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Opposition to TETFund law amendment heightens

By Eno-Abasi Sunday
01 July 2015   |   12:25 am
There are 60 licensed private universities in the country. And a good number of proprietors and vice chancellors of the over 40 that are operational have, over the years, been calling for the inclusion of their institutions in the pool of schools benefitting from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). With rising calls for and…
Buhari

Buhari

Bogoro,02-07ok-CopyThere are 60 licensed private universities in the country. And a good number of proprietors and vice chancellors of the over 40 that are operational have, over the years, been calling for the inclusion of their institutions in the pool of schools benefitting from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

With rising calls for and against the inclusion gaining ascendency, the fate of these private institutions appear to hang on the balance, just as a stroke of the pen by President Muhammadu Buhari, by way of giving assent to the amended TETFund Act will swing things favour of the private schools.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Rector, Niger State Polytechnic, Dr. Umar Ahmed Egbako, heaped praises on the TETFund for the immense role it has played in pulling state and federal-owned tertiary institutions from the shackles of penury.

In summarising the impact of the body on tertiary education Egbako stated, “Without TETFund, many institutions, including federal government-owned ones would have been in a sorry state. I don’t think any institution in Nigeria, be it state or federal government-owned would have been able to carry out any physical development. TETFund is the live wire of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. We must commend the Federal Government for its establishment because it has made a great impact in the development of tertiary education in the country and has today taken over the sponsorship of seminars, conferences, workshops and many other things.

Establishing act and mandate
The TETFund was established as an intervention agency under the TETFund Act – (Establishment, etc) Act, 2011. It is charged with the responsibility of managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. To enable the TETFund achieve the above objectives, the Act imposes a two per cent education tax on the assessable profit of all registered companies in Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is empowered by the Act to assess and collect the education tax. The fund administers the tax imposed by the Act and disburses the amount to tertiary educational institutions at federal and state levels. It also monitors the projects executed with the funds allocated to the beneficiaries.

The mandate of the fund as provided in Section 7(1)(a) to (e) of the TETFund Act, 2011 is to administer and disburse the amount in the fund to federal and state tertiary educational institutions, specifically for the provision and maintenance of the following: essential physical infrastructure for teaching and learning, instructional material and equipment, research and publication, academic staff training and development, any other need which, in the opinion of the TETFund Board of Trustees, is critical and essential for the improvement of quality and maintenance of standards in the higher educational institutions.

Rising call for review of enabling act
One of the dramatis personae in the call for a review of the enabling law is foremost legal practitioner, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), who recently called for an immediate amendment to Section 7(1) of the TETFund Act which, he said contradicts the provisions of Section 3(1) of the same Act and also violates Section 18 of the 1979 Constitution, so as to address the “obviously unconstitutional, unfair and unjustifiable exclusion of private institutions from benefitting from the funds accruable from TETFund.”

Babalola, who is the proprietor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), while speaking at the commencement of the 48th Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) in the school wondered why the provisions of Section 7(1) of the Act should exclude private institutions, including universities, from benefiting from the funds collected from companies, which are mainly private.

He recalled how consequent upon the failure of public universities to fully accommodate a majority of qualified candidates, the Federal Government granted licenses to private individuals and organisations to establish private universities in 1999 as a result, the number of such institutions has increased steadily with the passage of time.

He had argued that a careful perusal 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 through rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation.

“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,” the legal practitioner stated.

As if to absolve the government of any deliberate wrong-doing in this matter, Babalola said the government may probably be right to think that if the fund was made available to all private varsities, without let or hindrance, 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.

A window of opportunity, resistance
The ongoing debate for the inclusion of private universities as TETFund beneficiaries derives strength from a recent event- the celebrated passage of 46 bills by the 7th National Assembly in less than 10 minutes.

Among other things, the bill seeks to change the board’s structure to include a representative of the Nigerian Law School; redefine tertiary education to include the Nigerian Law School; and define university to include the Nigerian Law School and any institution established by law, which runs full time programme, which leads to formal qualification prescribed by law. Stakeholders and unions had rejected the bill in 2012.

However, the 30th Conference of Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerians Universities (AVCNU), which took place at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, provided an opportunity for the TETFund authorities to kick against the idea vehemently.

Addressing vice chancellors from all 138 universities in the country as well as other stakeholders, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro, urged Buhari not to sign the TETFund (establishment) Act (amendment) Bill 2015 into law.

He faulted the law, which he said was “hurriedly” passed, adding that he found it embarrassing that as the executive secretary of the fund, he merely heard and watched the proceedings on television.

He recalled that at a public hearing on the bill held two years ago, the committee had suggested the inclusion of the Nigerian Law School as a beneficiary of the fund, a request the body opposed.

“At that public hearing, we had said “no” to the suggestion and queried why Nigerian Law School alone should be included when there are other professional regulatory agencies in the country. We further observed that the last paragraph of the Act redefined what a university is and the word ‘degree’ was missing. Please join me in pleading with Mr. President not to sign the bill into law because it was hurriedly passed and has the tendency to kill TETFund.”

Support is coming to TETFund from a group, Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG), which is urging Buhari to withhold assent to the TETFund Amendment Bill.

Director General of the group, Dr. Chima Amadi, while addressing newsmen in Abuja recently said that the amendment of the act was counter-productive and would drag the government into unwanted industrial crises.

“The fact that the bill was rejected in 2012 by all stakeholders and unions is a pointer to its unacceptability by the unions and civil society organisations,” he said.

Amadi said that the amendment would take the country back to the old Education Trust Fund (ETF) era, a body he said had to be restructured owing to the limitation brought on its activities as a result of interventions in too many institutions.
“This law will bring about the proliferation of institutions, which will negate the change from ETF to TETFund. In the face of several other institutes that regulate and license professionals such as COREN, ICAN, TRCN, and so on, these bodies will soon begin to ask for funds too.

“This will deeply affect the impact, which TETFund is making in our universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country,” Amadi said.

Another member of the association, Mr. Olajuwon Babatunde, said the amendment was aimed at weakening TETFund, which had revamped the tertiary institutions in the country.

“TETFund is one of the most effective institutions we have in this country which has totally transformed tertiary education and taken it to another level.

We have all benefited from TETFund and we need to celebrate it not weaken it. This bill is bent on reducing the impact that it has. We will no longer feel the benefits of this institution.

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