Lucky Bebeteidoh, ASUU Chairperson, Niger Delta University, Comrade Obinna Prince Ikechi, ASUU Vice Chairperson, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, IAUE, Port Harcourt and Comrade Bruno Yammeluan Ikuli, Chairperson, ASUU, Federal University, Otuoke, FUO.