The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ibadan Zone, on Sunday, charged President Bola Tinubu not to sacrifice Nigeria’s educational system in blind obedience to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-directed policies.

The Ibadan Zone comprises the University of Ibadan, Ibadan; University of Ilorin, Ilorin; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; Osun State University, Osogbo; Kwara State University, Malete; and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo Town.

The zone, in a press conference, drew the attention of the National Assembly and the Federal Government to the inherent dangers in the proposed abolition of TETFund and its replacement with NELFUND in the proposed Public Benefit and Taxation Bill (PBTB) of 2024.

Led by the Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Oyegoke Oyebamiji, the Ibadan Zone of ASUU noted that TETFund, which is the brainchild of the Union, has greatly helped in improving infrastructural development in Nigerian tertiary institutions, aided capacity building of members of academic staff, contributed immensely to the promotion of cutting-edge research, assisted in organising seminars, workshops, and learned conferences both locally and internationally, helped in equipping scanty scientific and engineering laboratories, helped in purchasing books to stock obsolete libraries, and is useful in providing state-of-the-art e-libraries in Nigerian tertiary institutions, to mention but a few.

The chairpersons of ASUU in the Zone stated that replacing TETFund with NELFUND is tantamount to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face, adding that “it is retrogressive and inimical to the desirable future of the Nigerian public education system.”

ASUU noted that taking any percentage out of the Education Tax (Development Levy) to service other agencies not known to the TETFund Act 2011 is not only illegal but should not be allowed to stand, especially when no visible priority has been given to funding public education through budgetary allocation by successive Federal and State governments.

He said, “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.”

According to Oyebamiji, a government that allocates seven per cent of the budget to education, as against the 15 per cent in its manifesto during the campaign and over 20 per cent recommended by UNESCO, should be resisted from commercialising public education they had benefited so much from to be who and where they are in Nigeria and the rest of the world.

He added, “TETFund will also receive 66 2⁄3 per cent in 2027, 2028, and 2029 years of assessment,” but “zero per cent in 2030 year of assessment and thereafter.

“Giving zero allocation of Development Levy to TETFund from 2030 is a technical way of abrogating the agency and public tertiary education in the country. The purported admonishment that TETFund should seek innovative ways of generating its funds is a confirmation of the saying by a one-time Vice-Chancellor of the premier university of Nigeria, who observed, ‘All things bright and beautiful, Nigerians destroy them all’. If TETFund, as a creation of an Act, is technically killed through the proposed Tax Reform, then how can a dead agency devise an innovative means of generating its funds?

“ASUU Ibadan Zone is seriously concerned that while Ghana has just established the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) borrowed from the Nigerian experience and other African countries recently visited the country to understudy TETFund, the Nigerian government is, unfortunately, planning to kill an agency that has kept all our public universities alive for more than three decades.”

The union leaders listed the dangers of abolishing TETFund to include Loss of Critical Funding, Disruption of Ongoing Projects and Programs, Negative Impact on Research and Development, Increased Burden on Students and Parents, Undermining of University Autonomy, Problem of Loan Recovery from Defaulters, and Looming and Ominous Loss of Jobs for Employees in the TETFund Office.

While opposing any plans to destroy TETFund and its replacement with NELFUND, ASUU urges the National Assembly and the Federal Government to reconsider this proposal and instead work to strengthen TETFund and ensure its continued relevance in supporting tertiary education in Nigeria.

The briefing was attended by Prof. Ayoola Akinwole (ASUU-UI); Dr. Alex Akanmu (ASUU-UNILORIN), Dr. Dada Olujinmi (ASUU-LAUTECH); Dr. Wende Olaosebikan (ASUU-UNIOSUN); Dr. Shehu Salau (ASUU-KWASU); Dr. Bamidele Ojo (ASUU-EAUED).