The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nsukka Zone, has raised serious concerns over the Federal Government’s proposed Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, cautioning that it could dismantle the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in favor of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund).
The union, which expressed its commitment to protecting TETFund, warned that such a move would harm Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
Speaking in Makurdi, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Raphael Amokaha, described the proposed bill as “disturbing” and criticized it as a poorly conceived plan to replace an effective interventionist agency with an untested student loan scheme.
“Federal and state-owned tertiary institutions are currently referred to as ‘TETFund Institutions’ because most projects are funded by this interventionist agency, on which a death sentence has been passed through the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024,” Amokaha said.
He argued that TETFund, which focuses on infrastructure development and capacity building, serves all students, whereas the student loan scheme proposed under NELFund would benefit only a fraction of Nigerian students.
“In view of the foregoing, it becomes intriguing why anyone will want to kill TETFund by channeling its statutory funds to NELFund, which has a very different mandate. NELFund is charged with the responsibility of giving students loans, while TETFund has the mandate to develop infrastructure and build capacity,” Amokaha stated.
Amokaha also questioned the sustainability of the student loan scheme, warning that its potential impact on access to education could be disastrous.
“The student loan is clearly designed in such a manner that less than half of Nigerian students will benefit from the scheme, and its sustainability has not been tested in any way. Whereas any lecture room, laboratory, or clinic erected by TETFund will serve all the students. This plan to kill a development agency in preference to a poorly thought through, untested loan scheme is illogical, myopic, and anti-people, especially the middle class and the lower strata of society,” he added.
ASUU urged the Federal Government to improve TETFund’s operations rather than undermining it, emphasizing its 30-year track record of funding infrastructure and capacity development in tertiary institutions.
“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 is urging 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,” the union stated.
The union also called on state governments to defend their tertiary institutions against what it described as an existential threat. ASUU reminded lawmakers of their duty to ensure access to affordable higher education for all Nigerians.
“Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate must remember that they owe their constituents this responsibility of ensuring that their youth can attend higher institutions without the threat of exorbitant, unaffordable fees in either public or private institutions, for that will be the cost of killing TETFund,” the union emphasized.
ASUU reaffirmed its resolve to resist any attempt to undermine TETFund, which it described as a lifeline for public tertiary institutions across the country.
